what is it?
The Pfalz D.III was a fighter aircraft used by the Luftstreitkräfte (Imperial German Air Service) during the First World War. The D.III was the first major original design from Pfalz Flugzeugwerke. Though generally considered inferior to contemporary Albatros and Fokker fighters, the D.III was widely used by the Jagdstaffeln from late 1917 to mid-1918.
How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · biplane · 9.4 m wingspan
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 109 years ago, in 1917.
- Wingspan of 9.4 m: about 2 cars parked nose to tail.
piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1917-04
- number built
- 1,010
- role
- fighter
- origin
- German Reich
- makers
- Pfalz-Flugzeugwerke
- engines
- 1× Mercedes D.IIIa / Mercedes D.III
- crew
- 1
- length
- 7 m
- wingspan
- 9.4 m
- height
- 2.7 m
- max take-off weight
- 933 kg
- top speed
- 165 km/h
- range
- —
- ceiling
- 6,000 m
- wings
- biplane
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q705277, Wikipedia: Pfalz D.III (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.