AGO Flugzeugwerke was a German aircraft manufacturing company from 1911 until 1945. The initials AGO had a variety of meanings (such as ''

Aktiengesellschaft (; abbreviated AG, ) is a German word for a corporation limited by Share (finance), share ownership (i.e. one which is owned by its shareholders) whose shares may be traded on a stock market. The term is used in Germany, Austria, Switzerland (wh ...

Otto'') during the company's lifetime, but in its final version stood for ''Apparatebau GmbH Oschersleben''. At its peak, the company employed around 4,500 people.

Foundation

AGO was founded in 1911 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

as ''Flugmaschinenwerke Gustav Otto'' by

Gustav Otto Gustav Otto (12 January 1883 – 28 February 1926) was a German aircraft and aircraft engine designer and manufacturer. Otto was born in Cologne to Nicolaus August Otto, the founder of ''N. A. Otto & Cie.'' and inventor of the four-stroke interna ...

and a Dr Alberti. Gustav, the son of

Nicolaus Otto Nicolaus August Otto (10 June 1832, Holzhausen an der Haide, Nassau – 26 January 1891, Cologne) was a German engineer who successfully developed the compressed charge internal combustion engine which ran on petroleum gas and led to the mod ...

– inventor of the

four-stroke engine A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directi ...

, was a pioneer aviator (pilot's licence No. 34) and engine-builder. As was usual in those days, a flying school was attached to the business – one of its later students was Ernst Udet. The company's first successful aircraft under head designer, Gabriel Letsch, was an observation biplane with a pusher propeller that soon became the standard equipment of the '' Bayerischen Fliegertruppe''. The machine was powered by a 75 kW (100 hp) engine of the firm's own design, branded ''Aviatiker Gustav Otto''. In 1912, a separate division was set up in Johannisthal under the name Ago Flugzeugwerke, with Elisabeth Woerner and Hermann Fremery as directors. After the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, AGO built a series of military reconnaissance aircraft, beginning with the

AGO C.I The AGO C.I was a First World War German pusher configuration, pusher reconnaissance biplane that used a pod-and-boom configuration. Development The crew and pusher configuration, pusher engine shared a central nacelle, and the twin booms carrie ...

– a pusher-powered biplane designed by August Haefeli. The most successful of AGO's wartime aircraft was the C.IV of 1916, of which 70 examples were built, but which proved unpopular with its pilots. In 1916, Gustav Otto opened a new plant in Munich under the name Bayerische Flugzeugwerke, and another in

Oschersleben Oschersleben () is a town in the Börde district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The population in 1905 was 13,271, in 2020 about 19,000. History On November 23, 994 Oschersleben was first mentioned in a document by the Emperor Otto III. In 1235 ...

(with Josef Schnittisser) again named AGO, this time for ''Aktiengesellschaft Gustav Otto''. The Oschersleben plant was used to manufacture components for other manufacturers' aircraft until the end of the war.

Between the Wars

After the Armistice, Otto tried automobile manufacturing, but in 1919 had to dismiss the employees of the Berlin company and divest himself of the Oschersleben factory. He himself withdrew to

Lake Starnberg Lake Starnberg, or ''Starnberger See'' ) — called Lake Würm, or ''Würmsee'' , until 1962 — is Germany's second-largest body of fresh water, having great depth, and fifth-largest lake by area. It and its surroundings lie in three different Ba ...

where he died in 1926. The company continued, and in the same year developed 20 new hectares of factory space near the ''Sudenburger Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei AG'' plant at

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...

. By 1928 this enterprise was also forced to close. On 30 July 1930, AGO's remaining assets were sold at auction by order of the court.

