History

The Albatros D-series fighters appeared early in 1916 and went through several stages before the “V” strutted D.V’s were placed into service. While influenced by the French Nieuports, the only problem with these aircraft was the structural integrity of the wing, which tended to fail under extreme loads. This must have caused its pilots much concern, as they knew that the whole wing structure could fail under heavy stress loads. Later, most surviving pilots were happy to convert to the newer Fokker D.VII, although Albatros fighters remained in the inventory of the Imperial German Air Service until the end of hostilities in 1918, mostly serving in second-line units. Von Richtofen flew the type until he could get his hands on the Fokker Dr.1.

The Book

The book follows the tradition of Albatros Productions publications on World War I aircraft. It is actually a sequel to a long-unavailable 1986 publication on the Albatros fighters. The author, Colin A. Owers, states in his preface that he has collected much more information on the subject, justifying a new issue on the subject. The book tells the story of the development of the aircraft, along with some of the operational history. As it is Vol.1, I would expect anything that has been omitted to be included in Vol. 2. However, the book gives enough information for any serious modeler to use in building a scale model of any of these airplanes. The text is clearly written, and the photos are well captioned and explained. The color drawings are documented as much as possible, although some of this material has to be conjecture, as color photography did not exist during World War I.

Some interesting color photos are provided of 2 replica aircraft that were built in New Zealand, including construction and interior detail shots, and a good cutaway drawing appears at the end. The three-view and detail drawings are in both 1/72 and 1/48 scale, which will be extremely helpful to modelers. Two experimental versions are mentioned, a triplane and a quadruplane, but these are not illustrated. Maybe these will appear in Vol. 2.

This will be a very useful book for anyone interested in reading about or modeling the Albatros fighters. I would recommend it highly.

Thanks to Albatros Productions for the review copy and to IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review it.