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.
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.
The Etrich-Wels glider prototype, with Igo Etrich in the cockpit
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
Design drawing of Taube from 1911
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.
Front page of the New York Times Mid-Week Pictorial, 1 January 1917, captioned "A German Fighting Monoplane Flying Very Near the Ground Photographed from Directly Underneath."
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.
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.
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]
^The Etrich Monoplane Flight, 11 November 1911, p.276
^Henry Villard. Contact! The Story of the Early Aviators. p. 183.
^Simon Newton Dexter North; Francis Graham Wickware; Albert Bushnell Hart. The American year book, Volume 2. p. 719.
^Naughton, Russell (1 January 2002). "Igo Etrich (1879 - 1967) and his 'Taube'". Monash University.
^Mikesh, Robert and Shorzoe Abe. Japanese Aircraft 1910–1941. London: Putnam, 1990. ISBN0-85177-840-2
^財団法人 日本航空協会 Japan Aeronautic Association, ミニ企画展「日本航空協会創立100周年記念展 帝国飛行協会と航空スポーツ」- 国立科学博物館 (JAA 100th anniversary exhibition – National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo)
^Valeriu Avram. "Din Istoria Aripilor Româneşti 1910-1916" (PDF). Revista Document. Buletinul Arhivelor Militare Române nr.3(61)/2013 (in Romanian). p. 10.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
^"Etrich-II Taube, built in 1910". Technisches Museum Wien. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
^. Owls Head Transportation Museum. Archived from the original on 2011-04-10. Retrieved 2011-04-25.
^Mincbergr, Marek. "Mercedes E4F 64HP Engine". Retrieved 3 May 2012.
Bibliography
Herris, Jack (2013). Gotha Aircraft of WWI: A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes. Great War Aviation Centennial Series. Vol. 6. Charleston, South Carolina: Aeronaut Books. ISBN978-1-935881-14-8.
Mikesh, Robert and Shorzoe Abe. (1990) Japanese Aircraft 1910–1941. London: Putnam. ISBN0-85177-840-2
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
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Etrich Taube.
"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
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"
January 20, 2023
etrich, taube, also, known, names, various, later, manufacturers, built, versions, type, such, rumpler, taube, world, monoplane, aircraft, first, military, aeroplane, mass, produced, germany, etrich, rumpler, tauberole, bomber, surveillance, trainermanufacture. 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 TaubeRole Bomber surveillance and trainerManufacturer VariousDesigner Igo EtrichFirst flight 1910Primary user LuftstreitkrafteThe 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 Contents 1 Design and development 2 Operational history 3 World War I 4 Variants 5 Operators 6 Survivors and flyable reproductions 7 Specifications Rumpler Taube 8 See also 9 References 9 1 Citations 9 2 Bibliography 10 External linksDesign and development Edit The Etrich Wels glider prototype with Igo Etrich in the cockpit 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 Bleriot had used on his Bleriot 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 Brucke 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 Edit Design drawing of Taube from 1911 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 Front page of the New York Times Mid Week Pictorial 1 January 1917 captioned A German Fighting Monoplane Flying Very Near the Ground Photographed from Directly Underneath World War I EditWhile 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 Pluschow had to face the attacking Japanese who had with them a total of eight aircraft On 2 October 1914 Pluschow 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 Pluschow 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 Pluschow 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 EditDue 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 Jeannin Stahltaube Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin Jeannin Stahltaube Line drawing of Albatros Doppeltaube from Aero and Hydro magazine 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 Halberstadter 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 IsobeOperators Edit ArgentinaArgentine Air Force Argentine Navy Austria HungaryAustro Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops BulgariaBulgarian Air Force ChinaTwo 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 EmpireLuftstreitkrafte Kaiserliche Marine Kingdom of ItalyCorpo Aeronautico Militare Empire of JapanThe Imperial Aeronautic Association 9 Imperial Japanese Army Air Service acting 10 NorwayRoyal Norwegian Navy Air Service Ottoman EmpireOttoman Air Force SwitzerlandSwiss Air Force RomaniaRomanian Air Corps One Taube with a Mercedes 100 hp engine delivered from Germany in 1913 11 Survivors and flyable reproductions EditThe 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 Edit Austrian Aviation commemorative coin Data from citation needed General characteristicsCrew 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 bombsSee also EditHistory of aviationRelated development Etrich Sport Taube Etrich Luft LimousineReferences EditCitations Edit Johnston Alan 10 May 2011 Libya 1911 How an Italian pilot began the air war era BBC News Lohner Etrich F Taube OE CET Virtual Aviation Museum Retrieved 2011 04 25 Lohner Etrich F Taube OE CET Virtual Aviation Museum Retrieved 2011 04 25 The Etrich Monoplane Flight 11 November 1911 p 276 Henry Villard Contact The Story of the Early Aviators p 183 Simon Newton Dexter North Francis Graham Wickware Albert Bushnell Hart The American year book Volume 2 p 719 Naughton Russell 1 January 2002 Igo Etrich 1879 1967 and his Taube Monash University Mikesh Robert and Shorzoe Abe Japanese Aircraft 1910 1941 London Putnam 1990 ISBN 0 85177 840 2 財団法人 日本航空協会 Japan Aeronautic Association ミニ企画展 日本航空協会創立100周年記念展 帝国飛行協会と航空スポーツ 国立科学博物館 JAA 100th anniversary exhibition National Museum of Nature and Science Tokyo Siege of Tsingtao Valeriu Avram Din Istoria Aripilor Romanesti 1910 1916 PDF Revista Document Buletinul Arhivelor Militare Romane nr 3 61 2013 in Romanian p 10 a href Template Cite magazine html title Template Cite magazine cite magazine a CS1 maint uses authors parameter link Etrich II Taube built in 1910 Technisches Museum Wien Retrieved 2011 04 25 1913 Etrich Taube Replica Owls Head Transportation Museum Archived from the original on 2011 04 10 Retrieved 2011 04 25 Mincbergr Marek Mercedes E4F 64HP Engine Retrieved 3 May 2012 Bibliography Edit Herris Jack 2013 Gotha Aircraft of WWI A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes Great War Aviation Centennial Series Vol 6 Charleston South Carolina Aeronaut Books ISBN 978 1 935881 14 8 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 Aeronautique et Son Histoire in French 80 24 31 ISSN 1243 8650 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Etrich Taube 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 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Etrich Taube amp oldid 1123357092, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
