KZ-V

The SAI KZ-V was a single engined monoplane designed in Denmark during the 1930s

History
In the middle of the 1930s, the Royal Danish Air Force began looking at aquiring new monoplane fighters. The Fokker XXI, Curtiss P-36, Boeing P-26, Gloster Gladiator and the Bloch MB-150 where the main candidates, until the small danish manufacturer Scandinavian Aircraft Industries proposed the SAI KZ-V fighter. The KZ (Kramme and Zeuthen, the owners of SAI) -V featured a low set wing, a license built Pratt and Whitney Twin-Wasp engine, 2 blade variable pitch propeller, Spats, and an open cockpit. Armament consisted of 2 cannons and a single 500 pound bomb. The KZ-V flew first in 1936, and won the order for 200 examples. They where based on Greenland, the Faeroe islands, homeland Denmark, Bornholm and Iceland. Seeing its reliability in the arctic regions, Sweden, Finland and Norway placed orders for a total of 350 further examples. On the 9th of April, 1940, Germany launched operation Weserübung, the invasion of Scandinavia. In the afternoon, all 50 KZ-Vs based on the RDAFs main airbase, Værløse where destroyed by Luftwaffe Bf-110s. However, there where still another 150 KZ-Vs left in Denmark. That night, the luftwaffe airbases in northern Germany where bombed, devastating the luftwaffe. Over the next few days, known as the battle of denmark, the KZ-Vs gathered fame, due to their awe inspiring spats, and thus won 65% of all dogfights. Erich Hartman and Adolf Galland where both shot down twice, but escaped both times. Eventually Denmark fell (even the best planes need maintenence), and 3 squadrons escaped to Sweden and Norway. After the fall of Norway, 2 of the squadrons served under the RAF, and due to their fuel filled spats, where the only planes capable of escorting the Lancasters all the way to Berlin. After WWII, all KZ-Vs where scrapped.