The Focke-Wulf Fw 42 was a design for a twin-engined medium bomber, of
canard configuration, that was designed by
Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG in
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 ...
in the early 1930s. Several air forces expressed interest in the aircraft. However, despite its advanced design being proven sound in
wind tunnel
Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...
testing, the Fw 42 failed to win a contract for development, and no examples of the type were ever built.
Development and design
Designed by
Heinrich Focke
Henrich Focke (8 October 1890 – 25 February 1979) was a German aviation pioneer from Bremen and also a co-founder of the Focke-Wulf company. He is best known as the inventor of the Fw 61, the first successful German helicopter.
Biography ...
in response to a 1929 specification issued by the Air Department of the
Reichswehr
''Reichswehr'' () was the official name of the German armed forces during the Weimar Republic and the first years of the Third Reich. After Germany was defeated in World War I, the Imperial German Army () was dissolved in order to be reshape ...
,
[Herwig and Rode 2000, p. 17.] the design of the Fw 42 was based on that of Focke's earlier
F 19 ''Ente'' (
German: "Duck") light transport.
The aircraft's design featured a long, slender fuselage with gun positions at each end, an aft-mounted wing with a "tail-first", or canard, configuration, fully retractable tricycle
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 ...
, and an internal
bomb bay
The bomb bay or weapons bay on some military aircraft is a compartment to carry bombs, usually in the aircraft's fuselage, with "bomb bay doors" which open at the bottom. The bomb bay doors are opened and the bombs are dropped when over t ...
.
[Lepage 2009, p. 144.] The aircraft was planned to be operated by a crew of six.
Early versions of the Fw 42 design featured
vertical stabiliser
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 ...
s mounted on the end of the wing, with additional fins located just outboard of the engine nacelles, for a four-tail arrangement. In addition, these early concepts featured the canard being mounted above the fuselage in a parasol arrangement, which had been used on the F 19. As the design was developed between 1931 and 1933, the canard was moved from the top to the bottom of the fuselage, to improve vision for the pilot and field of fire for the forward gunner. In addition,
wind tunnel
Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...
tests of the four-fin configuration showed that it did not provide a significant advantage over a single, large fin, and so the latter configuration was adopted for simplicity.
The Fw 42 was intended to be powered by two
BMW VI 12-cylinder, liquid-cooled engines, which were expected to provide a top speed of nearly ,
and a range of over .
Evaluation and cancellation
A full-scale
mockup, including working gun turrets, of the Fw 42's final design was constructed. Focke-Wulf promoted the design for export sales as well as Luftwaffe service, with the Russians and Japanese reported as expressing interest in the type, and one or both nations' representatives examining the mockup. However, despite the fact that wind tunnel tests of the design's unconventional configuration provided promising results, indicating that the concept was sound, no contracts for development were ever issued, and the Fw 42 project was abandoned.
Recovery of data
At the end of World War II, technical information on the Fw 42 was lost in the destruction of sensitive data by Focke-Wulf. However, in 1969, excavation of the site on which the data had been stored revealed that the folders containing information on the aircraft had survived nearly completely undamaged.
Specifications
See also
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
*Herwig, Dieter and Heinz Rode. ''Luftwaffe Secret Projects: Strategic Bombers 1935-1945''. Midland Publishing, 2000. .
*Lepage, Jean-Denis G.G. ''Aircraft of the Luftwaffe, 1935-1945: An Illustrated Guide''. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009. .
{{RLM aircraft designations
Canard aircraft
Abandoned military aircraft projects of Germany
Fw 042
1930s German bomber aircraft
High-wing aircraft
Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft