Focke-Wulf
Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG (German pronunciation: [ˌfɔkəˈvʊlf]) was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during World War II.[1] Many of the company's successful fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.
History
The company was founded in Bremen on 23 October 1923 as Bremer Flugzeugbau AG by Prof. Henrich Focke,[2] Georg Wulf[3] and Dr. rer. pol. Werner Naumann[4] Almost immediately, they renamed the company Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG (later Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH).[5]
Focke-Wulf merged, under government pressure, with Albatros-Flugzeugwerke of Berlin in 1931. Albatros-Flugzeugwerke engineer and test pilot Kurt Tank became head of the technical department and started work on the Fw 44 Stieglitz (Goldfinch).
Hanna Reitsch demonstrated the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first fully controllable helicopter (as opposed to autogyro), in Berlin in 1938.[6] The Fw 200 flew nonstop between Berlin and New York City on August 10, 1938, making the journey in 24 hours and 56 minutes. It was the first aircraft to fly that route without stopping. The return trip on August 13, 1938 took 19 hours and 47 minutes. These flights are commemorated with a plaque in the Böttcherstraße street of Bremen.
The Fw 190 Würger (butcher-bird), designed from 1938 on, and produced in quantity from early 1941–1945, was a mainstay single-seat fighter for the Luftwaffe during World War II.
Repeated bombing of Bremen in World War II resulted in the mass-production plants being moved to eastern Germany and Poland. Those plants used many foreign and forced labourers, and from 1944 also prisoners of war. Focke-Wulf's 100-acre (0.40 km2) plant at Marienburg produced approximately half of all Fw 190s and was bombed by the Eighth Air Force on October 9, 1943.[7]
Many Focke-Wulf workers, including Kurt Tank, worked at the Instituto Aerotécnico in Córdoba, Argentina between 1947 and 1955,. Focke-Wulf began to make gliders in 1951, and in 1955, motorised planes. Focke-Wulf, Weserflug and Hamburger Flugzeugbau joined forces in 1961 to form the Entwicklungsring Nord (ERNO) to develop rockets.
ITT Corporation, which had acquired a 25% stake in the company prior to the war, won $27 million in compensation in the 1960s for the damage that was inflicted on its share of the Focke-Wulf plant by WWII Allied bombing.[8] Focke-Wulf formally merged with Weserflug in 1964, becoming Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW), which after several further mergers it is now part of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V. (EADS).
List of Focke-Wulf aircraft
- Focke-Wulf A 16
- Focke-Wulf A 17/A21/A29
- Focke-Wulf F 19 Ente (Duck)
- Focke-Wulf S 1
- Focke-Wulf W 4
- Focke-Wulf S 24 a
- Focke-Wulf Fw A 21
- Focke-Wulf C.20 license-built (autogyro)
- Focke-Wulf C.30 Heuschrecke (Grasshopper), license-built (autogyro)
- Focke-Wulf L 101 D Albatros
- Focke-Wulf S 39
- Focke-Wulf Fw 40
- Focke-Wulf Fw 42 Bomber (canard configuration)
- Focke-Wulf Fw 44 Stieglitz (Goldfinch), trainer (biplane)
- Focke-Wulf Fw 56 Stösser (Falcon Hawk), trainer (parasol monoplane)
- Focke-Wulf Fw 57, twin-engined heavy fighter + bomber (prototype)
- Focke-Wulf Fw 58 Weihe (Kite), transport + trainer
- Focke-Wulf Fw 61, helicopter (prototype)
- Focke-Wulf Fw 62, ship-borne reconnaissance (biplane seaplane)
- Focke-Wulf Ta 152, interceptor/fighter (derived from Fw 190)
- Focke-Wulf Ta 154 Moskito (Mosquito), night-fighter
- Focke-Wulf Fw 159, fighter (prototype only)
- Focke-Wulf Ta 183, jet-engined fighter (prototype)
- Focke-Wulf Fw 186, autogiro reconnaissance aircraft (prototype)
- Focke-Wulf Fw 187 Falke (Falcon), twin-engined heavy fighter ("Zerstörer")
- Focke-Wulf Fw 189 Uhu (Owl), twin-engined army cooperation/tactical reconnaissance
- Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger (shrike/butcher-bird), fighter/interceptor
- Focke-Wulf Fw 191, twin-engined bomber (prototype)
- Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor, multi-engined passenger airplane + maritime patrol-bomber
Planned/unfinished designs
- Focke-Wulf Fw 42
- Focke-Wulf Fw 160 - A design for a four-engined bomber with a twin-boom, unconnected tail.
- Focke-Wulf Fw 259 Frontjäger (concept)
- Focke-Wulf Ta 283
- Focke-Wulf Fw 300 proposed long-range version of Fw 200
- Focke-Wulf Ta 400
- Focke-Wulf Fw P.0310.025-1006
- Focke-Wulf Fw P.0310.025 - A 1944 design with a swept wing, a forward-swept V-tail, and two pusher propellers at the rear.
- Focke-Wulf Fighter Project w/BMW803 - A design with a connected twin boom tail, slightly swept back wings, and two pusher propellers at the rear.
- Focke-Wulf Fw Triebflügel
- Focke-Wulf VTOL Project
- Focke-Wulf Fw 1000x1000x1000 series of bomber designs
- Focke-Wulf Fw 'Super Lorin' Ramjet-rocket combo powered fighter
References
- ^ From Focke-Wulf to Avrocar: Secret Weapons of World War II: The Techno-Military Breakthroughs That Changed History. New York: Berkley Books. 2003. pp. 281–283. .
- ^ (In 1937, shareholders ousted Henrich Focke).
- ^ NOTE: Georg Wulf died during a test flight 29 September 1927
- ^ NOTE: Dr. rer. pol. Werner Naumann differs from Dr. rer. nat. Werner Naumann, state secretary in Joseph Goebbel's Propagandaministerium.
- ^ Initially, it produced several commercial aircraft, typically with thick wings mounted high over bulky fuselages."Focke-Wulf". http://www.luftarchiv.de/index.htm?/flugzeuge/focke-wulf/firma.htm. Retrieved 2006-07-01.
- ^ Hanna Reitsch “Fliegen, mein Leben” on p. 180–198. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt Stuttgart 1952
- ^ Gurney, Gene (Major, USAF) (1962). The War in the Air: a pictorial history of World War II Air Forces in combat. New York: Bonanza Books. p. 219
- ^ Sampson, Anthony: The Sovereign State, Hodder and Stoughton, 1973, ISBN 0-340-17195-2
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