Fieseler Fi 156
| Fieseler Fi 156 stork | |
|---|---|
|
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| Type: | STOL - liaison aircraft |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
May 10, 1936 |
| Commissioning: |
1937 |
| Production time: |
1936 to 1949 |
| Number of pieces: |
2867 |
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The Fieseler Fi 156 Storch is a piston engine-driven STOL - aircraft , which first flew 1936th It was developed and built in the Gerhard Fieseler works in Kassel on the basis of a tender for a short take-off and landing aircraft with slow flight characteristics . The Storch , as it was called because of its long-legged chassis, was the standard courier and liaison aircraft of the German Air Force during World War II . It was also used as an observation and ambulance aircraft. It was also delivered to the Air Forces of Finland , Italy , Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland .
development
construction
The structure was equipped with rigid slats over the entire span, statically balanced slot ailerons with Flettner rudders over half the span and large landing flaps . This provided good slow flight and STOL properties. The wings can be folded back 90 ° for road transport. A generously glazed cabin allowed an excellent all-round view. The machine designers were Reinhold Mewes and his staff, who had been employed by the Gerhard Fieseler Works since 1934.
Prototypes
Two prototypes were made. The first flight was carried out by Gerhard Fieseler on May 10, 1936 at the Kassel-Waldau airfield . Fieseler transferred the actual flight tests to type airmen . After a machine was knocked over by the crosswind while rolling, the chassis was built with a significantly larger track width.
From 1942 there are pictures of the Fi 156 with the registration D-IAFZ, with which an active boundary layer suction to increase buoyancy was tested for the first time . The extracted air was blown out again in vertical slots on the rear fuselage behind the license plate.
variants
Fi 156 V1: Prototype with variable pitch propeller made of metal and the registration D-IKVN at the time (built in the period 1935-1936)
Fi 156 V2: prototype with wooden propeller. First flight on May 10, 1936 with the then registration D-IDVS (built in the period 1935–1936)
Fi 156 V3: Identical to the prototype V2. Experimental machine for various radio equipment with the registration D-IGLI at the time (built in 1936)
Fi 156 V4: Identical to the prototype V3. Equipped with snow runners as landing gear and additional tanks (built in the period 1936–1937)
Fi 156 V5: production prototype for the A series (built 1937)
Fi 156 A-0: Pre-production aircraft, identical to the prototype V3, 10 pieces produced (built in the period 1937–1938)
Fi 156 A-1: The first production series for use with a production instruction by the Air Force of 16 pieces. The first aircraft entered service in mid-1937. Some sources only speak of 6 models built (built in 1938)
Fi 156 B-0: Equipped with new, retractable slats and some aerodynamic improvements, as well as an increase in speed to 208 km / h. Since the Air Force did not consider the small differences to be relevant, the Fi 156 B was not produced for military use. A “civil” stork. 14 pieces built.
Fi 156 C-0: pre-production model. Strongly related to the A-model (built in 1939)
Fi 156 C-1: three-seat liaison aircraft, 286 units built (built 1939–1940)
Fi 156 C-2: Two-seat reconnaissance version with a raised, fully glazed rear armament with a MG 15 machine gun for self-defense. 239 units built (built in 1940)
Fi 156 C-3: Replacement for the C-1 and C-2 with a standard cockpit for all purposes. 274 units built (built 1940–1941)
Fi 156 C-3 / Trop: The C-3 series with adaptations to the tropics and desert use (air inlet filter). 1742 units built (built 1940–1942)
Fi 156 C-5: Extended by an external load station under the fuselage for camera equipment or drop tanks. Some C-5 were equipped with snow runners (built 1941–1945)
Fi 156 C-5 / Trop: The C-5 series with adaptations to the tropics and desert use (air inlet filter). (built 1941–1945)
Fi 156 C-7: three-seat liaison aircraft. "Flat" glazing of the cockpit, similar to the C-1. 130 pieces built.
Fi 156 D-0: Pre-series of the medical version of the C model with a larger cockpit and an additional door in the rear right area of the fuselage for loading with stretchers. Equipped with the Argus-As-10P engine. 20 pieces built (built in 1941)
Fi 156 D-1: Production version of the D-0. (built 1942–1945)
Fi 156 E-0: Liaison aircraft identical to the C-1; 10 pre-production aircraft were equipped with a crawler undercarriage for swampy terrain. (built 1941–1942)
Fi 156 F or P: Identical to the C-3 with machine guns in the side windows and bomb locks and smoke cannons. (built in 1942)
Fi 156 U: anti-submarine version. Identical to the C-3 with depth charges. (built 1940)
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Fi 156 K-1: Export version of the C-1 (built for Sweden).
