Aircraft that served to the end?

The Roland CII began service in 1916 and served to the end.
Were there any other aircraft (German, British, French,etc.) that began service early in the war and continued in operations until the end?

I'm sorry but I may have to disagree with the Roland CII serving until the end. I believe they were withdrawn from front line service in June '17.

My candidate for a long service medal has to be the lowly FE2b which served at the front line from 1915, when it was a 'state of the art' fighter to the Armistice when it was still serving as a night bomber. Plus it's the only 'plane to actually have shot down MvR!!!

there were three that were operational from 1916-1918 according to the appendix 2 (p.210), of 'aces high' by alan clark. they were: sopwith triplane (rnas), june '16
albatros dIII, july '16, and
spad XIII C1, sept. '16.
there were others that were prototype planes only, not fully operational. hope this helps.

leon

Wasn't the Sop Tripe gone from the front by late 1917?

There were many types that served through much of the war in differing capacities (latterly as training machines), but other than the FE-2, I can't think of any that saw active service throughout the whole war, or even the majority of it. The Sopwith Triplane (to look at one of the examples cited previously) didn't go into service until very late in 1916 or even early 1917 (first deliveries began in Nov. 16), and the type began to be replaced in summer 1917. By the end of 1917 there were no Tripehounds on the western front, the survivors of the 144-odd machines built being withdrawn to training or experimental duties. As for the SPAD XIII, its prototype didn't even fly until April 1917. It was the SPAD VII that was in service from September 1916 until early in 1918 -- and even then the type didn't finish the war in operational service.

How about the Sopwith Pup and the Sopwith 1 1/2 strutter. Even variations of the Nieuport v strutters served untill late war (ie. Nie.23,24,27,etc.). On the Central powers side I believe the Albatross and Pfalz soldiered on although outdated.

[Billy_Bishop]

Modified for Carrier duty, Sopwith Pups were still active at the end. The 1&1/2 strutter was in use as a trainer. The Sopwith Triplane only served during 1917. The SPAD XIII was in service from May of 1917 till the end of the war, but I don't think that qualifies as an early war starter.

The Short 184 served from 1915 until the end of the war. And the Avro 504 served in different duties from 1914 until the end and even beyond.

I could go on, but suffice it to say there were a number of long service aircraft. Though not always serving in their original roles.

VBR,

Al Lowe

Yep, The Avro 504 works for me-Bomber in 1914, Night fighter in 1918-trainer inbetween and thereafter.

I think you could also make a case for the Sopwith Baby if you treat its Tabloid/Schneider forms as Marks I and II...

[rammjaeger]

The Russian "Ilja Muromez" of Igor Sikorsky was in service since 1913 and still in action in 1918. During WWI 70 of these giant bombers were in action (production number: 80) but flew only 400 missions (maybe because of logistic problems). Only one or two were lost in action. German fighter were not able to cope with the at least five MG of the giant.
The Soviets took over and used 13 of these aircraft in the Russian Civil War. The rest was used in passenger traffic and for training purposes since 1924.

[Billy_Bishop]

I don't know Hannes, according to Aircraft of WWI by Kenneth Munson, the Sikorsky Illya Mourametz (ok, so my spelling is lousy) was only in action from 1915 to 1917. But I'm running on memory right now as I'm at work, and my books are at home.

VBR,
Al Lowe