Fieseler Fi 167

Last updated
Fi 167
Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1977-110-06, Flugzeug Fieseler Fi 167.jpg
Fi 167 A-05
General information
Type Torpedo bomber
National originNazi Germany
Manufacturer Fieseler
Primary users Luftwaffe
Number built14
History
Manufactured1938-1940
First flight12 November 1937

The Fieseler Fi 167 was a 1930s German biplane torpedo and reconnaissance bomber designed for use from the Graf Zeppelin class aircraft carriers under construction from 1936 to 1942.

Contents

Development

In early 1937, the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (German Ministry of Aviation) issued a specification for a carrier-based torpedo bomber to operate from Germany's first aircraft carrier, the Graf Zeppelin construction of which had started at the end of 1936. The specification was issued to two aircraft producers, Fieseler and Arado, and demanded an all-metal biplane with a maximum speed of at least 300 km/h (186 mph), a range of at least 1,000 km (631 mi) and capable both of torpedo and dive-bombing. [1] By mid-1938 the Fieseler design proved to be superior to the Arado design, the Ar 195. [2]

The aircraft exceeded by far all requirements, had excellent handling capabilities and could carry about twice the required weapons payload. Like the company's better known Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, the Fi 167 had surprising slow-speed capabilities; under the right conditions, the plane would be able to land almost vertically on a moving aircraft carrier.[ citation needed ] During a test flight, Gerhard Fieseler himself let the plane drop from 3,050 to 30 metres (10,000 to 100 ft) while staying above the same ground point.[ citation needed ]

For emergency landings at sea the Fi 167 could jettison its landing gear, and airtight compartments in the lower wing would help the aircraft stay afloat at least long enough for the two-man crew to evacuate.[ citation needed ]

Two prototypes (Fi 167 V1 and V2) were built, followed by twelve pre-production models (Fi 167 A-0) which had only slight modifications from the prototypes.

Operations

Germany

Since the Graf Zeppelin was not expected to be completed before the end of 1940, construction of the Fi 167 had a low priority. When construction of the Graf Zeppelin was stopped in 1940, the completion of further aircraft was stopped and the completed examples were taken into Luftwaffe service in the Erprobungsgruppe 167 evaluation/test unit, with nine Fi 167s taken to the Netherlands for coastal trials. [3]

When construction of the Graf Zeppelin was resumed in 1942 the Ju 87C took over the role as a reconnaissance bomber, and torpedo bombers were no longer seen to be needed. [3] The Fi 167s returned to Germany in mid-1943. After that they were sold to Croatia. [4]

The remaining planes were used in the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt (German Aircraft Experimental Institute) in Budweis, Czechoslovakia, for testing different landing gear configurations. The two test aircraft had their lower wings removed just outboard of the landing gear to increase the sink rate for some of the tests. [3]

Croatia

The Fi 167's short-field landing and load-carrying abilities made it ideal for transporting ammunition and other supplies to besieged Croatian Army garrisons, between their arrival in September 1944 and the end of the war.

During one such mission, near Sisak on 10 October 1944, an Fi 167 of the Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia, flown by eight-kill ace nar Bozidar Bartulovic, [5] was attacked by five North American Mustang Mk IIIs of No. 213 Squadron RAF. Three Mustangs' pilots, Sqn Ldr Clifford Vos and Sgts D.E. Firman and W.E. Mould, claimed a "single engined biplane, possibly a Fi 167" over Martinska Ves. Bartulovic was wounded in the head and the aircraft set alight, but Bartulovic's gunner, Mate Jurkovic, before bailing out, claimed one of the Mustangs. British records stated that Mould's aircraft was hit in the combat and wrecked in a subsequent crash-landing, possibly one of the last biplane "kills" of the war. [6]

Survivors

No examples of this aircraft are known to have survived.

Operators

Flag of Independent State of Croatia.svg  Croatia
Flag of Germany (1935-1945).svg  Germany

Specifications (Fi 167A-0)

Data fromWarplanes of the Third Reich. [7] [8]

General characteristics

Performance

Armament

See also

Related development

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

Related lists

Notes

  1. ↑ Green 1970, p. 37.
  2. ↑ Smith and Kay 1972, p. 147.
  3. 1 2 3 Smith and Kay 1972, p. 148.
  4. ↑ Lisko, T. and Canak, D., Hrvatsko Ratno Zrakoplovstvo u Drugome Svejetskom Ratu (The Croatian Airforce in the Second World War) Zagreb, 1998
  5. ↑ Savic and Ciglic, 2002, p. 67.
  6. ↑ Savic and Ciglic, 2002, p. 68.
  7. ↑ Green 1970, p.170.
  8. ↑ Green, William (2010). Aircraft of the third reich. Volume one. [S.l.]: Crecy. pp. 324–327. ISBN   9781900732062.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg</span> German World War II attack aircraft

The Fieseler Fi 103R, code-named Reichenberg, was a German manned version of the V-1 flying bomb. It was developed towards the end of the Second World War and was intended to be used as a human-guided bomb in suicidal attacks against the advancing Allies.

