ff19

The picture shows Friedrichshafen FF 29 with Marinummer '204' on the front deck of the U-boat U 12 on January 15, 1915. The location was inside the harbor of Zeebrugge (Belgium) where Seeflugstation Flandern I was located. The idea was the increase the radius of reconnaissance. In this case the U-boat released the reconnaissance plane after one hour . The machine was able to make a reconnaissance flight over the coast of Kent (England) and return safely. When the high brass (Admiralstab der Marine) heard of this action it became strictly forbidden to bring out seaplanes to sea in this way. In 1917 experiments were re-started for combined action of U-boats and seaplanes.

Although the pictures are of exceptional quality and very rare Friedrichshafen is wrongly spelled for the whole lot with the result that I could not find them and had to use tricks. It is surely possibly to correct this with a program in the batch. The picture shows the first Friedrichshafen FF 19 Marinenummer '25' delivered just before the start of the war on May 17, 1914.

Kees Kort Changing to the correct spelling!

That one isn´t a FF-19_The FF-19 is a biplane on floats. Very good pictures of the early aviation. Thanks very much

Fokker F.VII (not F.VIIA) H-NACC Stig

Great shot of the first Friedrichshafen with a fully enclosed fuselage, this is the FF 17a in its first single float version seen here at the Bodensee-Wettbewerb 1914 [The contest for seaplanes at the Bodensee in 1914) before the war. This machine was later modified to a more conventional twin float seaplane and than designated FF 17b. It is great to see this picture fully, that is most of the books which print this picture have left and right pieces cut off. The machine in its single float form (FF 17a) was hastily impressed in the German Marine service after the start of the war. It acquired the Marinenummer '64'.