Focke-Wulf Fw 187
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The Focke-Wulf Fw 187 ''Falke'' ("
Falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene. Adult falcons ...
") was a
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
aircraft developed in the late 1930s. It was conceived by
Kurt Tank Kurt Waldemar Tank (24 February 1898 – 5 June 1983) was a German aeronautical engineer and test pilot who led the design department at Focke-Wulf from 1931 to 1945. He was responsible for the creation of several important Luftwaffe aircraft of ...
as a twin-engine, high-performance fighter, but 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 ...
'' saw no role for the design, perceiving it as intermediate between 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 ...
and
Bf 110 The Messerschmitt Bf 110, often known unofficially as the Me 110,Because it was built before ''Bayerische Flugzeugwerke'' became Messerschmitt AG in July 1938, the Bf 110 was never officially given the designation Me 110. is a twin-engine (Des ...
. Later
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 ...
s were adapted to two-seats to compete with the Bf 110 in the ''
Zerstörer A heavy fighter is a historic category of fighter aircraft produced in the 1930s and 1940s, designed to carry heavier weapons, and/or operate at longer ranges than light fighter aircraft. To achieve performance, most heavy fighters were twin-e ...
'' (heavy fighter) role, but only nine aircraft were built in total.


Design and development

In the early to mid-1930s, developments in
airframe The mechanical structure of an aircraft is known as the airframe. This structure is typically considered to include the fuselage, undercarriage, empennage and wings, and excludes the propulsion system. Airframe design is a field of aerospa ...
design outpaced available
aircraft engine An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbines, although a few have been rocket powered and in recent years many ...
power. Consequently, some designs with two engines outperformed aircraft with just one engine. In European air races, the Dornier Do 17 - a military design concealed under the guise of civilian use - proved faster than single-engined fighters. Although the period of twin-engine superiority was brief, it sparked the idea in
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
of the "'' schnellbomber''" (fast bomber), which defensive fighters could not catch. Other
air force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an a ...
s also developed twin-engine fighters. In 1935, Kurt Tank suggested creating a long-range single-seat fighter as a private venture within Focke-Wulf. The idea was not to produce a heavy fighter or bomber destroyer like the Bf 110, but instead a long-range fighter with the performance of a single-seat design. Powered by the new 736 kW (1,000 PS)
Daimler-Benz DB 600 The Daimler-Benz DB 600 was a German aircraft engine designed and built before World War II as part of a new generation of German engine technology. It was a liquid-cooled inverted V12 engine, and powered the Messerschmitt Bf 110 and Heinkel He ...
, it had an expected speed of 560 km/h (350 mph). The design was unveiled in 1936 at an exhibition of new weapons, prototypes and projects held at the
Henschel Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehicle ...
factory at Berlin-Schönefeld, where it was viewed by high-ranking Nazi officials including
Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
. However, the Reich Air Ministry (RLM) rejected the design because the single-engine Bf 109 had comparable performance at half the cost. There was thought to be little need for a long-range fighter, as it was believed bombers would not need to be escorted.


