Three French aeroplanes and a sale to the army

Albatros began by copying the French. Founded at Johannisthal on the edge of Berlin in December 1909 by Enno Walther Huth and Otto Wiener, the company imported three French aeroplanes that winter, two Antoinette monoplanes and a Farman III biplane, used them for training and built copies under licence. On 18 December 1910 it sold the Farman to the army administration, which designated it B 1: Germany’s first military aeroplane. In 1911 Albatros flew its first own design, the Doppeltaube, and Benno König won the Deutschlandflug on an Albatros-Farman.

The first combat mission over Europe

The company’s aircraft went to war before Germany did. In 1912 Albatros built five F-2 biplanes, a Farman development with an Argus inline engine, and four went to the new Bulgarian air arm for the Balkan Wars. On 16 October 1912 one of them flew the first military mission in European skies. In April 1914 a subsidiary, the Ostdeutsche Albatros Werke, opened at Schneidemühl in Posen.

Heinkel, Thelen and the shark fuselage

Between 1912 and 1914 the chief designer was a young Ernst Heinkel, later famous under his own name. Two-seat reconnaissance machines such as the B.II, which became the standard German trainer, and the C-series followed. The fighters came from Robert Thelen. His D.I and D.II of 1916 had a streamlined semi-monocoque fuselage skinned in plywood, and they gave German pilots a clear edge. The workforce grew from 830 when war broke out to more than 5,000 by November 1918, and Albatros built over 10,300 aircraft during the war.

Bloody April and the cracking wing

The D.III, flown in the late summer of 1916, borrowed the sesquiplane wing of the French Nieuport and became the leading fighter of the spring of 1917, when the Royal Flying Corps lost so heavily that the month became known as Bloody April. Manfred von Richthofen, Ernst Udet and Kurt Wolff all flew it. The borrowed wing had a flaw: its spar sat too far aft and the lower wing twisted. Richthofen’s own D.III cracked a lower wing on 24 January 1917, and all D.IIIs were briefly grounded. The D.V of 1917 never entirely cured the problem.

Forced into Focke-Wulf

Peace hit Albatros hard. Under Rudolf Schubert and, from 1926, Walter Blume it built airliners, sports and training aircraft, but by 1925 the staff was down to 150. When the Depression ended state subsidies, the company ran out of money, and in September 1931, under government pressure, it was merged into Focke-Wulf of Bremen, which briefly called itself Focke-Wulf-Albatros. Among the last types was the L 75 two-seat trainer of 1928, of which 43 were built.

Fabrieken

• Johannisthal werkt · Johannisthal, Berlin — Main factory from 1909
• Ostdeutsche Albatros Werke · Schneidemühl (now Piła, Poland) — Subsidiary founded April 1914
• Friedrichshagen workshop · Friedrichshagen, Berlin — Small glider shop founded September 1916

Mensen

• Enno Walther Huth · co-founder (1875–1964)
• Otto Wiener · co-founder (1873–1941)
• Ernst Heinkel · chief designer 1912–1914 — Later founded Heinkel
• Robert Thelen · fighter designer — Designed the D.I to D.V
• Walter Blume · chief designer from 1926

Records en primeurs

• Sold Germany’s first military aeroplane, designated B 1, 18 December 1910
• First military combat mission over Europe, by a Bulgarian Albatros F-2, 16 October 1912