Hamburg aircraft construction
| Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmbH (HFB) | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Company with limited liability |
| founding | 1933 |
| resolution | 1969 |
| Reason for dissolution | Merger with Messerschmitt-Bölkow GmbH, which emerged from Messerschmitt AG and Bölkow GmbH , to form Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) |
| Seat | Hamburg , Germany |
| Branch | Aircraft manufacturer |
The Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmbH ( HFB ) was established in June 1933 as a subsidiary of the shipyard Blohm & Voss entered in the commercial register. Walther Blohm , the shipyard owner, chose this way to keep the unpredictable risks of the new area away from the shipyard. As the worry soon proved unnecessary, the company was reintegrated into the group at the end of 1937 as Blohm & Voss, Aircraft Construction Department .
Company history
The beginning
After the National Socialists took over the government , the new rulers secretly worked towards the creation of air forces ( prohibited by the Versailles Peace Treaty ) on the basis of plans that still came from the Reichswehr . In addition to other companies not previously active in the aviation sector, such as B. the locomotive and truck building company Henschel & Sohn in Kassel, the shipyard Blohm & Voss also tried to gain a foothold in the new and promising area. The owners therefore founded the Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmbH .
The first model, the Ha 135 , a school double-decker , was built in a rented carpentry shop and had to be transported to Fuhlsbüttel airport to fly in . Only six of them were built. The design team responsible for this design, Reinhold Mewes and Viktor Maugsch , who had come from Heinkel , then went to Fieseler in Kassel. The single-seat Ha 136 training aircraft , of which only two were built, was the first work of the newly hired chief designer Richard Vogt , who had previously worked at Dornier and most recently at Kawasaki in Japan. The aircraft already had one of the two features typical of Vogt's designs, the so-called tubular spar . He used this and the second of his special features, the gull wing , in his next design, the Ha 137 . The single-seat aircraft, of which there were two versions equipped with different engines, was developed in response to the tender for a light dive fighter aircraft . The winner in this competition, in which Fieseler also took part with the Fi 98 , was the Henschel Hs 123 . Nevertheless, three test aircraft and 17 pilot series aircraft were built by Ha 137.
For this and for other orders to be fulfilled subsequently, the company had built a new plant in Wenzendorf , which was about 20 km south of the company headquarters and shipyard and was put into operation in September 1935. Since this was a pure land airfield, but the company had big plans for seaplanes and flying boats, a second new plant was built in Finkenwerder from 1936 to 1940 . For this purpose, the previously marshy western bank of the Elbe from Finkenwerder (Neßhaken) was straightened and fortified and the water surface was dredged so that the Mühlenberger Loch was created in a new form.
Helmut Wasa Rodig , who had previously been a flight instructor at the German Aviation School (DVS) in Warnemünde, was employed as the first pilot to test and fly aircraft . From August 1936 Röttger Hilleke was assigned to him, also coming from DVS as a flight instructor.
The manufacturing plant
After parts for the Junkers Ju 52 had been manufactured right from the start and previous shipyard workers had been retrained in the now completely different field of aircraft construction, the company was increasingly used to replicate foreign models. The first major order was for 24 Do 23 G units , which were given the company's own serial numbers from 115 to 138. This was followed by 34 Junkers W 34 hi (Wnr 139 to 147, 154 to 170 and 173 to 180) as well as some of the Hau models. This order had originally been for 494 pieces, but was ultimately reduced to 261, of which 69 were hi and 192 were hau. The serial numbers before, in between and after were mostly given by the aircraft's own design. The next production lots concerned aircraft of the types Junkers Ju 86 (75 pieces) and finally Do 17 of the versions F (reduced from originally 65 pieces to 29), P (first 55 pieces, then increased to 192 to end at 149) and Z (74 pieces). During the war, B & V was commissioned to convert a large number of Bf 109s into the two-seat school version G-12.
Blohm & Voss Hamburger Flugzeugbau had various military projects, such as the high-speed bomber P 170 , the attack aircraft P 194 , the night fighter P 215 or the jet fighter P 197 , which however did not get beyond the project stage.
The development company
After the failure with the Ha 137, the company's hopes rested on the design for the BV 138 maritime patrol aircraft , for which the Reich Ministry of Aviation (RLM) apparently had good advocates, but which had to compete against the Do 24 . The first test results were devastating, however. The tubular spar wing used here by Vogt, bent upwards from the fuselage, had to be replaced on the second aircraft by a straight one, which also included a number of significant changes. Only the third aircraft, the D-ADJE marked A-01. met the requirements. It was also the first aircraft to have the new company abbreviation BV in its name instead of Ha. After her and three other A-0 aircraft, the A-1 series was created, 25 of which were built by the company. This was followed by 20 pieces of the B-1 design and initially 142 pieces, then another 19 with the designation C-1. The Weser-Flugzeugbau company also built 67 flying boats in this form , until production ended at the end of 1943.
With the designation Ha 139 , three four-engine float planes were created for Lufthansa to transport mail across the Atlantic.
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The twin-engine sea multi-purpose aircraft on floats, Ha 140 , of which only two were built, was defeated in comparison to the Heinkel He 115 .
