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K.W. (Kaiserliche Werften) Type 401

Страна: Германия

Год: 1914

Junkers - R.I - 1919 - Германия<– –>K.W. (Kaiserliche Werften) - Type 462/467 - 1915 - Германия


O.Thetford, P.Gray German Aircraft of the First World War (Putnam)


K.W.
   Various two-seater seaplanes were designed and built in ones and twos by the Imperial Naval Yards (Kaiserlicht Werft) as follows: Danzig: Nos. 404-405, 467-470, 1105-1106 and 1650. Kiel: Nos. 463-466. Wilhelmshafen: Nos. 401-403, 461-462, 945 and 947.


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


Kaiserliche Werften Floatplanes

  The Kaiserliche Werften were government-owned shipyards that were responsible for the construction and repair of warships of the Prussian Navy, later the Imperial Navy, from 1871 to 1920. There were three of these shipyards, one each at Danzig, Kiel, and Wilhelmshaven.
  Surprisingly, despite the facts that floatplanes were available from a number of established manufacturers and the Kaiserliche Werften were shipyards with no aviation experience, the three Kaiserliche Werften designed and built a small number of floatplanes. The rationale given was that the output of the major German seaplane manufacturers was taken up producing machines for front-line service. As a consequence, the only machines available for training purposes were those that were obsolete or which had been damaged and rebuilt, and the Kaiserliche Werften designed modern floatplane trainers for the navy.
  No doubt there is an element of truth to that, but it would have been far easier, faster, and cheaper to purchase trainers from an established manufacturing company or build them under license than to invest the time and resources to design new aircraft that were built in ones and twos by shipyards.
  To justify the extra trouble and expense to build what were essentially prototype aircraft, someone in authority at the Kaiserliche Werften must have wanted to not only build but design floatplanes. The fact that the first orders for floatplanes built by the Kaiserliche Werften were placed in late 1914, within a few months of the war's beginning, indicates that the authorities at the Kaiserliche Werften did not want to wait for production trainers from the established manufacturers and preferred to design and build their own. Furthermore, later in the war the Kaiserliche Werften designed and built several armed two-seat floatplanes intended for combat, yet another indication that their primary motivation was to design their own aircraft, not just build them.
  Another interesting aspect of the floatplanes built by the Kaiserliche Werften is that the same design was built by more than one Kaiserliche Werft. Together with some design similarity of aircraft built by the different Kaiserliche Werften, this points strongly to the possibility that there was one central design team that was responsible for most, perhaps all, of these aircraft.


KW Type 401

  The Kaiserliche Werften Type 401 was built at Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven (three aircraft, Marine numbers 401-403) and KW Danzig (two aircraft, Marine numbers 404 & 405). These were unarmed, two-seat trainers powered by 100 hp Mercedes D.I engines. They were conventional, three-bay biplanes with the wire-braced, fabric-covered wood structures typical for the time. Technical details are not known.

J.Herris - German Seaplanes of WWI /Centennial Perspective/ (15)
Two views of Marine #401, built by KW Wilhelmshaven, operating with the fleet. The KW Type 401 was a conventional, three-bay biplane with 100 hp Mercedes D.I engine. KW aircraft built at Danzig were supplied to the nearby naval base at Putzig for training. In the photo below the upper left wingtip has been damaged, preventing the aircraft from flying back to base. The aircraft built at Wilhelmshaven were designated W1, W2, and W3 in Marine number order.
J.Herris - German Seaplanes of WWI /Centennial Perspective/ (15)
Marine #401 under construction at Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven. The design and construction were typical for the era.
J.Herris - German Seaplanes of WWI /Centennial Perspective/ (15)
Marine #401 at Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven after being dropped from a crane.
J.Herris - German Seaplanes of WWI /Centennial Perspective/ (15)
Marine #401 at Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven after being dropped from a crane. It is not known if the aircraft was repaired after this accident.
J.Herris - German Seaplanes of WWI /Centennial Perspective/ (15)
Marine #403 at Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven was refined from the earlier #401; it had a more streamlined nose and full-length fuselage decking. The Kaiserliche Werft aircraft were essentially prototypes and it is possible that no two were identical.
J.Herris - German Seaplanes of WWI /Centennial Perspective/ (15)
Marine #403 ready for flight with naval pennants trailing the lower wings.
J.Herris - German Seaplanes of WWI /Centennial Perspective/ (15)
Marine Numbers 404 and 405 were built by Kaiserliche Werft Danzig to the basic design of the Kaiserliche Werft Type 401 although there were likely detail differences between the Wilhelmshaven-built and Danzig-built aircraft.