J.Herris German Seaplanes of WWI (A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes 15)

Lubeck-Travemunde Floatplanes

  Flugzeugwerft Lubeck-Travemunde G.m.b.H, was founded in May 1914 at Travemunde Privall for the construction of seaplanes. It was a subsidiary of Deutsche Flugzeug-Werke (DFW), best known for its DFW C.V two-seat reconnaissance airplane.
  Lubeck-Travemunde produced four floatplane designs and delivered at least 18 seaplanes to the German Navy; SVK records after June 1918 are not complete. Only a handfull of Lubeck-Travemunde F2 and F4 floatplanes flew on operations.


  
Lubeck-Travemunde F1

  The first Lubeck-Travemundes design was the F1, a large, unarmed, four-bay two-seat reconnaissance floatplant, of which three examples were ordered, Marine Numbers 282-284. It was powered by a 160 hp Mercedes D.III engine. The first flight of the F1 was in June 1914. From the SVK records only Marine Number 282 was built and the other two were cancelled.


Lubeck-Travemunde F2

  The Lubeck-Travemunde F2 was an improved version of the company's earlier F1 floatplane and was the first armed aircraft built by the company. The F2 was designed as a class CHFT two-seat reconnaissance floatplane powered by a 220 hp Mercedes D.IV straight-eight engine. The observer's rear cockpit was fitted with a wireless transmitter and receiver and a single flexible Parabellum machine gun. There was no gun for the pilot.
  The prototype F2, Marine Number 677, was a massive, four-bay biplane. It was ordered in March 1916 and delivered to the SVK in December 1916.
  Ten production aircraft, Marine Numbers 1147-1156, were ordered in December 1916. These and all subsequent F2 floatplanes were three-bay biplanes. Deliveries of these floatplanes started in August 1917 and were completed in February 1918. Another order for six floatplanes, Marine Numbers 1974-1979, was placed in October 1917; delivery of these aircraft started in March 1918, immediately after completion of the first production order. Delivery of five of these aircraft is verified by SVK records, which are incomplete after June 1918, making a total of 16 aircraft confirmed delivered of the 17 ordered.


Lubeck-Travemunde F2 #677 Specifications
Engine: 220 hp Mercedes D.IV
Wing: Span 19.0 m
Wing Area 86 m2
General: Length 11.32 m
Height 3.575 m
Empty Weight 1,540 kg
Loaded Weight 2,204 kg
Maximum Speed: 136 km/h
Climb to 1,000 m: 10.0 min.

  

Lubeck-Travemunde F4

  The Lubeck-Travemunde F4 was the final Lubeck-Travemunde design to be ordered and built. Like the earlier F2, it was a class CHFT armed, two-seat reconnaissance floatplane equipped with wireless transmitter and receiver. Like the F2, only the observer had a gun.
  The F4 was a somewhat smaller, lighter aircraft than the preceding F2 and had the less powerful but more reliable 200 hp Benz Bz.IV six-cylinder engine. The first batch of three prototype aircraft, Marine Numbers 1971-1973, was ordered in October 1917 in parallel with the last F2 production batch. Marine Number 1971, the first prototype, was delivered in March 1918. Marine Number 1972 was destroyed during structural testing and Marine Number 2135 was ordered to replace it.
  Thirty F4 floatplanes, Marine Numbers 7001-7030, were ordered in February 1918 before delivery of the prototype. Because SVK delivery information past June 1918 is missing it is not known how exactly many of these were delivered. However, the photograph of Marine Number 7022 indicates that most, and perhaps all, of this batch were delivered.


Lubeck-Travemunde F4 Specifications
Engine: 200 hp Benz Bz.IV
Wing: Span 16.7 m
Wing Area 57.64 m2
General: Length 11.3 m
Height 4.0 m
Empty Weight 1,366 kg
Loaded Weight 1,998 kg
Maximum Speed: 138 km/h
Climb to 1,000 m: 9.3 min.



Afterword

  The two F4 floatplanes that served in Norway were apparently both imported by the United Sardine Factory, Bergen. The first was imported and registered in August 1919 and may have been ex German D-73. The serial number was given as 503. This machine received the registration N-2. Returned to Germany in the spring of 1920 for modification, it went to the Norwegian Navy as F.46. A second F4, civil registration N-15, was also imported by the United Sardine Factory in July 1920, but was sold to the Navy as F.48, finally being scrapped on 7 April 1930.
  Johan Hover recalled that the Norwegian Navy purchased two F4 floatplanes. Friedrich Christiansen, the German naval ace, arrived at Horten in July 1920 in order to clear the way through customs for these two F4 floatplanes. The aircraft had been converted to take four passengers and were for a proposed sale in Bergen. The sale did not go ahead and their return through customs was postponed. In the event the Norwegian Naval Air Service was able to buy the two aircraft for a reasonable price party due to the favorable exchange rate for the German Mark then prevailing. These aircraft were equipped with a 220-260 hp Benz six cylinder water-cooled engine. This engine had a good reputation for reliability and could be bought cheaply from Sweden. Given the Navy serials F.26 and F.48, they were later converted to three seaters with a spacious cabin for the radio operator The design was so efficient in its lifting capacity that in 1923, F.46 was converted to take a torpedo. It could easily take off with a 500 kg V-b torpedo and completed a lengthy torpedo program. As a result thereof the Naval Air Service and Mine Section gained a lot of useful experience in this field. During practice runs 75% hits were achieved. The F4 type served until 1930.
  In 1920 the Norwegian airline Der Norsk Luftfartrederi AS (DNL) was operating an aerial service to Bergen, Haugesund, and Stavanger on the west coast of Norway. The loss of Supermarine Channel I flying boat N-11 forced them to purchase the ex-Navy Lubeck-Travemunde F4 (serial F.46). This service was closed down soon afterwards on 15 October 1920, and the F4 was returned to the Navy.

