WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.319 Have you ever pictured the ultimate World War 00:00:02.319 --> 00:00:04.759 I dogfight? Oh, I think everyone has that exact 00:00:04.759 --> 00:00:06.440 image in their head. Right. Like, if you close 00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:08.140 your eyes right now, there is a very good chance 00:00:08.140 --> 00:00:12.039 you are picturing this bright red triplane darting 00:00:12.039 --> 00:00:14.000 through the clouds. You're picturing the legendary 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.760 Fokker Dr. I. Exactly. Flown by Manfred von Richthofen, 00:00:17.820 --> 00:00:23.300 the Red Baron. It is arguably the absolute icon 00:00:23.300 --> 00:00:25.980 of early aviation. It really is. But what if 00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:28.260 that ultimate symbol of aerial dominance was 00:00:28.260 --> 00:00:32.460 actually a deeply flawed, terribly rushed prototype, 00:00:32.780 --> 00:00:36.320 like a machine held together by literal varnish, 00:00:36.759 --> 00:00:38.920 shoddy materials, and just a whole lot of luck? 00:00:39.060 --> 00:00:41.320 Well, what's fascinating here is how the perception 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:43.439 of this aircraft has completely overshadowed 00:00:43.439 --> 00:00:45.500 its physical reality. We remember the myth, you 00:00:45.500 --> 00:00:48.259 know, the striking silhouette of those three 00:00:48.259 --> 00:00:51.060 stacked wings, the famous pilots. Yeah. But if 00:00:51.060 --> 00:00:52.920 you look closely at the engineering reality, 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:57.149 you find a story of profound compromise. So welcome 00:00:57.149 --> 00:00:59.630 to today's deep dive. Our mission today is to 00:00:59.630 --> 00:01:02.469 look past the towering myth of the Fokker triplane, 00:01:02.549 --> 00:01:04.689 and we are going right to the source material 00:01:04.689 --> 00:01:07.750 today. Which is incredibly detailed. It is. We're 00:01:07.750 --> 00:01:10.290 using the aircraft's Wikipedia page as our sole 00:01:10.290 --> 00:01:13.090 guide to unpack the chaotic research and development, 00:01:13.569 --> 00:01:16.530 the terrifying structural flaws, and the bizarre 00:01:16.530 --> 00:01:19.450 operational history of this machine. We wanted 00:01:19.450 --> 00:01:21.569 to discover why being famous in the history books 00:01:21.569 --> 00:01:23.549 does not always translate to being fundamentally 00:01:23.549 --> 00:01:26.010 good. We're looking at this aircraft as a case 00:01:26.010 --> 00:01:29.150 study in wartime engineering. It provides a perfect 00:01:29.150 --> 00:01:31.670 window into what happens when technological innovation 00:01:31.670 --> 00:01:34.629 isn't driven by careful research, but by sheer 00:01:34.629 --> 00:01:36.989 panic. Tear panic and extreme pressure from the 00:01:36.989 --> 00:01:39.250 front lines. So let's set the stage and look 00:01:39.250 --> 00:01:41.730 at the catalyst for that panic. Right. In the 00:01:41.730 --> 00:01:44.769 spring of 1918, the doctor I and doctor simply 00:01:44.769 --> 00:01:48.090 stands for drydecker, or triplane, was highly 00:01:48.090 --> 00:01:51.349 visible. built by Fokker Flugzeugfurch, it became 00:01:51.349 --> 00:01:53.569 world famous because Richtofen scored his last 00:01:53.569 --> 00:01:55.689 17 victories in it before he was killed. But 00:01:55.689 --> 00:01:58.290 despite all that fame, total production was actually 00:01:58.290 --> 00:02:00.450 incredibly small. Yeah, they only ever built 00:02:00.450 --> 00:02:03.209 320 of them, which is nothing for wartime production. 00:02:03.650 --> 00:02:06.030 To understand why that number is so low, we have 00:02:06.030 --> 00:02:08.370 to look at what the German Air Force, the Lustreit 00:02:08.370 --> 00:02:11.150 Krafte, was dealing with a year prior in early 00:02:11.150 --> 00:02:14.460 1917. The overarching issue was that German pilots 00:02:14.460 --> 00:02:16.960 were suddenly losing control of the skies over 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:19.800 the Western Front. A new Allied aircraft had 00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:23.949 appeared. Exactly. And the Sopwith wasn't even 00:02:23.949 --> 00:02:26.590 heavily armed. It only carried a single Vickers 00:02:26.590 --> 00:02:29.430 machine gun, but its three wing design gave it 00:02:29.430 --> 00:02:32.229 incredible agility and a phenomenal rate of climb. 00:02:32.389 --> 00:02:34.229 It was just flying circles around the Germans. 