Learning on licence

Phönix started as a copyist. Its Vienna works first built Albatros and Hansa-Brandenburg designs under licence for the Austro-Hungarian air service. Building other people’s aeroplanes was an apprenticeship, and the company soon began reworking them. Its first original design, the C.I two-seat reconnaissance biplane, was derived from the licence-built Brandenburg C.II, gave its gunner an excellent field of fire, and entered service in early 1918.

Fighters for the aces

The fighters made its name. The Phönix D.I, developed from the Hansa-Brandenburg D.I, first flew in 1917; it was fast but heavy on the controls, and urgent need put it into production anyway. Pilots used to two-seaters found it stable and robust, if almost too stable for quick combat manoeuvres. Austro-Hungarian aces including Godwin Brumowski, Frank Linke-Crawford and Benno Fiala von Fernbrugg flew it. The last of 158 D-series fighters was delivered on 4 November 1918, days before the armistice.

Flown to Sweden

Defeat ended the business, but not the designs. In 1919 the sole J.41 prototype and the D.III licence rights were sold to Sweden, and designer Edmund Sparmann personally flew the aircraft there, together with a C.I. Sweden built about 30 C.Is and kept D.IIIs, as the J.1, flying until 1927. One survives in the Swedish Air Force Museum.

المصانع

• Stadlau works · Wien-Stadlau, Vienna — Where the J.41 prototype sat at the armistice

الناس

• Edmund Sparmann · designer — Flew the J.41 to Sweden in 1919
• Godwin Brumowski · ace — Among the aces who flew the D.I