Focke-Wulf
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Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG was a German manufacturer of military aircraft used by the Luftwaffe during World War II. Many of the company's successful fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.
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From the founding till the end of WWII
The company was founded in Bremen on 23rd October 1923 as Bremer Flugzeugbau AG by Prof. Heinrich Focke, Georg Wulf and Dr. Werner Neumann. Almost immediately, they renamed it Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG. Initially it produced several commercially unsuccessful aircraft, typically with thick wings mounted high over bulky fuselages. Test piloting one of these, Georg Wulf died on 29th September 1927.
In 1931, under government pressure, Focke-Wulf merged with Albatros-Flugzeugwerke of Berlin. The resourceful engineer and test pilot Kurt Tank from Albatros became head of the technical department. He immediately started work on the Fw 44 Stieglitz (Goldfinch), the company's first commercially successful design, launched in 1934.
The first fully controllable helicopter (as opposed to autogyro) was the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, demonstrated by test pilot Hanna Reitsch in 1936 in Berlin. In 1937 shareholders ousted Heinrich Focke, and he founded, with Gerd Achgelis, Focke Achgelis to specialise in helicopters. Meanwhile Tank had designed and produced the passenger-carrying Fw 200 Kondor (Kondor), which could fly the Atlantic non-stop. It was later used as a bomber.
The Fw 190 Würger (butcher-bird), designed from 1938 on, and produced in quantity from early 1941 to 1945, was a mainstay single-seat fighter for the Luftwaffe during World War II.
Other Focke-Wulf military aircraft included:
- Fw 159 prototype fighter (never went into full production)
- Fw 187 Falke (Falcon) heavy fighter ("Zerstörer")
- Fw 189 tactical reconnaissance
- Ta 152 fighter loosely based on the Fw 190D but with new wings
From 1940 the Focke-Wulf premises in Bremen were naturally a British bombing target; this had been foreseen and buildings were bomb-hardened. Mass production moved to plants in eastern Germany and Poland, using many foreign and forced labourers, and from 1944 also prisoners of war. Only office personnel remained in Bremen.
After the war: Tank leaves; ERNO, VFW
As part of Germany's military-industrial machine, Focke-Wulf was not allowed to continue production for several years at the end of the war. Kurt Tank, like many other German technicians, continued his professional life in Latin America. The Argentine Government offered him a job at its aerotechnical institute, the Instituto Aerotécnico in Córdoba. He moved there, with many of his Focke-Wulf co-workers, in 1947.
The Instituto Aerotécnico later became Argentina's military aeroplane factory, the Fábrica Militar de Aviones. It employed the Focke-Wulf men until President Juan Peron fell from power in 1955; then they dispersed, many to the United States, and Tank to work on supersonic aircraft in India.
Restricted plane production was permitted again in Germany in 1951, and Focke-Wulf began to make gliders. Production of motorised planes began again in 1955, with the manufacture of trainer aircraft for the post-war German military.
In 1961, Focke-Wulf, Weserflug and Hamburger Flugzeugbau joined forces in the Entwicklungsring Nord (ERNO) to develop rockets. Focke-Wulf formally merged with Weserflug in 1964, becoming Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW).
List of Focke-Wulf aircraft
- Focke-Wulf Fw 44 Stieglitz (Goldfinch), trainer (biplane)
- Focke-Wulf Fw 56 Stösser (Falcon Hawk), trainer (parasol monoplane)
- Focke-Wulf Fw 57, 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, 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), heavy fighter ("Zerstörer")
- Focke-Wulf Fw 189 Uhu (Owl), army cooperation/tactical reconnaissance
- Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger (shrike/butcher-bird), fighter
- Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Kondor (Condor), transport + maritime patrol-bomber
Planned/unfinished designs
- Focke-Wulf Fw 259 Frontjäger (concept)
- Focke-Wulf Ta 283
- Focke-Wulf Fw 300 proposed long-range version of Fw 200
- Focke-Wulf Fw 400
- Focke-Wulf Fw P.0310.025-1006
- Focke-Wulf Fw Triebflugel
- Focke-Wulf VTOL Project
- Focke-Wulf Fw 1000x1000x1000 series of bomber designs
- Focke-Wulf Fw 'Super Lorin' Ramjet-rocket combo powered fighter
External links
- Focke-Wulf aircraft data (http://www.luftfahrtmuseum.com/htmi/ith/fowulf.htm) – From The Virtual Aviation Museum ("european aviation-history on the internet")
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