Fokker D.III

Though Fokker had won the love of German fighter pilots in 1915 with their Eindeckers, their early biplanes were uninspired and suffered from poor workmanship. The inline-engined Fokker D.I and D.IV and the rotary-engined Fokker D.II and D.III were substandard relative to competitors like the Halberstadt D.II and the Albatros fighters, and on 6 December 1916 all Fokker biplanes were withdrawn from front-line service due to structural failures both in static testing and in combat use.

Like the Fokker E.IV, the D.III was powered by a 160hp Oberursel U.III two-row rotary engine and armed with a twin fixed machine guns. Like the D.I and D.II before it, it premiered with wing-warping, but late production models seemed to have converted to ailerons (as had all contemporary fighters). Their first service was in September 1916. 210 were constructed, and though its service life was brief, it was flown by the likes of Boelcke, Udet, and von Richtofen. After their short combat career, some D.III's were used as rotary-engined trainers.

Austria-Hungary had an order for fifty as the Fokker D.I(MAG) Series 04.4, but only eight were built and only one made it to the front lines in October 1917, by which time it was quite obsolete.

1:144 Scale

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1:285/6mm/1:288 Scale

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