On the stats, they should be equal (+ a gun) with the Fokker climbing a bit faster.

But I find it too unstable- is this just because I'm a lousy pilot?

If you were going Sopwith vs Fokker, which would you choose? (if using Dr I, can only fire one machinegun)

The Fokker one is a much more effective fighter aircraft - as we might expect since it was designed later. It's just much, much harder to fly.

I prefer the Sopwith. Whenever I see the Dr1 fight on with half its wings missing, I tend to quit the game pretty much straight away.

ahahah but then again it is the last plane with glass engine in ROF (hush hush)

on serious note, DRI is better plane (once mastered)....but the tripe is my favourite....

Sopwith Tripe because it is faster and can dive without breaking its engine.

I can easily dive the DR.I without breaking the engine. Its all about blip and throttle management.

Sopwith...IMO much more of a joy and easier to fly.

Despite the single gun it's slightly faster and did I mention...it's easier to fly? Anthony Fokker's design is more unstable ( making it perfect for dogfighting ) but results in a lot of crackups on take-off and landing...at least for me.

Yes, but how fast can you dive it? Nowhere near as fast as the Tripe.

I'm just commenting on the "breaking the engine" part.

They're not separate.

You can dive just as fast without shedding it's wings if you manage the blip and throttle properly.

The Tripe.

Once you learn how to fly the DR.I, it can dominate over the Tripe.

Sure, if you're diving straight down. By try diving at a 20 degree angle with simple instruments. The Tripe can approach 270kmh at full throttle without over-reving. The Dr1 will over-rev with the throttle closed before you reach 250. So, as you say, you have to blip the engine, which means you have to point the nose down even more to keep up the speed. Yes, it can get there, but not in a useful way.

The Dr1 is a useful crate for low altitude furballs, but once you're up against smart SE5a or Spad pilots at altitude, you really see that it has limitations. The big irony (and historical inaccuracy), of course, is that the Dr1 is a better high altitude scout than any Albatros, the Pfalz D.IIIa, or the Mercedes-engined D.VII.

At any angle. Again, it is all about engine management. The mistake of unexperienced pilots is that they like to do everything full throttle. Managing the throttle properly will allow for quicker turns and quick getaway dives. I'll take a DR.I over the Tripe in any multiplayer server.

I think that was the case in my brief (and fiery) ventures online- disproportionate number of Dr I.

I like the way the Sopwith looks and flies, but maybe I'm practising to go online in a plane that will limit me in the end.

It's good to be worried about choices

Why was the Tripe withdrawn from service ?

Why was the Tripe not given two guns ?

I can understand why the Pup only had one gun (underpowered) but the Tripe was fitted with a much more powerful engine.

Is it just a lack of altitude that skews RoF from real life ? After all the Tripe was withdrawn by the end of 1917 and the Axis powers produced very few DR 1's and had abandoned the concept themselves by mid 1918. Why does the DR 1 dominate when it comes to the preference for late war planes ?

Was the Dr 1's whole existence overshadowed by early wing failures ?

Maybe the Dr 1's performance in RoF isn't tempered by the reluctance and reticence of the real pilots to chuck their aircraft around willy nilly without them coming apart, regardless of what the manufacturers had said about later production models being stronger and less likely to come unstuck.

The Tripe was phased out because it was a nightmare to maintain.

The Dr1's service life was shortened by the early wing failures, but the true nail in the coffin was its stupendously low airspeed. Castor oil shortages may have played a role, but remember that Fokker still developed the D.VIII, and Siemens-Shuckert the D.III and D.IV.

If you're wondering why the Dr1 is preferred to the D.VII, and sometimes even the D.VIIF, you need look no further then its lack of the above weakness in RoF.

It's close, but once I learned to keep the top wing on, it's the Dr1 by virtue of the extra gun.

Some planes were fitted with a second gun, and it was found that it degraded performance way too much for the benefit of the additional firepower.