00:02:34.370 --> 00:02:37.870 It was swiftly outclassing the heavier twin gun 00:02:37.870 --> 00:02:40.849 German albatross fighters. So the German high 00:02:40.849 --> 00:02:43.569 command needed a direct counter and they needed 00:02:43.569 --> 00:02:46.340 it immediately. OK, let's unpack this. because 00:02:46.340 --> 00:02:49.219 the German response to the Sopwith is essentially 00:02:49.219 --> 00:02:52.159 the ultimate copy my homework moment in early 00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:55.680 aviation. It really is. In April 1917, the aircraft 00:02:55.680 --> 00:02:58.699 manufacturer Anthony Fokker visits Jast 11 on 00:02:58.699 --> 00:03:00.979 the front lines, and he actually gets a chance 00:03:00.979 --> 00:03:03.400 to inspect a captured Sopwith triplane. Which 00:03:03.400 --> 00:03:05.520 was a massive stroke of luck for him. For sure. 00:03:05.680 --> 00:03:07.719 So after looking it over, he travels back to 00:03:07.719 --> 00:03:09.939 his factory in Schwerin, walks up to his lead 00:03:09.939 --> 00:03:12.560 designer, Reinhold Platz, and basically just 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:14.800 tells him to build a triplane. Just build a triplane. 00:03:15.039 --> 00:03:19.340 Yes. But he gives Plaz absolutely zero technical 00:03:19.340 --> 00:03:22.400 specifications about the captured Sopwith. Nothing. 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:26.419 It's a staggering lack of direction for a major 00:03:26.419 --> 00:03:29.699 military contract. Platz is left entirely to 00:03:29.699 --> 00:03:32.610 his own devices. But, I mean, he was a brilliant 00:03:32.610 --> 00:03:35.229 designer, and he responds by creating a prototype 00:03:35.229 --> 00:03:38.849 designated the V .4. Right. It was a small rotary 00:03:38.849 --> 00:03:41.789 -powered triplane featuring a steel tube fuselage. 00:03:42.289 --> 00:03:44.870 But the most significant feature Platts incorporated 00:03:44.870 --> 00:03:48.370 was the use of thick cantilever wings. Let's 00:03:48.370 --> 00:03:50.069 pause on that term for a second, just to be clear. 00:03:50.090 --> 00:03:51.469 When you say cantilever wings, you're talking 00:03:51.469 --> 00:03:53.409 about wings that support their own weight internally. 00:03:53.550 --> 00:03:55.830 Exactly. Because most planes back then looked 00:03:55.830 --> 00:03:58.870 like a birdcage of external wires holding the 00:03:58.870 --> 00:04:02.020 wings up. Precisely. Platts had previously worked 00:04:02.020 --> 00:04:04.539 on government -mandated collaborations with Hugo 00:04:04.539 --> 00:04:07.379 Junkers, and Junkers was pioneering internally 00:04:07.379 --> 00:04:10.360 -braced wings. So no wires? Right. Instead of 00:04:10.360 --> 00:04:13.159 a web of external bracing wires that cause massive 00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:16.319 aerodynamic drag, a cantilever wing relies on 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:18.740 deep, strong, internal wooden spars to carry 00:04:18.740 --> 00:04:21.839 the load. It's a much cleaner, more modern aerodynamic 00:04:21.839 --> 00:04:24.639 design. But despite that innovation, when the 00:04:24.639 --> 00:04:27.660 V .4 went up for its initial test flights, it 00:04:27.660 --> 00:04:30.040 was an absolute nightmare to handle. The test 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:32.019 pilots reported that the control forces were 00:04:32.019 --> 00:04:34.860 completely unacceptable. The ailerons and the 00:04:34.860 --> 00:04:37.560 elevators were unbalanced. Without getting too 00:04:37.560 --> 00:04:39.899 deep into the weeds, what does an unbalanced 00:04:39.899 --> 00:04:42.639 aileron actually feel like to a pilot sitting 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:45.660 in the cockpit? Well, without balanced control 00:04:45.660 --> 00:04:48.199 surfaces, the pilot doesn't have any aerodynamic 00:04:48.199 --> 00:04:51.009 leverage. When they move the stick to bank the 00:04:51.009 --> 00:04:53.689 aircraft, they are physically fighting the full 00:04:53.689 --> 00:04:57.189 raw force of the wind pushing against that aileron. 00:04:57.389 --> 00:04:59.730 That sounds exhausting. It is. In a dogfight 00:04:59.730 --> 00:05:02.149 where you are constantly making aggressive split 00:05:02.149 --> 00:05:04.790 -second maneuvers, an unbalanced system would 00:05:04.790 --> 00:05:06.949 completely exhaust a pilot's physical strength 00:05:06.949 --> 00:05:09.870 in a matter of minutes. So Fokker realizes this 00:05:09.870 --> 00:05:12.730 exhaustion is a fatal flaw. They don't even submit 00:05:12.730 --> 00:05:15.269 the V .4 for official military testing. They 00:05:15.269 --> 00:05:17.839 knew it would fail. Right. They pivot straight 00:05:17.839 --> 00:05:21.519 to a revised prototype called the V .5. And to 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:23.759 fix that heavy steering, they introduce horn 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:27.220 balance