Focke-Wulf Fw 58

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Focke-Wulf Fw 58
Fw 58
Type: twin-engine trainer aircraft
Design country:

German Reich NSGerman Reich (Nazi era) German Empire

Manufacturer:

Focke-Wulf

First flight:

January 18, 1935

Production time:

until 1942

Number of pieces:

1670

Fw 58 on the Eastern Front, Army Group North, 1942

The Focke-Wulf Fw 58 " Weihe " was a twin-engine multi-purpose aircraft made by the Bremen manufacturer Focke-Wulf , which was primarily used as a training aircraft by the Air Force .

history

When the Luftwaffe was founded in 1935, an aircraft was needed for pilot training. Under the direction of chief designer Kurt Tank , Paul Klages and Andreas von Faehlmann developed a machine at Focke-Wulf, the dummy of which was available for inspection in February 1934. The Fw 58 V1 (D-ABEM, W.Nr. 451) flew for the first time on January 18, 1935. In June 1935, the V2 followed , which already had two arms.

The Fw 58 was able to assert itself against the somewhat smaller and with the same engines equipped rival development Arado Ar 77 , of which two copies were built. In Brazil , the license version Fw 58B-2 was produced with 25 machines.

Production numbers

Series production of the Fw 58 began in September 1936 and ended in August 1942.

Production figures for the Fw 58
version FW GFW Miag Luther Gotha total comment
Test sample 6th 6th V1 – V6, material no. 451, 452, 802, 1833, 1970, 1199
B. 307 88 395 FW: versions B-1 and B-2, Miag: only version B-2
C. 203 120 385 23 460 1191 FW: versions C-1 and C-2, rest: only version C-2
Sales series 76 76
total 592 120 473 23 460 1668

The following aircraft from the sales and RLM series were exported up to 1940: Argentina 3, Brazil 10, Bulgaria 8, Romania 22, Sweden 2, Turkey 6, Hungary 27, Austria 6. The following aircraft were delivered from 1942 to 1945: 10 Bulgaria, 5 Romania, 2 Sweden, 12 Slovakia, 202 Hungary.

use

The aircraft was used in various areas. The main purpose was the training of pilots for night flight and the training of bomb and machine gunnery.

In April 1938 Lufthansa bought four KJ-1 photo planes (W.-Nr. 2697-2700) for its daughter Hansa Luftbild. These aircraft were handed over to the RLM's special image department (SOBIA) at the start of the war. Between May and July 1939, DLH received five KL-1 cargo aircraft (W.-Nr. 3100-3104), two of which were passed on to the Brazilian subsidiary Syndicato Condor as PP-CBM (3102) and PP-CBN (3103). The aircraft were confiscated by the Brazilian Navy on November 18, 1942 and used as training aircraft. The D-OVXF (3104) crashed on January 24, 1942, killing the two-man crew. In order to set up its own airline "Slowenská Letecká Společnost", DLH delivered the last two Fw 58s to Slovakia in the course of the first half of 1942. DLH began air traffic with these aircraft on behalf of SLS, as there were probably no suitable personnel in Slovakia at the time. The aircraft received OK-TRE (3100) and OK-HLM (3101) certifications in July 1942. From 1943 the SLS then carried out the traffic with these aircraft itself.

In the Second World War (1939-1945) they were also used for light transport and ambulance flights as well as for surveying and weather reconnaissance flights.

From 1943, at the German Research Institute for Glider Flight (DFS) under the direction of Felix Kracht, an Fw 58 was successfully refueled by a four-engine Junkers Ju 90 during aerial refueling attempts in flight. However, due to a lack of fuel, one of the main problems faced by the German Air Force at the time, these attempts were stopped the following year.

construction

The Fw 58 was a twin-engine low - wing aircraft covered with fabric and metal . The landing gear was retractable. In the stern there was an open stand that could be equipped with an MG 15 (caliber 7.92 mm), another MG 15 could be mounted in the front of the fuselage.

The aircraft could also be equipped with skis and floats (Fw 58W).

Use as a test aircraft

One example (Fw 58 V14, D-OPDR) was extensively rebuilt and used for experiments with boundary layer suction. A better flow towards the tail unit should be achieved even at slower flight speeds. For this purpose, a Hirth aircraft engine was installed in the fuselage together with a fan with which the boundary layer on the trailing edge of the wing was extracted. This air then exited through two rows of circumferential slits in the rear part of the body.

Received aircraft

The only Fw 58 B-2 from Brazilian production that still exists today has the type designation AT-Fw 1530 and dates from 1941. The aircraft was flown at the Brazilian Força Aérea Brasileira , where it was in service until 1949. After that she found a new field of activity for a short time until 1955 at the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture with the label PP-FDE.

