Friedrichshafen FF.34
The Friedrichshafen FF.34 was an experimental two-seat maritime reconnaissance floatplane built by Friedrichshafen Aircraft Construction Company for the Imperial German Navy's Naval Air Service during the First World War. Completed in 1916, the aircraft was intended to evaluate the performance of its Maybach Mb.IV engine in an aircraft in a pusher configuration as well as the suitability of the configuration for the maritime patrol mission. The FF.34's configuration was deemed obsolete and its design was structurally weak; some of its components may have been utilized by the FF.44 in 1917.
Development and design
The FF.34 was built because the Naval Air Service wished to further evaluate the pusher configuration initially tested in the cruder Friedrichshafen FF.31 in 1915 as well as test the new and powerful water-cooled Maybach Mb.IV straight-six engine previously used aboard Zeppelins. To this end the FF.31's drag-inducing open-framework booms that connected the tail structure and single large vertical stabilizer and rudder were replaced by streamlined booms that terminated in smaller vertical stabilizers and rudders. These booms were attached to the middle of the inner interplane struts that connected with upper and lower wings; being higher off the water, the FF.31's tail float was eliminated. The configuration of the FF.34 was otherwise similar to the FF.31 with the observer's position in the nose of the central nacelle with the pilot's cockpit between it and the engine in the rear. The radiator was suspended from the upper wing between the cockpit and the engine. The aircraft's armament consisted of a Parabellum MG14 machine gun on a flexible mount for the observer.The prototype was delivered to Seaplane Experimental Command on 24 January 1916 for flight testing. This revealed that the booms were too weak and the FF.34 was returned to Friedrichshafen on 22 April. The company redelivered it to the SVK on 4 May 1917, but it was still not strong enough. Aviation historian Jack Herris states that the aircraft's wings and engine were reused in the FF.44, but historian Siegfried Borzutzki says that the aircraft was an entirely new design.
Variants
;FF.34;FF.44