Hope all of you are staying safe in the present situation and massive thanks to those that keep essential services running! Sadly, due to COVID-19 quite a few Inside The Cockpit trips were cancelled/postponed but I still have material to publish in the coming weeks so there won't be no break here for now :)

7:37 This airplane was a revolution in aeronautical engineering. The thicker, stiffer wing not only allowed the draggy wire bracing to be eliminated, it also was a better performing airfoil section. From the Wright Brothers until this airplane, designers used thin sections, modeled on birds' wings, which work well at that scale (as well as in the small wind tunnels of the day) but not so well as airplane scale.

Another fantastic video Bismarck. Learned more about it than I would have from regular internet and sources. It's why I pay you for this. Hope Covid 19 has not hurt your channel and yourself too much. Take care man.

For those that don't know, the "video clips" credited to "Flying Circus" in the film are from the combat flightsim "IL2 Sturmovik: Flying Circus". Anybody who's interested in these old crates and wants to see what it's like to "fly" them should check it out.

Bismarck, this particulair plane was not built by Fokker nor Albatros or OAW, it was built in 1926 by the "MLD" or "Naval Air Service" in The Netherlands. Hence the strange cockpit layout, double radiator shutters, the metal turtle deck and allot of other details. It flew as D 20 for the MLD. The archives show that D 20, wich initially was built at Fokker in Amsterdam was taken into service by the MLD on August 30th 1920 but on May 12th 1925 it was totaly wrecked when flying into a steel cable on the beach near Petten. The MLD build a complete new plane and gave it the number D 20 again. It was officialy written off on March 16th 1937. Even before WWII it was sold to a German filming company who used it for propaganda movies, after WWII it was found in a German barn and taken to the museum. That's why they found a red colorscheme underneath the painted lozenge in the 1970's restoration and underneath that was the Dutch cocarde and D 20. This plane was not taken by Goering as some imply. Also for clarity Reinhold Platz had not much to do with the design of the D VII. Platz was master welder not designer, for that Fokker had a complete design team.

If you ever come to the U.S. you should go to the Olde Rhinebeck Aerodrome. It is basically an early 20th Century Barnstormers Show, but you get to see both original and reproduction Early Dawn of Powered Flight, Great War, post-Great War aircraft fly.

Thank you Mr Bismarck, a gem. I've been looking fwd to this for a while and not disappointed - cheers.

I really have to say how much I love your vids on the, more in detail, aircraft walkround as such. I make scale models and have found your documentation of the aircraft to be invaluable. Keep doing what you do. LOVE your knowledge. Hoping you are well :)

Dude, your videos are fantastic and they only keep getting better. Thanks and well done.

Just discovered your channel today...Good Stuff! Subscribed. Juan.

Few D.VII were bought by Poland after the Armistice (I don't remember if there were newly build or used ones) and carried both balkenkreuz and Polish checkerboard for a time. Not to mention quite a few other post war users. Love the cloth wings!

It was nice to see this one up close and personal. Thank you.

Just discovered your channel. Great work! I love your focus on the aircraft itself rather than the history. There is a lot of info about its historical impact, very little about the bird. Keep it up!

Excellent presentation Bis! Very informative and interesting. and especially nice to get a much closer look at a very vintage plane. Keep up the great work!

Bismark your videos have come such a long way, well done sir, excellent job and great watching!

Great episode, it was fun chatting with you in front of this guy!

Your living the history buffs dream. This is awesome, thank you again and again. As a motor head and history buff, im amazed that these engines were considered high compression at 6.5 to 1. Engines nowadays run 10-12 :1 from factory. Motors havent really changed a whole lot but they have gotten much more efficient. Interesting.

*GREAT video, Chris!*

Thank you for all the great videos, be safe

"But then the German interrupters actually worked, so there's that...." German dropping serious shade over here. 🤣

Outstanding! I love the engineering detail of your presentation. What an amazing aircraft for its time.

This is just as awesome as the more modern aircraft you have covered 👍👍

Your video was very thorough on this lovely aircraft. Thank you

Built a 1/4 scale D-7 this winter nice to see details up close!

