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

KONDOR DREIDECKER Germany

   In the summer of 1917, the Kondor Flugzeugwerke of Essen was joined by Walter Rethel and Paul G Ehrhardt, formerly with LVG, to initiate a series of original designs. The company had previously been concerned primarily with licence manufacture of the Albatros B II and B IIa. The first original design produced by Rethel and Ehrhardt was a single-seat fighter triplane (dreidecker) which entered flight test in October 1917. Initial trials with an unrecorded engine type evidently revealed performance shortcomings as an Idflieg report of the same month refers to the aircraft being re-engined by Kondor with a geared six-cylinder water-cooled Mercedes D III of 160 hp. Testing of the triplane fighter was terminated as a result of severe vibration problems, the fuselage, lower wing assembly and tail subsequently being utilised by the D 7 biplane. No illustrations or data relating to the Kondor triplane have survived.