ailerons and elevators. Right. A horn 00:05:27.220 --> 00:05:29.600 balance is basically a portion of the control 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:31.839 surface that extends forward of the hinge line. 00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:35.430 Okay. When the pilot deflects the aileron, that 00:05:35.430 --> 00:05:37.910 forward section catches the oncoming air and 00:05:37.910 --> 00:05:40.050 actually helps push the rest of the surface into 00:05:40.050 --> 00:05:43.050 position. It uses the air pressure to assist 00:05:43.050 --> 00:05:45.750 the pilot's movement, making the controls feel 00:05:45.750 --> 00:05:49.689 incredibly light and responsive. The V .5 also 00:05:49.689 --> 00:05:53.370 introduced longer wings. But the most visible 00:05:53.370 --> 00:05:56.149 change they made, and I love this detail, they 00:05:56.149 --> 00:05:59.069 added inter -plane struts, those vertical wooden 00:05:59.069 --> 00:06:01.389 posts connecting the outer edges of the three 00:06:01.389 --> 00:06:03.569 wings together. Yes. And this is fascinating 00:06:03.569 --> 00:06:06.029 because those camp leaver wings were technically 00:06:06.029 --> 00:06:08.889 strong enough on their own. They didn't structurally 00:06:08.889 --> 00:06:10.990 require those struts to hold the wings to the 00:06:10.990 --> 00:06:13.740 fuselage. They didn't need them at all. Adding 00:06:13.740 --> 00:06:17.259 struts meant adding weight and completely negating 00:06:17.259 --> 00:06:19.800 the low drag advantage of the cantilever design 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:22.519 they worked so hard on. So why do it? They had 00:06:22.519 --> 00:06:24.800 to add them because, without external bracing, 00:06:25.139 --> 00:06:28.519 those long wooden wings flexed and bowed dramatically 00:06:28.519 --> 00:06:30.579 during flight. Which would be absolutely terrifying 00:06:30.579 --> 00:06:33.040 to watch if you're the one flying it. Exactly. 00:06:33.480 --> 00:06:35.839 Imagine putting your aircraft into a steep dive 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:38.500 and watching your wings flap like a bird's. No, 00:06:38.500 --> 00:06:40.899 thank you. It would completely shatter a pilot's 00:06:40.899 --> 00:06:43.500 confidence in the machine. So the struts were 00:06:43.500 --> 00:06:45.860 added almost entirely as a psychological band 00:06:45.860 --> 00:06:48.319 -aid just to stop the visual flexing. And it 00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:50.120 worked well enough that the military testing 00:06:50.120 --> 00:06:53.519 body, Idflig, ordered 20 pre -production aircraft 00:06:53.519 --> 00:06:57.480 in July 1917, though they did test one to destruction 00:06:57.480 --> 00:06:59.300 on the ground just to be sure it wouldn't immediately 00:06:59.300 --> 00:07:02.139 fall apart. So after fixing the controls and 00:07:02.139 --> 00:07:04.620 adding these placebo struts, how did this thing 00:07:04.620 --> 00:07:08.040 actually perform when it faced enemy fire? Because 00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:10.939 the first two pre -production models, designated 00:07:10.939 --> 00:07:14.420 as the FI, are sent straight to combat evaluation 00:07:14.420 --> 00:07:17.860 in Belgium in late August. This is exactly where 00:07:17.860 --> 00:07:20.180 the legend takes root. Manfred von Richthofen 00:07:20.180 --> 00:07:22.519 takes one up on September 1st. Over the next 00:07:22.519 --> 00:07:24.839 two days, he shoots down two enemy aircraft. 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:27.680 Incredible debut. He immediately writes this 00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:30.100 glowing report back to the high command, boldly 00:07:30.100 --> 00:07:32.379 declaring that the FI is fundamentally superior 00:07:32.379 --> 00:07:35.040 to the Sopwith triplane. He essentially demands 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:37.100 that fighter squadrons be re -equipped with it 00:07:37.100 --> 00:07:39.660 as soon as possible. I mean, you get a five -star 00:07:39.660 --> 00:07:42.160 review from the most famous ace of the war. It 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:45.240 seems like a massive triumph. It does. But here's 00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:48.160 where it gets really interesting. The combat 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:51.740 evaluation phase ends incredibly abruptly. Not 00:07:51.740 --> 00:07:53.360 because they learned everything they needed to 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:56.240 know, but because Richhofen wasn't the only one 00:07:56.240 --> 00:07:58.920 evaluating those two prototypes. Right. He handed 00:07:58.920 --> 00:08:01.439 them off to other