Modell of the month

Model of the month February 2021 LFG Roland

LFG Roland C.II Walfisch

Here at the LFG company (not to be confused with the LVG company!), they used a similar method for construction as already carried out at Albatros or Halberstadt: a half-shell wooden construction in so-called clinker construction. This allowed clean aerodynamically shaped hulls, which had already been examined and optimized in the wind tunnel by the AVA in Göttingen (Prof. Prandtl).

In detail, thin strips of wood were glued over frames to form half-shells and then joined together (actually a process that was also used later in the large-scale production of the deHavilland Mosquito or even later in today's FRP aircraft, except that the wood was replaced by fiberglass/carbon and liquid resin). So it was a very progressive process at the time.

The C.II was a two-seat aircraft and served as a reconnaissance plane. It was of very small size. Otherwise, it was a conventional multi-story braced biplane. Its manufacture was very elaborate. The aircraft arrived on the Western Front in 1916, the observer served the reconnaissance technique and had a machine gun on a swivel turret for defense, later on the pilot also got an unsynchronized machine gun firing over the propeller circle. From 1917on the aircraft were gradually replaced and ended up in flight schools.

Technical data:

Length 7.70 m, wingspan 10.33 m, height 2.90 m, wing area 27.06 m², empty mass 789 kg, take-off mass 1309 kg. Powerplant: Daimler-Mercedes water-cooled 6-cylinder inline engine with 118 kW/160 hp. V/max 165 km/h, service ceiling 4000 m, flight duration 4 h, crew: 2