The Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven 947 was a maritime reconnaissance floatplane built for the Imperial German Navy's (German: Kaiserliche Marine) Naval Air Service (German: Marine-Fliegerabteilung) during the First World War, the sole example of its type.[1] [2] [3] It was one of only three armed aircraft built by the Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshaven amongst a variety of trainer seaplanes that they had produced for the Navy during the course of the war.[1] Number 947 was a two-bay biplane of conventional design, with twin pontoon undercarriage, and two open cockpits in tandem.[1] [2] It received the Naval classification CHFT,[3] indicating an armed aircraft equipped with radio gear capable of both sending and receiving.[4]
The design bore a resemblance to a pair of trainer seaplanes produced at Wilhelmshaven (Nos 461–462) and to a design from Kaiserliche Werft Kiel (Nos 463–466), and all three designs could have been the work of the same designer or designers.[1] The machine was evaluated by the seaplane testing unit (SVK – Seeflugzeug-Versuchskommando) at Warnemünde at some point, but the records that have survived are somewhat contradictory.[1] In any case, no further examples were constructed.[1] [3]