Focke-Wulf A 7

Focke-Wulf A 7 stork
Type:	School and sport aircraft
Design country:	German Empire
Manufacturer:	Focke-Wulf
First flight:	November 1921
Number of pieces:	1

The Focke-Wulf A 7 or Focke-Wulf A VII was a German light aircraft of the 1920s. It was the first fully developed design that was developed in cooperation between the two aircraft manufacturers Henrich Focke and Georg Wulf and on the basis of which they founded their company Focke-Wulf in 1923 .

history

Henrich Focke began his studies at the TH Hannover in the autumn of 1910 , where he met Hans Kolthoff the following year, with whom he developed a number of motorized airplanes whose design was based on the Etrich Taube , of which the A, first flown on July 28, 1928 5 was the most successful. During this time the joint work with Georg Wulf began. The beginning of the First World War initially interrupted this early collaboration, which was continued between Focke and Wulf after the end of the war. After Focke completed his studies, which had been interrupted by the war, with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1920 and Wulf accepted one at the Technikum Bremen , the duo further developed the design of the A 6, which was started before the war and was not completed, to become the A 7. The construction took place in the basement of the Focke Museum , in which the unfinished A 6 had been stored since 1914. Like its forerunners, the A 7 was similar to the pigeon type, braced monoplane designed for a two-person crew with a box fuselage and Zanonia wing . The engine used was an Argus engine from 1910 that had already been used on the A5, which Focke had acquired for 500 RM from the owner of the flying school, Oskar Müller, for which a split oil pan was designed to optimize the oil supply for the cylinders . Other parts like the water cooler and speedometer came from a dismantled aircraft wreck.

Although Germany by the victorious Allied powers had prohibited the production of aircraft and for monitoring the ban competent authorities were informed of the presence of the A 7, they walked apparently not one. The aircraft was completed and transported to Neuenlander Feld , where Georg Wulf made the first flight in November 1921. In December, the plane, which was only stored in a military tent on the square, was badly damaged by a storm when it collapsed, but could be repaired by the summer of 1922. The design proved to be reliable on subsequent flights. The A 7 also caused quite a stir, as it was the first aircraft manufactured in Bremen that was officially adopted into public air traffic. The necessary acceptance flights began on October 19, 1922 and were decided with the registration as D–264in spring 1923. A broken crankshaft forced further flights to be suspended, but could be remedied with the support of Hansa-Lloyd . In the following, the A 7 was used as a training aircraft , with which 30 students learned to fly in around 3000 flights. The type was also used as an air taxi . The successful and prestigious use of the pattern, also called "Stork" in Bremen contributed ultimately decisive contribution that Henrich Focke and Georg Wulf received the necessary financial support, the establishing of the Oct. 24, 1923 Bremer aircraft Aktien-Gesellschaft resulted from which became Focke-Wulf AG on January 2, 1924 . The funds provided also made it possible, inter alia, A7 with an air-cooled Sh-4 - radial engine with 55 PS equip.

After many years of service at Focke-Wulf in Bremen, the A 7 was decommissioned in February 1932 and is said to have been integrated into the German Aviation Collection Berlin , where it was probably destroyed in an air raid at the end of the Second World War.

Technical specifications

Parameter	Data
crew	1-2
span	14.00 m
length	8.40
Wing area	25.0 m²
Empty mass	440 kg
Takeoff mass	630 kg
drive	a water-cooled Argus - in- line engine with 50 HP (37 kW)
Top speed	100 km / h
Cruising speed	85 km / h
Landing speed	65 km / h
Rise time	16 min at an altitude of 1100 m
Service ceiling	3000 m

literature

• Manfred Griehl: Focke-Wulf. Since 1925. In: Typenkompass. Motorbuch, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-613-03006-0 .
• Enno Springmann: Focke. Airplanes and helicopters by Henrich Focke 1912 - 1961. Aviatic, Oberhaching 1997, ISBN 3-925505-36-9 .
• Reinhold Thiel: Focke-Wulf aircraft construction. Hauschild, Bremen 2011, ISBN 978-3-89757-489-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl Ries: Research on the German aviation role. Part 1: 1919-1934. Dieter Hoffmann, Mainz 1977, ISBN 3-87341-022-2 , p. 29.