The Arado Ar 231 was a lightweight floatplane, developed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

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 ...

as a

scout plane A scout plane is type of surveillance aircraft, usually of single-engined, two or three seats, shipborne type, and used for the purpose of discovering an enemy position and directing artillery. Therefore, a scout plane is essentially a small nava ...

for submarines by Arado. The need to be stored inside the submarine necessitated compromises in design that made this single-seat seaplane of little practical use.

Design and development

Designed from the outset for use on

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...

" cruisers", like the Type XI B, the Ar 231 was a light

parasol-wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

aircraft. The aircraft was powered by a 119 kW (160 hp)

Hirth HM 501 The Hirth HM 501 was a 6-cylinder air-cooled inverted in-line engine that was developed by Hirth Motoren GmbH in the late 1930s, from the 4-cylinder HM 500 and used principally on the submarine-born Arado Ar 231. Applications *Arado Ar 231 ...

inline engine, weighed around 1,000 kg (2,200 lb), and had a 10 m (33 ft)

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan o ...

. The design led to a simple and compact aircraft that could be fitted into a storage cylinder only 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in diameter. For ease of storage, the Ar 231's wings featured detachable sections that two operators could remove in less than six minutes. One unusual feature was an offset wing design, with the right

wing root The wing root is the part of the wing on a fixed-wing aircraft or winged-spaceship that is closest to the fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, o ...

attaching to the wing's tilted center section (elevated above the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraf ...

, as on all parasol-wing designs) and lower than the left wing root, to allow the wings to overlap when folded, so as to occupy less space. Modell Arado231 seitlich kl1

Operational history

Testing soon revealed the Ar 231s to be fragile, underpowered, and difficult to fly even during calm weather, and, as a result, development ended in favour of the

Focke Achgelis Fa 330 The Focke-Achgelis Fa 330 ''Bachstelze'' ( en, Wagtail) was a type of rotary-wing kite, known as a rotor kite. They were towed behind German U-boats during World War II to allow a lookout to see further. Development Because of their low pro ...

gyroglider A rotor kite or gyrokite is an unpowered, rotary-wing aircraft. Like an autogyro or helicopter, it relies on lift created by one or more sets of rotors in order to fly. Unlike a helicopter, gyrokites and rotor kites do not have an engine poweri ...

. Some of the testing was done on the auxiliary cruiser ''Stier'', two of the six prototypes being taken on one voyage.

Specifications (Ar 231 V1)

References

External links

Arado Ar 231
{{RLM aircraft designations Ar 231 Parasol-wing aircraft 1940s German military reconnaissance aircraft Floatplanes Submarine-borne aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1941

Design and development

Operational history

Specifications (Ar 231 V1)

See also

References

External links