Hansa-Brandenburg W.20

Hansa-Brandenburg W.20
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Type:	single-seat reconnaissance - flying boat
Design country:	German Empire
Manufacturer:	Hansa and Brandenburg aircraft works
Number of pieces:	3

The Hansa-Brandenburg W.20 was a flying boat of the German Navy during the First World War that was supposed to be carried in a submarine.

History and construction

In order to increase the effectiveness of the non-submersible aircraft / submarine combination, which had already been tested in January 1915 with an FF 29a and the submarine SM U 12 , it should be possible to accommodate an on-board aircraft in the Navy's new submarine cruisers. Ernst Heinkel designed a small, removable flying boat that could be housed in a cylindrical pressure vessel 6 m long and 1.9 m in diameter.

Assembly and disassembly had to be accomplished within a short time. According to the factory, the aircraft could be assembled in 3:45 minutes and dismantled again in 1:45 minutes.

The W.20 was a biplane with a slim hull. It had a conventional, braced tail unit. The motor, which was attached to struts between the wings, drove a pusher propeller . The pilot sat in front of the wings in an open cockpit. Due to the narrow hull, which offered little stability in the water, support floats were attached under the tips of the lower wings. Only three copies with the naval numbers 1551–1553 were built, as the type of submarine that was supposed to accommodate the aircraft was not built.

After the prototype W.20 / 1 crashed during a test flight from the Havel , the second W.20 / 2 aircraft received two-legged wing struts and a more powerful Le Rhône engine with 100 hp. The struts of the W.20 / 3 have been modified again.

Technical specifications

Parameter	Data W.20 / 1	Data W.20 / 2	Data W.20 / 3
crew	1
length			5.93 m
Span above below	5.80 m 5.80 m	6.80 m 6.40 m	6.80 m 6.80 m
Wing area	14.95 m²	15.82 m²	16.8 m²
Empty mass			396 kg
Takeoff mass			568 kg
Top speed			117 km / h
Climbing time to 1000 m			15 minutes
Flight duration			1:15 h
Engine	a seven-cylinder - rotary engine
Type	Oberursel UO; 80 hp (59 kW)	Le Rhône; 100 hp (74 kW)	Oberursel UO; 80 hp (59 kW)

literature

• Dieter Köhler: The German aviation Ernst Heinkel - pioneer of the high-speed aircraft. 2nd edition, Bernard & Graefe Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3-7637-6116-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Hans-Jürgen Becker: Seaplanes - flying boats, amphibians, float planes . In: German aviation . 1st edition. tape 21 . Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1994, ISBN 3-7637-6106-3 , p. 82 f .
2. ^ H. Dieter Köhler: The German aviation Ernst Heinkel - pioneer of the high-speed aircraft. 1999.
3. ↑ AERO, issue 91, p. 2545