BILL McBRIDE COLLECTION
No. 11500. Albatros L-65 (c/n 10014)
Photographed pre-1928, source unknown

Albatros L-65

07/31/2012. To evade Allied Control restrictions, the Albatros company formed a subsidiary in Memel, Lithuania in 1925, the Allgemeine Fluggesellschaft Memel mbH. Designed by Albatros, the L-65 (Albatros' first military aircraft developed after 1918) was built at Memel in 1925 under the designation AFG 1 (hence it is sometimes referred to as the Memel AFG 1).

The two-seat reconnaissance aircraft was to be fitted with a fixed machine gun firing through the prop arc and a flexible machine gun used by the observer in the dorsal position. As usual with Albatros designs, the main part of the fuselage was made of wood, and power plant was a 450 hp Napier Lion XI twelve-cylinder three-row in-line engine. Additional photo (site files).

After the first test flights in 1925, the AFG 1 was demonstrated to General Kraucevicius, chief of the Lithuanian AF, as the first Lithuanian aircraft, however, no acquisition followed. A few years later, February 1928, it was registered as D-1006 to the DVL, in April 1928 to the Albatros company, while it was withdrawn from use in January 1929.

In 1926 a more powerful second aircraft was offered as the L 65/II, but it was not produced.

Created July 31, 2012