Rumpler Taube
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| Rumpler Taube | |
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| Type | Fighter, Bomber, Surveillance, and Trainer |
| Manufacturer | Various |
| Designed by | Igo Etrich |
| Maiden flight | 1910 |
| Primary user | Luftstreitkräfte |
The Rumpler Taube (German, dove) is a pre-World War I monoplane aircraft, and the first mass produced military plane in Germany. Being the Germans' first practical military plane, it was used for all common military aircraft applications, including as a fighter, bomber, surveillance plane and trainer from its first flight in 1910 until the beginning of World War I. Due to the rapid advancement of aviation during the war, the design was obsolete by the end of 1914. The plane was very popular and was used by the air forces of Italy, Germany and Austria-Hungary.
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[edit] Design and development
The plane was developed by Igo Etrich from Austria in 1909, with the first flight in 1910, and was called the Etrich Taube. The design was licensed for serial production by Lohner in Austria and Rumpler in Germany, and called the Etrich-Rumpler-Taube. However, Rumpler soon changed the name to Rumpler-Taube, and stopped paying royalties to Etrich. Etrich subsequently abandoned his patent.
Despite its name, the Taube was not modeled after a bird, but after the Zanonia macrocarpa seeds, which glide to the ground in a slow spin induced by a single wing. Similar wing shapes have also been used by Karl Jatho. While Etrich had tried to build a flying wing aircraft based on the Zanonia wing shape, the conventional Taube was much more successful.
Most notably, the plane did not have ailerons in the wings. Instead, the pilot turned the plane by warping the wings (effectively providing the same functionality as ailerons) and using the elevators at the rear of the tail.
[edit] Operational history
The design provided for very stable flight, suitable for observation. In addition, the translucent wings made it difficult for ground based observers to detect a Taube at an altitude above 400m. The French called it "the Invisible Aircraft", and it is sometimes also referred to as the "world's first stealth plane". The first hostile engagement was an Italian Taube in 1911 in Libya, using pistols and 2 kg bombs. Taube airplanes were able to detect the advancing Russian army during the Battle of Tannenberg (1914). The plane was also used for bombing, when the pilot dropped small bombs in the Balkans in 1911 and 3 kg bomblets and propaganda leaflets over Paris in 1914.
During World War I, Imperial German units stationed at Qingdao, Shandong, China only had one operational airplane, a Rumpler Taube piloted by Lieutenant Gunther Plutschow facing the attacking Japanese who had a total of eight airplanes. On October 2, 1914, the Rumpler Taube attacked Japanese warships with two small bombs but did not score any hits. On November 7, 1914, shortly before the fall of Qingdao, Lieutenant Plutschow was ordered to fly top secret documents to Shanghai but was forced to make an emergency landing at Lianyungang where the lieutenant and his Rumpler Taube were both interned by a local Chinese force. Plutschow was rescued by local Chinese civilians under the direction of an American missionary, and successfully reached his destination at Shanghai with his top secret documents, after he gave the engine to one of the Chinese civilians who rescued him and burnt the engine-less Rumpler Taube.
The lack of a rudder and the wing warping design made this plane difficult and slow to turn. Subsequently the plane was a very easy target for the faster and more mobile enemy planes at the beginning of World War I. Therefore, six months into the war, the Taube was removed from the front lines and instead used to train new pilots. Consequently many famous pilots learned how to fly using a Taube.
[edit] Variants
Due to the lack of license fees, a total of no less than 14 companies built a large number of variations of the initial design, making it difficult for historians to determine the exact manufacturer based on historical photographs. An incomplete list is shown below. The most common version was the Rumpler Taube with two seats.
- Albatros Taube
- Produced by the Albatros Flugzeugwerke
- Albatros Doppeltaube
- Biplane version produced by the Albatros Flugzeugwerke.
- Aviatik Taube
- Produced by the Aviatik.
- DFW Stahltaube (Stahltaube)
- Version with a steel frame.
- Etrich Taube
- Produced by the inventor Igo Etrich.
- Etrich-Rumpler-Taube
- Initial name of the Rumpler Taube.
- Gotha Taube
- Produced by the Gothaer Waggonfabrik as the LE.1, LE.2 and LE.3 (Land Eindecker - "Land Monoplane") and designated A.I by the Idflieg
- Harlan Pfeil Taube
- Halberstadt Taube III
- Produced by the Halberstadt.
- Jeannin Taube (Jeannin Stahltaube)
- Version with a steel frame.
- Kondor Taube
- Produced by the Kondor.
- Lüdemann Taube
- Produced by the Lüdemann.
- RFG Taube
- Produced by the Reise- und Industrieflug GmbH (RFG).
- Roland Taube
- Rumpler-Taube
- Produced by Edmund Rumpler, Luftfahrzeugbau.
- Rumpler Delfin-Taube (Rumpler Kabinentaube "Delfin")
- Version with a closed cabin, produced by Edmund Rumpler, Luftfahrzeugbau.
[edit] Operators
- Two units were ordered by Chinese revolutionaries to fight Imperial Qing China, but when the they reached Shanghai in December, 1911 with other Rumpler Taube airplanes ordered by Imperial German forces stationed in China, the Imperial Qing dynasty had already been overthrown and the airplanes did not have the opportunity to participate in the battle.
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[edit] Specifications (Rumpler Taube)
This aircraft article is missing some (or all) of its specifications. If you have a source, you can help Wikipedia by adding them.General characteristics
- Crew: two
- Length: 9.9 m (33.5 ft)
- Wingspan: 14.3 m (45.83 ft)
- Height: 3.2 m (10.5 ft)
- Wing area: 32.5 m² (280 ft²)
- Empty weight: 650 kg (950 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: 850 kg (1,200 lb)
- Powerplant: 1× 4-cylinder Argus or 6-Cylinder Mercedes Typ E4F, 74 kW (99 hp)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 100 km/h (60 mph)
- Range: 140 km (86 miles)
- Service ceiling 2,000 m (10,000 ft)
Armament
- Rifles and pistols
- Hand dropped bombs
[edit] See also
- The Rumpler Taube has recently been selected as a main motif for an euro collectors' coin, the Austrian Aviation commemorative coin, minted in February 28, 2007. This reverse side of the coin shows the Rumpler Taube as well as the “Zanonia” glider and a waving Igo Etrich sitting in the open cockpit of a plane.
[edit] References
- Erich Taube
- Rosebud's Archive with many Photos
- Owl's Head Transportation Museum-flyable reproduction 1913 Etrich Taube
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