Starting in July 1917, Albatros fighters were fitted with the Fokker (FWF) "Zentralsteuerung" mechanism for gun synchronization as dictated by IdFlieg. Prior to that, Albatros used systems designed in-house -- the Semmler gear which there a few elusive pictures, and the Albatros-Hedtke Steuerung, of which no details seem to survive excpet the name. Albatros used its own systems because it found Fokker's
Stangensteuerung apparatus --the famous pushrod system developed for the Eindecker -- to be completely unsatisfactory. The later Zentralsteuerung mechanism operated directly off the timing gear and FWF produced numerous kits to adapt it to virtually any aircraft engine then in service. The two surviving Albatros D.Vas (NASM & Canberra) were both fitted with the
U.Formige Getriebe (U-Shaped Gearbox) variant of this system, as is at least one Pfalz D.XII survivor. However, there were many variants -- so check your references! For instance, the D.Va that was photographed in Islington shortly after the war has a different style gearbox.
For more information, check out my
Patreon article (It's a public post). And if you are interested in how the Z system works, have a look at
my interactive schematic (runs on desktop browsers). One common misconception is that WWI fighters were fitted with "interrupter gears" -- mechanisms that prevented the gun from firing when the prop blades were in the way. That technology came later. Instead, WWI fighters were fitted with synchronizers -- the guns were converted to semi-automatic and the system fired a single round when the muzzle was clear.