Thank you for recording this in English!

Just amazing how far military aviation technology came in just 15 years after the first powered flight in 1903. Being their first in a long series successful designs the D.VII could be consider the mother of all Fokkers ;-).

Thank you Bismarck , I have not been to this Museum yet .

Excellent video! Clear and concise.

Cool, dass du mal wieder was in Oberschleißheim machst👍

Another great video, keep up the good work 👏

I love this aircraft and its history, i was hoping you would do an inside the cockpit on it when you were in RAF london but then i realised its on the ceiling. great work keep it up!

Love it man. Keep up the awesome work

Great video, I have been to Munchen many times, I must pay this museum a visit next time. Vielen dank!

Thank you so much for featuring such comparatively little known aircraft

This is excellent! Fascinating material, detailed and well presented. A pity you couldn't get inside the cockpit.

Brilliant and most informative presentation

excellent video - keep them coming

Really excellent presentation. Thank YOU

I was watching a group of DR -1 flying, man, you should hear those grumbling rotary engines, beautiful. Thats one good looking and purposful , that camo flauge looks wild. Glad you are doing the ww-1 birds, Thanks Bismark!

Excellent review, Bismarck. One of the best fighter aircraft of WW1. Particularly impressive to me is the focus on drag reduction-using far less wire bracing than in comparable Allied fighters, attributable largely to the cantilever wing design, cleaner more streamlined fuselage, etc.. Fokker squeezed as much performance out of the 180-200 HP BMW/Mercedes six cylinder engines as they could, keeping them a match with Allied designs using the 220 HP Hispano-Suiza V8 engine.

Thanks for this great video as usual. 👍 Beautiful aircraft and excellent in its duties as well. Would love to check one out at the museum but I guess I’ll just have to settle for one of my Wingnut Wings 1/32 scale model kits. Close as I’ll ever get! Again, thanks for this and all your great videos.

Cool video as always (haven't watched it yet though). Any videos coming up about the German Nachtjagd? I liked that video about the Bf 110 that landed in Dübendorf a lot.

Very interesting. Good video. Really enjoyed this

And people "criticise" you because you're not a fighter pilot ? .... Haaa... internet...... Thanks a lot for you vid !!

(1:10) The Fokker D.Vll was built by Fokker-Flugzeugwerke but it was designed by Reinhold Platz who became the head designer at the Fokker factory in Schwerin in 1916.

Thanks for this video! I really hope to go see this plane in person some time. It's not certain if Fokker built any new D.VII's in the Netherlands, or just put them all together from parts and frames brought (smuggled) back from Germany. The one in this video was used by the Dutch navy (MLD), and was likely brought back to Germany by order of Hermann Göring, who was sorry that there were no remaining models in Germany of the plane he used to fly as an ace. Possibly this plane was the one designated D.28, which means it must have seen a lot of reconstruction before being put on display, as it would have had a BMW IV engine with a completely different cowling that was designed by the MLD. Another telltale sign of it being a Dutch variant, is the longeron (?) running down the side of the fuselage. Amazingly, this particular aircraft served in the Netherlands (probably as a trainer) until 1937. You could take that as a sign of how good and dependable and almost timeless the design was. Or just the sorry state of Dutch military aviation at the time. The Netherlands also has a D.VII in their military museum, but that one was brought back from the USA, where it was a movie star.

Great stuff, thanks!

Love this...post what you can

Great video Bismarck. I still remember the days when you posted sim flight videos lol.

WOW !!MY FAVORITE AEROPLANE,--THANKS FOR SHOWING,--AND "ORIGINAL" TOO ,-JUST FANTASTIC !!

