Scheutte Lanz DIII?

[leo]

Anybody know anything about the Scheutte Lanz DIII in Lt. Ganth website. It must have been a producton model as it was had a 297/13 serial number. Was it a knock off of a French Model? How about the Di and Dii?

leo

According to Gray & Thetford's German Aircraft of the First World War, the Schuette-Lanz DIII was built 'towards the end of 1917, this neat but conventional fighter participated in the first D types Copetition at Adlershof. It was flown by von Arnim, and at a loades weight of 900kg on 25.th Jan. 1918 recorded climb performance of 1.000m in 3min and 5000m in 31.9 min, which was far from spectacular. An unusal feature was the use of failry long, downturned, individual exhaust pipes to each cylinder. The machine was of orthodox wood and fabric construction. Dihedral was rigged in the upper wing but not in the lower wing. Engine, 160 hp Mercedes DIII. Armament, twin Spandau machine guns.'
The are two A-Imrie-Photographs which clearly shows the same machine as seen on Gerth's home page. Maybe this picture was taken at Adlershof, also.

There was a Schütte-Lanz DI also which looked like a merging between a Fokker tail and a Sopwith Tabloid front. No DII, on the records, but a DrI (of course!). And they made (but never finished) a DIV, the flew and crashed a D VI and in 1918 the even managed to make a DVII. None of them reached production status.

Corrections welcome, all information based on Gray & Thetford of 1962 vintage!

[leo]

I knew S-L built some airships for the Germen Army that were competition for the Zeppelin. I believe their frames were wooden.

I have Grey and Thetford, but forgot all about the S-L Diii. Thanks for the information.