Albatros D.XI

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Albatros D.XI
General information
Type	Fighter
Manufacturer	Albatros Flugzeugwerke
Primary user	Germany
Number built	2
History
First flight	February 1918
Retired	1918

The Albatros D.XI was a German single-seat fighter sesquiplane first flown in February 1918. It was the first Albatros fighter to use a rotary engine, in the form of the 120 kW (160 hp) Siemens-Halske Sh.III, and also featured a new wing construction with diagonal struts from the fuselage replacing traditional wire bracing.

The wings had unequal spans with the upper planes having greater span than the lower ones, and were braced by I-struts with an aerofoil cross-section, additional rigidity being provided by twinned diagonal struts from the base of these to the top of the fuselage, located where the "landing wires" of a normal wire-braced biplane would be. The use of a rotary engine necessitated a large-diameter propeller and a correspondingly tall undercarriage.

The D.XI was armed with the same twin 7.92 mm (.312 in) Spandau LMG 08/15 machine guns employed on other Albatros fighters. Two prototypes were built, the first having balanced, parallel-chord ailerons and a four-blade propeller; and the second with inversely tapered, unbalanced ailerons and a two-blade propeller. The D.XI was not put into production.

General characteristics

• Crew: one pilot
• Length: 5.58 m (18 ft 4 in)
• Wingspan: 8.00 m (26 ft 3 in)
• Wing area: 18.5 m² (199 sq ft)
• Empty weight: 494 kg (1,089 lb)
• Gross weight: 723 kg (1,594 lb)
• Powerplant: 1 × Siemens-Halske Sh.III , 120 kW (160 hp)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 190 km/h (120 mph, 100 kn)
• Endurance: 2 hours

Armament

• 2 × forward-firing 7.92 mm (.312 in) LMG 08/15 machine guns

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Albatros D.XI.

• Green, W.; Swanborough, G. (1994). The Complete Book of Fighters. London: Salamander Books. ISBN 1-85833-777-1.
• Das Virtuelle Luftfahrtmuseum