avia.wikisort.org - Aeroplane

The Etrich Taube, also known by the names of the various later manufacturers who built versions of the type, such as the Rumpler Taube, was a pre-World War I monoplane aircraft. It was the first military aeroplane to be mass-produced in Germany.

Etrich-Rumpler Taube
Role	Bomber, surveillance, and trainer Type of aircraft
Manufacturer	Various
Designer	Igo Etrich
First flight	1910
Primary user	Luftstreitkräfte

The Taube was very popular prior to the First World War, and it was also used by the air forces of Italy and Austria-Hungary. Even the Royal Naval Air Service operated at least one Taube in 1912. On 1 November 1911, Giulio Gavotti, an Italian aviator, dropped the world's first aerial bomb from his Taube monoplane over the Ain Zara oasis in Libya.[1] Once the war began, it quickly proved inadequate as a warplane and was soon replaced by other designs.

Design and development

The Taube was designed in 1909 by Igo Etrich of Austria-Hungary, and first flew in 1910. It was licensed for serial production by Lohner-Werke in Austria and by Edmund Rumpler in Germany, now called the Etrich-Rumpler-Taube.[2][3] Rumpler soon changed the name to Rumpler-Taube, and stopped paying royalties to Etrich, who subsequently abandoned his patent.

Despite its name (Taube means "dove"), the Taube's unique wing form was not modeled after a dove, but was copied from the seeds of Alsomitra macrocarpa, which may glide long distances from their parent tree. Similar wing shapes were also used by Karl Jatho and Frederick Handley Page.^{[citation needed]} Etrich had tried to build a flying wing aircraft based on the Zanonia wing shape, but the more conventional Taube type, with tail surfaces, was much more successful.

Etrich adopted the format of crosswind-capable main landing gear that Louis Blériot had used on his Blériot XI cross-channel monoplane for better ground handling. The wing has three spars and was braced by a cable-braced steel tube truss (called a "bridge", or Brücke in German) under each wing: at the outer end the uprights of this structure were lengthened to rise above the upper wing surfaces, to form kingposts to carry bracing and warping wires for the enlarged wingtips. A small landing wheel was sometimes mounted on the lower end of this kingpost, to protect it for landings and to help guard against ground loops.[4]

Later Taube-type aircraft from other manufacturers replaced the Bleriot type main gear with a simpler V-strut main gear design, and also omitted the underwing "bridge" structure to reduce drag.

Like many contemporary aircraft, especially monoplanes, the Taube used wing warping rather than ailerons for lateral (roll) control, and also warped the rear half of the stabilizer to function as the elevator. Only the vertical, twinned triangular rudder surfaces were usually hinged.

Operational history

In civilian use, the Taube was used by pilots to win the Munich-Berlin Kathreiner prize. On 8 December 1911, Gino Linnekogel and Suvelick Johannisthal achieved a two-man endurance record for flying a Taube 4 hours and 35 minutes over Germany.[5][6]

The design provided for very stable flight, which made it extremely suitable for observation. The translucent wings made it difficult for ground observers to detect a Taube at an altitude above 400 meters.[7] The first hostile engagement was by an Italian Taube in 1911 in Libya, its pilot using pistols and dropping 2 kg (4.4 lb) grenades during the Battle of Ain Zara. The Taube was also used for bombing in the Balkans in 1912–13, and in late 1914 when German 3 kg (6.6 lb) bomblets and propaganda leaflets were dropped over Paris. Taube spotter planes detected the advancing Imperial Russian Army in East Prussia during the World War I Battle of Tannenberg.

World War I

While initially there were two Taube aircraft assigned to Imperial German units stationed at Qingdao, China, only one was available at the start of the war due to an accident. The Rumpler Taube piloted by Lieutenant Gunther Plüschow had to face the attacking Japanese, who had with them a total of eight aircraft. On 2 October 1914, Plüschow's Taube attacked the Japanese warships blockading Tsingtao with two small bombs, but failed to score any hits. On 7 November 1914, shortly before the fall of Qingdao, Plüschow was ordered to fly top secret documents to Shanghai, but was forced to make an emergency landing at Lianyungang in Jiangsu, where he was interned by a local Chinese force. Plüschow 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 giving the engine to one of the Chinese civilians who rescued him.

Poor rudder and lateral control made the Taube difficult and slow to turn. The aeroplane proved to be a very easy target for the faster and more agile Allied Scouts of the early part of World War I, and just six months into the war, the Taube had been removed from front line service to be used to train new pilots. Many future German aces would learn to fly in a Rumpler Taube.

Variants

Due to the lack of licence fees, 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 Albatros Flugzeugwerke

Albatros Doppeltaube

Biplane version produced by Albatros Flugzeugwerke.

Aviatik Taube

Produced by Automobil und Aviatik AG firm.

DFW Stahltaube (Stahltaube)

Version with steel frame produced by Deutsche Flugzeug-Werke.

Etrich Taube

Produced by inventor Igo Etrich.

Etrich-Rumpler-Taube

Initial name of the "Rumpler Taube".

Gotha Taube

Produced by Gothaer Waggonfabrik as 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 Halberstädter Flugzeugwerke.

Jeannin Taube (Jeannin Stahltaube)

Version with steel tubing fuselage structure.

Kondor Taube

Produced by Kondor Flugzeugwerke.

RFG Taube

Produced by Reise- und Industrieflug GmbH (RFG).

Roland Taube

Rumpler 4C Taube

Produced by Edmund Rumpler's Rumpler Flugzeugwerke.

Rumpler Delfin-Taube (Rumpler Kabinentaube "Delfin")

Version with closed cabin, produced by Rumpler Flugzeugwerke.

