Reinhold Platz

Reinhold Platz was the chief designer at Fokker during World War I, creating the Dr.I triplane immortalised by the Red Baron and the D.VII, widely regarded as the finest fighter of the war. A self-taught engineer who never attended university, Platz pioneered welded steel tube fuselage construction and cantilever wing design. The Treaty of Versailles specifically demanded the surrender of all D.VII aircraft -- the only weapon singled out by name in the armistice terms.

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