The first Dr 1's (V3) lacked the outboard interplane struts, the wings being internally braced. Unfortunately
savage application of the unbalanced ailerons made the top wing vibrate rapidly, sometimes with fatal results.
Even after struts and balanced ailerons were fitted (V4) further planes were lost after the fabric was torn from the top
wing, the fabric not having being secured to the forward plywood sheeted part of the wing by stiching though to the ribs.
The problem was due to greater pressure differentials on the top wing leading edge; not fully understood at the time.
Leading Ace Heinrich Gontermann (39 kills) was one victim of this, killed on his first flight in a brand new triplane.

Later on, water ingress around the struts caused internal rotting and failures in the lower wings.
The failing was compounded by the fact that little or no preservative was used on the internal structure,
this decision being based on the very short life expectancy for aircraft at that time.

In very muddy conditions, the wheels were reversed to give a wider track for better handling qualities on
take off and to stop mud building up on the small central wing and stalling the wheel.

Around 320 DR1's were delivered to the German Army Air Force, the majority being built under licence by
the much larger Albatros Company. German pilots prefered the Albatross built examples because they were
of better build quality than the Fokker built units. No original examples survive to this day, but there are
plenty of replicas around the world, some exact size, in museums, etc, some flyable some just static displays.
Production period was from early August 1917 to mid May 1918.
The DR1 Tri plane was designed by Reinhold Platz.

A few late models were experimently fitted with a Siemens-Halske 11 cylinder rotary engine of 160 HP
driving a four bladed airscrew through a reduction gearbox, as against the standard 110 HP, rotary.
This model had a fantastic rate of climb for the time but gyroscopic forces made it almost impossible to control.
This project was abandoned because by this time the new Fokker D 7 biplane had made the DR 1 obsolete.
There was also an attempt to fit a 160 hp Daimler water cooled inline engine but this was a total lemon. (V6)

However this was not quite the end of the DR1, slightly modified Dr1 fuselages were mated to cut down versions
of the wings from the new D7 to produce the D6 biplane, in essence a rotary engined version of the inline engined
D7. The design was intended for promised larger 160 HP rotary engines which failed to appear in any number.

The DV1 model was basically produced as a back up design in case the DV11 failed to live up to expectations.
This machine was produced only in small numbers, but the development kept alive Oberusal rotary engine
production (in which Fokker had a financial stake) ready for the introduction of the rotary engined DV111.

Fokker D8. The D8 was a cantilever winged parasol monoplane introduced in the final two months of the war.
Using a standard 110-120 H.P. Oberusal engine its performance was better than the D7 but its full potential
was not realised due to a shortage of the 145 to 160 H.P. rotary engines for which the plane was designed.

During their short time in service a few D8's also suffered from wing breaks for the same reasons as in
the Dr1 (ie; sloppy construction and lack of preservatives) which could have been overcome given time.
But the wars end at that point left a rumour that monoplanes were basically unsafe and as a result
the worlds air forces laboured on with biplanes well into the 1930s until it came to a point
where monoplane civilian airliners could outpace the fighters.

Albatros also had their own Triplane design but this was a complex conversion of a conventional biplane.

Fokker DR 1 Drei-decker (Drei-dekker). Drei meaning three, decker (dekker) meaning wing.
In the Fokker D Series, the D was short for dopple or double wing.
Eindecker (Eindekker) meaning one wing. Fokker E3 monoplane.
The last production Fokker, the D 8, was a parasol wing monoplane and was at first named as the E5.
Indeed the German Air Force records classify the D8 as the "Fokker E.V. Parasol Eindecker"
Other German aircraft makers also used the same nomenclature.

Flying Circus. So called because the Jasta commanded by Von Richthofen moved from sector to sector
according to where the need was greatest. The planes were dismantled and transported on railway trucks, the
gaudy colored planes being reminicent of the colorful circuses that used to travel by train around Germany pre war.

Pour le Merite. Germany's highest military award.
Called the Blue Max when awarded to airmen, after Max Immelmann, the first aviation recipient.