Fi 256: A further development of the stork with five seats; Two series models built by Morane-Saulnier.
MS-500: Post-war version by Morane-Saulnier with small changes. French produces with an Argus aircraft engine replicated in France.
MS-501: With the Renault 6Q aircraft engine.
MS-502: Liaison aircraft, almost identical to the MS-500, with a Salmson 9ab radial engine.
MS-504: With a Jacobs R-755-A2 radial engine.
MS-505: Reconnaissance version of the MS-500 with a Jacobs R-755-A2 radial engine.
MS-506: With a Lycoming aircraft engine.
Mráz K-65 Čáp: Czechoslovak post-war version.
Antonov OKA-38 Aist (Russian for stork): An unlicensed Soviet copy of a Fi 156, powered by a copy of the Renault MV-6 aero engine (similar to the Renault 6Q), production was in the start-up phase when the factory was by the armed forces in 1941 of the Third Reich was overrun.
Special flight services
The construction of the stork enabled it to fly at an extremely low minimum speed of less than 50 km / h. This also reduced the requirements for take-off and landing routes. To take off, the stork took 50 meters in a headwind and 20 meters to land. The plane was flying slowly enough to be able to lay communications cables . With a corresponding headwind, the stork could also “stand in the air” ( speed over ground zero) or move backwards.
A spectacular mission by a Fieseler stork was the company Eiche , the liberation of the fallen Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from the Gran Sasso d'Italia on September 12, 1943.
International recognition gained the storks than one on November 19, 1946 Douglas C-53 Skytrooper the USAAF on Gauligletscher in Switzerland crashed. All twelve people on board survived the crash. The Americans' costly rescue attempts all failed, but the twelve casualties (including two US generals and other high- ranking officers ) were rescued after five nights with the storks of the Swiss Air Force (see plane crash on the Gauli Glacier ). The stork was in service in the Swiss Air Force until 1963.
production
Germany
A first pilot series of Fi 156 A-0 was built in 1938, followed by the civil versions B-0 and B-1, which were built in small numbers, as well as the larger-scale military versions C-0 (pilot series), C-1 (liaison aircraft) C- 2 (scout). The Fi 156C had a movable 7.92 mm MG 15 machine gun as defensive armament and was initially powered by Argus As-10C engines, while the C-3 received the improved As 10P as a multipurpose aircraft. The C-5 could also carry three 50-kg bombs, a 135-kg mine, camera equipment or an additional tank that allowed a range of 1010 km. The versions D-0 with Argus-As-10C engine and D-1 with As 10P had a larger cabin and could be used as ambulance aircraft by adding a stretcher. A version E-0 with crawler tracks for landings in swampy areas was successfully tested. An improved successor version Fi 256 with five seats was also built. In addition, a sales series was launched that was exported during the war. Some aircraft from this series were also delivered to German agencies.
Fieseler remained the sole supplier until 1942, but was then to concentrate more on the construction of fighter aircraft, which is why production was expanded to other plants in the occupied territories.
Czechoslovakia
Since Fieseler was to concentrate on the production of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 from 1944 , production in Kassel was stopped in December 1943 and relocated to Leichtbau Budweis (LBB). From 1944 onwards it was relocated again to Beneš-Mráz in Chotzen in what was then the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . 138 Fi 156s were built there by the end of the war. Production was continued after the end of the war under the name K-65 Čáp [ ˈtʃɑp ] ( Czech for stork ) and was not discontinued until 1949. Based on the K-65, Aero developed the L-60 as a successor.
France
From April 1942, the French company Morane-Saulnier produced the first Fi 156. After the liberation , production was continued for the Armée de l'air . After the end of the war, the aircraft was built with small changes (e.g. larger wheels, metal propellers), initially in the original version as the MS 500, until the existing Argus engines were used up, then with further changes (e.g. upwards towards the wing opening door, petrol lines running outside the wings) as MS 502 "Criquet" ("Grille") with Salmson 9ab 240 HP radial engine and as MS 505 with Jacobs R755 305 HP radial engine. 141 copies were made for the German Empire and 925 copies for the Armée de l'air. The aircraft were still in service in the French Indochina War , which ended in 1954 . In the damp climate there, however, there were weaknesses in the timber construction. The wings were converted to metal construction in the course of production of the MS 500 and for the following models. Production was stopped in 1965.
