Focke-Wulf A 36

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Focke-Wulf A 36 fattening goose
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Type: Mail plane
Design country:

German EmpireGerman Empire German Empire

Manufacturer:

Focke-Wulf

First flight:

1931

Commissioning:

-

Number of pieces:

1 prototype

The Focke-Wulf A 36 was a German cargo aircraft developed at the beginning of the 1930s , which was built at Focke-Wulf in Bremen under the direction of Henrich Focke and was to be used as a civilian mail plane . Due to insufficient performance, it remained a one-off.

history

In 1929, Deutsche Luft Hansa (DLH) issued a tender for a fast mail plane that it intended to use on its European flight routes between the respective capitals. The specifications were relatively demanding; so should the specified drive a BMW -Lizenzbau the US Hornet - radial engine , a top speed of 260 km / h are achieved. In addition to Focke-Wulf, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW) also took part in the competition with their M28 . The first calculations were carried out from the beginning of 1930, and it turned out that the performance specifications were very tight and left the designers with little room for maneuver. Focke-Wulf therefore tried to achieve a certain approximation of the required values ​​at Luft Hansa, which is why, after long negotiations, it also allowed a tolerance range of 3%. The first drawings were made in April 1930 and Luft Hansa confirmed the design in June. This had a very spindle-shaped hull shape, which was due to one point of the requirement for a two-person crew seated next to each other, which required a corresponding width of the cabin. BFW solved this problem with their M28 with two slightly offset seats, which is why its design could also have a slimmer fuselage. The prototype of the A 36 was completed in early 1931. Like the competitor, it was designed as a cantilever low- wing aircraft with a rigid rear-wheel landing gear. Thanks to the bulbous, short hull shape, it was also known in-house as the “mast goose”. The exact date of the first flight is not known, but it took place after the first flight of the M28 in mid-January and still in the first half of 1931. The flight tests showed disappointing performance. The maximum speed achieved was only 220 km / h, which after extensive changes could be increased to 236 km / h, but was still below the value of the tender despite the tolerance limit granted by Luft Hansa. Although the client finally agreed to take over the aircraft, Focke-Wulf was obliged to pay a contractual penalty . Nothing is known about the further use at the DLH. The competitor model M28 did better, but it remained only a prototype.

Technical specifications

Parameter Data
crew 2
span 14.00 m
length 10.30 m
height 4.00 m
Wing area 28 m²
Empty mass 1280 kg
Payload 1120 kg
payload 477 kg
Takeoff mass 2400 kg
drive an air-cooled nine-cylinder - four stroke - radial engine
BMW "Hornet" with 525 hp (386 kW)
Top speed 236 km / h
Cruising speed 220 km / h
Landing speed 100 km / h
Rise time 4.0 min at an altitude of 1000 m
Service ceiling 5000 m
Range 1600 km

literature

  • Manfred Griehl: Focke-Wulf. Since 1925. In: Typenkompass. Motor book, Stuttgart 2009
  • Reinhold Thiel: Focke-Wulf aircraft construction. Hauschild, Bremen 2011, ISBN 978-3-89757-489-2 .
  • Karl-Dieter Seifert: German air traffic 1926–1945 - on the way to world air traffic. In: German aviation. Volume 28, Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1999, ISBN 3-7637-6118-7 .