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

SCHNEIDER D-TYP Germany

   The Franz Schneider Flugmaschinen-Werke was established in January 1917 by Franz Schneider for aircraft repair and servicing. Schneider had been associated with Edouard Nieuport prior to World War I and was subsequently responsible for the design of a number of LVG types. In 1918, Schneider designed and built a single-seat fighter powered by a 200 hp Goebel Goe III nine-cylinder rotary engine and carrying an armament of two 7,9-mm LMG 08/15 machine guns. Of conventional appearance, this fighter was unusual in having a patented arrangement of variable-incidence wings. A single-bay equi-span biplane with ailerons on the lower wings, the Schneider fighter allegedly demonstrated good climb and manoeuvrability, and was reportedly to have been fitted with an innovative arrangement whereby the engine could be tilted several degrees in flight, although there is no record of such an installation having been made. No specification for the Schneider fighter has survived.

J.Herris German Aircraft of Minor Manufacturers in WW1. Vol II (A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes 50)

Schneider

   Before the war Franz Schneider had been working with M Edouard Nieuport. He then moved to L.V.G. where he was an engineer when the war broke out. On 22 January 1917, he and his wife, Lucie Schneider, founded his own company, Franz Schneider Flugmachine Werke GmbH, to repair aircraft. The company took over the facilities of the German Railway and Dining Car Co. (in liquidation). From June 1917 to the end of March 1918, about 170 repaired aircraft were delivered - Albatros, L.V.G., and D.F.W types - and it was still in process when the Armistice was declared. The IAACC inventoried 12 aircraft and spare parts when it inspected his facility. There is no record of his single-seat fighter that was built in 1918 in the IAACC Report.