Note that the word "Pfeilflieger" is just the German for a swept-wing aircraft. Most of not all of Lohner's designs were pfeilfliegers, as were several aircraft built by other companies.

The German Habit of capitalising the initial Letter of all Nouns can confuse the unwary English Speaker.
 
Note that the word "Pfeilflieger" is just the German for a swept-wing aircraft. Most of not all of Lohner's designs were pfeilfliegers, as were several aircraft built by other companies.

The German Habit of capitalising the initial Letter of all Nouns can confuse the unwary English Speaker.
Yet, it is the only feature that Mark Twain approved of (see the "Awful German Language").
 
"The German Habit of capitalising the initial Letter of all Nouns can confuse the unwary English Speaker."

Totally OT, but perhaps an interesting example, and not worth to start a new thread :

- "Der gefangene Floh" (The caught flea)
vs
- "Der Gefangene floh" (The captive fled) :rolleyes:
 
Before the First World War approximately half a dozen companies tried to set up in aircraft manufacture, but they all had to give up.
A more sustainable development was started by the aeroplane constructor Igo Etrich. In April 1910 his successful design the Etrich II, known as the Taube (Dove), had its maiden flight in Wiener Neustadt. This aeroplane was not very manoeuvrable, but it had stable flying qualities. The strong demand for it led Etrich to start series production in Ludwig Lohner’s carriage works in Vienna from 1910, and he sold the patents for Austria-Hungary to the Motorluftfahrzeuggesellschaft (MLG) company. This had been founded by Camillo Castiglioni, an entrepreneur from Trieste, in April 1910, together with the Austrian Daimler Engine Company. At Daimler it was Ferdinand Porsche who developed the first Austrian aircraft engines. Then close cooperation between MLG and Lohner began. The Lohner works built the aeroplanes, for which MLG took over the exclusive sales rights for a commission of 15%. In return they paid two-thirds of the costs of Lohner’s aircraft development bureau. The models designed there included the successful Pfeilflieger (Arrow Flyers) and flying boats for the navy. Castiglioni and Lohner jointly set up the Ungarische Flugzeugwerke (Ufag) company to build aircraft in Hungary and in 1914-15 expanded into the German Empire, where they merged three companies to form the Hansa-Brandenburgische Flugzeugwerke. The two entrepreneurs managed to achieve a monopoly in the Austrian aircraft industry, but soon fierce conflicts broke out between the two very different personalities. Lohner came from a family of old established entrepreneurs in Vienna, while Castiglioni was a self-made man from Trieste. Each tried to achieve control over the entire group of compamies. In 1915 Castiglioni bought out Lohner’s stake in MLG and Ufag, although to begin with the contracts for the sale of Lohner aircraft by MLG remained in force. Further conflicts followed, which could be settled only by recourse to a court of arbitration in 1917.

As a result of technical and budget problems the aviation corps had an urgent need for new aircraft when the war began. The aging Pfeilflieger and Etrich Taube had to be replaced by more modern aircraft, with aircraft technology developing at a rapid pace.
At the beginning of the First World War the Austro-Hungarian aviation corps was inadequately prepared for active service. In spring 1914 the most important aircraft type, the Lohner Pfeilflieger, had been grounded after incidents where the wings had broken. Tests conducted by a team headed by Professor Richard Knoller of the Technical University in Vienna had shown that the wings did not have the necessary load-bearing capacity and needed to be strengthened. This led to delays in procuring further aircraft and at the beginning of the war the aviation corps fell far short of the fifteen fully equipped companies of airmen (known as Flik) that had been planned. In August 1914 there were just nine such companies ready for active service.
 
Back
Top Bottom