1933 – 1945

The Nazi government resurrected AGO by refurbishing the Oschersleben plant for aircraft production once more. The first order was for 36

Arado Ar 65 The Arado Ar 65 was the single-seat biplane fighter successor to the Ar 64. Both looked very similar. The only major difference was the use of a 12-cylinder inline engine versus the Ar 64's radial. The wingspan was also increased. The Ar 65 ...

fighters, 197

Arado Ar 66 The Arado Ar 66 was a German single-engined, two-seat training biplane, developed in 1933. It was also used for night ground-attack missions on the Eastern Front. It was engineer Walter Rethel's last design in collaboration with Arado, before ...

trainers, and 71

Heinkel He 51 The Heinkel He 51 was a German single-seat biplane which was produced in a number of different versions. It was initially developed as a fighter; a seaplane variant and a ground-attack version were also developed. It was a development of th ...

fighters. The first of these to fly was an Ar 65s, on 1 May 1935. This was followed by an order for 140

Henschel Hs 123 The Henschel Hs 123 was a single-seat biplane dive bomber and close-support attack aircraft flown by the German ''Luftwaffe'' during the Spanish Civil War and the early to midpoint of World War II. It proved to be robust, durable and effective e ...

dive-bombers delivered at the end of 1937, AGO's introduction to all-metal construction. Next came orders for 241

Gotha Go 145 The Gotha Go 145 is a German World War II-era biplane of wood and fabric construction used by ''Luftwaffe'' training units. Although obsolete by the start of World War II, the Go 145 remained in operational service until the end of the War in Eu ...

trainers and 187

Arado Ar 96 The Arado Ar 96 was a German single-engine, low-wing monoplane of all-metal construction, produced by Arado Flugzeugwerke. It was the '' Luftwaffe''s standard advanced trainer during World War II. Design and development Designed by Walter B ...

, and then 150

Henschel Hs 126 The Henschel Hs 126 was a German two-seat reconnaissance and observation aircraft of World War II that was derived from the Henschel Hs 122. The pilot was seated in a protected cockpit under the parasol wing and the gunner in an open rear cockp ...

reconnaissance aircraft. This latter order was increased to 390 units in Summer 1938. Between March 1937 and March 1938, AGO built 121

Focke-Wulf Fw 44 The Focke-Wulf Fw 44 ''Stieglitz'' ("Goldfinch") is a 1930s German two-seat biplane. An early design by Kurt Tank, it was produced by the Focke-Wulf company as a pilot training and sports flying aircraft. It was also eventually built under l ...

. In 1938, production of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 began, and from 1941 onwards, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 became the mainstay of AGO's production. In 1935, the design department was re-established, with the first new AGO aircraft becoming the AGO Ao 192 ''Kurier'' of 1937. A design for a heavy fighter project, the Ao 225 did not progress past the wind-tunnel stage and even the 8−225 RLM airframe designator for the type was withdrawn by the RLM and reassigned to

Focke-Achgelis Focke-Achgelis & Co. G.m.b.H. was a German helicopter company founded in 1937 by Henrich Focke and Gerd Achgelis. History Henrich Focke was ousted in 1936 from the Focke-Wulf company, which he had cofounded in 1924, due to shareholder pressure ...

. From 1943 onwards, due to its key role in producing the Fw 190 the AGO factory came under attack by Allied bombing raids, suffering increasingly heavy damage up to the end of the war. In 1947, the last remains of the factory were blown up by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

Aircraft

Otto

(

/ Flugmaschinenwerke Gustav Otto/ ''Aviatiker Gustav Otto'') * Otto 1913 pusher biplane *

Otto B Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded f ...

1914 * Otto B.I * Otto C.I 1915 * Otto C.II

AGO Flugzeugwerke

(1912 onwards at Johannistal) *

* AGO C.II *

AGO C.III The AGO C.III was a German reconnaissance biplane of World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Rus ...

AGO C.IV The AGO C.IV was a First World War German biplane reconnaissance aircraft. Development A departure from the manufacturer's pod-and-boom designs, it featured a more conventional biplane layout whose only unusual feature was the tapered wings. L ...

* AGO C.VII * AGO C.VIII * AGO DV.3 *

AGO S.I The AGO S.I was a German prototype ground-attack aircraft built in October 1918 but possibly never flown before the end of World War I. It was a single-seat biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above th ...

* AGO Ao 192 * AGO Ao 225

References

* * Peter Supf: ''Das Buch der Deutschen Fluggeschichte, Bände I und II'' * Uwe Schmidt: ''AGO-Flugzeugwerke Oschersleben'' * ''Flugzeuglieferpläne des RLM LC II'' {{Authority control Defunct aircraft manufacturers of Germany