elite pilots, and within weeks, 00:08:01.800 --> 00:08:04.920 in September 1917, the pilots of both of those 00:08:04.920 --> 00:08:08.139 planes, Kurt Wolf and Werner Voss, who were highly 00:08:08.139 --> 00:08:10.699 decorated squadron leaders, were shot down and 00:08:10.699 --> 00:08:13.019 killed in them. This raises an important question 00:08:13.019 --> 00:08:15.569 regarding military procurement. You have a brand 00:08:15.569 --> 00:08:18.350 new aircraft, and within its first weeks of frontline 00:08:18.350 --> 00:08:21.050 testing, it directly results in the deaths of 00:08:21.050 --> 00:08:24.389 two of your most experienced aces. Right. Logically, 00:08:24.389 --> 00:08:27.269 that should trigger an immediate halt and a massive 00:08:27.269 --> 00:08:29.930 reevaluation of the entire program. But the desperation 00:08:29.930 --> 00:08:32.230 from the high command overrode logic entirely. 00:08:32.570 --> 00:08:34.549 The orders just keep rolling in. They were 100 00:08:34.549 --> 00:08:37.789 in September, another 200 in November. They officially 00:08:37.789 --> 00:08:40.769 designated the Dr. I, and mass production just 00:08:40.769 --> 00:08:44.110 ramps up. Despite the glaring red flags. Exactly. 00:08:44.110 --> 00:08:47.090 and their solutions to its operational hazards 00:08:47.090 --> 00:08:50.409 were borderline comical. For instance, the landing 00:08:50.409 --> 00:08:52.649 gear design made the plane incredibly tricky 00:08:52.649 --> 00:08:56.210 to land. It had a severe tendency to ground loop, 00:08:56.309 --> 00:08:58.330 basically spinning out of control as it touched 00:08:58.330 --> 00:09:01.029 down, dragging its lower wings in the dirt. And 00:09:01.029 --> 00:09:03.549 rather than redesigning the landing gear geometry 00:09:03.549 --> 00:09:05.970 to actually make the aircraft stable on the runway, 00:09:06.690 --> 00:09:10.149 the factory simply bolted wooden skids onto the 00:09:10.149 --> 00:09:12.570 bottom of the lower wing tips. It was literal 00:09:12.570 --> 00:09:14.830 duct tape engineering. They just added bumpers 00:09:14.830 --> 00:09:17.299 so the wings wouldn't snap when the plane inevitably 00:09:17.299 --> 00:09:19.820 spun out. It really underscores how badly they 00:09:19.820 --> 00:09:22.539 needed these in the air. But we should acknowledge 00:09:22.539 --> 00:09:25.159 that once it actually got into the air, the doctor 00:09:25.159 --> 00:09:27.620 I did offer some incredible advantages. Listen 00:09:27.620 --> 00:09:29.960 to this quote from Franz Heimer, a pilot who 00:09:29.960 --> 00:09:32.779 flew with Justice Six. He said, the triplane 00:09:32.779 --> 00:09:34.799 was my favorite fighting machine because it had 00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:37.320 such wonderful flying qualities. I could let 00:09:37.320 --> 00:09:40.120 myself stunt leaping and rolling and could avoid 00:09:40.120 --> 00:09:42.909 an enemy by diving with perfect safety. That 00:09:42.909 --> 00:09:44.970 praise highlights the one thing the Doctor Eye 00:09:44.970 --> 00:09:47.870 did exceptionally well. Maneuverability. Exactly. 00:09:48.149 --> 00:09:50.190 The rudder and elevator controls were highly 00:09:50.190 --> 00:09:53.149 responsive. But the real secret to its agility, 00:09:53.269 --> 00:09:55.110 and this is a crucial piece of the engineering 00:09:55.110 --> 00:09:59.149 puzzle, was its engine. The Doctor Eye utilized 00:09:59.389 --> 00:10:02.389 a rotary engine. And we should clarify the difference 00:10:02.389 --> 00:10:05.009 there, because a rotary engine is not the same 00:10:05.009 --> 00:10:07.289 thing as a radial engine, even though they look 00:10:07.289 --> 00:10:09.710 really similar from the outside. Right. In a 00:10:09.710 --> 00:10:12.250 standard radial engine, which is what most later 00:10:12.250 --> 00:10:15.169 propeller planes use, the engine block is bolted 00:10:15.169 --> 00:10:18.090 to the airframe and stays completely still while 00:10:18.090 --> 00:10:20.750 the crankshaft spins the propeller. Makes sense. 00:10:21.049 --> 00:10:24.070 But in a World War I rotary engine, the crankshaft 00:10:24.070 --> 00:10:26.649 is bolted firmly to the airplane and the entire 00:10:26.649 --> 00:10:29.120 engine block all the cylinders, the spark plugs, 00:10:29.340 --> 00:10:31.919 the casing spins around it at hundreds of revolutions 00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:34.379 per minute, taking the propeller with it. That 00:10:34.379 --> 00:10:36.940 is a massive amount of spinning metal at the 00:10:36.940 --> 00:10:39.700 very front of a tiny, lightweight, wooden airplane. 