After a few mostly unsuccessful designs of their own, LVG (Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft) spent much of the Great War license building aircraft from more successful companies, like Albatros’ D.II, C.III and Gotha’s G.IV. It was not until early 1917 that one of their designs, the C type reconnaissance and artillery spotting C.V, was acceptable for production in any serious numbers. The success of the LVG C.V design led to the lighter and improved C.VI model depicted here.
The C.VI was constructed along the same lines as the C.V with a plywood covered fuselage and fabric covered wings and tail plane. Like all C type aircraft it was armed with two machine guns, one firing through the arc of the propeller and controlled by the pilot and the 2nd on a flexible mount in the observer’s position.
The prototype was first test flown in February 1918 and production aircraft entered frontline service in the middle of that year. The C.VI was highly regarded for its respectable climb rate, speed and maneuverability. Surviving LVG C.VIs flew on in foreign air forces and civil hands well into the 1930s and a number of aircraft were assembled in the 1920s to fulfill the demands of a burgeoning civil market. As a consequence of this post war use we are lucky to have surviving examples of this important aircraft today.