Romania
Another license production was started in 1943 at IAR (Întreprinderea de construcţii aeronautice româneşti) in Bucharest , but only ten units were still made for Germany before Romania changed sides in August 1944 . Then another 70 pieces were built for their own needs, until production was stopped in 1946.
USSR
As early as 1940, ANBO in Kaunas (Lithuania) produced a non-licensed copy of the aircraft in the USSR , the Antonow OKA-38 . It was equipped with a copy of the French Renault MV-6 engine. The factory had already manufactured its own reconnaissance aircraft and was therefore selected to produce the stork replica. However, the factory was bombed during the German advance on June 22, 1941 and all production was destroyed. She was not resumed.
Production numbers
| version | GFW | Moraine | Mraz | LBB | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test sample | 3 | 3 | |||
| A-0 | 10 | 10 | |||
| B-0 | 14th | 14th | |||
| C-1 | 286 | 286 | |||
| C-2 | 239 | 239 | |||
| C-3 | 261 | 13 | 274 | ||
| C-3tp | 1005 | 737 | 1742 | ||
| C-5 | 1 | 1 | |||
| C-7 | 47 | 33 | 50 | 130 | |
| D-0 | 20th | 20th | |||
| D-1tp | 107 | 10 | 117 | ||
| D-2 | 24 | 24 | |||
| C-7 / D-2 | 17th | 17th | |||
| F-0 | 3 | 3 | |||
| Sales series | approx. 30 | approx. 30 | |||
| total | circa 1979 | 784 | 74 | 73 | circa 2911 |
Source: Documents from the Federal Archives / Freiburg Military Archives, inventory RL 3
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Fi 156 C-3 |
|---|---|
| crew | a pilot and two observers |
| length | 9.90 m |
| span | 14.27 m |
| Wing area | 26 m² |
| height | 3.00 m |
| Empty mass | 930 kg |
| Max. Takeoff mass | 1320 kg |
| Wing loading | 40-51 kg / m² |
| drive | an air-cooled V8 engine type Argus As 10 C with 240 HP starting power |
| Top speed | 175 km / h at sea level |
| Minimum speed | 45 km / h |
| Service ceiling | 4600 m |
| Range | 377 km |
| Armament | one 7.92 mm MG 15 , up to three 50 kg bombs or one 135 kg depth charge or 48 bulk bombs |
Fieseler Storch today
Received aircraft
The last example of the Fieseler Fi 156 C-3 / Trop originally built in Kassel in the medical version from 1943 with the registration D-EKLU is currently on after a few stops in the Hessian State Museum, in a hangar at the Fritzlar airfield and in Kassel main station Home to Kassel-Calden Airport . After six years of restoration by a development association, the machine was already launched on test flights in September 2011. It has meanwhile been (re) approved as a so-called normal aircraft. The aircraft is exhibited every two years as part of the airfield festival.
In the Finnish Aviation Museum in Vantaa there is a stork (version K-1), which was probably built in Kassel. The aircraft (serial number 4230/39) was ordered by the Finnish Ministry of Defense in 1938 and served as a liaison aircraft for the Finnish Air Force until 1960.
At the airfield Damme the only existing airworthy medical version of the flying Fieseler Storch (Fi 156 D-2) with the registration D-EMAV, in 1944 with the factory no. 475303 was manufactured at Mráz .
An aircraft made up of parts from several machines is owned by the Deutsches Museum, Flugwerft Schleissheim . The aircraft is airworthy and certified with the registration D-EAWD.
On May 6th, 2008 the first flight of a stork restored as a Fieseler 156 C-7 took place in Bonn / Hangelar. The restoration was carried out by the aerospace company Dirk Bende. It is approved with the registration D-EVDB and is also used for sightseeing flights and filming.
A stork capable of flying is approved in Austria with the OE-AKA mark. The machine, built in 1943, was initially used by the Swedish Air Force under the type designation S14B and was initially used as a tug for gliders at Wiener Neustadt / Ost airfield after the war . Today the machine is privately owned.
In the permanent exhibition of the Vienna Army History Museum there is a very well preserved Fieseler Storch Fi 156 C-3, which was used by the German Wehrmacht as a liaison and reconnaissance aircraft.
Another unchanged original of version B is currently on permanent loan in Hangar II of the former Crailsheim Air Base , where the machine was used as part of III. Infantry Regiment Großdeutschland was stationed under Lieutenant Colonel Eugen Garski . It is hung there in the ceiling beams. The former airfield is now used as a car dealership and event hall; the copy is freely accessible during opening hours.
