WAR

a powerful one, but that hardly mattered—the goals for which Fokker and Platz
were shooting were manoeuvrability and a good rate of climb, rather than speed
and high ceiling.
Except for the first three production models which were labeled F I, the
Fokker Triplane bore the standard army designation Fok Dr I,
Fokker Triplane design.
meaning the first
The Dr I, even with three wings, had far less wing area than its biplane
contemporaries—200 square feet, as compared to 229 for the Albatros D V, 238
for the Pfalz D III, or 227 for the Spad 13. Its design balanced this reduction
of supporting surface with a thick aerofoil section which gave relatively greater
lift (and drag too, but the goal was manoeuvrability, not speed.) Its wings were
short and narrow, giving little lateral resistance, and its fuselage was short— 18
feet, even shorter than that of the Camel. The Dr I, moreover, was of the
standard Fokker steel-tube construction with hollow box-spar wings, and was
therefore light, a featherweight, in fact. Its weight was 1200 pounds, while the
Spad, S.E.5, Albatros and Pfalz all weighed in at about a ton.
The Dr. I could fly rings around any machine at the Front. Its rate of climb
was remarkable— it could shoot up a mile in two and a half minutes, nearly twice
as fast as the Sopwith Triplane. Its manoeuvrability was fantastic—it could turn
on a dime. Fokker conceded that it was slow, but he said Allied pilots never had
a chance to find out how slow it was because of the way it stunted.
Hermann Becker, the German Ace, recently recounted how he scored a
victory with the Triplane early in 1918 by taking advantage of its agility.
A French pilot in a Spad met Becker head-on in a challenge of nerves.
Both flew straight at the other, both held their fire. At the last instant they
broke, swerved, each rolling away to his right. They passed so close Becker could
feel the wind of the other's passing, could look the Frenchman in the eye. Each
now had one object, to get around behind the other man. The Triplane was so
handy that Becker was around and on the Spad's tail almost before the Spad had
begun to turn. He was right on it when he triggered a killing burst straight into
the cockpit, "er oder ich." The Frenchman had had one chance, to dive, but
he hadn't taken it, so he was done for. No machine could turn inside the Fokker
Triplane. It was a winner; so was Werner Voss. The two of them together made
what was perhaps the outstanding combination of pilot
and aeroplane of the war.
Within a few weeks of having returned to the Front and having, along
with the Rittmeister, introduced the new machine, Voss had run his score up to
48, shooting down an enemy aeroplane nearly every day.
In the early evening hours of September 23, 1917, Voss was out alone
scouting the lines near Poelcappelle. The air was clear below 9000 feet except
for the beginnings of a ground haze, while above 9000 feet a dense layer of
cloud spread wide across the sky. As the sun dropped lower it occasionally
managed to cast a few dull gleams through rifts in the ceiling. A patrol of S.E.5's
from No. 56 Squadron RFC had just shot down a German two-seater and was
climbing in formation back up toward the cloud layer when the pilots spotted
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