The Siemens-Schuckert D.I was a German-built copy of the very successful WWI French fighter, the Nieuport 17. In 1916, the Nieuport fighter had rapidly established such ascendency in the skies over the Western Front that German aircraft manufacturers were requested to disassemble captured Nieuports and to replicate the design.

One of those companies contacted, Siemens-Schuckertwerke, was a German electrical engineering firm with plants in Berlin, Erlangen and Nuremberg (much later incorporated into Siemens AG). The Siemens-Schuckert Werke produced the D.I, based closely on the Nieuport as a single-seat fighter, closely matching the Nieuport’s specifications, except for the rotary powerplant engine. Unfortunately, due to the rapid improvement in aircraft development during this war, the D.I was almost completely obsolete by the time it was available in numbers. It mainly served in the German Air Force as an advanced trainer in 1916 and 1917.

The difference between the French Nieuport 17 and the D1 was the powerplant - instead of the French Le Rhone 9J 110 hp (82 kW), nine-cylinder rotating engine, Siemens-Schukert installed their own revolutionary 110 hp Siemens-Halske Sh.I rotary engine - in which the crankshaft (connected to the propeller) rotated clockwise at 900 rpm and the cylinders rotated anti-clockwise via a set of bevel gears, at 1800 rpm. The counter rotary design allowed the engine to achieve the benefits of a high-power density from a high rotational speed while the propeller operated at a slower speed optimized for its design. By the end of WW1, operating the propeller at a slower speed than the engine had become normal practice for inline and V block engines but had proved difficult to accomplish on rotary engines. 

An order for 150 aircraft was placed in November 1916, but initial deliveries were slow, due to production difficulties with the complicated geared engines, so that the type was not available for operational service at the Front until into 1917, by which time many German squadrons were already equipped with the very much superior Albatros D.III.

Only 95 D.I aircraft were produced in total. As the D.I was virtually obsolete before it was available in numbers, most of the examples produced were sent to the fighter training schools. As a result of its non-combat performance at the Front, the D.I aircraft was poorly documented as a fighter during the war. (Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens-Schuckert)

The replica was donated to the Combat Air Museum in August 2023 by Marvin & Nancy Story of the Kansas City Dawn Patrol. Marvin and Nancy built the Siemens-Schuckert D.I in 1994 and he and Nancy flew this aircraft until 2023, privately for pleasure, and at airshows around the country.

Manufacturer:	Siemens-Shuckertwerke
Basic Role:	Design: Fighter In Practice: Trainer
Crew:	Single Seat
Engines:	1 × Siemens-Halske Sh.I geared rotary engine, 110 hp (82 kW)
Maximum speed:	97 mph/84 knots (155 km/hr)
Range (combat):	2 hrs 20 min
Service Ceiling:	13,125 ft (4,000 m) in 24 min 18 secs
Wingspan:	24 ft 7 in (7.5 m)
Length:	19 ft 8 in (6.0 m)
Height:	8 ft 5 in (2.59 m)
Wing area:	156 ft² (14.4 m²)
Weight (empty):	946 lbs (430 kg)
Weight (gross):	1,485 lbs (675 kg)
Armament	One or two 7.92 mm LMG 08/15 machine guns
Serial number:	N921SS Experimental