Double Triplane - Eduard's Fokker Dr. I Dual Combo

"Mama got two for the price of one and so can you ..." was the tag-line of a fast-talking used car lot commercial, owned by identical twins, that I grew up with -and decades later, Eduard has finally given us a "two for the price of one" that we can enjoy. Eduard has taken their excellent Dr.I and packaged two identical kits - with decals for six different colorful versions, none of them with the German's trademarked Lozenge camouflage, which means that they can be produced without painting or decaling nightmares.

Like the Fokker D.VII, the Fokker Dr.I has few flying wires - it is clean, uncluttered and, for a biplane, remarkably easy to build. There are many good ways of rigging a model biplane (or triplane) but none of them are very easy. Which is one more reason why so many modelers like building Fokker Dr.I. It is historically-significant as the favored mount of the mythic Red Baron, it is visually appealing and distinctive, it is usually colorful and it is far less complex than - for instance, the Bristol Fighter, with it's spider-web of rigging and struts.



The Fokker Dr.I was the ultimate triumph of maneuverability over speed - with an underpowered rotary engine and the extra weight and drag of the third wing, the Dr.I was never going to set any speed records. But that extra wing - along with the sesquiplane strut between the two wheels - gave the aircraft incredible lift and maneuverability - it could turn on a dime and give you seven cents change.

However, by late in the war, the Fokker Dr.I had "an issue" that was to come back years later - in late '44 and early '45, with the Heinkel He-162 - when glue-manufacturing production standards fell off and wooden wings started to come apart in the air. After a few fatal accidents, German pilots were - for the most part - eager to move up to another type of aircraft - a late-model Albatros or the world-beating Fokker D.VII - but Richthofen stayed with the triplane right up until he met his end at the hand of either an Australian fighter pilot or an unknown Tommy.

Eduard has done their typical exceptional best in crafting this model - and the Dual Combo package gives you two for the price of one. If you want to add a colorful World War I fighter aircraft without having to deal with a lot of rigging, this is the plane, and the model, for you.