From the following design by Vogt, the asymmetrical reconnaissance aircraft and multi-purpose aircraft Ha 141 or BV 141 , which fell completely out of the ordinary , only a small series of a total of 28 aircraft was ultimately built. However, your competitor, the Fw 189 , was able to prevail.
The Ha and BV 142 were derived directly from the Ha 139, but equipped with radial engines and a tail wheel chassis. The four aircraft that were built were also to be used in the DLH postal service, but like most of the others, they were used by the Luftwaffe because of the outbreak of war.
The draft BV 144 , a twin-engine aircraft intended for traffic purposes with a wing angle that can be changed in flight, was given to the French company Breguet for further processing. Two planes were built there, but only the first one came into flight on March 14, 1946 long after the end of the war. The project was soon abandoned by the French.
Only the six-engine BV 222 flying boat , which was also intended for transatlantic traffic, but was only used by the Air Force as a transporter and long-range reconnaissance aircraft, could again be considered a success. 13 of them were made. Only one piece of the even larger successor, the BV 238 , was built and made to fly. A land version was also planned under the designation BV 250 .
Vogt had several asymmetrical projects worked out for different purposes, but none of them was realized.
The last project was a small, motorless, heavily armored fighter glider, called the BV 40 , which was to be towed by a fighter plane to the necessary height in order to attack the bomber formations from there while gliding. A few were built, but none of them were used.
Finally, a BV 155 Höhenjäger was built and also flown , which Messerschmitt had given to B&V for further processing. One of the two aircraft that was built is still waiting to be restored in the warehouse of the US Air & Space Museum .
After the war
After the end of the Second World War , the factory was largely dismantled and destroyed by the British occupying forces. The small remainder were under British control to repair tanks there. The halls in Wenzendorf , so far not already damaged or destroyed by the various bomb attacks, were also dismantled. With tenacity and idealism, Walter Blohm was able to create a new beginning. Under his leadership, with the participation of HFB, Weser-Flugzeugbau and Siebel ATG, Flugzeugbau Nord GmbH was founded in 1954, which was to manufacture transport machines of the Nord N 2501 Noratlas type for the German armed forces under license. Halls in Stade were also rented for this contract .
In the late 1950s, the twin-engine PTL machine HFB 209 and the twin-jet HFB 314 were developed. The latter was positively assessed by Lufthansa, but the pre-financing of the development and construction of two prototypes with federal funds did not materialize, so that this machine did not get beyond the drawing board stage. In the 1960s, the small twin- engine touring aircraft HFB 320 was developed and built in small numbers. The company also took part in the construction of the Noratlas successor, the Transall C-160, and supplied components for the high-flyer Dornier Do 31 and the Fokker F.28 .
Succession
After the merger of Messerschmitt AG with Bölkow GmbH (November 1, 1968), the company, now again working as HFB, merged with the resulting company six months later to form Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm GmbH (MBB) under the direction of Ludwig Bölkow together. After the takeover of MBB by Daimler-Benz AG (today Daimler AG ) in 1989, the plant became part of DASA . Today it belongs to Airbus , a division of the Airbus Group, the former or renamed EADS .
Company developments
- Blohm & Voss BV 40 , paraglider
- Blohm & Voss Ha 135 , school double decker
- Blohm & Voss Ha 136 , training aircraft
- Blohm & Voss Ha 137 , dive bombers
- Blohm & Voss BV 138 , flying boat
- Blohm & Voss Ha 139 , overseas mail plane
- Blohm & Voss Ha 140 , multi-purpose floatplane
- Blohm & Voss BV 141 , reconnaissance
- Blohm & Voss BV 142 , long-range reconnaissance aircraft
- Blohm & Voss BV 143 , glide bomb
- Blohm & Voss BV 144 , transport and commercial aircraft
- Blohm & Voss BV 155 , high altitude fighter
- Blohm & Voss BV 222 , Wiking, flying boat for transport and sea reconnaissance
- Blohm & Voss BV 238 , large flying boat
- Blohm & Voss BV 246 , hailstone, glide bomb
- HFB 320 , travel and business aircraft
Some of the projected models and prototypes without a GL / C number:
- Blohm & Voss P 170 , fighter aircraft
- Blohm & Voss P 188 , jet-propelled high-altitude bomber
- Blohm & Voss P 194 , fighter aircraft
- Blohm & Voss P 205 , high altitude fighter
- Blohm & Voss P 208 , fighter plane
- Blohm & Voss P 212 , jet-powered fighter aircraft
- Blohm & Voss BV 250, projected land version of the BV 238
Community programs
Web links
literature
- Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmbH . In: Otto K. Krausskopf (Hrsg.): Flugwelt: Monthly magazine for the entire field of aviation . Official organ of the Federal Association of the German Aviation Industry eV Issue No. 1 . Flugwelt-Verlag GmbH, 1957, ZDB -ID 957730-0 , p. 11-13 .
- Hermann Pohlmann: Chronicle of an aircraft factory 1932-1945 . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-87943-624-X .
- Rolf Struve: Picture Chronicle HFB, Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmbH 1955-1969 . with photos of people and groups from Mr. Pohlmann's photo albums from his time at the Hamburg aircraft construction company. Verlag Peter, Jesteburg 1987 (With an introduction by Mr. Pohlmann about the restart after the war).
- Susanne Wiborg: Walther Blohm: Ships and planes from Hamburg . Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-7672-1189-0 .