German World War One naval aircraft?

Assuming that the Central Powers somehow do significantly better in the First World War than in OTL, and that Germany constructs aircraft carriers around the year 1918, what aircraft would be adapted for use?

My guess is the Siemens-Schukert D.IV: compact and with an amazing climb rate; it should be perfectly suited for carrier operations.
 
For a torpedo plane I would look at the Junkers CL1, http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/photo_albums/timeline/Junkers%20CL.I.htm.

Dive bombing wasn't invented/used yet due to the stresses on the aircraft back then so don't think they would have anything for that type of aircraft.

The German machine guns weighed about 18kg each? If you took a CL.I, and removed one of the crewmen and all its machine guns, plus ammunition, you would save around 200kg. I don't think that's enough to carry a torpedo.

It could be a pretty good level bomber though with a 100kg bomb and some armor under the fuselage...
 
If you're trying to pick an existing aircraft and put it on a carrier, you would not have folding wings as a feature necessarily, but some method of stopping would be nice. The tailhook and arrester wires would have to be invented. Brakes would be nice, and a tailwheel. If tailhooks are used, the monocoque fuselage of the Siemens-Schuckert would have to be re-enforced, a tricky proposition. Of course, the DH Mosquito was adapted to shipboard use, so I could be wrong. More likely, the Fokker EV/DVIII's steel tube fuselage is more easily adapted. The Junkers CL.1 is a good choice. Available engine power of the period would limit the stores- carrying capability, so I think that torpedo carriage would be limited to multi-engined float planes operated from a tender.

Does this carrier have a name?
 
So many possibilities:

Kaiser Wilhelm I
Frederick Wilhelm
Prinz Eugen
Bismark
Deutschland
Seelowe :)D)

The names Deutschland and Bismarck are already used by the High Seas Fleet. There is also the older predreadnoughts, as opposed to the Deutschland, that also bear the names Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse and Frederich Wilhelm and are still in service.

The name Ausonia is historically associated with the only aircraft carrier that Imperial Germany considered converting. Tho if it would retain that name in service is questionable.
 
The names Deutschland and Bismarck are already used by the High Seas Fleet. There is also the older predreadnoughts, as opposed to the Deutschland, that also bear the names Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse and Frederich Wilhelm and are still in service.

The name Ausonia is historically associated with the only aircraft carrier that Imperial Germany considered converting. Tho if it would retain that name in service is questionable.

Seelowe it is, then! :)
 

NothingNow

Banned
I'd go with Scharnhorst or Gneisenau, Simply because they seem to fit the period, and being Capital ships sunk earlier in the war.
 
How about Prinz Heinrich?

Prince Henry was Admiral of the Fleet, and also the first Hohenzollern to travel by air (to Spitzbergen in a Zeppelin) so seems a logical choice.
 
The only torpedo-carrying aircraft I can remember was a twin-engine Gotha-type with floats. I cannot think of any single-engine aircraft Germany had that could carry a torpedo, probably due to the fact that development of high-powered engines was abandoned to keep up production levels.

A redesigned Junkers J-I _might_ be able to carry a torpedo if the armor was stripped but as that was part of the airframe it would be a massive redesign.

Would a reverse-engineered Cookoo be a possibility?
 
If you have an opening for a fighter, I think this will do in a pinch.

FokkerNavalfighter.jpg
 
How about Prinz Heinrich?

Prince Henry was Admiral of the Fleet, and also the first Hohenzollern to travel by air (to Spitzbergen in a Zeppelin) so seems a logical choice.

There is already an old cruiser named Prinz Heinrich.

Do you guys even have access to the proper books?
 
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