Albatros B.II

The Albatros B.II was an unarmed two-seat reconnaissance biplane built by Albatros Flugzeugwerke, with the post-war company designation L.2. It drew heavily on the earlier B.I, with a noticeably shorter wingspan, an unusually strong plywood fuselage and large square cutouts in the lower wing spars to improve the observer's view downwards; the pilot sat behind the observer. It first flew in 1914 and was operationally active when the First World War began, when the Luftstreitkräfte used it for reconnaissance before newer armed types displaced it and it became a trainer, for which a dedicated B.IIa version was built. It was exported widely, and Sweden and Poland flew it after the Armistice. The article credits the design to Robert Thelen, although Ernst Heinkel also claimed it, a claim most aviation historians reject.