Rohrbach Ro IX
The Rohrbach Ro IX Rofix was a fighter aircraft of the German manufacturer Rohrbach metal Flugzeugbau GmbH. It was designed by Kurt Tank, who since February 1924 in Rohrbach built the design department and managed.
History
The contract to build the Rofix was based on a visit to a Turkish delegation in the work of the subsidiary Rohrbach Metal Aeroplan Co A / S in Kastrup near Copenhagen. It was granted on two machines, a trial order, with the prospect of a total order for 50 copies. Construction began in April 1926, and in the summer of 1926 the first prototype ( serial number 22) was completed. The draft Rofix it was based on a pre- Hendes project Rohrbach transacted in 1924 on behalf of Mitsubishi. It was this to be the unrealized Navy fighter Miro, which was to be used on aircraft carriers.
On January 27, 1927, led to a crash of the first machine, the pilot Werner Landmann Although unhurt, but the machine was broken. Although the flight and landing characteristics were generally judged to be good, the bad spin properties, however, led to a multiple conversion with different V- positions of the wing. After the conversion, the prototype flight test was flown out of the factory riders also known as Paul Bäumer airmen, Joachim von Koeppen and Ernst Udet.
For the 20 July, the handover of the second prototype to Turkey was provided; the plane had to already been provided with the appropriate emblems. In a demonstration flight on 15 July, however, the plane crashed near the Kastrup Airport, the pilot Paul Bäumer was killed. In this 48th flight of Rofix Bäumer rose to 5000 meters altitude, flew a few rolls, then to spin up to 3000 m. He succeeded the machine schedule from a spin out again. After re- introducing some spinning succeeded to the pilot not auszuleiten out of the tailspin. Trying to escape by parachute came too late and the aircraft crashed into the sea. Tank was an eyewitness of the accident and assumed too low engine speed and thus ultimately a pilot errors during the Ausleitversuches as the cause.
Shortly after the accident left Rohrbach all the documents together contribute to Rofix and destroy. Until the dissolution of his company, he also undertook no new attempt more to deal with fighter planes.
Construction
The Rofix was a single-seat, semi- cantilever high -wing monoplane of all-metal construction with a water-cooled twelve-cylinder engine BMW VI. The trapezoidal wing was designed in two parts and had a recess in the area of the cab. The V- position was repeatedly varied to improve the swirl characteristics. About a profile constructed from tubes canopy of the wing to the fuselage was connected. The cable was used on both sides, to rigging.
The body having an elliptical cross-section consisting of three modules. The bearing shell was formed by a thin Duralblech. The fixed landing gear was intercepted vertical struts upwards against the wings, as well as obliquely forward against the hull bottom. The suspension was made by spiral steel springs.
Both prototypes were used propellers made of wood. It provided for the installation of two MG with 500 rounds of ammunition, which should either be installed in the wings to fire through the propeller arc or.