Isobe Rumpler Taube[8]

A Taube built in Japan by Onokichi Isobe

Operators

 Argentina

• Argentine Air Force
• Argentine Navy

 Austria-Hungary

• Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops

 Bulgaria

• Bulgarian Air Force

China

• Two units were ordered by Chinese revolutionaries to fight Imperial Qing China, but when they reached Shanghai in December 1911 with other Taube airplanes ordered by Imperial German forces stationed in China, the Qing dynasty had already been overthrown and the airplanes were not used in battle.

 German Empire

• Luftstreitkräfte
• Kaiserliche Marine

 Kingdom of Italy

• Corpo Aeronautico Militare

 Empire of Japan

• The Imperial Aeronautic Association[9]
• Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (acting)[10]

 Norway

• Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service

 Ottoman Empire

• Ottoman Air Force

  Switzerland

• Swiss Air Force

 Romania

• Romanian Air Corps - One Taube with a Mercedes 100 hp engine, delivered from Germany in 1913[11]

Survivors and flyable reproductions

The Technisches Museum Wien is thought to have the only remaining Etrich-built example of the Taube. It is an early enough example to have a four-cylinder engine,[12] and is potentially a twin to Gavotti's Taube aircraft from 1911, also said to have been powered with a four-cylinder inline engine. Other examples of original Taubes exist, such as one in Norway, which was the last original Taube to fly under its own power in 1922, over a Norwegian fjord.

The Owl's Head Transportation Museum in Owls Head, Maine, US, is so far the only museum to attempt the construction of a flyable reproduction of the Etrich Taube in North America. Their example first flew in 1990, and it still flies today^[when?] with the power of a 200 hp (150 kW) Ranger L-440 inline-6 "uprighted" air-cooled engine.[13]

Specifications (Rumpler Taube)

Data from ^{[citation needed]}

General characteristics

• Crew: 2
• Length: 9.9 m (32 ft 6 in)
• Wingspan: 14.3 m (46 ft 11 in)
• Height: 3.2 m (10 ft 6 in)
• Wing area: 32.5 m² (350 sq ft)
• Empty weight: 650 kg (1,433 lb)
• Gross weight: 850 kg (1,874 lb)
• Powerplant: 1 × Mercedes Typ E4F[14] 4-cyl. water-cooled piston engine, 64 kW (86 hp)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 100 km/h (62 mph, 54 kn)
• Range: 140 km (87 mi, 76 nmi)
• Service ceiling: 2,000 m (6,600 ft)

Armament

• Guns: Rifles and pistols
• Bombs: Hand dropped bombs

See also

• History of aviation

Related development

• Etrich Sport-Taube
• Etrich Luft-Limousine

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Mikesh, Robert and Shorzoe Abe. (1990) Japanese Aircraft 1910–1941. London: Putnam. ISBN 0-85177-840-2
• Neulen, Hans Werner (November 1999). "Les aigles isoles du Kaiser" [The Kaiser's Isolated Eagles]. Avions: Toute l'Aéronautique et Son Histoire (in French) (80): 24–31. ISSN 1243-8650.

External links

• "Aircraft 'Made in Germany'" (PDF). Flight. VI (34): 877 etc. August 21, 1914. No. 295. Retrieved June 13, 2011. Article describing German aircraft types available at the start of World War I, Specific Taube models are on p. 880 (Albatros), pp. 897–899 (D.F.W., Etrich), pp. 922–924 (Goedecker, Gotha, Halberstadt, Hansa, Harlan), pp. 939–940 (Jatho, Jeannin, Kondor), and p. 958 (Rumpler).
• Etrich Taube
• Rosebud's Archive with many Photos
• Owl's Head Transportation Museum-flyable reproduction 1913 Etrich Taube
• Pictures of the Lohner Etrich-F Taube (and other planes)
• Walkaround photos of the Vienna museum's early Etrich Taube, by Andy Szekeres
• Video of the Owl's Head reproduction Taube
• Christopher Nevinson's 1915 painting, "Pursuing a Taube"

На других языках

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[de] Etrich Taube

Die Etrich Taube, in der Literatur häufig auch Etrich II Taube genannt, ist ein vom österreichischen Flugpionier Igo Etrich entwickeltes Flugzeug. Die von den Rumpler-Werken in Berlin gebauten Flugzeuge dieses Typs wurden auch unter dem Namen Rumpler-Taube vermarktet. Sie ist einer der ersten in größerer Stückzahl gebauten Flugzeugtypen.

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- [en] Etrich Taube

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[fr] Etrich Taube

L' Etrich Taube, également connu sous les noms de différents constructeurs qui produisirent cet appareil (exemples : le « Rumpler Taube », le « Gotha Taube »...), fut un avion monoplan biplace conçu en 1910 par le pilote autrichien Ignaz Igo Etrich, et réalisé en série par l'entreprise Lohner-Werke de Vienne, ainsi que par plusieurs autres entreprises germaniques, telles l'Etrich Fliegerwerke en Silésie ou la Rumpler Flugzeugwerke à Berlin.

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[it] Etrich Taube

L'Etrich Taube (in tedesco, Taube è colomba) era un monoplano monomotore che venne sviluppato dal pioniere dell'aviazione austriaca Igo Etrich nel 1910. Venne prodotto su licenza da varie ditte tedesche ed austriache in numerose varianti, di cui la tedesca Rumpler Taube fu la più nota. Impiegato in diversi ruoli dagli imperi centrali (Germania, Austria e Turchia) durante le fasi iniziali della prima guerra mondiale, già nel 1911 era stato utilizzato dalle forze italiane durante la guerra di Libia, diventando il primo aereo ad effettuare un'azione di bombardamento.

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[ru] Etrich Taube

«Таубе» — самолёт Первой мировой войны авиаконструктора Иго Этриха[de].

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