Excellent video

Great job thanks

great video

@14:37 the cockpit view shows the gauge on the right labeled as an aux fuel tank. The reserve tank did not have a fuel gauge. (that is what the watch is for) That gauge measures the air pressure to the tank. The hand operated air pump in the cockpit was used to pressurize the tank for starting. It was common for pilots to over-pressurize the tank to the point where the tank could burst. (ask Kermit Weeks) Once the engine was running, you would move a valve in the cockpit to us an air pump mounted on the engine to keep maintain the pressure. The engine driven air pump had a pressure relief valve to prevent over pressurizing the tank in flight. There were usually four valves on the instrument board. 1) the fuel valve that was either; off, main or reserve. 2) the air pump valve that was either to the hand pump or motor pump 3) air pressure distribution: main tank or reserve tank 4) this valve would block off the air pressure gauge in case of an air leak. When you would switch from the main tank to the reserve tank, you usually needed to pressurize the reserve tank first.

The Fantasy of Flight museum in Florida has a restored Fokker D vii in their collection. If you ever get the chance to visit the U.S it’s a great museum!

I’ve been a pilot for 30 years and have had the pleasure to fly many very cool aircraft. The three planes on the top of my bucket list of planes I would like to fly are the P51, Spitfire, and DVII. Maybe someday. 😂. Anyway, thanks for this video….well done!

Very intersting details!

Herr Bismark, I find your videos very informative and unbiased. I have always as far back as I can remember been a history fan and of aviation especially. When asked what is my favorite aircraft my usual reply is what nation and what war? For Germany, hands down it is the FW 190 series with the Dora being my favorite version there. The D-VII from WWI was and is my all time favorite WWI German aircraft. I also have a soft spot for the Me 110 which got a bad deal during the Battle of Britain. The 110 was in actuality a good all around aircraft even if it could not dogfight with the more nimble single seat fighters. I could sit for hours and talk aircraft i am here to tell you. I read the book The Blonde Knight of Germany which tells the story of Erich Hartman and when I was stationed in Germany as a panzer fahrer I almost got to meet him. Apparently one of the German friends I was acquainted with knew his brother. The post where I was stationed was named Panzer Kaserne and apparently at one time Erwin Rommel was the post commander. We must not let the history be forgotten. People and the world need to know that not every German in those days was a nazi, and that the vast majority of the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe were just like other troopers, just serving their country. Keep up the good work, I'd support you on Patreon but at the moment finances are tight, when they loosen up, then I wi ll be able to help support you. Hals und Beinbruch!!! und Horrido!!!

Excellent tutorial..

I've got a trip booked to Bavaria in September. Assuming I can still go, I might check this museum out.

Excellent!

Beautiful aircraft! I love my RC version and it flys well.

Very informative

Imo, the best fighter of WW1

Some aircraft even had cockpit & instrument lights. Not to mention the electric Oigee illuminated reflector gunsight.

That engine sticking out of the hood of a car would be so cool xD *The ultimate 1920s hot rod with a classic body :)

Amazing plane one of the best of WW1.

Thank you, Bismarck. I love biplanes and this is a fantastic history lesson. Bis Spater.

These are awesome. WW1 aircraft fascinate me and I am interested in modeling them. My first models - in the 1950s - were WW1. My father made balsa rubber powered by planes

3.4 social distances long, 4.4 SD's wingspan and 1.4 SD's tall. 😂

This is just great

Great video, Bismarck, and thank you. I have a question about quality control. How where design defects (and perhaps praise) communicated to senior officers and to aircraft manufacturers?

Best Fighter Plane in World War 1 Theatre! 😎👌🏻 Great Vid!

FWIW, that Cessna 195 behind the Fokker is ALSO beautiful...👍

Es ist interessant, wie modern die WK 1 Flugzeuge schon waren .

Excellent video Thank you! Wikipedia says it was designed by Reinhold Platz who worked for Fokker. Anyway I always wondered how the side panel of the engine compartment could be removed when the cabane struts go right through it, most notably the forward most cabane strut. I looked carefully at your video shots of it.. and I still wonder how that was done, it looks like a metal panel without a parting line at the strut hole.

Thank you for making this in English - gr8 video. V. interesting.

Cool !!

