One of the most famous aircraft in history, flown by the "Red Baron" Manfred von Richthofen, the top ace of the First World War, who scored 19 of his 80 victories in it and met his death in it on 21 April 1918.
General information
Designed by Anthony Fokker and Reinhold Platz, it had a welded steel-tube fuselage and cantilever wooden wings with fabric covering. The engine was a 110 hp Oberursel UR.II rotary and the armament consisted of two fixed forward-firing machine guns. The V5 prototype flew on 5 July 1917.
Although much loved by Richthofen for its agility, the DR.1 was difficult to fly and overall inferior to the Fokker D.VII biplane. Only 320 were therefore built, used exclusively on the French front. Of these, at least eight were flown by Richthofen in fully or partly red livery.
Length 5.75 m
Wingspan 7.20 m
Height 2.95 m
Wing area 18.70 sq m
Empty weight 383 kg
Max take-off weight 585 kg
Max speed 160 km/h
Service ceiling 650 m
Endurance —
History of aircraft I-LYNC
This Fokker Dr.1 is the only one flying in Italy. It was built in 1984-86 by Giancarlo Zanardo with more than 4,500 hours of work, using drawings prepared by the American builder Ron Sands. The letter M indicates the modifications made with respect to the German original, including the replacement of the rotary engine with a 150 hp four-cylinder Lycoming O-320-3D, whose lower weight required lengthening the nose to maintain the centre of gravity.
It made its first flight on 19 June 1986. A frequent guest at Italian air shows, in August 1989 it flew the San Pelagio-Vienna-Pescara raid on the 70th anniversary of Gabriele D'Annunzio's flight over Vienna. It is painted red in homage to von Richthofen.