M.Dusing German Aviation Industry in WWI. Volume 1 (A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes 84)

Flugzeugwerft Lubeck-Travemunde GmbH, Travemunde

Foundation:

  In the course of the expansion of the Deutsche Flugzeugwerke (DFW) plant, they founded the Flugzeugwerft Lubeck-Travemunde in 1914 at the initiative of its director, Kommerzienrat Bernhard Meyer, together with the city of Lubeck and its financial support. The Flugzeugwerft Lubeck-Travemunde was entered in the commercial register on June 8, 1914.
  A 5-year contract between the finance directorate of the city of Lubeck and the “Flugzeugwerft Lubeck-Travemunde GmbH,” newly founded by the entrepreneur Bernhard Meyer of the Deutsche Flugzeugwerke Leipzig, initiated the start of aviation and the construction of an airport on the Priwall, a peninsula about three kilometers long at the mouth of the Trave River in eastern Schleswig-Holstein. This had been preceded by explorations to find a combined land and seaflight site on the Baltic Sea suitable for the German Reich. Priwall was given preference over Warnemunde for geographical reasons.
  In August 1917, after the death of Kommerzienrat Meyer, the aircraft company was taken over by Fokker. In late summer 1918, however, Karl Caspar was in negotiations with Anthony Fokker regarding the takeover of Flugzeugwerft Lubeck-Travemunde GmbH. The company, located in Travemunde on the Priwall, had originally belonged to the Deutsche Flugzeug-Industrie GmbH group in Leipzig (DFW), along with Deutsche Flugzeugwerke GmbH in Leipzig-Lindenthal and National-Flugzeugwerke Allgemeine Flug GmbH in Berlin-Johannisthal. Within this group, the Lubeck-Travemunde Flugzeugwerk specialized in the production of seaplanes. It thus became a branch of Hanseatische Flugzeugwerke Caspar AG Hamburg (HFC). The sole shareholder was Dr. Karl Caspar.


Aeronautical Development:

  The Deutsche Flugzeugwerke (DFW), which emerged from the Sachsische Flugzeugwerke in 1911, was first confronted with the problems of seaplanes in 1913 when it received an order from the Kaiserliche Marine to build a flying boat. The prototype, built according to the client’s specifications, was a biplane of wooden construction with a 100 hp Mercedes engine. Nothing is known about successful flights, but the company looked forward to new orders with confidence. In 1916, orders from the Navy followed, prompting DFW to establish a new aircraft plant with access to the water. This took place in Travemunde near Lubeck.
  In 1917, the first seaplane designed by Fritsch was introduced - the F.1. This aircraft was a DFW D.III equipped with floats. All three aircraft (Navy Nos. 282 - 284) were unique, because first the wings were staggered, on the next one they were unstaggered, and the latter was swept (similar to DFW’s Mars biplane). Only the Navy No. 282 was delivered, as there were delays in the first F.1 due to various improvement requests from the Navy.
  The F.2 (prototype: Marine No. 677), which had been ordered in 1916, even before delivery of the F.1, did not make its maiden flight until 1917. It was the first armed seaplane to be manufactured at Travemunde. The F.2 was also manufactured in various configurations. According to references, ten aircraft were delivered with the carrying deck raised for better pilot visibility from April 1917 to February 1918 (Marine Nos. 1147-1156). A second order for 9 aircraft was placed in October 1917 (Marine Nos. 1971-1979), with #1971-1973 being delivered as F.4s.
  The two-seater biplane with a wingspan of about 19 meters, based on the fuselage of the DFW B-types, was equipped with amphibious floats. The designer was Heinrich Oelerich. The powerplant was an eight-cylinder 220 hp (164 kW) Mercedes D.IV engine with transmission and a four- blade wooden propeller. The crew consisted of a pilot and an observer in tandem seating arrangement. The observer’s seat was equipped with a 7.92 mm Parabellum machine gun mounted on a swivel turret.
  Eleven F.2 aircraft were used by the Imperial Naval Forces of the German Empire. The aircraft were stationed at the Travemunde-Priwall seaplane base, which was also the location of the Imperial Navy’s flying school.
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  The F.4 was the flagship of the Lubeck-Travemunde aircraft plant. In addition to the three aircraft already mentioned, a further 30 aircraft of this type with Marine Nos. 7001-7030 were delivered by November 1918. It is doubtful whether all aircraft were actually completed.
  One reason for stopping the production of the F.4 aircraft may have been that the new owner of the company, Karl Caspar, signed a license agreement with Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen (FF) for the construction of the FF.49C seaplanes, which were well established within the German Navy. Some of these aircraft were not completed and sold as civilian aircraft until after the end of the war.