Love that Fokker D7! That plane and the rotary powered D8 ("Flying Razor!") are my all-time favorite Great War aircraft. I'm wondering if the use of the BMW engine (lighter weight) made the D7 a bit tail heavy? Conversely, did the Mercedes engine make it a bit nose heavy? Lastly was there any provision in that era of aeronautical science for a way to trim a horizontal stabilizer to compensate for engine weight? I laughed when I saw the Cessna 195 resting sublimely ... next to this envenomed terror of the skies! I have an old photo I found online of a D7 which I think might've been a war reparations airplane because it is devoid of guns and has the script "FOKKER D7" prominently painted on the vertical fin. It appears to be powered by the L-6 Liberty, and not either German engine. Perhaps the replacement parts for the Liberty would more readily available? EXCELLENT VIDEO! THANK YOU!

Just like a piece of art

W.M. Yeats, who wrote Winged Victory, said they outperformed the Sopwith Camel in everything except turning to the right. He feared those upper wing extensions. It does not seem to have been particularly fast though. I am surprised they had such a great impact.

Interesting how 10m (30 ft) has been just about average for single seat, single engine fighter aircraft from 1917 to today. P51 is big, at 11.28m (37 ft), F16 is average at 9.96m (32 ft, 8 in) I believe the F16 has more power than the Fokker, though.

I want the shirt! I didn't notice when i watched this the first few times

Aviation museum closed due to public health measures? Bismarck to the rescue!

The design of the Fokker D.VII has been credited to the German aircraft designer and manufacturer Reinhold Platz, who worked at the Fokker Flugzeugwerke. Prior to that he also designed the Dr.1, both of which he intended to be a cantilever design. The Triplane was initially not meant to carry struts, with Platz claiming this to be safe. The struts were later added on the F.1 to reassure the pilots. Antony Fokker was in fact a somewhat unpopular figure in Germany, due to the poor quality control at Fokker and the many deaths caused by the Triplane's habit of losing its wings mid-flight. One such ace, who was killed was Heinrich Gontermann. Lothar von Richthofen narrowly escaped death after his Triplane turned itself into a Biplane. He practically had to flee Germany after the war to escape possible persecution.

Superb museum just outside Kraków too. They have what survived from Hermann Göering's collection. I wanted to see the PZL P.11 but it was not on display! Only 7zł to get in and around the museum!

Thanks for the video! The is an example of this very airplane in the Lac Brome, Quebec, Canada museum. It was brought back as a war trophy at the end of the war. It still has its original covering and paint scheme. Unfortunately, it is stored in an old barn with primitive climate control. As a result, the covering has started to rip in places. I suspect most people visiting the museum have no idea of the historical significance of this artifact.

Thanks for another great video. However you glanced over the D,VII's main technical advancement. For the first time during the war, and perhaps in aviation history, a wind tunnel program was carried out during the plane's development. This resulted in the flat bottomed airfoil you mentioned. Up till that point, both upper and lower airfoil surfaces were cambered like a bird's. By late 1917/early 1918 engineers on both sides began to realize that imitating nature had its limits. This research led to a veritable "paradigm shift" from which aircraft design has never looked back.

I now know where to go for my historical aviation fix

What a beautiful piece of science

I'm always intrigued by the WW1 German camouflage, looks like a modern-day cell phone map!

Beautiful plane!

Very intresting channell

Oh that music! Now I have to watch the WW1 series from The Great War again!

Thanks nice 👍🏻

The Spandaus on the DR1 and DVII ejected out a hole in front of the receiver and were channeled by open trays...on the right gun as can be seen in the shells were channel out to the right and the left gun they were channeled out to the left. Very crude method that annoyed Hermann Goring to the point that he installed shields on each side to make sure that empty cartridge cases did not come into the open cockpit. You can see it in his models. Aha, another subject I can do a video book on. 142 were given to the US which used them into the early 20's in their original Germany livery and only recovered all olive drab when it was due to service the covering.

Great!

ÓTIMO DOCUMENTÁRIO, VERY GOOD DOCUMENTARY, BRASIL OK.

I think the image of one in inverted flight is in US Air Corps service.

Hi Bismarck, thanks for this video. @ 11:09 I think „Bundfarbenaufdruck“ is wrong as the word is composed from „Bunt“ meaning „colorful“. Or is it from „Bund“ meaning „Federation“ of colors?