It was in the Third Reich that helicopters were first created, which took part in hostilities. Back in 1940, the Kriegsmarine ordered a naval helicopter from the developers, which would be capable of being based on ships. The Fl-282 Kolibri helicopter, created by designer Flettner, has shown its effectiveness. It was supposed to be built in a series of 1000 copies, however, due to the bombing of German enterprises of BMW and Flettner by allied aviation, these plans remained impracticable. In total, up to 24 units of these rotorcraft were produced, most of which were destroyed due to fears that the helicopters would fall into the hands of the enemy. After the occupation of Germany, the Allies got only 3 Fl-282 helicopters: one went to the USSR, two to the United States.
Light helicopter Fl.282 Kolibri (Hummingbird)
Helicopter Fl.282 "Kolibri" from the very beginning was created as a two-seater - with an observer, which significantly increased the advantages of the machine as an air reconnaissance aircraft. The observer was immediately behind the propeller posts, facing back. Such an arrangement made it possible to carry out flights without a passenger, without disturbing the center of the helicopter. The project of the machine was prepared by July 1940, and at the Flettner plant in Johanishtal, work began immediately on 30 prototypes and 15 pre-production models of the machine. For the start of flight tests, the first 3 Fl.282 helicopters were assembled single-seater with a fully enclosed cockpit, but later they were converted into two-seater open-cockpit helicopters.
For the first time in the practice of designer Flettner, he installed the Bramo 14A engine in the middle of the fuselage. As a result of this decision, the helicopter pilot received excellent visibility. The engine was cooled through the open lower part of the fuselage using a special wooden fan. The engine was started by blowing the cylinders with compressed air. The engine worked on a transmission, which provided rotation of 2 independent propeller shafts, which had a brake and devices for disconnecting from the engine. The gear ratio of the transmission was 12, 2: 1.
The machine's two two-bladed propellers were synchronized so that their blades were parallel at a 45 degree angle of rotation. The angle of installation of the propellers was 12 degrees away from the fuselage and 6 degrees forward. The propeller blade was made with wooden ribs and a steel spar. The blades of the helicopter were mounted on hinges, which ensured the rotation of the blade vertically and around the axis; the vertical hinge had a damper. The pitch of the propellers was controlled by a special inertial device, which provided a given rotational speed. In order to prevent the loss of the propeller bearing properties when the helicopter switches to the autorotation mode, the rotational speed was set to 160 rpm. At the same time, the pilot could control the pitch of the propeller by increasing the number of revolutions. Under a certain set of circumstances, the screws could get into resonance.
In the tail section of the Fl.282 helicopter, the usual empennage was placed, a rather large area due to the shading of the fuselage. The control of the helicopter along the course was carried out using the swashplate of both propellers and the rudder. In the autorotation mode, the pilot of the car used only the rudder, since in this mode the swashplate was ineffective. The fuselage of the vehicle consisted of welded steel pipes, which were covered with sheets of light alloy in the central section and fabric in the tail section and on the empennage. The landing gear of the Kolibri helicopter was three-column, the steering wheel was nose-wheel.
Fl.282 Kolibri became the most advanced and, accordingly, flying helicopter of Hitler's Germany, he was able to complete the entire course of tests. The main work during the test flights fell on the tester "Flettner" Hans Fuisiting, who performed on a helicopter and blind flights in cloudy conditions. He also trained about 50 pilots on Fl.282. One of the newcomers died during a blind flight in cloudy conditions. It was found that the cause of the accident was exceeding the maximum dive speed, which was 175 km / h. At the same time, if necessary, the Fl.282 helicopter could land in the autorotation mode and without using the propeller pitch control machine.
In general, the Fl.282 Kolibri helicopter turned out to be stable in flight and very maneuverable - at a speed of 60 km / h, the pilot could afford to give up control of the machine. At lower flight speeds, there was some longitudinal instability of the machine, especially at a speed of 40 km / h. A small disadvantage of the helicopter could be called a weak vibration on the ground, which disappeared after takeoff. Despite the fact that the design of a number of units was heavy and unnecessarily complex, on the whole it turned out to be quite well thought out - as part of the tests, one helicopter flew 95 hours without replacing any units. The engine had a service life of 400 hours between bulkheads.
At the beginning of 1942, the German fleet was very actively testing the helicopter in the Baltic, including in a storm. For testing on one of the towers of the cruiser "Cologne" a special helipad was built. Several dozen take-offs and landings were made from this site, including at least one in very difficult weather conditions. By 1943, at least 20 Fl.282 helicopters were built, which were used for reconnaissance and cover for convoys in the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. Although little is known about the helicopter's combat career, it has been established that at least three Fl.282 and the same Fa.223 were in the 40th Air Transport Squadron in April 1945. It is assumed that some of these helicopters can take part in the evacuation of the besieged Breslau Gauleiter Hanke shortly before the capture of the city.
The empty weight of the helicopter was 760 kg., The take-off weight was 1000 kg. The maximum speed at the ground reached 150 km / h, the maximum speed when moving sideways was 24 km / h. The static ceiling was 300 meters, the dynamic ceiling was 3300 meters. The flying range of the car with one pilot was 300 km, with a full crew - 170 km.
