AEG G.I

The AEG G.I (factory designation GZ1) was a prototype twin-engined German biplane built by the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (AEG) during the First World War for the Imperial German Army's ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) Imperial German Air Service ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}). The first prototype was designated as the K.I. Flight testing showed that it performed well enough to justify a second, more heavily armed, prototype designated as the G.I for testing under combat conditions.

Development

The G.I was conceived as a battleplane ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) or aerial cruiser that was to be capable of engaging enemy aircraft with its flexible machine guns as well as attacking ground targets. The Imperial German Air Service's Inspectorate of Flying Troops ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) issued a requirement in July 1914 for a three-man battleplane with enough fuel to fly for six hours, a flexible gun for the aerial observer in the nose, the ability to lift a useful load of Template:Convert and an engine with a minimum of Template:Convert.<ref>Herris 2014, p. 156</ref><ref>Herris 2015, p. 92</ref><ref>Grosz, p. 2</ref>

No engine that powerful was available in Germany, so AEG had to use two water-cooled, Template:Convert Mercedes D.I straight-six piston engines in a tractor configuration. These were mounted on struts located between the two-bay wings. The K.I's fuselage was built from steel tubing and its nose was protected by thin armor plate to protect the gunner; the rest of the fuselage was covered by doped fabric. The pilot's cockpit was located underneath the upper wing. The aircraft made its first flight in January 1915. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}'s designation system had changed from K to G for multi-engined aircraft by the time that the G.I was ordered for combat trials. That aircraft was completed in March and differed from the K.I in that it had two gunners, one in the nose and the other behind the pilot's cockpit. Some parts from the K.I may have been incorporated into the second prototype. The G.I was shipped from the factory to a combat unit on 24 April.<ref>Herris 2015, pp. 92–93</ref>

Bibliography

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