Further examples are in the British RAF Cosford Aerospace Museum (callsign GM + AK), in the Swedish Flygvapenmuseum in Linköping and in the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne.
There are other replicas, such as the Criquet from Criquetaviation with the new Rotec-2800 (a 120 hp seven-cylinder radial engine) made in Australia. From 1991 a replica version on a 3: 4 scale was drawn by Viktor Slepcev . It has similar short take-off and landing characteristics as the original. In Germany, the D-EPEG flies (approved as experimental). These aircraft are manufactured in Novi Sad as a metal kit without covering or engine or complete with a Rotax engine .
D-EMAV built in 1944 Airfield Festival, Kassel 2010
OE-AKA (YOC 1943)
D-EVDB at the Bonn / Hangelar airfield (2009)
Fieseler Storch flight simulator
As a task for interdisciplinary cooperation in many areas of engineering, the Faculty of Plant and High Voltage Technology at the University of Kassel carried out the Storch Flight Simulator 1.0 project from June 2015 to May 2018 . The resulting simulator , in which all operating elements of the historic Storch cockpit are functionally integrated on a 1: 1 scale, creates a realistic flight experience around the pilot via a curved 180 ° large screen. Since 2019 the simulator has been available to all interested parties in the terminal of Kassel Airport, sponsored by Fieseler Storch Flugsimulator eV, and brings the Storch, developed and built in Kassel since 1935/36, closer to the public.
literature
- Gerhard Fieseler: My path in the sky. The builder of the Fieseler Storch and the V 1 tells his life . Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-570-01192-5 (autobiography).
- Olaf Groehler: History of the Air War 1910 to 1980. Military publishing house of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin 1981.
- Kenneth Munson: Bombers, patrol and transport aircraft 1939–1945. 3rd edition, Orell Füssli Verlag, Zurich 1977.
Web links
- Engine starts (Argus AS10P) of a stork on YouTube
- Starts a Fieseler Storch on YouTube
- flying, restored stork on YouTube
- Stork with folded wings
Individual evidence
- ↑ s. My path in the sky. P. 208ff.
- ↑ s. My path in the sky. P. 213ff. ( According to other sources , the test pilot Willy A. Fiedler , specifically named by G. Fieseler, did not work for the Fieseler works until 1938.)
- ↑ s. FliegerRevue X No. 83, page 29, Verlag PPVMEDIEN, ISSN 2195-1233
- ↑ http://www.airwar.ru/enc/other2/oka38.html
- ↑ s. http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/display/2931648
- ↑ s. http://www.tmk-kassel.de/unterseiten/sammlungsgebiete/mobil_verkehr/luft/storch.shtml
- ↑ s. http://www.flugzeugbilder.de/search4.cgi?srch=D-EKLU&stype=reg&srng=2
- ↑ s. http://www.flughafenkassel.de/t3/index.php?id=flugplatzfest
- ↑ s. http://www.hna.de/nachrichten/stadt-kassel/kassel/storch-oben-wieder-legendaeres-fieseler-flugzeugsaniert-1427826.html
- ↑ s. http://www.ilmailumuseo.fi/index.php?page=Fieseler-FI-156K-1-Storch
- ↑ Timo Heinonen: Thulinista Hornetiin - 75 vuotta Suomen ilmavoimien lentokoneita. Gummerus Kirjapaino Oy 1992, ISBN 951-95688-2-4 , p. 117.
- ↑ s. http://www.deutsches-museum.de/flugwerft/sammlungen/propellerflugzeuge/fieseler-fi-156/
- ↑ s. http://www.ltb-dirkbende.de/Fieseler_Storch.html
- ^ Manfried Rauchsteiner , Manfred Litscher (Ed.): The Army History Museum in Vienna. Styria, Graz et al. 2000, ISBN 3-222-12834-0 , p. 79.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2001/03/stuff_eng_detail_fi156.htm
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from August 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ http://storch-aviation.com
- ^ Fieseler Storch Flight Simulator eV: The Storch Flight Simulator 1.0. In: Fieseler Storch Flugsimulator eV October 23, 2019, accessed on December 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Thomas Siemon: Feel like flying in a real stork . In: HNA Kasseler Allgemeine . May 28, 2018. , p. 7
- ↑ Thomas Siemon: Simulator for Fieseler Storch at Kassel Airport . In: HNA Mündener Allgemeine . No. 15 , January 18, 2020. , p. 8