The Arado Ar 68 was a German single-seat

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

fighter developed in the mid-1930s. It was among the first fighters produced when

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

abandoned the restrictions of the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

and began rearming.

Design and development

Designed to replace the

Heinkel He 51 The Heinkel He 51 was a Nazi Germany, German single-seat biplane which was produced in a number of different versions. It was initially developed as a Fighter aircraft, fighter; a seaplane variant and a Ground-attack aircraft, ground-attack ...

, the Ar 68 proved to have admirable handling characteristics on its first flight in early 1934, despite Arado's inability to secure a sufficiently powerful engine for the

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

. Eventually, a

Junkers Jumo 210 The Jumo 210 was Junkers Motoren's first production inverted V12 gasoline aircraft engine, first produced in the early 1930s. Depending on the version it produced between 610 and 730 PS and can be considered a counterpart of the Rolls-Royce Kest ...

was installed and the Ar 68 went into production, though not before worries about the unforgiving nature of such a high-performance aircraft almost resulted in the cancellation of the project. The Ar 68 entered service with the ''

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

'' in 1936 and one of the first units was stationed in

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

. Soon, the fighter was sent to fight in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

, where it was outclassed by the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Polikarpov I-16 The Polikarpov I-16 (russian: Поликарпов И-16) is a Soviet single-engine single-seat fighter aircraft of revolutionary design; it was the world's first low-wing cantilever monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear to attain ope ...

. Arado responded by upgrading the engine of the Ar 68E, which soon became the ''Luftwaffe''s most widely used fighter in 1937–38, before being replaced by the

Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a German World War II fighter aircraft that was, along with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the backbone of the Luftwaffe's fighter force. The Bf 109 first saw operational service in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War an ...

. The last Ar 68s served as

night fighter A night fighter (also known as all-weather fighter or all-weather interceptor for a period of time after the Second World War) is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility. Night fighters began to be used i ...

s up to the winter of 1939–40, after which they served as fighter-trainers until 1944.

Variants

''Data from:'' ;Ar 68V1 :Prototype, powered by a

BMW VI The BMW VI was a water-cooled V-12 aircraft engine built in Germany in the 1920s. It was one of the most important German aero engines in the years leading up to World War II, with thousands built. It was further developed as the BMW VII and B ...

engine. First flight in 1934. ;Ar 68a :First prototype. 1 x BMW VId V-12. ;Ar 68b :Second prototype. 1 x

Jumo 210A The Jumo 210 was Junkers Motoren's first production inverted V12 gasoline aircraft engine, first produced in the early 1930s. Depending on the version it produced between 610 and 730 PS and can be considered a counterpart of the Rolls-Royce Kes ...

inverted V-12. ;Ar 68c :Third prototype. 1 x

inverted V-12. ;Ar 68d :Fourth prototype. 1 x BMW VId V-12. ;Ar 68 V4 :The fourth prototype (Ar 68d), redesignated after the RLM(Reichs Luftfahrtministerium) introduced the standardised ''Versuchs'' (research) number system. ;Ar 68e :Fifth prototype. 1 x

Jumo 210Da The Jumo 210 was Junkers Motoren's first production inverted V12 gasoline aircraft engine, first produced in the early 1930s. Depending on the version it produced between 610 and 730 PS and can be considered a counterpart of the Rolls-Royce Kes ...

inverted V-12. ;Ar 68 V5 :The fifth prototype (Ar 68e), redesignated after the RLM introduced the standardised ''Versuchs'' (research) number system. ;Ar 68E :First type to enter ''Luftwaffe'' service, powered by a

, at sea level for 5 minutes, ) at . ;Ar 68F :Interim production, powered by a BMW VI 7.3Z; ) at sea level for 1 minute, ) at , awaiting supply of Jumo 210 engines. ;Ar 68G :Abortive attempt to fit a supercharged BMW VI. ;Ar 68H :Only a single prototype was built, powered by a )

BMW 132Da The BMW 132 was a nine-cylinder radial aircraft engine produced by BMW starting in 1933. Design and development BMW took over a license for manufacturing air-cooled radial engines from Pratt & Whitney on 3 January 1928. The nine-cylinder mo ...

9-cyl.

supercharged In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement. The current categorisation is that a supercharger is a form of forced induct ...

air-cooled

radial Radial is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Mathematics and Direction * Vector (geometric), a line * Radius, adjective form of * Radial distance, a directional coordinate in a polar coordinate system * Radial set * A bearing f ...

. It had two additional machine guns in the upper wing and had an enclosed cockpit, the first Arado aircraft to be so treated.

Operators

; *''

'' ; *

Spanish Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = Spanish Air and Space Force Anthem , mascot = , anniversaries = 10 December , equipment ...

Specifications (Ar 68F)

References

{{Authority control Single-engined tractor aircraft Biplanes Arado Ar 068 Ar 068 Aircraft first flown in 1934

Design and development

Variants

Operators

Specifications (Ar 68F)

See also

References