00:10:39.960 --> 00:10:42.220 It creates immense gyroscopic procession. If 00:10:42.220 --> 00:10:44.120 you've ever held a spinning bicycle wheel by 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:46.340 the axle and tried to tilt it, you feel that 00:10:46.340 --> 00:10:48.580 bizarre heavy force pushing back against you 00:10:48.580 --> 00:10:51.590 at an angle. Yeah, it fikes you. That's gyroscopic 00:10:51.590 --> 00:10:54.809 torque. In the Dr. I, that spinning engine mass 00:10:54.809 --> 00:10:58.289 caused marked directional instability. It desperately 00:10:58.289 --> 00:11:00.409 wanted to pull to the right. Which sounds terrible. 00:11:00.730 --> 00:11:03.009 While instability is terrible for a passenger 00:11:03.009 --> 00:11:06.070 plane, for a fighter pilot, it meant the aircraft 00:11:06.070 --> 00:11:09.379 was incredibly eager to change direction. A skilled 00:11:09.379 --> 00:11:12.120 pilot could use that gyroscopic torque to execute 00:11:12.120 --> 00:11:15.139 lightning fast. Flat turns to the right that 00:11:15.139 --> 00:11:17.360 allied fighters simply couldn't follow. But relying 00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:19.860 on that engine came with a massive penalty. While 00:11:19.860 --> 00:11:22.039 it could out -turn anything, it was shockingly 00:11:22.039 --> 00:11:25.019 slow. Yes, very slow. In level flight and in 00:11:25.019 --> 00:11:28.100 a dive, it could not keep pace with contemporary 00:11:28.100 --> 00:11:30.399 allied fighters. It had a great initial climb 00:11:30.399 --> 00:11:32.059 rate, but once you got up to higher altitudes, 00:11:32.200 --> 00:11:34.559 the performance just evaporated. That high altitude 00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:37.340 drop -off was a direct result of the specific 00:11:37.340 --> 00:11:39.990 rotary engine they were using, the Oberursel 00:11:39.990 --> 00:11:42.950 Urschür. It was a 110 horsepower, nine -cylinder 00:11:42.950 --> 00:11:45.590 engine, but it wasn't a German design. It was 00:11:45.590 --> 00:11:48.090 stolen, essentially. It was a reverse engineered 00:11:48.090 --> 00:11:51.190 clone of a captured French engine, the Le Rhone 00:11:51.190 --> 00:11:54.409 9J. The German manufacturing processes couldn't 00:11:54.409 --> 00:11:56.990 quite match the original tolerances, resulting 00:11:56.990 --> 00:11:59.990 in a clone with poor compression. In the thin 00:11:59.990 --> 00:12:02.610 air at high altitudes, it simply starved for 00:12:02.610 --> 00:12:05.289 power. And to make matters worse, the German 00:12:05.289 --> 00:12:08.690 supply chain doomed those engines to early deaths. 00:12:09.750 --> 00:12:12.830 Rotary engines run incredibly hot and they fling 00:12:12.830 --> 00:12:15.070 their lubricating oil out through the exhaust 00:12:15.070 --> 00:12:17.950 as they spin. Very messy engines. Very. And they 00:12:17.950 --> 00:12:20.029 required a very specific lubricant that wouldn't 00:12:20.029 --> 00:12:22.409 break down under those extreme conditions. They 00:12:22.409 --> 00:12:25.059 needed castor oil. But due to the Allied naval 00:12:25.059 --> 00:12:27.840 blockade, Germany was experiencing severe chronic 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:30.419 shortages of castor oil. So the military was 00:12:30.419 --> 00:12:33.279 forced to rely on ersatz lubricants. Synthetic 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:35.759 substitutes. Or lower quality substitutes. These 00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:38.019 substitute oils broke down rapidly under the 00:12:38.019 --> 00:12:40.120 heat and friction of the rotary engine, leading 00:12:40.120 --> 00:12:42.759 to catastrophic engine seizures, especially during 00:12:42.759 --> 00:12:45.460 the hot summer of 1918. So if you're a German 00:12:45.460 --> 00:12:47.720 pilot, let's look at what you're dealing with. 00:12:48.100 --> 00:12:49.779 You're flying an airplane that is slower than 00:12:49.779 --> 00:12:52.500 your enemy. powered by a cloned engine that might 00:12:52.500 --> 00:12:54.879 seize mid -flight because it's running on fake 00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:57.879 oil. And the cockpit experience doesn't make 00:12:57.879 --> 00:13:01.159 it any better. You have three giant wings obstructing 00:13:01.159 --> 00:13:04.059 your view during takeoff and landing. The cockpit 00:13:04.059 --> 00:13:06.899 is cramped, built with cheap materials, and then 00:13:06.899 --> 00:13:09.590 there are the guns. The armament setup was a 00:13:09.590 --> 00:13:13.250 major hazard. It carried two 7 .92 -millimeter 00:13:13.250 --> 00:13:15.870 Spando machine guns mounted directly in front 00:13:15.870 --> 00:13:18.529 of the cockpit. The gun butts protruded back 00:13:18.529 --> 00:13:20.909 into the pilot's immediate space, mere inches 00:13:20.909 --> 00:13:22.990 from their face. And remember, this is an airplane 00:13:22.990 --> 00:13:26.169 that loves to spin out and crash during routine 00:13:26.169 --> 00:13:29.629 landings. Exactly. Combined with entirely inadequate 00:13:29.629 --> 00:13:32.250 crash padding on the cockpit coaming, a standard 00:13:32.250 --> 00:13:34.730 ground loop could violently throw the pilot forward. 