Fokker Dr-I Triplane

The Triplane was created in response to the performance of Great Britain's Sopwith Triplane, which had amazing maneuverability and a startling rate of climb. Anthony Fokker tasked Reinhold Platz to create a plane that would match the Sopwith Triplane. 

Despite his disdain for complicated structures, Platz succeeded admirably with the Dr I (Dr for "Driedecker" or triplane). Using the available Oberursel rotary engine of 110 horsepower, Platz created a handsome aircraft with three essentially cantilever wings that exceeded the English Triplane's performance. The Fokker Dr I, while relatively slow, had a matchless maneuverability and a rate of climb that amazed opposing Allied pilots.

Unfortunately for the Germans, a series of fatal crashes revealed quality control problems in the construction of the Fokker Dr I's wings. The planes were refitted with newly manufactured wings, but production was halted, and the Fokker Triplane was gradually withdrawn from front-line service.

The tiny Fokker Triplane has emerged as the most famous of all German planes of the First World War. If one had to assign a percentage factor to this fame, about ten percent comes from the fact that it was the mount in which the leading German ace, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, was killed, shortly after his 80th, and last, victory. Amazingly, about 90 percent of its fame must be attributed to the invocation of the aircraft in the late Charles Schultz's comic strip, Peanuts, in which Snoopy flew his "Sopwith Camel" doghouse against the Red Baron's inevitably victorious Fokker Triplane.