Pfalz D.XV

Biplane Fighter Aircraft

Imperial Germany | 1918

"The Pfalz D.XV was simply approved too late in World War 1 to affect its outcome for Germany - fewer than a handful were actually completed before the Armistice."

Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 07/31/2019 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site; No A.I. was used in the generation of this content.

Pfalz Flugzeugwerke managed a small collection of fighting aircraft for the German Empire of World War 1 (1914-1918). Their chief claim to fame became the Pfalz D.III (detailed elsewhere on this site) but this fighter design never matched the quality and capability of contemporaries offered from Albatros and Fokker. Other offerings included the D.VI, D.VII, D.VIII, D.XII, D.XV and Dr.1 (triplane). In the D.XV, the company delivered a single-seat biplane fighter in the last week of the war (November 1918) to which no more than a handful were delivered and none are known to have seen combat service.

The D.XV marked the last fighter entry in the war for Pfalz. The aircraft relied on the tried-and-proven biplane wing arrangement which incorporated parallel struts (N-type) in a single-bay format. The mainplanes were of uneven span with the lower assembly also of smaller area and ailerons were fitted to the upper wing element. The pilot sat aft and under the upper wing mainplane at midships in an open-air cockpit. The engine was mounted forward in the usual way and drove a two-bladed wooden propeller. The tail relied on a large-area, rounded vertical fin with low-set horizontal planes. The undercarriage, of the tail-dragger variety, held two forward main legs under the center mass of the fuselage and a simple tail skid at rear. Armament was 2 x 7.92mm LMG 08/15 machine guns set immediately forward of the cockpit.

Power was derived from a single BMW IIIa 6-cylinder water-cooled engine of 185 horsepower. Performance included a maximum speed of 126 miles per hour with a mission endurance window of about one and one-half hours to two hours in the air. Rate-of-climb was 1,640 feet-per-minute and the listed service ceiling was 22,965 feet.

The Allied push during the early and middle parts of 1918 began to signal the end of the German Empire's role in the Grand War. Design work on the Pfalz D.XV was had in that summer and two forms were generated - the D.XVf with aerodynamically unbalanced ailerons and the D.XV (Spezial) with overhanging, balanced ailerons. The aircraft was evaluated for a short period prior to the end of the war and found to be speedy and very agile - though pilots noted difficulties in landing and some stubbornness at the tail section.

The design was finally approved for serial production on November 4th, 1918 but this proved too little too late - the Armistice was signed on November 11th to end the war.

It is believed that at least two D.XV aircraft were completed in full while over seventy airframes lay awaiting their finalization work. After the war, Pfalz Flugzeugwerke was forced into bankruptcy and was no more as an aircraft-maker. The French moved in and overtook Pfalz manufacturing capabilities to ensure no war-making goods could be had for the German Empire in the post-war years.

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Power & Performance
Those special qualities that separate one aircraft design from another. Performance specifications presented assume optimal operating conditions for the Pfalz D.XV Biplane Fighter Aircraft.

1 x BMW IIIa 6-cylinder water-cooled engine developing 185 horsepower and driving two-bladed propeller at the nose.
Propulsion

126 mph
203 kph | 110 kts
Max Speed

22,966 ft
7,000 m | 4 miles
Service Ceiling

221 miles
355 km | 192 nm
Operational Range

1,640 ft/min
500 m/min
Rate-of-Climb

Structure
The nose-to-tail, wingtip-to-wingtip physical qualities of the Pfalz D.XV Biplane Fighter Aircraft.

1
(MANNED)
Crew

21.3 ft
6.50 m
O/A Length

28.2 ft
(8.60 m)
O/A Width

8.9 ft
(2.70 m)
O/A Height

1,631 lb
(740 kg)
Empty Weight

2,028 lb
(920 kg)
MTOW

Armament
Available supported armament and special-mission equipment featured in the design of the Pfalz D.XV Biplane Fighter Aircraft .

2 x 7.92mm LMG 08/15 machine guns synchronized to fire through the spinning propeller blades.

Variants
Notable series variants as part of the Pfalz D.XV family line.

D.XV - Base Series Designation

D.XVf - Unbalanced ailerons

D.XV (Spezial) - Balanced ailerons with overhang

Operators
Global customers who have evaluated and/or operated the Pfalz D.XV. Nations are displayed by flag, each linked to their respective national aircraft listing.

Total Production: 2 Units
Contractor(s): Pfalz Flugzeugwerke - Imperial Germany

[ German Empire ]

1 / 1

Image from the Public Domain.

Going Further...
The Pfalz D.XV Biplane Fighter Aircraft appears in the following collections:

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