Weser aircraft construction
| Weser-Flugzeugbau GmbH ("Weserflug") | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Company with limited liability |
| founding | 1934 |
| resolution | 1961 |
| Reason for dissolution | Merger with Focke-Wulf-Flugzeugbau AG to form the United Flight Technical Works (VFW) |
| Seat | Bremen , Germany |
| management | Adolf Rohrbach (Technical Director) |
| Number of employees | 22,904 (1944) |
| Branch | Aircraft manufacturer |
The Weser-Flugzeugbau GmbH (short: "Weserflug") was a German aircraft manufacturer and subsidiary of the Bremer Werft AG "Weser" .
history
To develop a new business area outside of shipbuilding, Weser-Flugzeugbau GmbH was founded in 1934 by the parent company of AG "Weser" , Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau Aktiengesellschaft (DeSchiMAG) . During the Second World War, Weserflug was the fourth largest aircraft manufacturer in the German Reich.
Herbert Göring (1889- after 1945; cousin of Reich Aviation Minister Hermann Göring ) was temporarily chairman of the board of directors and major shareholder of Weser-Flugzeugbau GmbH. 1934 took over Weserflug the Rohrbach metal aircraft GmbH , Berlin. In 1941 the Weserflugzeugbau-GmbH was taken over by the Krupp Group ; In 1944, 22,904 of the 46,000 or so employees of the group in Bremen worked at Weserflug . In autumn 1942, the WFG was assigned the disused Rabstein factories near Böhmisch Kamnitz in the Sudetenland as a production facility for aircraft and weapons. In July 1944, started by prisoners of the subcamp Rabstein the Flossenburg concentration camp under the code name Zechstein the application of a designed on 80,000 sqm underground shift operation in Rabsteiner reason for John Bach . By May 1945, 17,500 m² had been completed and the production of accessories for the Ju 87 started at the relocation site. 30 labor camps and two prisoner-of-war camps for Soviet and Anglo-American prisoners were set up around Johnsbach, Rabstein and Böhmisch Kamnitz to meet the manpower requirements of the war-important company . A total of 6,000 people from 18 countries were housed in the Rabstein camp complex.
In 1944 Weserflug took over the Delmenhorst company Focke-Achgelis , which Henrich Focke and Gerd Achgelis had founded for the development of helicopters (or rotary wing aircraft , gyrocopter ). In 1944 the Berlin management of the Weserflug was relocated to Hoykenkamp ( Ganderkesee ), about 15 km west of Bremen.
In 1954, Hamburger Flugzeugbau , Weserflug and Siebel Flugzeugwerke merged to form Flugzeugbau Nord GmbH to build the French transport aircraft Nord N 2501 Noratlas (customer: the German Bundeswehr ) . In 1961 Weser-Flugzeugbau GmbH became part of the United Flight Technical Works (VFW).
Planes
Weserflug manufactured the Junkers Ju 86 , Ju 87 , Ju 188 and Ju 388 aircraft and the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 under license at its plants in Lemwerder , Berlin-Tempelhof and Liegnitz (Silesia) .
In 1937/38 Weserflug presented its own design: a small twin-engine amphibium We 271 V1, D-ORBE. The rectangular wing shape was designed by Adolf Rohrbach . The engine was two Argus As 10c, each with 240 hp. The side support floats did not have the usual boat shape, but teardrop shape. The double end disk tail unit was also rectangular. The aircraft had a maximum flight weight of 2900 kg. The wing loading was 106 kg / m², the power loading was 5 kg / PS. Flight testing took place in 1938 with ground take in Lemwerder and water testing in Einswarden (former Frerichswerft the Deschimag) instead.
The first flight of the Bf 163 also took place in 1938 , developed by Messerschmitt as a competitor to the Fi 156 , but given to Weser-Flugzeugbau because of the capacity utilization. The aircraft did not go into production in favor of the Fi 156.
Adolf Rohrbach
In 1922, Adolf Rohrbach founded Rohrbach Metallflugzeugbau GmbH in Berlin to build advanced all-metal aircraft . At the beginning of the 1930s, the Rohrbach company had to cease operations for economic reasons. In April 1934 Weser-Flugzeugbau GmbH took over this company.
In 1935 Adolf Rohrbach became technical director of Weserflug in Lemwerder, which started production in 1936. His fields of work were the rotary wing aircraft VTOL ( Vertical TakeOff and Landing ) - he is said to have worked with Henrich Focke in Hoykenkamp (Ganderkesee), who developed the first usable helicopter in Germany (see Focke-Wulf Fw 61 , Focke Achgelis Fa 223 ).
literature
- F.-Herbert Wenz:
- Tempelhof Airport. Chronicle of the Berlin plant of "Weser" Flugzeugbau GmbH Bremen. Construction of the Ju 87 Stuka and Fw 190 aircraft from 1939–1945 . Stedinger Verlag, Lemwerder 2000. ISBN 3-927697-24-9 .
- Chronicle of the Lemwerder Aircraft Factory 1935–1963 Volume 1 . Stedinger Verlag, Lemwerder 1995. ISBN 3-927697-14-1 .
- Reinhold Thiel : "Weser" aircraft construction . Hauschild, HM; 1st edition 2013, ISBN 978-3-89757-539-4 .
Web links
- Luft '46 about the project of the vertical take-off aircraft Weserflug P.1003 / 1
- Weser-Flugzeugbau We 271, a rarity from Germany, very detailed technical data and pictures (source: FliegerWeb.com)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eike Hemmer, Robert Milbradt: 'Bummelei' threatened Gestapo detention . Forced labor at the North German hut during the Nazi regime. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86108-591-1 , p. 8 .