Until the introduction of Anthony Fokker's Stangensteuerung (literally Rod Control) interrupter gear in 1915 which allowed for a forward firing machine-gun to fire through the propeller arc with some measure of safety, the various combatants of World War One had to use other solutions to permit a machine-gun to fire forwards. At first, pilots and observers used pistols and rifles against enemy aircraft but soon after, machine-guns became the standard aircraft armament. A simple solution, used by the Nieuport 10 as an example, mounted a Lewis or Hotchkiss machine-gun on top of the upper wing, firing forwards. While clearing the propeller arc, the position of the machine-gun made reloading a difficult prospect for the pilot. Another solution was to put the engine in the rear of the fuselage. Pusher designs, such as the de Havilland D.H.2 and Farman F.40, permitted a clear field of fire for the gunner who was positioned in the front of the aircraft, forward of the pilot. Yet another relatively common solution was the use of wedge shaped deflector plates fitted to the back of the propeller that would deflect bullets away from the blades. One type of aircraft that used these deflectors was the Morane-Saulnier L scout plane. While somewhat effective, there was no guaranty that the deflected bullets wouldn't strike the aircraft. Perhaps the most bizarre solution in order to permit a machine-gun to fire forward and not destroy the propeller in the process was put forward by the Hungarian Lloyd Repülőgép és Motorgyár Részvénytársaság (Lloyd Aircraft & Motor Works, Inc.) company.
The Lloyd Works (Ungarische Lloyd Flugzeug und Motorenfabrik AG in Austrian) manufactured the Lloyd C.II, C.III, and C.IV two-seat, single-engine biplane reconnaissance aircraft for the Kaiserliche und Königliche Luftfahrtruppen (K.u.K. LFT;Austro-Hungarian Aviation Troops). The C-series of aircraft were quite conventional in design which made the appearance of the Lloyd 40.05 (it was also called the FJ for Flugzeug Jäger or Aircraft Hunter) all the more striking when it commenced development in 1915. A Lloyd engineer by the last name of Melczer decided that an optimum solution to permit a forward firing machine-gun a good range of fire and still retain a tractor propeller (meaning, a front mounted engine) was to position the observer/gunner above the upper wing. To accomplish this, the entire forward portion of the Lloyd 40.05 featured a fully enclosed position that consumed the space between the fuselage and the upper wing. On the left side of the enclosure were clear panels to give some measure of side vision for the observer when seated and performing reconnaissance tasks. At the top of the enclosure was the open gun station which had a short windscreen in the front and armament consisted of twin 8mm M.07/12 Schwarzlose machine-guns on a flexible mounting. Just beneath the windscreen, in the direct front of the aircraft, was a radiator for the motor. While the observer had a clear view when manning the gun station, the same could not be said for the pilot. Sitting directly behind the observer's enclosure, the pilot had no forward view unless he moved his head to look from side to side. To add to the pilot's situation, the exhaust stacks for the engine were positioned on the right side of the enclosure, directly in line with the pilot's head which meant the slipstream likely carried any fumes and smoke into his face.
The Lloyd 40.05 was powered by a MAG-Daimler 6-cylinder, water-cooled, inline piston engine that developed 160 horsepower. It drove a two-bladed, fixed pitch wooden propeller. The aircraft stood at 10.2 feet high, was 22.8 feet long, had a maximum wingspan of 36.8 feet, and a total wing area (top and bottom wings) of 270 square feet. The fully loaded weight was 2,120 pounds. The maximum service ceiling was 16,404 feet and the maximum operational range was 310 miles.
The first prototype of the Lloyd 40.05 took to the air in January 1916 and needless to say, the K.u.K. LFT was not impressed with the design and flat out rejected it. The reasons were many and included poor handling in the air, the difficulty for the pilot to land the aircraft, slow speed due to the friction drag produced by the large frontal surface area of the plane, and that by 1916, interrupter gears were being used more and more, removing the need for other solutions to provide safe forward weapon firing. Lloyd, in a desperate bid to try to interest the K.u.K. LFT in the aircraft, converted the 40.05 into a single-seat fighter, eliminating the observer and in place of the gun station, a Type-II VK (Versuchs Kompanie) gun container was fitted, firing forward, with a single 8mm M.07/12 Schwarzlose machine-gun. The shape of the container earned the Type-II VK the morbid nickname of “Kindersarg” or "Children's Coffin”. Since the 40.05 was relatively unchanged outside of the modification to fit the gun container, the K.u.K. LFT again quickly rejected the aircraft as all the flaws of the two-seat version remained. In all, only two Lloyd 40.05 aircraft were built.
