Jeannin Stahltaube

01/31/2011. Remarks by Loet Kuipers: "The Jeannin Flugzeugbau GmbH was one of the early German aircraft manufacturers, based at Johannisthal aerodrome near Berlin. The Stahltaube (Dove of Steel) of 1914 was a plane in the Taube category, a quite common type in those days, and was one of the types that were operational at the beginning of WW I. The Stahltaube was a training and reconnaissance aircraft, it was underpowered, slow, sluggish and had no armament. Only a small number was built.

The pictured aircraft was constructed in the late summer or autumn of 1914 and was used on the front till mid-1915, whereafter it was stored. It reappeared in the Deutsche Luftfahrtmuseum (German Aviation Museum) in Boblingen, near Stuttgart, in 1931, four years later the museum was closed and the aircraft was displayed at the Deutsche Luftfahrtsammlung (German Aviation Collection) at Berlin.

Due to increasing bombardments of Berlin in 1943, the aircraft was shipped to Czarnocka, East Poland. After WW II it was moved several times within Poland, until it was stored at the Polish Aviation Museum at Cracow in 1963. After another 23 years the aircraft was returned to Germany in May 1986 and subsequently restored for display, fitted with an original 100 hp Daimler D.I six-cylinder engine.

On January 22, 1987, A.180/14 was unveiled at the Museum für Verkehr und Technik (Transport and Technical Museum), which is presently known as the Deutsches Technik Museum (German Technical Museum)."