00:13:35.460 --> 00:13:38.519 Surviving a dogfight only to suffer severe, sometimes 00:13:38.519 --> 00:13:40.620 fatal, head trauma from your own machine guns 00:13:40.620 --> 00:13:43.120 during landing was a very real threat. But the 00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:45.080 landing gear in the engine weren't even the deadliest 00:13:45.080 --> 00:13:48.419 flaws. The true horror of the Dr. I revealed 00:13:48.419 --> 00:13:52.500 itself in late October 1917. The structural failures. 00:13:53.399 --> 00:13:55.919 Right. Heinrich Gonterman, the leader of JASTA 00:13:55.919 --> 00:13:59.460 -15, is performing standard aerobatics when his 00:13:59.460 --> 00:14:02.179 triplane literally breaks apart in midair. He 00:14:02.179 --> 00:14:06.000 crashes and dies. Just two days later, Gunther 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:08.659 Pastor of Jast 11 is killed when his triplane 00:14:08.659 --> 00:14:11.740 also disintegrates. No dogfight, no extreme maneuvers, 00:14:11.879 --> 00:14:15.580 the wings just collapsed. Exactly. Two fatal 00:14:15.580 --> 00:14:18.639 mid -air structural failures in 48 hours forced 00:14:18.639 --> 00:14:21.440 IDFleet to ground every single triplane on the 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:24.340 front lines in early November. They convened 00:14:24.340 --> 00:14:26.600 a STIRS commission, a crash commission, to investigate 00:14:26.600 --> 00:14:28.600 why these aircraft were tearing themselves apart. 00:14:28.750 --> 00:14:31.110 The commission's findings were a massive embarrassment 00:14:31.110 --> 00:14:33.549 for Anthony Fokker. They discovered incredibly 00:14:33.549 --> 00:14:35.830 shoddy construction practices at his factory. 00:14:36.289 --> 00:14:38.570 The wing structures weren't being properly waterproof. 00:14:38.730 --> 00:14:41.370 Just poor craftsmanship. Yes. Moisture was seeping 00:14:41.370 --> 00:14:43.149 into the wings, rotting the wooden structure 00:14:43.149 --> 00:14:45.809 from the inside out. The wing ribs were literally 00:14:45.809 --> 00:14:48.830 disintegrating. Under aerodynamic load, the rotting 00:14:48.830 --> 00:14:51.070 wood would give way, the ailerons would tear 00:14:51.070 --> 00:14:53.370 off, and the entire wing would catastrophically 00:14:53.370 --> 00:14:56.899 fail. Fokker was severely reprimanded. He was 00:14:56.899 --> 00:14:59.220 forced to immediately improve quality control, 00:14:59.820 --> 00:15:02.320 meticulously varnishing the wing spars and ribs 00:15:02.320 --> 00:15:04.659 to seal out moisture. They strengthened the rib 00:15:04.659 --> 00:15:07.360 structures and the auxiliary spars. And Fokker 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:10.259 had to implement these modifications on all existing 00:15:10.259 --> 00:15:12.779 triplanes entirely at his own expense before 00:15:12.779 --> 00:15:14.559 they were allowed back in the air. Which is a 00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:16.799 huge financial hit. So they varnished the wood, 00:15:17.240 --> 00:15:18.960 reinforced the ribs, and the planes returned 00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:21.700 to service by late November. But here is the 00:15:21.700 --> 00:15:24.659 truly terrifying part of the story. The fixes 00:15:24.659 --> 00:15:27.279 didn't work. No, they didn't. The wings kept 00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:31.240 failing. In March 1918, Lothar von Richtofen, 00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:34.379 the Red Baron's brother, experiences a catastrophic 00:15:34.379 --> 00:15:36.440 failure of his upper wing leading edge during 00:15:36.440 --> 00:15:39.559 a dogfight. He barely manages to crash land and 00:15:39.559 --> 00:15:42.019 is severely injured. All the varnish in the world 00:15:42.019 --> 00:15:44.200 wasn't stopping the wings from breaking. If we 00:15:44.200 --> 00:15:46.220 connect this to the bigger picture, we find out 00:15:46.220 --> 00:15:48.700 that poor factory workmanship was only a symptom. 00:15:49.210 --> 00:15:52.070 The terminal disease of the Fokker triplane wasn't 00:15:52.070 --> 00:15:54.450 uncovered until more than a decade after the 00:15:54.450 --> 00:15:57.049 war. Long after the plane stopped flying. Exactly. 00:15:57.409 --> 00:15:59.929 In 1929, the National Advisory Committee for 00:15:59.929 --> 00:16:02.570 Aeronautics, ENCA, the American organization 00:16:02.570 --> 00:16:06.230 that eventually became NASA, conducted deep aerodynamic 00:16:06.230 --> 00:16:09.309 investigations into the doctorized design. What 00:16:09.309 --> 00:16:12.289 did the Anakie wind tunnel tests actually reveal? 