A-class designation for German planes

[Droops]

I'm a little confused, and hoping someone could clear something up for me.

Earlier this year, a friend, working on the 17 Hours project, put together a list of German aircraft that had served during WWI. He broke down the list by class for listing purposes. In addition to the B, C, CL, G, E, J, N, D, and L classes, he also had the A class listed. Most of these aircraft appeared before the Summer of 1915, and by the end of that year seem to have disappeared completely.

My question is, what were these planes? Gray and Thetford lists a small handful (less than five I think) with this designation. I just went and looked at Rosebud's pages, and he has one or two listed with the A designation.

Are these planes the same as the Taube aircraft, or are those completely different?

Thanks for any help on this question.

VBR,

John

[Volker_Nemsch]

As far as I know (and that is not very much) A-class aircraft were unarmed monoplanes (the whole variety of different Taube types) used for reconnaisance during the first days of WW1 and later for pilot training. They were followed by unarmed B-class biplanes. "B" aircraft were used for reconnaisance until early 1915 and later for pilot training. The C-class aircraft were armed with machinegun(s).

Hope this helps!

[Cigogne]

Examples of these would be the:

Fokker A.I-A.II (Fokker M5L two-seaters)
Pfalz A.I-A.II (license built Morane-Saulnier L)
Rumpler (and other) Taube types also had the A designation.

Other manufacturers are surely included, but those are the few that come to mind. I need to do a little more digging.

[AchimEngels]

The A-class represented indeed unarmed monoplanes. Regardless if these where one- or two-seaters.

The Fokker M.5 was not the A.I as mentioned above.

The Fokker M.8 was the A.I.

I do not know of a M.5 having flown as a regularly unarmed aircraft. Therefore these later did form the E.I which actually have been designated E.(number of aircraft) before the type itself officially was designated the E.I indicating that it from the beginning on was categorized as belonging to the class of armed monoplanes, the E-class.

Your´s
Achim

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Droops:
* * *In 1913, Idflieg purchased 183 "A"types unarmed monoplanes, comprised of 66 Rumples, 37 albatros, 36 Gotha and 26 Jeannin Tauben and the rest were a mixture of other monoplanes. Also Idflieg bought 278 "B"type unarmed biplanes. In 1914 idflieg bought about 300 "A" machines and about 1200 "B" types. In 1915 there were about 25 "A" types, mostly Fokker and a few Pfalz. *After 1915 "A" types were not bought.
* * * * * * * * * * * * Blauer Himmeln,
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Dan-San

[rammjaeger]

Maybe this thread is a good oportunity for another question concerning A-planes?

The first aircraft to land in Großenhain, later FEA 6, was reported to be a "Mars-Taube" (?) by DFW with the number 184/13 (source: a temporary paper) but doubts arise. I am not aware of any DFW-Taube delivered to the military in 1913 but Stahltauben were delivered in 1914. The plane looks simply like a common Rumpler, possibly "Militäreindecker 3C" by Rumpler.

[rammjaeger]

I think I remember the designation "A" was originally simply meaning "Aeroplane" and "B" possibly "Biplane".
Can anybody confirm or deny that?

[rammjaeger]

I forgot to say: the word "Aeroplan" was also very widespread in Germany in the first time - therefore the abbreviation or designation "A" made sense.

[AchimEngels]

As far as I know in January 1913 there have been two Mars-Biplanes of the Deutsche Flugzeug-Werke Leipzig been accepted at Döberitz.

Since the design of the wings of these biplane have been similar to those of the monoplane Tauben, the author of the article that you quote may have confused them.

I do not know of a Mars monoplane with the German Army Air Service at that time.

The classes A and B have been introduced between the middle and the end of 1912 when the increasing demand of aircraft lead to the fact that many of the German aeroplane building companies like *Albatros, Rumpler, Euler and Aviatik felt it necessary to enlarge their production facilities.

Furthermore these companies now widened their production which up to that time relayed on one single and well performing type only.

Albatros for instance begun the construction and delivery of monoplanes besides their well introduced biplanes. Rumpler on the other hand saws himself forced to now also produce biplanes along with his monoplanes.

This fact lead the circumstance that not only a Rumpler or a Albatros aircraft was in service with the German army, but two types that could have been confused when referred to in military documents.

This in fact made a system necessary to see which aircraft is referred to.

I agree with "Rammjaeger" that the words "Aeroplan" and "Biplan" which have been common phrases in Germany at that time to describe an aeroplane or a biplane might have been the reason for the choice of these letters for abbreviation of classes, but I have no document to prove this.

It also may have been just the line of letters A, B, C, D.... as was followed in the subsequent years. The perfect German abbreviations for a single seat fighter aircraft would for sure not have been "D" standing for "Doppeldecker" (biplane) but rather more "K" for "Kampfeinsitzer" (single seat fighter).

Anyway, I would like to come across any official document of that time that explains in detail why the letters "A" and "B" have been used.

Holm und Leistenbruch!
Achim

Maybe this thread is a good oportunity for another question concerning A-planes?

The first aircraft to land in Großenhain, later FEA 6, was reported to be a "Mars-Taube" (?) by DFW with the number 184/13 (source: a temporary paper) but doubts arise. I am not aware of any DFW-Taube delivered to the military in 1913 but Stahltauben were delivered in 1914. The plane looks simply like a common Rumpler, possibly "Militäreindecker 3C" by Rumpler. *

[rammjaeger]

Thank you, Mr Achim Engel!

I guess the reporter in 1914 was making his statement with an amount of local patriotism, had possibly heard about deliveries of DFW for the military and made his own (wrong) conclusions.

I looked again at my sources and letters and found the following statement by RegierungsdirektorPeter-Michael Gerhardt (he intends to write a book about the German Stammnummern after his retirement) in a letter to Großenhain: "Das A vor der Stammnummer bedeutet übrigens bloß "Aeroplan" (auch Schiffe, Boote, Luftschiffe, Ballone wurden mit jährlichen Stammnummern registriert - nur standen die entsprechenden Buchstaben eher selten drauf)." So Herr Gerhardt knows possibly a fitting source but I am not shure that he would share this one if he tries to publish himself.

VBR
Rammjaeger