Prototypes

Tank took the design to Wolfram von Richthofen, chief of the development section of the ''Technischen Amt'', the
research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...
arm of the RLM. Richthofen was not so convinced that bomber performance would remain superior to fighters, and gave the go-ahead for the construction of three prototypes on the condition that they replace the DB 600, which was in extremely short supply, with the less-powerful 515 kW (700 PS)
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 ...
. R. Blaser was assigned to detail design. In order to improve performance compared with the Bf 110, 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 aircraft t ...
was made as small as possible. This meant there was no room on the instrument panel for the complete set of engine instruments, some of which were moved to the inside faces of the engine
nacelle A nacelle ( ) is a "streamlined body, sized according to what it contains", such as an engine, fuel, or equipment on an aircraft. When attached by a pylon entirely outside the airframe, it is sometimes called a pod, in which case it is attached ...
s, as would also be done for the
Henschel Hs 129 The Henschel Hs 129 was a World War II ground-attack aircraft fielded by the German ''Luftwaffe''. The aircraft saw combat in Tunisia and on the Eastern Front. A key requirement of the original specification was that the aircraft be powered by ...
ground attack aircraft and some versions of the
Bf 110 The Messerschmitt Bf 110, often known unofficially as the Me 110,Because it was built before ''Bayerische Flugzeugwerke'' became Messerschmitt AG in July 1938, the Bf 110 was never officially given the designation Me 110. is a twin-engine (Des ...
. The engine nacelles were relatively normal, including both the engine and the main
landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...
storage, but the front-mounted engine
radiator Radiators are heat exchangers used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another for the purpose of cooling and heating. The majority of radiators are constructed to function in cars, buildings, and electronics. A radiator is always a ...
s were retractable for high speed when less frontal area was needed for the same airflow (an idea which was also used in the French
Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 Aéroplanes Morane-Saulnier was a French aircraft manufacturing company formed in October 1911 by Raymond Saulnier (1881–1964) and the Morane brothers, Léon (1885–1918) and Robert (1886–1968). The company was taken over and diversified ...
). The mainwheels were fully retractable and faired. Unlike some contemporary designs, like the Bf 109, the wing and tailplane required no struts. Thi wing's two spars passed under the pilot's seat. As was common on pre-war designs, the line of the rear fuselage flowed straight into the line of the canopy, which created less drag than a bubble canopy, but also blocked direct viewing to the rear. Cutouts in the rear fuselage and the rear section of the canopy helped compensate for this. A small window panel was fitted by the pilot's feet to improve his view for landing. The first prototype, Fw 187 V1 (D-AANA), flew for the first time in late spring 1937, with Hans Sander at its controls. In testing it demonstrated a speed of 523 km/h (325 mph) despite the use of the low-powered Jumo engines; 80 km/h (50 mph) faster than the contemporary Jumo-powered Messerschmitt Bf 109B, despite having twice the range, more than twice the weight, and using two of the same engines. Members of the RLM complained that this was due to faulty flight instruments, but further testing ruled this out. The Fw 187's climb rate and dive rates were also on par - if not superior - to the single-seater. Several changes were made to the design as a result of the testing, including new DVL propellers in place of the original Junkers-Hamiltons, and experimental twin-wheel bogies that were abandoned after testing. Blaser was concerned about flutter in the
rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...
at high speed and had a weight fitted to reduce it but in testing this caused so much flutter it was torn off at high speed. A second prototype followed with fixed radiators rather than earlier retractable versions, a semi-retractable tailwheel, changes to the
elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...
, and a
vertical stabilizer A vertical stabilizer or tail fin is the static part of the vertical tail of an aircraft. The term is commonly applied to the assembly of both this fixed surface and one or more movable rudders hinged to it. Their role is to provide control, sta ...
with reduced
chord Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...
. The engine was also upgraded to the 210G version of the Jumo, featuring direct fuel injection which resulted in a significant increase in power. New ejector-type exhaust stacks also contributed to increased speed by directing engine exhaust to the rear. Fw 187 V2 started testing in the summer of 1937, but crashed on landing when part of the main landing gear failed, and V1 was destroyed on 14 May 1938 after a high-speed pass over the Bremen facilities when the pilot, Paul Bauer, pulled up too sharply at the end of the pass resulting in a stall that sent the aircraft spinning into the ground.


Two-seater prototypes

Ernst Udet Ernst Udet (26 April 1896 – 17 November 1941) was a German pilot during World War I and a ''Luftwaffe'' Colonel-General (''Generaloberst'') during World War II. Udet joined the Imperial German Air Service at the age of 19, and eventually ...
had replaced von Richthofen in 1936. An influential proponent of high-speed
monoplane 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 confi ...
fighters, he nonetheless demanded manoeuvrability and doubted twin-engine designs could ever fully compete with single-engine types. Nevertheless, he felt the performance of the aircraft warranted development as a potential replacement for the Bf 110 in the bomber destroyer role. Even before V1 flew, Tank had been instructed to convert the design to a two-seater for this role despite the requirement for a second crew member in this role being marginal. The first two prototypes were already at an advanced stage of construction at this point, so two-seater work began on the third prototype which had just begun construction. Blaser adapted the design by stretching the fuselage slightly but the inclusion of a second crew member altered the
center of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weight function, weighted relative position (vector), position of the distributed mass sums to zero. Thi ...
which demanded the engine nacelles be modified to correct changes to handling characteristics. A new extended-length cockpit "framed" canopy was added, but due to the high line of the fuselage there was no easy way to include defensive rear-facing armament, relegating the second crew member to the role of radio operator. It was intended the offensive armament be improved by replacing two 7.92 mm (.312 in)
MG 17 machine gun The MG 17 was a 7.92 mm machine gun produced by Rheinmetall-Borsig for use at fixed mountings in many World War II Luftwaffe aircraft, typically as forward-firing offensive armament. The MG 17 was based on the older MG 30 light machine gun, ...
s with 20 mm MG FF cannons, although these were never actually fitted. Fw 187 V3 (D-ORHP) flew in spring 1938, but it suffered a starboard engine fire during one of the initial test flights and damaged its main landing gear in the resulting forced landing. It was quickly repaired and returned to service. Two additional two-seat prototypes, V4 (D-OSNP) and V5 (D-OTGN), followed in the summer and autumn of 1938 respectively. While also powered by the Jumo 210, their performance was disappointing and led to a decision that any advantages of the new type would not warrant the replacement of the existing Bf 110. The final prototype, Fw 187 V6 (D-CINY), was more heavily modified, receiving the originally specified 736 kW (1,000 PS) DB 600 engines, as well as a new surface
evaporative cooling An evaporative cooler (also known as evaporative air conditioner, swamp cooler, swamp box, desert cooler and wet air cooler) is a device that cools air through the evaporation of water. Evaporative cooling differs from other air conditioning sy ...
system for reduced drag. First flown in early 1939 it proved to have serious cooling problems (in common with other designs using the system, like the
Heinkel He 100 The Heinkel He 100 was a German pre-World War II fighter aircraft design from Heinkel. Although it proved to be one of the fastest fighter aircraft in the world at the time of its development, the design was not ordered into series production. ...
) and suffered some skin buckling and distortion. Nevertheless, during a series of carefully timed and measured runs in October 1939, the Fw 187 V6 reached 634 km/h (395 mph) in level flight, making it the fastest fighter in Germany at the time.


