what is it?
The Albatros D.III was a biplane fighter aircraft used by the Imperial German Army Air Service (Luftstreitkräfte) during World War I. A modified licensed version was built by Oeffag for the Austro-Hungarian Air Service (Luftfahrtruppen). The D.III was flown by many top German flying aces, including Wilhelm Frankl, Erich Löwenhardt, Manfred von Richthofen, Karl Emil Schäfer, Ernst Udet, and Kurt Wolff, and Austro-Hungarian ace Godwin von Brumowski. It was the preeminent fighter during the period of German aerial dominance known as "Bloody April" 1917.
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 110 years ago, in 1916.
piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1916-08
- introduced
- 1917
- retired
- 1923
- status
- retired
- number built
- 1,866
- role
- fighter
- origin
- German Empire
- makers
- Albatros
- engines
- 1× Austro-Daimler 200hp / Mercedes D.III
- crew
- 1
- length
- 7.4 m
- height
- 2.8 m
- max take-off weight
- 987 kg
- top speed
- 188 km/h
- range
- —
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q163051, Wikipedia: Albatros D.III (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.