This is a successful and much used German type, made at Johannisthal, near Berlin; about two hundred of these machines were made in 1913. The German Government have a great number of Albatross biplanes and monoplanes (Taube), and also several Albatross waterplanes. There appear to be four improved Albatross types for this year, two of them biplanes, one waterplane, and one monoplane (Taube), all with Mercèdes 100 h.p. motors, capable of attaining a maximum speed of 65 to 68 m.p.h. The biplane types are just over 26 feet in length, while the waterplane and monoplane average 29¼ feet.
The Germans have not favoured rotary engines and have almost exclusively adopted those with stationary cylinders, but an exception has been made in the case of the Sommer arrow-shaped biplane.
Another feature of German machines is that they are all, with one exception, double seated, the extra swiftly dashing scouting monoplane does not seem to appeal to the German. We find, however, one exception to the rule: the Argo type of monoplane is a one-seated machine. It has a span of 9 metres, surface of 15 square metres, and speed of 130 kilometres per hour.
A feature of aviation in Germany during the last few years of peace has been the night flights. For these, they have made special provision in the shape of aërial lighthouses, scattered all over the country. Some of these are electrically lighted, others by acetylene; some are “Morse” fires; some are fixed, others revolve, and the nature of the light has a distinct meaning, such as “near is a high tower to be avoided,” and so on. Germany is alone amongst the nations in her appreciation of the necessity of aërial lighthouses.
Round Berlin there are six such stations at, respectively: Nauen, Döberitz, Tegel, Reinickendorf, Linderberg, and Johannisthal; and there are also aërial lighthouses at the following places:—Königsberg, Posen, Liegnitz, Dresden, Belgern, Eilvese, Gotha, Weimar, Schleissheim, Strasbourg, Grosser-Feldberg, Berncastel-Cues, Metz, and Bonn.
Besides building aircraft on the lighter-than-air principle, Germany has not been idle in their use during the last few years of peace. She has German military flying schools, seventeen in number. They are as follows, arranged alphabetically:—Darmstadt, Döberitz, Freiburg, Germersheim, Graudenz, Hannover, Güterbog, Köln (Cologne), Königsberg, Metz, München-Oberschleissheim, München-Oberwiesenfeld, Posen, Saarbrücken, Schneidemühl, Strasbourg, and Zeithain.
There are three naval flying schools, at Kiel, Danzig, and Wilhelmshaven, and about three dozen seaplanes, mainly biplanes—Rumpler, Albatross, Curtiss, etc.
There are also in Germany no less than eighty-eight civilian aëronautical bodies, many of whom possess flying grounds, and there must be at least between thirty and forty of these private flying grounds, in addition to those of the military schools.
M. Raoul Volens, in his lucid articles, has pointed out how Germany, who was in 1911 so much behind France, has been able to produce by 1914 an equipment that rivals hers. He points out that in the Imperial manœuvres of 1911 it was with difficulty that Germany could produce eight aëroplanes; in 1912 she produced eight squadrons; at the end of that year 230 certificates had been granted to pilots by the German Aëro Club; in 1913 the number was 600; in 1912 the number of flying machine manufacturing firms was twenty; there were fifty in 1913. The number of flights made in Germany in 1911 was 7,489; in 1912, 17,651; in 1913 it was 36,817.
In 1911, the total duration of flights was 821 hours 41 minutes; in 1912, 1,966 hours 3 minutes; in 1913, 4,096 hours 48 minutes.