Category Archives: Cargo

Cargo

Cargo

Blohm & Voss FGP 227 (Anigrand, Resin)

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TYPE: Research Flying boat

ACCOMMODATION:  Crew of two

POWER PLANT: Six ILO F 12/400 air-cooled engines, rated at 21.1 hp each

PERFORMANCE: No data available

COMMENT: The FGP 227 was a scale flying model of the Blohm & Voss Bv 238 flying boat, built to provide data for the development of the Bv 238.
The proposed Blohm & Voss Bv 238 flying boat was to have an advanced hull design which had never been tried before. The Czech Flugtechnische Fertigungsgemeinschaft Prag (FGP) was engaged to build a quarter-scale test aircraft.
The FGP 227 was a faithful, approximately quarter-scale model of the proposed design, having a long, narrow hull with a high-mounted wing and conventional tail. The pilot sat in a front cockpit and the flight test observer in another one aft of the wing. Power was supplied by six 21 hp ILO F 12/400 air-cooled two-stroke engines driving three bladed propellers, mounted along the wings.The model was completed early in 1944, registered as BQ+UZ and fitted with a temporary wheeled undercarriage of ten small wheels fitted with low-pressure tyres.
Intended to allow flight tests to commence from the manufacturers airfield, the FGP 227 refused to take-off from the grass airfield. The aircraft was dismantled and transported to Erprobungsstelle See, Travemünde (E-Stelle – flying boat testing station). During transport French prisoners of war loading the wing onto flat-bed trucks allowed it to fall from a crane causing damage which was not repaired until September 1944.
Flight tests commenced in September 1944 as soon as the repairs were completed, but all six engines stopped due to fuel starvation soon after take-off, resulting in a heavy landing on the water. The FGP 227 was again repaired after which the aircraft flew several more times. By this time construction and testing of the Bv 238 had started, so no useful data was gleaned from the programme (Ref.:24).

 

 

Heavy Bomber, Reconnaissance, Cargo

Blohm & Voss Bv 238 V1, (Airmodel, Vacu)

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TYPE: Long-range Transport, Maritime Patrol and Bomber Flying Boat

ACCOMMODATION: Crew of 12

POWER PLANT: Six Daimler-Benz DB 603D liquid-cooled engines, rated at 1,900 hp each

PERFORMANCE: 264 mph at 60,000 kg at 20,000 ft

COMMENT: The Blohm & Voss BV 238 was a German flying boat, built during World War II. It was the heaviest aircraft ever built when it first flew in 1944, and was the largest aircraft produced by any of the Axis powers during World War II.
Development of the BV 238 giant flying boat began in 1941, following the success of the smaller but still enormous Blohm & Voss Bv 222 Wiking.
An approximately quarter-scale model of the Bv 238 was commissioned to test the new, long and slim hull design. Built by the Flugtechnische Fertigungsgemeinschaft GmbH in Prag (FGP), the FGP 227 arrived too late to contribute any data to the program.
Although extensive defensive armament was planned the first prototype, the Bv 238 V1, had none. It began flight trials in April 1944 but was strafed and partially sunk while moored on Lake Schaal, some miles to the east of Hamburg. One wing remained above water and it was salvaged, but by this time the war had ended and the Allies refused to let it be restored so it was taken out to deeper water and sunk.
The Bv 238 was an extremely large flying boat of conventional aerodynamic design, but bearing the usual B&V structural hallmarks of all-metal construction with a tubular steel wing main spar which also acted as the armoured main fuel tank. Of the era, only the earlier soviet Tupölev ANT-20, the americam Martin XPB2M-1 and the later Hughes H-4 Hercules had a bigger wing span. However it would be the heaviest yet flown, at 100 tonnes  fully loaded.
The hull had an unusually long and slim planing bottom, of essentially two-step design but with a row of smaller auxiliary steps behind the main one. A large nose door opened onto its cavernous interior, with the main crew cabin immediately above and behind it.
The wing was of straight, constant-chord form with tapered outer sections. Auxiliary floats were integrated into underside panels of the outer sections and could be retracted to lie flush with the wing. A catwalk ran internally along the wing in front of the tubular steel main spar, providing access to the engines in flight.
Power was provided by six 1,750 hp Daimler-Benz DB 603 liquid-cooled inverted V12 piston engines, arranged in nacelles along the leading edge of the centre section.
A landplane version, initially called the Bv 238-Land, was proposed, capable of carrying out transport, long-range bombing and transatlantic reconnaissance duties. The lower hull was replaced by a plain fairing with retractable undercarriage comprising twelve main and two nose wheels. One bomb bay filled the space between the wheel bays, another lay behind the main undercarriage. The wing floats were similarly replaced with retractable outrigger stabilising wheels. The nose wheel could be folded up, making the aircraft “kneel” and allowing vehicles to drive directly on- and off-board via a loading ramp to the nose doorway. Alternatively, passenger seating could be fitted. A further, upper deck behind the crew cockpit accommodated further passengers, bringing the total capacity to 300 troops.
Renamed the Blohm & Voss Bv 250 in 1942, three prototypes were ordered but none were finished by the end of the war (Ref.: 24).

 

Cargo

Junkers Ju 52/3m g5e (Italeri)

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TYPE: Float plane troop carrier, cargo, minesweeper

ACCOMMODATION: Crew of two plus 18 troop

POWER PLANT:  Three BMW 132T-2 radial engines, rated at 830 hp each

PERFORMANCE: 168 mph at 2,000 ft

COMMENT: The Junkers Ju 52/3m (nicknamed “Tante Ju”, “Aunt Ju”) was German trimotor transport aircraft manufactured in Germany from 1931 until the end of WW II. In total 4.845 aircraft have been built.
Initially designed with a single engine but subsequently produced as a trimotor, Junkers Ju 53 /3m – suffix “3m” means “Drei Motoren” (Three engines) it saw both civilian and military service from mid1930 onwards.
In service with Lufthansa, the Junkers Ju 52/3m had proved to be an extremely reliable passenger airplane. Therefore, it was adopted by the Luftwaffe as a standard aircraft model. The Luftwaffe had 552 Ju 52/3ms in service at the beginning of WW II. Even though it was built in great and production continued until approximately the summer of 1944; when the war came to an end, there were still 100 to 200 aircraft available.
In a military role, the Junkers Ju 52/3m flew with the Luftwaffe as a troop and cargo transport. The seaplane version, designated Junkers Ju 52/3mg5e, was equipped with two large interchangeable floats and served during the Norvegian Campaigne in 1940, and later in the Mediterranean theatre. Some Ju 52/3m’s, both floatplanes and landplanes, were also used as minesweepers, known as “Minensuchgerät” (“mine-search” aircraft). This variant, designated Junkers Ju 52/3mg6e MS, and was fitted with a 14-metre diameter current-carrying degaussing ring under the airframe to create a magnetic field that triggered submerged naval mines. The suffix “MS” was usually given to aircraft to designate them as minesweepers, like the similarly equipped Blohm & Voss Ha 139B/MS float plane, and Blohm & Voss Bv 138C-1 MS  flying boat, respectively (Ref.: 24).