"UFAG C1" Topic

What is a UFAG C1? I can't seem to find it in any of the miniature game rules. Does this machine go by another name?

You can get a miniature and cards for it in Wings of War.

It's an Austro-Hungarian Air Force 2 seater from World War I.

I believe there is a bit on them in this Osprey Book.

link

There is very little good info in English on the aircraft and aces of Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Yep, it's a pretty decent 1918 Austrian 2-seater, not to be confused with the Oeffag C.I – also Austrian but rather earlier.

It's an Albatros C1 made by OEFFAG (UFAG), its Austrian licensee.

EDIT. Go with what Dom said…

Yep, go with what Dom said…. ;-)

I'm not sure what AG stands for, but it appears at the end of many German-speaking company names, and is presumably the equivalent of Ltd or PLC in English…. UFAG was Ungarische Flugzeugfabrik AG, while OEFFAG was Oesterreichische Flugzeug-Fabrik AG, so two completely different firms. OEFFAG were basically an Albatros sub-contractor, who spent most of their time building modified Albatros D.IIIs, as well as the OEFFAG C.I, which *was* a license-built Albatros C.I; ie. 1916 technology. UFAG mainly built Lohner designs under license, but the UFAG C.I seems to have been all their own work as it were, (although it shares some design features with the Phonix C.I) and was a pretty damned decent 1918 airplane – performance-wise streets ahead of the much older OEFFAG / Albatros C.I.

Dom.

Update – hmm, probably not *all* their own work; having had a search, UFAG earlier in the war manufactured the Brandenburg C.I under license; while decidedly superior, the UFAG C.I looks suspiciously like the Brandenburg, so that may have been the basis for the UFAG design.

Update to update – make that definitely; Brandenburg and UFAG were owned by the same chap, who tasked UFAG with updating the older Brandenburg design. Google's a wonderful thing….

Austrian Aircraft can be difficult to research.

The UFAG C-1 (also known as the Brandenburg C-1 series 61 – first series) was the first of a long line of C-1 aircraft -- this one powered by a 160 hp Daimler engine. The first of these were built based on drawings provided by Phoenix. The first series comprised 24 aircraft provided under a contract signed December 13, 1915. This was a very early bird.

For its time, it was considered to be quite good. It appears Brandenburg, Phoenix and UFAG all built some of these aircraft. Other than the wheels axles and radiators, the parts were NOT interchangeable. They all look a little different.

The series 64 (second series) were again powered by the 160 hp Daimler. A "universal fuselage" was designed by Phoenix and minor improvements were made to the wing structure. At least six of this series were converted to dual controls. These machines appeared at the front around May 1916 and were considered to be quite good for their time.

The series 68 (third series) were powered by the 160 hp Diamler engine. 152 of these aircraft were ordered on June 24, 1916. By this time the design was becoming obsolescent. Three of these machines were still in service in October 1917.

Series 63 (fourth series) consisted of 32 machines powered by the 160 hp Daimler. These were flown until mid October 1917 when they were relegated to training uses.

Series 67 (Brandenburg C.1(U)) was the first aircraft that was modified by the UFAG engineers. This model had a lighter fuselage and undercarriage, flush mounted wing struts and stronger wing cellulite. The were armed with a maching gun mounted under the lower wing outside of the propeller arc and a quick change bomb rack. These machines were underpowered by the standards of the day (still the 160 hp Daimler) and served mostly on the Russian Front.

Series 69 (sixth series) received the new 200 hp Hiero engine. Adapting the C.1 airframe to this new engine took some time and a number of modifications were made. The new engine produced an aircraft with a top speed of 104-110 mph (big improvement over the 88-96 mph of earlier models). It appears 98 of these aircraft were manufactured. This aircraft served to the war's end but suffered significant attrition. August 1 say only 23 at the front and by October only two were still flying.

Series 169 (Seventh Series)

Series 269 (eighth series)

Series 369 (ninth series) The last three series were powered by the 230 HP Hiero engine. Described in terms of speed and climb pilots claimed it could not be escorted by the Albatros D.3 s153 (a pretty good aircraft in its own right).

Now if that isn't bad enough,

UFAG also produced a C.1 Series 161 aircraft. These were produced in three series of 24, 220, and 40 aircraft. All were powered by the 230 hp Hiero engine. I'm not going to pick apart each of the various series other than to say they had differing performance in terms of speed and climb. These aircraft were a hot machine. Much better than comparable aircraft that the Germans were flying at the same point in time. Top speed at least 112 mph. Climb is outstanding.

The problem you will have is identifying exactly what aircraft your model represents. The Brandenburg C.1 manufactured by UFAG is often referred to as a UFAG C.1 -- especially the series 67 and later (These look more like a 161 than earlier series). The Series 161 UFAG looks a lot like an Aviatik Fuselage and (beginning with UFAG C.1 161.91) sports a split tail fin and an unbalanced rudder. Very weird lookin. Nothing like it that I have seen.

The earlier Brandenburg C.1's made by UFAG look like a Phoenix design. The UFAG models I have seen are most likely the Brandenburg C.1 (U).

I don't know where the Albatros C.1 stuff came from. John if you would care to disclose your source, I'd love to look at it.

mjc

Hi

And don't forget the Brandenburg C.1(ufag) turret fighters, all three of them built because interrupters were around yet.

And late war, there was another C1 which was unique to Ufag, made in small numbers and quite cute. Years ago, someone mad a 1/72 vac of THAT which I have.

No one really had a unified nomenclature for these things.

Rocky

The WoW UFAG C.I is the late model development from 1918, not an earlier license-build Brandenburg, but a descendent of it. (Engine was the 230hp Hiero.)

The Albatros C.I stuff relates to the OEFFAG C.I, not the UFAG C.I.

So where about did the types made by those nice WoW people operate?

Well, never seen a WOW UFAG C.1 but . . .

Assuming we are talking about one of the 230hp varieties, it would have been employed primarily on the Italian or Salonika fronts in a variety of roles. (Russians were pretty much out of things by the time these started flying).

Artillery Spotting was normally reserved for slow highly stable aircraft. They had to hang around for a while to direct fire and were near the front, so unlikely the hot machine would be found doing very much of this.

The Brandenburg machines were all fitted with bomb racks. Dunno if the 161 series did much bombing. But, . . . Bombing missions would certainly be a possible, both at the front and over the Adriatic Sea (island and naval/shipping targets).

High Altitude Photo Reconnaissance -- very likely a primary use of this aircraft. Italian scouts were woefully inadequate to deal with this kind of high altitude spy plane.

The above is just my personal opinion based on my not always accurate memory. As part of the Watch Your Six Project, I hope to publish a supplement called "The Forgotten Fronts" which will deal with just this type of question in detail. This probably won't happen before 2010 or 2011 given my present line up of projects, schedule and work demands.

mjc

MJC

Many thanks.

Timmo