Lohner seaplane

The civil and military flight that had just left the pioneering age of aviation developed quickly during the Great War. The combat situations have created many innovative tasks for developers. Such was the need to develop seaplanes. An attack aircraft was needed that could attack marine targets with its on-board weapon and bombs, in addition to surveillance. In 1915, the Monarchy’s engineers came up with the solution, the Lohner-type flying boat. The base of the plane was a wooden boat with a canvas-covered, slightly arrowed double wing with a 16-metre wingspan. The pilot and the observer-arms operator sat side by side at the front of the boat, the pilot from the left. It was important that the range of the machine gun was not impeded, so the engine was placed behind and above the crew between the two wings.

The plane’s Daimler engine had 150 horsepower, which drove a push propeller. At a speed of 100 kilometers per hour, the flying boat reached a range of 600 kilometers. The development engineers have outperformed the planned bomb-carrying capability. Lohner could have taken 200 kilograms of bombs in the rear of the boat. The 60-pound bombs were dropped by the operator on the targets by hand. As a result of the higher engine power, the seaplane could carry four persons. At the site of the bombs, up to two people could have been rescued from the sea. In military history, a Lohner seaplane was the first to sink a submarine from the air in September 1915. The ship’s captain and another member of the crew were taken away by the plane that won the battle — they were taken prisoners of war.

Arkanzas’ seaplane Kappenabzeichen doesn’t show the Lohner, it shows a monoplane with two floating bodies. Unfortunately, I was unable to identify the type of the aircraft on the badge. Since, in most cases, badge designers used photos and other original documents, I assume there was a machine of this kind in the Monarchy’s navy. On the post card, on the other hand, you can see a stylized drawing of the Lohner.