00:16:12.669 --> 00:16:15.409 because this is the ultimate vindication for 00:16:15.409 --> 00:16:18.429 those pilots who felt the plane was unsafe. NKA 00:16:18.429 --> 00:16:21.549 discovered a fundamental aerodynamic flaw in 00:16:21.549 --> 00:16:24.029 how lift was distributed across the three wings. 00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:27.159 In a standard biplane, the aerodynamic load is 00:16:27.159 --> 00:16:30.259 shared relatively evenly, but the Dr .i had a 00:16:30.259 --> 00:16:33.159 specific, staggered triplane configuration. Right, 00:16:33.259 --> 00:16:34.960 the wings were stepped back from top to bottom. 00:16:35.159 --> 00:16:37.279 Exactly. The wind tunnel testing proved that 00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:39.940 the upper wing was operating in clean, undisturbed 00:16:39.940 --> 00:16:42.860 air, which vastly accelerated the airflow over 00:16:42.860 --> 00:16:45.600 the middle and lower wings. Because of this aerodynamic 00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:48.399 interference, the upper wing was carrying a drastically 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:51.340 disproportionate amount of the lift. How disproportionate 00:16:51.340 --> 00:16:53.799 are we talking? At high speeds, the upper wing 00:16:53.799 --> 00:16:56.779 carried a lift coefficient up to 2 .55 times 00:16:56.779 --> 00:16:58.799 higher than the lower wing. It was doing over 00:16:58.799 --> 00:17:00.980 two and a half times the aerodynamic work. That 00:17:00.980 --> 00:17:04.180 is immense. It is. When a pilot put the aircraft 00:17:04.180 --> 00:17:06.859 into a steep dive and pulled up or banked hard 00:17:06.859 --> 00:17:10.240 in a dogfight, the sheer aerodynamic force focused 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:13.339 on that single top wing was staggering. It just 00:17:13.339 --> 00:17:15.799 couldn't take it. It simply wasn't built to handle 00:17:15.799 --> 00:17:18.779 that uneven load. It didn't matter how well Fokker 00:17:18.779 --> 00:17:22.099 varnished the wood or reinforced the ribs. Aerodynamically, 00:17:22.440 --> 00:17:24.700 that upper wing was predisposed to tear itself 00:17:24.700 --> 00:17:27.579 apart under combat stresses. It was fundamentally 00:17:27.579 --> 00:17:30.339 doomed by its own design. It's incredible to 00:17:30.339 --> 00:17:32.579 think that these pilots were going up every single 00:17:32.579 --> 00:17:35.059 day in a machine that physics itself had marked 00:17:35.059 --> 00:17:37.759 for destruction. And the German military eventually 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:41.140 realized the triplane was a dead end. Its chronic 00:17:41.140 --> 00:17:43.779 structural problems, combined with its slow speed, 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:46.720 destroyed any chance of large -scale production. 00:17:47.319 --> 00:17:50.420 Manufacturing officially ended in May 1918, capping 00:17:50.420 --> 00:17:59.440 the total run at just 320 aircraft. which was 00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:02.000 a vastly superior, structurally sound biplane. 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:04.279 The surviving triplanes were relegated to training 00:18:04.279 --> 00:18:06.980 schools and home defense. And their fate after 00:18:06.980 --> 00:18:10.299 the war is genuinely tragic for aviation historians. 00:18:11.079 --> 00:18:13.240 By the time of the armistice, there were very 00:18:13.240 --> 00:18:16.480 few left. Only three original triplanes are known 00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:19.359 to have survived the end of the conflict. And 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:22.140 sadly, none of them exist today. It is a profound 00:18:22.140 --> 00:18:24.599 irony. One of those three survivors was serial 00:18:24.599 --> 00:18:29.059 number 15217. This was an incredibly historic 00:18:29.059 --> 00:18:32.339 artifact. It was the very plane Manfred von Richtofen 00:18:32.339 --> 00:18:34.700 flew to score three of his combat victories. 00:18:35.259 --> 00:18:37.400 Wow. It was preserved and put on display at the 00:18:37.400 --> 00:18:40.480 Zoo House Museum in Berlin. It survived the entirety 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:42.759 of the First World War only to be completely 00:18:42.759 --> 00:18:44.980 destroyed by allied bombing raids during the 00:18:44.980 --> 00:18:47.140 Second World War. That's heartbreaking. A second 00:18:47.140 --> 00:18:49.660 original pieced together by Fokker himself in 00:18:49.660 --> 00:18:52.359 1932 was destroyed in another bombing raid in 00:18:52.359 --> 00:18:55.559 1943. Today, only small fragments, pieces of 00:18:55.559 --> 00:18:57.650 fabric, a few instruments survive in museums. 