Multipurpose helicopter Fa.223 Drache (Dragon)
Initially, the Focke Achgelis Fa.266 was built by order of Lufthansa and was supposed to become a 6-seater civilian helicopter. In the end, he was lucky enough to become the first generation of transport helicopters. The first prototype of the vehicle was created at the end of 1939, but the outbreak of the Second World War quickly transformed it into a combat one. The helicopter received the designation Fa.223 "Drache" (Dragon). After completing ground tests, which lasted a total of 100 hours, the helicopter took off in August 1940. The vehicle was planned to be used as part of reconnaissance, anti-submarine, rescue, transport and training.
The flight program of the Fa.223 helicopter progressed very quickly. Already on October 26, 1940, the helicopter was able to reach a speed of 182 km / h with a take-off weight of 3,705 kg. Two days later, the car was able to climb to a height of 7,100 meters. All of these results were world records. Almost immediately, the Fokke-Ahgelis plant received an order for 30 helicopters of this type.
The fuselage of the helicopter consisted of 4 sections. The bow section had a large glazing area, which provided excellent visibility for the observer and pilot. There was a door on the starboard side of the cargo hold. Here, in the cargo compartment, there were sealed oil and gas tanks. Next was the propulsion section, and then the tail section. The fuselage of the helicopter was welded from steel pipes and sheathed with sheets of light alloy in the area of the engine and with cloth. The machine was equipped with a 1000-horsepower Bramo -323Q-3 Fafnir engine. A 20 cm gap was left between the engine section and the adjacent ones, which provided the intake and outlet of cooling air to the propulsion system. Two helicopter propellers were located on tubular struts. Elongated shafts and a gearbox were used to drive the screws. A propeller brake was mounted on the right shaft. The gear ratio of the transmission was 9, 1: 1, the rotational speed of the screws was 275 rpm. The propeller axes were tilted slightly forward and inward by 4, 5 degrees.
The classic tail, with a strut stabilizer, was used only for heading control. Longitudinal control of the machine was provided by cyclic change of the screw pitch, lateral control by differentiated change of the screw pitch by pressing the corresponding pedal, while the rudder was also used. All control of the helicopter was cabled. Unlike other helicopter models, there were only 2 pitch control knobs - for the autorotation mode and for motor flight. The pilot could not change the pitch of the propeller during the flight, but used only the throttle (engine control lever), which reduced the characteristics of the helicopter and flight safety. Because of this, a special skill was required from the pilot in controlling the helicopter at low speeds and in hovering mode. The nose wheel of the helicopter was freely orienting and could be rotated 360 degrees; the wheels were equipped with brakes on the main landing gear struts.
The equipment of the Fa.223 "Drache" helicopter had to change depending on the tasks solved by the machine. Almost all versions of the helicopter, except for the training one, were equipped with an MG-15 machine gun, which was located in the bow, a FuG-101 altimeter and a FuG-17 radio station. The rescue version was equipped with an electric winch, the scout - with a hand-held camera. Under the helicopter it was possible to place a drop tank with a capacity of 300 liters, and in the anti-submarine version, 2 depth charges of 250 kg each. The transport version of the car could carry goods on an external sling. A rescue boat could be installed in the tail section of the Fa.223 helicopter.
From the initial order for 30 helicopters, before the bombing of the plant in Bremen, only 10 were assembled, the rest of the helicopters were destroyed at varying degrees of readiness. After that, the company moved to Laupheim, near Stuttgart, where they managed to assemble another 7 cars. At the beginning of 1942, their military tests were to take place, but due to various problems, by July 1942 only 2 machines were flying. Despite this, the successful tests of the helicopter, especially its transport potential for supplying ground units, allowed the military to order another 100 helicopters, of which only 8 were tested, and 6 were destroyed during the Allied bombing of Laupheim in July 1944. The production of the Fa.223 helicopter had to be restored for the third time, this time in Berlin. It was planned to expand production with the release of 400 helicopters per month, but at this stage of the war, this plan was simply utopian.
Despite all the efforts in Germany, only 10-11 Fa.223 "Drache" helicopters flew at the same time, with a total flight time of only 400 hours. During this time, the helicopters covered 10,000 km. The maximum flight time on a car was 100 hours. Helicopter Fa.223 "Dragon" has shown itself as a fairly reliable and irreplaceable vehicle for air transportation of bulky cargo, as well as for rescue operations. It was on it that Skorzeny originally intended to take Mussolini out of his place of imprisonment in September 1943. The helicopter confidently transported guns, parts of missiles, bridges and other bulky cargo that did not fit in the compartment on its external sling, acted as a fire spotter, participated in communications and transport operations.
The empty weight of the helicopter was 3175 kg., The take-off weight was 4310 kg. Maximum flight speed 176 km / h, cruising speed 120 km / h. The ceiling is 2010 meters, the flight range with an external fuel tank is 700 km.
