The single-seat fighter aircraft of entirely wooden construction, in a biplane configuration, the LFG Roland D.VI was developed in late 1917 at the Berlin-based firm Luftfahrzeug-Gesellschaft m.b.H. The company’s trademark was the image of the knight Roland — hence the aircraft’s name. The LFG chief designer, engineer Kurt Tantzen, along with engineers Richter and Cammerer, developed a method of producing streamlined fuselages as shells formed from strips of plywood and joined on a lightweight skeleton of multi-layered, glued frames and spruce longerons.
This method, called Klinkerrumpf (literally clinker-built fuselage or lap-jointed fuselage) was one of the attempts to solve the problems with plywood, which was in short supply during this period of the war. Interestingly, clinker planking had long been used in watercraft, for example in Viking ships. However, this method was extremely time-consuming. After initially shaping the fuselage halves on a wooden mould, they were joined together on a lightweight skeleton. After assembly, the fuselage was painted with a special lacquer based on fossil resins.
Serial production began in February 1918. The first to be built were three specimens of the prototype series Roland D.VI with Mercedes D III/Benz Bz IIIa engines. Also in February, the first fifty airframes of the D.VIa series were produced. The next hundred machines of the D.VIa series were assembled in June 1918. Specimens of this series were equipped with Mercedes D III engines. Airframes of the D.VIb series with Benz Bz IIIa engines were produced from April to September of that year. A total of 359 specimens of this fighter were built.
The first Roland D.VIa reached the front in mid-May 1918. Available sources indicate that most machines entered service with fighter squadrons (Jagdstaffeln, abbreviated Jasta) 23b, 32b, 33, 35b and naval squadrons. By the end of June, a total of fifty-five Roland D.VI fighters were in action at the front, and a further seventy arrived there in August. That month is the last from which reliable data on the participation of these machines in combat is available.
Despite its undeniable qualities, the aircraft did not play a major role in World War I operations — it was superseded by the simpler Fokker D.VII, equipped with superior engines. The Roland, with its excellent aerodynamic properties, nevertheless had insufficient power for vertical combat. Frequent fuselage fractures in the section behind the pilot’s cockpit were also a problem — especially during hard landings.
The LFG Roland D.VIb exhibited at the Museum, with the number 2225/18, took part in the second fighter competition at Adlershof. After the war ended, it was transferred to the German Aviation Collection, and after being found in Poland in 1945, its damaged fuselage ended up in Kraków in 1963. The demolished fuselage, broken into 3 larger and several dozen smaller fragments, was reassembled (with some frames and many sections of skinning being reconstructed). All original fragments were returned to their proper positions, and the whole was treated with a special lacquer based on fossil resins (as in the original).
The Roland D.VI exhibited in Kraków is the only surviving specimen of this type in the world.
| Wingspan | 9.4 m |
| Length | 6.3 m |
| Takeoff weight | 820 kg |
| Maximum speed | 182 km/h |
| Ceiling | 6000 m |
| Range | 2 hours of flight |
| Armament | 2 fixed Spandau machine guns cal. 7.92 mm |
| Engine | 6-cylinder, inline, Benz Bz IIIa with a power output of 185 hp (136 kW) |
