The Focke-Wulf Fw 62 was a reconnaissance floatplane, designed and built by Focke-Wulf for use by

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 ...

's '' Kriegsmarine''. Only four were built.

Design and development

In 1936 the RLM, the German ministry of aviation, formulated a requirement for a shipboard seaplane for reconnaissance missions, to replace the

Heinkel He 114 The Heinkel He 114 was a sesquiwing reconnaissance seaplane produced for the ''Kriegsmarine'' in the 1930s for use from warships. It replaced the company's He 60, but did not remain in service long before being replaced in turn by the Arado Ar ...

. The aircraft was to be light, with a maximum weight of 2.5 tons and a crew of one or two, and suitable for catapult launching. Equipment and armament were to be kept to a minimum. Focke-Wulf competed with the Fw 62, a conventional biplane design. The Fw 62 was of mixed construction and powered by a 705 kW (945 hp)

BMW 132 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 mode ...

K radial engine. The engine was tightly cowled and drove a two-bladed propeller. The biplane wings were of equal span and featured two N-type struts on each side. They could be folded for shipboard storage. Each wing had a plain flap and an aileron.

Operational history

First flown on 23 October 1937 the Fw 62 V1 twin floats, while the Fw 62 V2 had a large central float and smaller outboard stabilising floats. Official tests began in

Travemünde Travemünde () is a borough of Lübeck, Germany, located at the mouth of the river Trave in Lübeck Bay. It began life as a fortress built by Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, in the 12th century to guard the mouth of the Trave, and the Danes ...

in the summer of 1937. The Fw 62 was a capable aircraft and well liked by test pilots, but the competing

Arado Ar 196 The Arado Ar 196 was a shipboard reconnaissance low-wing monoplane aircraft built by the German firm of Arado starting in 1936. The next year it was selected as the winner of a design contest and became the standard aircraft of the ''Kriegsmarin ...

monoplane was both conceptually and structurally more modern, and was chosen for production.

Specifications (Fw 62 V1)

References

External links

Focke Wulf Fw 62 Reconnaissance
at Luftwaffe Of The Reich {{RLM aircraft designations Aircraft first flown in 1937 Biplanes Floatplanes Fw 062 1940s German military reconnaissance aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft

Design and development

Operational history

Specifications (Fw 62 V1)

See also

References

External links