Eindecker Model IV

Roughly 100 years ago, most airplanes had at least two wings. Biplanes. Anthony Fokker went against this trend. Based on his experience flying radio control airplanes, he was well aware of the "Ugly Stick" type of model airplane. So he created a full-size ugly stick, which became known as the Fokker Eindecker. Most people are aware of the Model III: Round engine in the front, machine gun that could fire through the propeller arc, wing-warping for roll control.

My model is about the lesser known Model IV variant of the Fokker Eindecker: Upright cylinder engine, ailerons. The cylinder block in front of the pilot provided a certain amount of protection from incoming fire, but unfortunately prevented mounting a machine gun, so the Model IV was mostly used as a reconnaissance plane. For this reason, Manfred von Richthofen had little use for the airplane. Nor had his brother, Lothar. But his girlfriend, the Baroness von Kräsch, loved the plane, which is why my model includes a replica of her in the control position.

Today, there is no surviving example of the Fokker Eindecker Model IV, mostly because I made it all up. My model is actually an 80% sized copy of the Balsa USA Eindecker 40 model which I had built several years ago. That one used an OS Max 40, this one uses an OS FS 26.