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The Pfalz E.VI was the final Pfalz monoplane to enter production, but it was probably only built to keep the Pfalz factory busy, and was only used as a training aircraft.
Before the outbreak of the First World War Pfalz had gained a licence to build the Morane-Saulnier Type H monoplane. In 1915, when the Fokker E.I monoplane appeared, armed with a synchronised forward firing machine gun, Pfalz were soon able to produce their own version, the Pfalz E.I. This was a Type H, armed with an 80hp Oberursel U.) engine and carrying a single machine gun. It was followed by the 100hp Pfalz E.II and 160hp Pfalz E.IV, but each of these aircraft appeared several months after the similar Fokker model, and were never as highly regarded. Early in 1916 an attempt was made to extend the life of the Pfalz monoplane by giving it an inline Mercedes D.I engine, but only twenty of this E.V variant were produced.
In another attempt to keep the Pfalz factory busy with its own aircraft designs, an attempt was made to improve the E.II, which had been the most numerous example of the family. The new Pfalz E.VI was powered by the same 9 cylinder 100hp Oberursel U.I engine as the E.II. However like the Pfalz E.I it only had two wing warping and wing bracing cables on each side, instead of the three cables of the E.II. The E.VI was given a new shape for the rudder, with a semi-circular leading edge and vertical trailing edge. Earlier examples of the Pfalz E aircraft had a gently curved leading edge which made up less than a quarter of a circle.
One order for twenty E.VIs was placed in May 1916. It passed its Type Test in July 1916, but was never recorded at the front and was probably only ever used as a training aircraft. One photograph does exist that probably shows an E.VI armed with a single machine gun, and painted in the new lozenge camouflage pattern, but this can only be identified as a E.VI by the shape of the rudder.
One E.VI went to Austro-Hungarian naval air service in July 1916, where it was designation as the A 10 (A for Abwehr or Defence). This aircraft was destroyed in a landing crash in March 1917.
Engine: Oberursel U.I
Power: 100hp
Crew: 1