Albatros W.4

The Albatros W.4 was a single-seat military floatplane built by Albatros Flugzeugwerke, a derivative of the D.I land fighter with a new wing and tail of greater span. It used the same 120 kW Mercedes D.III engine as the D.I and a fuselage based on it; early aircraft carried one lMG08 machine gun and later ones carried two. The Imperial German Navy sought such a single-seat floatplane in 1916 to counter the growing use of flying boats and floatplanes by the Allies, particularly Britain. After its maiden flight in 1916 three prototypes were built, followed by production aircraft; it first fought in September 1916, flew over the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, and the last aircraft was delivered in December 1917, when newer twin-seat floatplanes displaced it.