Hansa-Brandenburg W.17 (A 49)

A single-seat fighter flying boat developed for the Austro- Hungarian Navy, the prototype of the W.17 (also designated A 49/I) was a biplane with a cantilever lower wing and was tested at Pola in July 1917. K.u.k. Linienschiffsleutnant Gottfried Banfield, responsible for the evaluation of the W.17, felt that the cantilever lower wing was unsuited for marine use and that the flying boat possessed inadequate manoeuvrability. Armament of the W.17 comprised two 8mm Schwarzlose machine guns and the initial aircraft was allegedly lost when the upper wing broke away in flight. A second aircraft (the A 49/II) was completed as an equispan triplane with interplane bracing struts. This is believed to have been submitted to the Austro-Hungarian Navy for evaluation in July 1917, but no details of these tests, or aircraft data, appear to have survived.

W.Green, D.Swanborough "The Complete Book of Fighters", 2000