PILOT REPORT by Pfalz D.VIII
Swedish vintage aircraft builder and pilot Mikael Carlson on constructing and mastering his latest First World War mount — the mighty little Pfalz D.VIII, last of the rotary-engined line
The Pfalz D.VIII is a speedster. Just over five metres long and with 200 raw horsepower in the nose, it’s akin to a pony with the muscles of a wild horse. The combination gives impressive performance, but might not be easy to master. This aircraft and its engine, the Siemens-Halske Sh.III, were among the last of their kind. The Great War would soon be over. As for the rotary engine, the technology had gone as far as was practically possible.
The Pfalz company became known for its series of fighters during the First World War, not least the D.III and D.XII. It was the third-largest aircraft manufacturer in Germany after Fokker and Albatros. Based at Speyer in the south-western part of the country, Pfalz Flugzeugwerke was named after the region of the same name, in the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, or Rhineland-Palatinate in English.
Having licence-built Morane-Saulnier H and L monoplanes at the beginning of the 1914-18 war, Pfalz soon switched to more competitive Roland models from LFG. In so do…