Fokker VIII

The Fokker VIII was an airplane of the German Empire's army, which has been developped at the end of the first World War. It was deployed too late and it could not influence the outcome of the war. The polish army received some of these airplanes and they took action in the polish-bolsheviki war.

It is special that this airplane is a monoplane. Despite its underpowered machine it was able to accelerate to speeds comparable to the opponent airplanes.

For the ribs I used a material call Guttagliss. Guttagliss is a composite material from fiber glass. For the struttings I used strips of pine wood.

The body and the wings I covered with a material called Oracover. For this I used an electric iron. I had to experiment with the iron first to figure out the temperatures for glueing and straightening out the Oracover on the ribs. I could not use Guttagliss for the elevator, since it deformed after ironing Oracover on it. Therefor I had to use wood for the elevator.

For the motor I chose a brushless electrical motor using a lipo akkumulator. I built in the akkumulator and the motor control right behind the motor. The servos I built in below the wings.

Below the finished airplane. The weight of the airplane is 620 grams. The wing span is 64 cm and the body length is 45 cm.

The main problem of the airplane is the weight. It is simply too heavy for the wing span and wing area. After research on internet I have found the following rule of thumb that brings the wing area and the airplane weight into the following relation:

Up to 30g/dm² we have light gliders. Slowfliers are below this value. Up to 50g/dm² we have heavier gliders and at 70g/dm² we have heavy motor airplanes, which need to be rather fast to stay in the air.

As a conclusion I have to admit that I did a couple of construction mistakes. The servos I should have built more to the front. The akkumulator I should have built below and above the motor and not behind it. Since I did not follow this, I needed to many weights at the front to trim the airplane. Also the pine wood strips are too strong in the back. The elevator is too heavy. Also I used too many rips for the wing. I decided not to fly this airplane anymore, because it needs to fly very fast in order to stay in the air. Fast speed is not an attribute of first world war airplanes. I took out the remote control from the airplane and gave it to my son who was very happy for this present. Next time I will use lighter material such as depron.