AEG DJ.I

The AEG DJ.I was a prototype biplane fighter built by the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) during the First World War for the Imperial German Army's air service, the Luftstreitkräfte. It was derived from the unsuccessful AEG PE triplane fighter and shared its armoured fuselage design, armament and engine. AEG expected to attack enemy ground-attack aircraft flying at very low altitudes, so the fuselage carried integral armour for the pilot, engine and fuel tank, and new two-bay wings replaced the bracing wires with wide I-shaped interplane struts to reduce vulnerability to anti-aircraft fire. The first prototype used an experimental water-cooled 195-horsepower Benz Bz.IIIb V8 engine and the second a 245-horsepower Maybach Mb.IVa straight-six, and both carried a pair of 7.92-millimetre machine guns and four small bombs. Construction of the first prototype began in March 1918 and flight testing did not begin until August. Three prototypes were ordered but only two are known to have been completed, and no production decision had been made before the war ended in November 1918.