W.Green, G.Swanborough The Complete Book of Fighters

LVG E I Germany

   The first fighter of original design produced by the Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (LVG) of Berlin-Johannisthal was a two-seat monoplane designed by Franz Schneider. This, the E I powered by a 120 hp Mercedes D II engine and flown in 1915, was fitted with both a synchronised machine gun for the pilot and a machine gun on a ring mounting for the second crew member. The LVG E I was unusual in that, unlike most contemporaries, it featured ailerons, most monoplanes at the time employing wing warping for control. Although a promising design, the sole prototype was lost while being ferried to the Front for operational evaluation. It was subsequently ascertained that the screws of the wing bracing struts had worked loose with the result that the wings had collapsed. No data relating to the LVG E I are available.

J.Herris LVG Aircraft of WWI. Vol.3: Types C.VI-C.XI & Fighters (A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes 36)

LVG Fighters

  LVG was very successful designing two-seat, single-engine reconnaissance airplanes and trainers, the types in greatest demand in Germany. However, LVG had no luck designing fighters. The state of the art in fighters advanced more rapidly than for any other aircraft types, and typically those who designed successful fighters, such as Anthony Fokker and T.O.M. Sopwith, specialized in fighters.
  LVG's only success in fighters was producing the LVG D.I, which was the original designation for the Albatros D.II built under license by LVG. Eventually the designations of license-built aircraft were rationalized for clarity, and this type became the Albatros D.II(LVG).
  In contrast, LVG had no success with fighter designs despite some original thinking. The best fighter idea from LVG was their E.I two-seat monoplane fighter. This aircraft had good potential but, like many other monoplanes, suffered from a fatal in-flight wing failure and was abandoned. Had it reached the front, it would have been Germany's first two-seat fighter with a gun for each crew member.
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LVG Fighter Specifications
LVG D 10 LVG D.II LVG D.III LVG D.IV LVG D.V LVG D.VI
Engine 120 hp Mercedes D.II 160 hp Mercedes D.III 185 hp NAG C.III 195 hp Benz Bz.IIIb 195 hp Benz Bz.IIIb 195 hp Benz Bz.IIIb
Span, Upper - - 10.00 m 8.50 m - -
Wing Area - - 26.20 m2 18.06 m2 - -
Length - - 7.53 m 6.28 m - -
Empty Weight - - 773 kg 680 kg - -
Loaded Weight - - 1,028 kg 935 kg - -
Max. Speed - - 175 km/h - - -
Climb 5000 m - - 25 minutes 28 minutes - -

LVG E.I

  LVG E.I is a combination of tragedy and missed potential. A 1915 design, the E.I, serial E.600/15, was advanced for its time and perhaps the first German aircraft we would recognize as a two-seat fighter rather than an armed two-seater or battle plane.
  Powered by a 120 hp Mercedes D.II, it was fitted with a flexible machine gun for the observer and a fixed, synchronized gun for the pilot. This became the standard armament for the later CL-type two-seat fighters and ground-attack aircraft. Its monoplane configuration gave the crew an excellent field of view and provided a good field of fire for the gunner. Unfortunately, the monoplane design was also the aircraft's structural weak point. The design appears to be sound, but the E.I was lost due to structural failure while enroute to the front for combat evaluation, the crew being killed. Investigation revealed that the lower wing struts had not been screwed in sufficiently and the wings collapsed. Ensuring integrity of the wing bracing before flight would seem to be an obvious and essential practice, but was either overlooked or not performed with sufficient rigor. Perhaps the design made it difficult to assess visually?
  In any case, the E.I was abandoned after this fatal accident despite its promise, which seems an unfortunate over reaction to a problem that could have been readily solved.

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

Franz Schneider Flugmaschinenwerke GmbH, Seegefeld/Spandau

Aircraft Development:

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  In 1913, Schneider patented a firing device for firearms on aircraft to the German Imperial Patent Office (D.R.P. No. 276396). This patent used a locking mechanism that, via a linkage coupled to the engine's crankshaft, locked the gun's trigger when a propeller blade was in front of the muzzle.
  In 1915, Schneider had this mechanism installed in the LVG E.I two-seat monoplane, whose observer seat he equipped with a second, movable machine gun on a special rotating ring mount, for which he also held a patent. Although the LVG E.I was lost during transport to the front for practical tests, the principle of Schneider's rotating-ring mount soon became standard in German military aircraft of the First World War.