Production run

A small production run of three Fw 187 A-0 followed in the summer of 1939, based upon the V3 prototype and using the Jumo 210G engines. The ''Luftwaffe'', however, stated that without defensive armament the aircraft could not fulfill the ''Zerstörer'' role, and remained uninterested in the design. The three two-seat prototypes were returned to Focke-Wulf after testing at Rechlin. There was a brief study in the winter of 1942/43 as a night fighter, but the lack of room in the cockpit for
radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
equipment quickly eliminated it from contention. After rejecting the design, the RLM "recycled" their 8-187 airframe number to Junkers for their
Junkers Ju 187 The Junkers Ju 187 was a German projected dive bomber designed to replace the aging Junkers Ju 87 ''Stuka''. The Ju 187 was cancelled in 1943. Design By the time of the Battle of Britain the Junkers Ju 87 ''Stuka'' had proved very vulnerable ...
dive bomber A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact througho ...
prototype. Tank nevertheless directed a series of studies based around new versions of the basic airframe in roles including
dive bomber A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact througho ...
, night fighter,
fighter-bomber A fighter-bomber is a fighter aircraft that has been modified, or used primarily, as a light bomber or attack aircraft. It differs from bomber and attack aircraft primarily in its origins, as a fighter that has been adapted into other roles, wh ...
, high-altitude
interceptor Interceptor may refer to: Vehicles * Interceptor aircraft (or simply "interceptor"), a type of point defense fighter aircraft designed specifically to intercept and destroy enemy aircraft * Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, a police car * ...
(with greater
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 of ...
and lengthened rear fuselage), among others. These designs explored a variety of engines including the Daimler-Benz DB 601,
DB 605 The Daimler-Benz DB 605 is a German aircraft engine built during World War II. Developed from the DB 601, the DB 605 was used from 1942 to 1945 in the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter, and the Bf 110 and Me 210C heavy fighters. The DB 610, a pai ...
and even the
BMW 801 The BMW 801 was a powerful German air-cooled 14-cylinder-radial aircraft engine built by BMW and used in a number of German Luftwaffe aircraft of World War II. Production versions of the twin-row engine generated between 1,560 and 2,000 PS ( ...
radial engine The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is ca ...
. In time the Focke-Wulf Ta 154 ''Moskito'' resulted from the ''Luftwaffe'' requirement for a twin-engine heavy fighter like the Fw 187, but constructed from wood instead of light alloys but due to the different material and construction techniques Tank made no use of the Fw 187 work, instead having to design a completely new aircraft to meet this requirement. Surviving Fw 187s were apparently used as flying test beds during this program.


Operational history

An ''Industrie-Schutzstaffel'' (Industry-Defense Squadron) comprising the three Fw 187 A-0s was manned by Focke-Wulf test-pilots in defense of the factory in
Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
. Although there are claims that they scored several kills, it is likely that these were propaganda claims. The three A-0s were even sent to
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
and promoted as evidence that the aircraft was entering service to replace the Bf 110 (a similar scheme employing prototype Panzer VIs was also carried out), but by this time any such plan was long dead. The pilots reportedly found the Fw 187 generally superior to the Bf 110 in almost all respects, but the RLM quickly withdrew them from service. They returned to Focke-Wulf, where they were again used for plant defense. One Fw 187 was sent to the aerial gunnery school in
Værløse Værløse () is a town in Furesø Municipality in the northwestern outskirts of Copenhagen, Denmark. As of 1 January 2022, it has a population of 13,069. Situated on the west side of the Hillerød Motorway, between Farum Lake to the north and Søn ...
, Denmark in 1942.


Specifications (Fw 187 A-0)


See also


References


Further reading

*''Warplanes of the Third Reich'', pp. 182–187, William Green, Galahad Books, 1970, *''An Illustrated Guide to German, Italian and Japanese Fighters of World War II'', Bill Gunston,


External links


Picture of Fw 187 in flight
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Fw 187 The Focke-Wulf Fw 187 ''Falke'' ("Falcon") was a German aircraft developed in the late 1930s. It was conceived by Kurt Tank as a twin-engine, high-performance fighter, but the ''Luftwaffe'' saw no role for the design, perceiving it as intermediat ...
1930s German fighter aircraft World War II fighter aircraft of Germany Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1937 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft