FF.34
General information
Type	Experimental maritime reconnaissance floatplane
Manufacturer	Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen
Primary user	Imperial German Navy
Number built	1
History
First flight	1916
Developed into	Friedrichshafen FF.44?

The Friedrichshafen FF.34 was an experimental two-seat maritime reconnaissance floatplane built by Friedrichshafen Aircraft Construction Company ( Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen ) for the Imperial German Navy's (Kaiserliche Marine) Naval Air Service (Marine-Fliegerabteilung) during the First World War. Completed in 1916, the aircraft was intended to evaluate the performance of its Maybach Mb.IV engine in an aircraft in a pusher configuration as well as the suitability of the configuration for the maritime patrol mission. The FF.34's configuration was deemed obsolete and its design was structurally weak; some of its components may have been utilized by the FF.44 in 1917.

Contents

• Development and design
• Variants
• Operators
• Specifications (FF.34)
• See also
• References
• Bibliography

Development and design

The FF.34 was similar to the earlier FF.31 as it was a pusher configuration twin-boom floatplane. It had a central nacelle with two open cockpits. The engine (a Maybach Mb.IV) with a pusher propeller was mounted at the back of the nacelle. The twin tail booms were fitted to a rear tailplane/elevator assembly. The aircraft was later modified with a conventional fuselage and tail unit and re-designated the FF.44

Variants

FF.34

Prototype twin-boom pusher floatplane.

FF.44

FF.34 converted with a conventional fuselage and tail unit.

Operators

  German Empire

• Imperial German Navy

Specifications (FF.34)

Data from Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen GmbH: Diplom-Ingenieur Theodor Kober ^[1]

General characteristics

• Crew: 2
• Length: 10.85 m (35 ft 7 in)
• Wingspan: 18.4 m (60 ft 4 in)
• Height: 4.1 m (13 ft 5 in)
• Powerplant: 1 × Maybach Mb.IV water-cooled straight-six engine, 180 kW (240 hp)
• Propellers: 2-bladed fixed-pitch

Armament

• Guns: 1 × 7.92 mm (0.312 in) Parabellum MG14 machine gun for observer

See also

Related lists

• List of military aircraft of Germany
• List of flying boats and floatplanes

References

Bibliography

• Borzutzki, Siegfried (1993). Flugzeugbau Friedrichshafen GmbH: Diplom-Ingenieur Theodor Kober[Friedrichshafen Aircraft Company: Diploma-Engineer Theodore Kober] (in German). Burbach. ISBN   3-927513-60-1.
• Düsing, Michael (2022). German & Austro-Hungarian Aero Engines of WWI. Vol. 3. Aeronaut Books. ISBN   978-1-953201-53-9.
• Herris, Jack (2016). Friedrichshafen Aircraft of WWI: A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes. Great War Aviation Centennial Series. Vol. 21. Charleston, South Carolina: Aeronaut Books. ISBN   978-1-935881-35-3.