00:18:57.809 --> 00:19:00.150 Which means that every single Fokker triplane 00:19:00.150 --> 00:19:02.809 you see flying in an air show today is a replica. 00:19:03.349 --> 00:19:05.690 The cultural footprint of the doctori is so massive 00:19:05.690 --> 00:19:07.829 that enthusiasts just keep building them from 00:19:07.829 --> 00:19:10.210 scratch. Bitz Fluxligbaugh will famously build 00:19:10.210 --> 00:19:12.930 two full -scale replicas for the 1966 movie The 00:19:12.930 --> 00:19:15.470 Blue Max. And here's one of my favorite facts 00:19:15.470 --> 00:19:19.069 from the sources. In 2014, Bruce Dickinson, the 00:19:19.069 --> 00:19:21.730 lead singer of Iron Maiden, actually bought a 00:19:21.730 --> 00:19:24.170 Dr. I replica. Though if you do see one flying 00:19:24.170 --> 00:19:26.390 today, you'll likely notice it sounds quite different 00:19:26.390 --> 00:19:28.410 from the historical accounts. Because of the 00:19:28.410 --> 00:19:31.009 engine. Right. Because Authentic 1910's rotary 00:19:31.009 --> 00:19:33.549 engines are incredibly scarce and notoriously 00:19:33.549 --> 00:19:36.849 difficult to maintain, the vast majority of modern, 00:19:37.069 --> 00:19:39.809 airworthy replicas are powered by later radial 00:19:39.809 --> 00:19:42.940 engines, like the Warner Scarab. You get the 00:19:42.940 --> 00:19:45.700 vintage look, but with an engine block that safely 00:19:45.700 --> 00:19:48.039 stays put while the propeller spins. A bit safer 00:19:48.039 --> 00:19:51.339 that way. Definitely. A few purists do manage 00:19:51.339 --> 00:19:55.099 to source vintage Lorone rotaries, but they are 00:19:55.099 --> 00:19:58.519 very rare. So what does this all mean? We started 00:19:58.519 --> 00:20:01.700 out by picturing the ultimate, iconic dogfighter. 00:20:01.980 --> 00:20:04.319 The legendary Red Baron commanding the skies 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:07.559 in his bright red machine. But the reality we 00:20:07.559 --> 00:20:09.700 found in the sources is a vastly different story. 00:20:09.779 --> 00:20:11.910 It's practically the opposite of the myth. It 00:20:11.910 --> 00:20:15.089 is. The Fokker Dr. I is the ultimate historical 00:20:15.089 --> 00:20:17.690 example of why you should never judge a machine 00:20:17.690 --> 00:20:21.029 strictly by its paint job or its fame. It was 00:20:21.029 --> 00:20:24.569 a terrifying, deeply compromised aircraft. It 00:20:24.569 --> 00:20:27.690 was slow, cramped, powered by a cloned engine 00:20:27.690 --> 00:20:30.069 running on synthetic oil, and its upper wing 00:20:30.069 --> 00:20:32.430 was aerodynamically destined to rip itself to 00:20:32.430 --> 00:20:34.630 shreds. Yet it's a legend. Because it achieved 00:20:34.630 --> 00:20:37.410 that legendary status almost entirely through 00:20:37.410 --> 00:20:41.230 the sheer unmatched skill and the immense celebrity 00:20:41.230 --> 00:20:44.190 of the few elite pilots who managed to fly it 00:20:44.190 --> 00:20:47.140 without dying. It was a triumph of human skill 00:20:47.140 --> 00:20:49.740 over catastrophic engineering. And this raises 00:20:49.740 --> 00:20:51.420 an important question, something for you to mull 00:20:51.420 --> 00:20:53.220 over after we wrap up today. Oh, definitely. 00:20:53.460 --> 00:20:56.039 This deep dive proves that history has a persistent 00:20:56.039 --> 00:20:58.380 habit of remembering the bold aesthetic and the 00:20:58.380 --> 00:21:01.019 famous user, while completely forgetting the 00:21:01.019 --> 00:21:02.940 deeply flawed engineering hidden beneath the 00:21:02.940 --> 00:21:06.079 surface. It makes you wonder, what other legendary 00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:08.000 pieces of technology out there are getting a 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:10.839 historical free pass? I love that question. Right. 00:21:11.160 --> 00:21:13.799 Whether it's vintage muscle cars, early classic 00:21:13.799 --> 00:21:17.000 computers, or famous historical weapons, how 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:19.500 many of them are sitting on a cultural pedestal 00:21:19.500 --> 00:21:22.640 right now solely because we've collectively forgotten 00:21:22.640 --> 00:21:25.500 how incredibly terrible they actually were to 00:21:25.500 --> 00:21:27.759 use? That is a fantastic thought to leave on. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:29.660 Thank you so much for joining us on this deep 00:21:29.660 --> 00:21:31.759 dive into the true story of the Fokker Triplane. 00:21:32.019 --> 00:21:34.400 We hope it gave you a brand new perspective on 00:21:34.400 --> 00:21:36.339 an aviation legend. Until next time.