| DP.VII | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Type | Light sports aircraft |
| National origin | Germany |
| Manufacturer | Dietrich-Gobiet Flugzeugwerk |
| History | |
| First flight | Spring 1924 |
TheDietrich-Gobiet DP.VII was a simple, low power,German sports aircraft flown in early 1924.
The low-powered DP.VII was a simple, easily transportable,low-wingmonoplane intended to make sports aviation more widely accessible. It had a simple, thick section wing, essentially rectangular in plan apart from blunted, angled tips. This had two main wooden boxspars and was braced to the upperfuselage on each side with an inverted V-form pair ofstruts from the upper fuselagelongerons to the spars at about one-third span. Unusually, the one-piece wing structure passed through the deep fuselage above the lower longerons and could be extracted in a few minutes then transported away on a pair oftrestles normally stowed inside the DP.VII. The aircraft had long-spanailerons filling about two-thirds of the wing.[1]
The simple, flat-sided fuselage was a steel-tube structure with four longerons, linked by welded struts, defining the shape. Internalpiano wire bracing stiffened the fuselage, which wasfabric-covered. The opencockpit was over the rear wing and was large enough for a passenger to sit behind the pilot, straddling a box seat. Though the power was low, the structure was light and the load/empty weight ratio (0.89) was noted as high. At the time, the installation of the 22 kW (30 hp) air-cooledHaacke HFM-2engine was seen as particularly clean, with only the upper cylinders projecting out of thecowling.[1]
The DP.VII's mainwheels were mounted on a single axle, conventionally rubber sprung to a cross member attached to the lower fuselage longerons by a V-form pair of struts on each side. Less conventionally, the undercarriage structure was braced by another, transverse, V-strut from the cross piece centre to the longerons. There was a sprung tail skid at the rear.[1]
The exact date of the DP.VII's first flight is not certain, but the prototype had been well tested by late May 1924 and there were plans to put it into quantity production.[1] At almost the same time, Dietrich-Gobiet were developing the DP.VIIA which, despite the similar designation, was a larger-span,parasol-wing monoplane. It had a similar fuselage and empennage to the DP.VII but a much more powerful engine, aSiemens-Halske Sh 4 five-cylinderradial producing about 41 kW (55 hp). This aircraft was on display at the Third International Aero Show atPrague in early June 1924.[2] Few of either type seem to have been produced.[3]
Data fromFlight, 22 May 1924 p.287.[1]
General characteristics
Performance