DESCRIPTION

Albatros D.III Oeffag s.253

Unpainted kit set

The Albatros D.III (Oeffag) series 253 was the last modification of the famous WWI Austro-Hungarian fighter. After successful testing of the 225 h.p. Austro-Daimler engine it was immediately installed in the late 153 series airframe. In May 1918 the Oeffag factory received an order to supply 230 aircraft of the 253 series. Because construction was unchanged apart from the new engine installation, new fighters were delivered to the combat units Flik 61 and Flik 63 in the same month. Up to October 1918, the Oeffag factory manufactured 201 fighters. Many pilots, who had flown other new aircraft, regarded the Oeffag series 253 as the best and finest fighter of all.

The first Oeffag series 253 aircraft were very similar to the late series 153 machines. Later aircraft had ailerons and elevators with scalloped edges. The armament was now installed only at eye level; and as with all earlier Oeffag fighters, it had a slanted tailskid and individual exhaust pipes. After the end of the Great War, Oeffag built an additional 30 aircraft (260 were built in total). Poland purchased 38 Oeffag series 253s; these fighters served in the Polish Air Force until the mid-Twenties. The Oeffag factory was closed soon after the war, but in the late 1930s, when Austria had been occupied by Germany, Wiener-Neustadter Flugzeugfabrik again started to produce aircraft, now Messerschmitt fighters. In 1944-45 all Oeffag plants were totally destroyed by Allied bombers.