Encounter with the Supermarine Spitfire

In November 1941 Kurt Tank and other employees of the Focke-Wulf design office flew back to Bremen in the unarmed Fw 58 A-0 (D-ALEX) after a meeting at the French aircraft manufacturer SNCASO . In the Brussels area they met two British Supermarine Spitfires . Although the British shot past in the first attack, whereupon Tank tried to escape at low altitude, the second attack ended with a badly damaged left wing and a torn off aileron, which meant that the machine could only be controlled to a very limited extent. The fighter pilots left the obviously unarmed, slow and easy prey alone. After 17 anxious minutes, Tank flew the machine with the remaining ailerons in the next place near Hilversum, southeast of Amsterdam. The crew left the machine, which was damaged with 47 bullet holes, unharmed - a bullet stuck in the tanks' seat cushions. To the astonishment of the staff at the Focke-Wulf design office, the next morning the aircraft was ready to fly - the Air Force mechanics repaired the aircraft in just seven hours.

Military users

Technical specifications

Three-sided view
Parameter Fw 58 B-1 Fw 58 B-2 Fw 58 C-2 Fw 58 V13 (from 1942: KL-1)
Usage Trainer aircraft Machine-gun and bomb-dropping training aircraft Blind flight and FT trainer aircraft Feeder and airliner
crew Pilot, radio operator + max. 4 people 4 (pilot, bombardier, machine gunner and radio operator) 2
Drive: 8-cylinder V-engine 2 × Argus As 10 C, air-cooled, hanging, each 240 PS (approx. 180 kW) 2 × Hirth HM 508 DB, air-cooled, suspended installation, each 280 PS (approx. 210 kW)
length 14.0 m 14.16 m 14.00 m
span 21.0 m 21.05 m
height 4.30 m 4.20 m 4.25 m 3.90 m
Gauge 4.00 m
Wing area 47 m² 47.30 m² 47.00 m²
V shape 7.5 °
Arrow shape 12.5 °
Wing loading 62.5 kg / m² 76.55 kg / m²
Breaking load multiple 6.2 5.45
Empty mass 1900 kg 2000 kg 1960 kg 2400 kg
Preparation mass 2300 kg 2000 kg 2500 kg
Payload 630 kg 640 kg 1080 kg
Takeoff mass 2810 kg 2930 kg 2926 kg 3600 kg
Top speed 256 km / h 254 km / h at 0 m and 222 km / h at 4000 m 265 km / h at 0 m and 231 km / h at 4000 m 272 km / h at 0 m
Marching speed 238 km / h in 0 m and 218 km / h in 3000 m 249 km / h in 0 m and 227 km / h in 3000 m 242 km / h at 0 m
Landing speed 76 km / h 85 km / h
Takeoff route approx. 200 m
Landing route approx. 180 m
Climb performance 1000 m in 3.8 min
2000 m in 8.5 min
3000 m in 14.5 min
4000 m in 22.9 min
4.7 m / s near the ground 		1000 m in 3.7 min
2000 m in 8.3 min
3000 m in 14 min
4000 m in 22 min
4.9 m / s near the ground 		5.0 m / s near the ground
Flight duration approx. 3.3 h approx. 5 h 3.6-6.7 h
Range 676 km approx. 610 km 1080 km 800-1500 km
Service ceiling 5200 m 5400 m 5600 m 5400 m
Single-engine hovering height 2000 m 1000 m
Armament 2 × MG 15 (7.92 mm) 2 × MG 15 (7.92 mm) (possible in A and B stand) -

See also

literature

  • Karl R. Pawlas: Aviation Lexicon. Entry ID: 3120-100-1
  • Rudolf Höfling: The last consecration . In: Flugzeug Classic . No. 8 , 2006, ISSN  1617-0725 , p. 24-29 .
  • The magazine for aviation, contemporary history and oldtimers: Airplane Classics Special 7. 2011, instructor "Weihe"

Web links

Commons : Focke-Wulf Fw 58  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to the company tradition of that time, all Focke-Wulf aircraft had internal bird names.
  2. ↑ René Scheer: Paul Klages: In the shadow of Kurt Tanks . In: Aviation Classics . No. 6/2015 . Motor Presse, Stuttgart, p. 54 .
  3. ^ Documents from the Federal Archives / Freiburg Military Archives, holdings RL 3
  4. ↑ Luftfahrt International 1, p. 14 ff.
  5. ^ Documents from the Lufthansa archive, Cologne
  6. ↑ P 6 - Focke Wulf Fw 58C-2 "Weihe" (1938–1959)