Fokker Eindecker

The Fokker Eindecker (monoplane) began development as the M.5 in 1913. On its own, the aircraft was not an outstanding fighter plane. However, in 1915, the German captured a French Morane-Saulnier Type L which featured an armored propeller, allowing the pilot's gun to be fired through the propeller arc without seriously damaging the propeller (usually). Fokker was given the task of improving this design. He created an interrupter gear, which timed the MG's firing to the rotation of the blade, allowing the weapon to be fired through the propeller's arc without hitting the blades. Suddenly, the pilot only needed to point his plane at the target to point his gun, too. This lead to the first "Fokker Scourge" of 1915, in which the Eindecker downed over 1,000 Allied aircraft and made men like Immelmann and Boelcke national heroes and well-known fighter aces.

The plane has an endurance of 1.5 hours. It burns 3.75 gallons of aviation fuel per hour at routine usage. A full load of fuel and ammo costs $6.20.

Fokker E III

Subassemblies: Recon Fighter chassis +2; Light Fighter wings +2; 2 fixed wheels +0.

Powertrain: 75-kW HP gasoline engine with 75-kW old prop and 6-gallon fuel tank [Body].

Occ.: 1 XCS Body

Cargo: 8 Body

Armor F RL B T U

Body: 1/2C 1/2C 1/2C 1/2C 1/2C

Wings: 1/2C 1/2C 1/2C 1/2C 1/2C

Wheels: 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3 2/3

Weaponry:

Aircraft LMG/7.92 mm LIMG 08/15 [Body:F] (500 rounds).

Statistics:

Size: 24'x31'x8' Payload: 0.13 tons Lwt.: 0.67 tons

Volume: 96 Maint.: 118 hours Cost: $2,894

HT: 7. HPs: 15 Body, 70 each Wing, 3 each Wheel.

aSpeed: 87 aAccel: 3 aDecel: 37 aMR: 9.5 aSR: 1

Stall Speed: 38 mph. Take-Off Run 181 yards. Landing Run 144 yards.

gSpeed: 169 gAccel: 8 gDecel: 10 gMR: 1.25 gSR: 2

Ground Pressure: High. 1/6 Off-Road Speed.

Design Notes:

Historical wing area was 172 sf. The fuel capacity was based on the plane's historical endurance and the design's gas consumption in gph, as no historical value could be located. The MG loadout was a guess, as no historical values are available. Design aSpeed was 96 mph. Design Lwt was 3% under historical. Performance calculations used historical wing area and Lwt. The Body MGs are synchronized, lowering RoF by 10% (see p. W:MP8). Using the calculated gSpeed at 1/6 Off-Road speed (33 mph) gSpeed is still 74% of stall speed, so the plane could just barely get airborne in a bumpy field, at the GM's discretion.

Variants:

The E I had a 60-kW engine.

The E II was basically similar to the E III.

The E IV was an E III with a 119-kW engine and two MGs.

Some 300 planes of all variants were produced.

From the Aerodrome for GURPS