Fokker Dr.I in Profile By Bob Pearson

Possibly the most recognized aircraft of the entire First World War, the Dr.I has a fame far beyond the meager number built - 320. Its fame is probably derived from its use by one man famed in both truth and fiction - Manfred von Richthofen, aka Snoopy's adversary, the Red Baron.

With the success of the Sopwith Triplane in Spring 1917, IDFLIEG directed the German aviation industry to come up with a triplane of their own. Whereas most companies just added a third wing to an existing design, Fokker went them all one better by coming up with a cantilevered wing that required no bracing wires. The result was a compact aircraft that exhibited superb maneuverability and climb, both of which covered the fact that it was slow.

The first three triplanes were designated F.I 101/17 to 103/17, and the latter pair were delivered to the pre-eminent pilots of the time - Richthofen and Voss in late August 1917. Production Dr.Is followed in October. The deaths of Gontermann and Pastor because of wing failures led to the Dr.I being withdrawn from service by the start of November. After strengthening, the Dr.Is returned to service in January 1918, and with the introduction of the D.VII in May/June it again was withdrawn, although a few remained in use with aces like Jacobs.

As originally delivered the Dr.I had a streaked finish on all upper surfaces with the streaks being accomplished by use of a 3" brush stroked vertically on the fuselage sides and diagonally on the wings and tail. Undersurfaces were light blue, with a thin wrap around effect on the lower fuselage and the tailplane. Struts were either light blue or olive. Cowl was initially aluminum, but soon olive predominated..

The national markings went through many changes. All crosses were initially on white fields (although the lower wing MAY have been on a CDL field), with the F.I having its fuselage cross in a more centralized location than the Dr.I. The first change was the ordering of the wing and fuselage crosses to carry a 5cm outline. This was accomplished by painting over the crossfield - many Dr.Is also had the tail overpainted. With the introduction of the Balkenkreuz in March/April 1918, the earlier Eisernes Kreuz was initially redone by doing straight lines between the tips of each curve, later these were changed to overpaint the tips and based from the overlapping centre portions. The final variation was to have the black portion extend to the edge of the fuselage or wing and the white not surround the entire cross, but rather look more like that of the Second World War. These are pretty general descriptions, and many variations will be noted below.

The best single source on the Dr.I is Alex Imrie's "The Fokker Triplane". This has both a technical as well as operational history of the type with many photos. Albatros has published a Datafile, Datafile Special and shortly a Markings Special on the type. The Squadron/Signal Fokker Dr.I In Action has many good photos, however almost every single one is miscaptioned and the text is best disregarded.