German aircraft carrier <i>Graf Zeppelin</i> Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carrier

The German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin was the lead ship in a class of two carriers of the same name ordered by the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany. She was the only aircraft carrier launched by Germany and represented part of the Kriegsmarine's attempt to create a well-balanced oceangoing fleet, capable of projecting German naval power far beyond the narrow confines of the Baltic and North Seas. The carrier would have had a complement of 42 fighters and dive bombers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fairey Albacore</span> 1938 torpedo bomber by Fairey Aviation

The Fairey Albacore is a single-engine biplane torpedo bomber designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Fairey Aviation. It was primarily operated by the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm (FAA) during the Second World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinkel He 59</span> 1931 military floatplane family by Heinkel

The Heinkel He 59 was a twin-engined German biplane designed in 1930, resulting from a requirement for a torpedo bomber and reconnaissance aircraft able to operate on wheeled landing gear or twin-floats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arado Ar 197</span> Prototype fighter by Arado

The Arado Ar 197 was a German World War II-era biplane, designed for naval operations for the never-completed German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin. Only a few prototypes were built; the project was abandoned in favour of the Messerschmitt Bf 109T and Me 155.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fieseler Fi 98</span>

The Fieseler Fi 98 was a prototype ground-attack aircraft produced by German aircraft manufacturer Fieseler as a rival to the Henschel Hs 123.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yokosuka B4Y</span> Japanese carrier-borne torpedo bomber

The Yokosuka B4Y was a carrier-borne torpedo bomber used by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service from 1936 to 1943. The B4Y replaced the Mitsubishi B2M2 and the Yokosuka B3Y, and was the last biplane bomber used operationally by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Allied reporting name was "Jean". This aircraft was mistakenly identified by the British as the Nakajima Navy G-96.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arado Ar 95</span> 1937 reconnaissance floatplane by Arado

The Arado Ar 95 was a single-engine reconnaissance and patrol biplane designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Arado.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arado Ar 195</span> Prototype torpedo bomber by Arado

The Arado Ar 195 was a single-engine prototype carrier-based torpedo bomber, built by the German firm Arado for service on the German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin, during World War II.

<i>Graf Zeppelin</i>-class aircraft carrier Kriegsmarine aircraft carrier class, built 1936–1943

The Graf Zeppelin-class aircraft carriers were four German Kriegsmarine aircraft carriers planned in the mid-1930s by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder as part of the Plan Z rearmament program after Germany and Great Britain signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. They were planned after a thorough study of Japanese carrier designs. German naval architects ran into difficulties due to lack of experience in building such vessels, the realities of carrier operations in the North Sea and the lack of overall clarity in the ships' mission objectives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia</span> WW2 military service branch

The Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia, was the air force of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a puppet state established with the support of the Axis Powers on the territory of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during World War II. The ZNDH was founded under German authority in April 1941, following the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Croatian Air Force Legion</span> Military unit

The Croatian Air Force Legion, or HZL, was a unit of the Luftwaffe, composed entirely of volunteers drawn from the nazi puppet-state, the Independent State of Croatia. Many of them had previously served in the Royal Yugoslav Air Force in April 1941 during the Nazi Invasion of Yugoslavia.

Air warfare during World War II in Yugoslavia pitted the Yugoslav Air Force, both Royal and NOVJ, United States Army Air Force (USAAF), the Royal Air Force (RAF), including the Balkan Air Force, and Soviet Air Forces against the German Luftwaffe, the Italian Regia Aeronautica and the Air Force of the Independent State of Croatia. The latter provided the majority of the support for the ground operations against the Partisans. The Allied forces engaged in an extensive bombing campaign in an effort to weaken the Axis hold on the country.

Waldau Army Airfield is a former military airfield, located 4.0 km south of Kassel in Hesse, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mitsubishi 2MB2</span> Japanese light bomber prototype

The Mitsubishi 2MB2 or Experimental Washi-type Light Bomber was a prototype Japanese single-engined biplane light bomber of the 1920s. A single example was built for the Imperial Japanese Army, but no production followed.

Waldau Airfield/Waldau Army Airfield was a military and civilian airfield in Waldau, Kassel, Germany.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.