There were many successful proponents of the Sopwith Triplane, but no discussion of that fighter can neglect mentioning the famous all-Canadian Black Flight, led by Flight Cmdr. Raymond Collishaw. Officially designated as B Flight of No. 10 Naval Squadron, the flight’s five black-nosed triplanes were each given an individual name appropriate to their sinister livery: Collishaw’s Black Maria, W. Melville Alexander’s Black Prince, John E. Sharman’s Black Death, Ellis Vair Reid’s Black Roger and Gerald Ewart Nash’s Black Sheep. Between June 1 and July 28, 1917, Black Flight shot down 86 enemy aircraft for the loss of one man captured (Nash on June 26) and two killed (Sharman on July 22 and Reid on July 28, both by anti-aircraft fire).

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in Aviation History magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

That incredible record was achieved despite the fact that Black Flight was operating against the very best pilots the Germans had – Jagdstaffel (Jasta) 11, commanded by the Red Baron, Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen. On June 28, Collishaw shot down and killed Leutnant Karl Allmenroder, a 30-victory ace and one of Richthofen’s best pilots, two days after that same German airman had shot down and captured Nash. Collishaw finished the war with a total of 60 victories, 30 of them scored while flying the Sopwith Triplane, and eventually became an air vice marshal in the Royal Canadian Air Force. The popular and influential Richthofen and other German airmen were stunned by the performance of the new triplanes. Suddenly the British had a machine that could outfly anything the German air service had. As a result, the Inspectorate of Aviation (Inspektion der Flieger, or Idflieg) immediately issued a demand for triplanes (Dreidecker). Soon, virtually every aircraft company in Germany was enthusiastically testing at least one new triplane prototype.

Albatros wasted no time in sticking a set of Sopwith triplane-style wings onto the standard German fighter of the period, the Albatros D.V. Pfalz did the same thing to its equally ubiquitous Pfalz D.III biplane fighter. Many companies, such as AEG, DFW, Shuumltte-Lanz and Euler, built otherwise identical pairs of prototypes with both biplane and triplane wings to hedge their bets. One Euler triplane had a set of wingsize ailerons installed above the upper wing, making it virtually a quadriplane.

The Siemens-Schuckert Werke (SSW) tried to create a high-performance fighter by building a triplane with two rotary engines, one tractor and one pusher, with the tail surfaces held on a latticelike structure. Nicknamed the Fliegende Ei (Flying Egg), the unusual looking SSW Dr.I crashed on its first flight.

LFG Roland built a graceful triplane featuring a wooden clinker-built fuselage, constructed much like the hull of a speed boat. Although its D.IV triplane was not adopted by the German air service, Roland’s unique fuselage construction was later used on a biplane fighter, the D.VI, which did go into production in 1918.

Designers in countries besides Germany also tried their hands at triplane fighters. In Austria-Hungary, triplane fighters were built by Oeffag, Lohner, Aviatik, Lloyd and WKF. The Aviatik 30.24 was essentially a triplane version of the standard Austrian fighter, the Aviatik (Berg) D.I. The Lohner 111.04, Oeffag 50.14 and WKF 80.05 prototypes were also adaptations of existing biplane designs. Oeffag’s large 50.14 was more original but gave a disappointing performance.

More novel still was the Hungarian Lloyd 40.15. Its top and middle wings were flush with the top and middle of the fuselage, while the bottom wing was mounted behind the landing gear axle. All three wings were of cantilever type, without external interplane bracing. In lieu of conventional ailerons, the Lloyd had pivoting wingtips fitted to the middle wing. Another peculiarity of the 165-hp Austro-Daimler-powered Lloyd was its fuselage that was built to conform to the shape of the wings’ airfoil, imparting a distinctly warped appearance. Details of the Lloyd 40.15 are scarce-including evidence as to whether it ever flew-but it seems likely that its bizarre configuration was yet another attempt to improve the pilot’s view.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to