In the autumn of 1914, engineer Wagner designed and built a two-seat mid-wing monoplane with a fuselage of welded steel tube construction and wooden, fabric-covered wings in the aviation department of the large electro-technical concern Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) in Henningsdorf near Berlin. The first example of the Eule (Owl) aircraft was equipped with a rotary radial engine. The characteristic features of the design were its short fuselage, measuring only 4.77 m in length, with a very large cross-section (110 x 98 cm), and a wing with a strongly tapering planform towards the tips and a thick, highly convex profile.
This aircraft was used for taxiing trials and was destroyed in a fire that broke out during the repair of the aircraft’s fuel tank. Its place was taken by a second prototype, also equipped with a rotary engine (some sources suggest it was a 4-cylinder inline engine, but this seems unlikely). Several short test flights were conducted on this aircraft.
Although the specific wing configuration was not adopted for serial production, the welded-tube short fuselage of the Eule aircraft paved the way for all the well-known and successful AEG combat biplanes of classes B, C and J, which were used throughout the Great War.
The Eule prototype was displayed suspended from the ceiling of the AEG assembly hall until the end of World War I, and was later transferred to the German Aviation Collection in Berlin. After being evacuated ahead of Allied air raids in 1943, the aircraft was left in occupied Poland near Czarnkow, close to Poznan. Discovered by Poles in 1945, it was stored in the warehouses of the Museum of Technology (NOT) between 1946 and 1963. In 1963, the wreck was transferred to the collection of the Museum of Aviation in Krakow. In 2003, the aircraft underwent conservative restoration and was placed on display.
| Wingspan | 11 m |
| Length | 5,81 m |
| Takeoff weight | – |
| Maximum speed | – |
| Ceiling | – |
| Range | – |
| Armament | – |
| Engine | Rotary engine of unknown type |