Richthofen, sometimes spelt Richtofen, or Ricktofen was called Rittmeister, which means Riding Master
or Cavalary Captain, a deference to his initial war service in the German cavalary.
Richthofen was known as the Red Fighter Pilot during the war. The name, 'The Red Baron',
was created by a biographer in the mid 1920's.
In various aircraft, Richthofen had 80 confirmed kills, but there were another 20 plus unconfirmed kills.

Little known fact; Richthofen coined the phrase "Flying Fortress" when decribing the giant heavily armed
Gotha bombers, in his book of his life experiences.
He also spoke of aeroplanes one day becoming so large that they could move a whole battalion in one go!!!!

The highest number of kills by a triplane was scored by Ltn. Joseph Jacobs (probably 30 +) but Jacobs
flew the DR1 for far longer (up to Oct 1918) than any other pilot. Also there is some doubt about the
actual figures because the Nazi's are believed to have tampered with the records relating to Jacobs.
Jacobs himself, by then domiciled in the USA, would never comment on the matter.

By a bizarre coincidence top scoring German ace Manfred von Richtofen (80 confirmed kills) and top scoring British
ace Mick Mannock (73 confirmed kills) both met their end in identical circumstances, although a few months apart.

It was not for them a lone courageous death against insurmountable odds as had occurred with another
leading German ace Werner Voss and also former leading British ace Albert Ball.

For both of them, a moment of carelessness was to be their downfall. Both had dived down too
low over the trenches pursuing the enemy, a definite no-no in the fighter pilots handbook,
and both of them were shot down and killed by infantry fire rather than by another aircraft.

Lothar Von Richthofen survived the war but was killed in a flying accident in 1922.
Ernst Udet rose to high command in the Luftwaffe under Goering, but took his own life in 1941.
Wolfram Von Richthofen, a cousin of Manfred, also flew Triplanes during WW1 and later rose
to the high rank of Field Marshall under Hitler. He died of a brain tumor just as the war ended.
Herman Goering (Goring) became commander of the Richthofen Staffel afer the Red Baron's death.

Anthony Fokker (The Flying Dutchman) returned to Holland with 120 plus D7's and 30 D8 airframes
plus 400 engines and restarted his company. The company later went into airliners and lasted until 1996,
when the 1990's airline crisis struck it down. Fokker himself moved to America in 1922 and set up the Fokker
Corporation of America. His Tri Motor and similar airliners were the basis of air travel as we know it today.
Anthony Fokker died in the USA in December 1939 aged 49.
The Albatros company was merged into the Focke-Wolf consortium in 1923 under government pressure.
The engine from Richthofen's DR1 still exists and is on display in the Imperial War Museum London.

Initially, Tri-planes were delivered to the front doped overall in Fokker's standard (slate) blue. Upper surfaces
of the wings, tail plane top, fuselage upper surface, were over-doped in olive green and roughly streaked
from front to back. Sometimes on a slight diagonal bias from right to left. Fuselage sides were also
doped olive green but were streaked from top to bottom. Again, sometimes with a diagonal bias.
A few examples had Khaki brown upper surfaces. Struts etc, were also colored dark olive or near.

Individual units then finished the planes in their own colours.
The top wing upper, and sometimes the tailplane upper, being painted in the individual pilots colors.
Rudder, wheels and cowling were often painted in garish colours to match. All white rudders were the norm.
On some examples, exposed metal areas (cowling for instance) were left as polished metal.

During Richthofen's tenure as squadron commander all the leading aces under his command had a predominence
of red in their personal markings. This being too capitalise on the fear of the Red Baron amongst Allied pilots.

Late production DR1's were supplied fitted with printed lozenge fabric.
Battle damaged lozenge fabric was often patched with plain fabric and hand painted in, however
due to the German forces suffering an acute shortage of paint/dope in summer 1918, colours rarely matched.


Although not relevant to the DR1, the shortage of paint/dope situation became so acute in summer 1918 that all
aircraft were delivered to the German Air Force holding depots, fabric un-doped and other parts just in primer paint.
Then, only when an airplane was to be sent to a frontline unit, was it doped and painted. The bill for the materials
used, being then sent to the aircraft manufacturer.