"Fatherland": Südflug Focke-Wulf FW-800, July 1963

[nönöbär]

"Fatherland": Südflug Focke-Wulf FW-800, July 1963

The Aircraft:

When the Me 262 was introduced in late WW2, it was obvious for everyone that jet engines were the new aircraft propulsion in the future. So it is not surprising that engineers started to develop jet powerd passenger aircraft after the end of the war.

After the successful Battle of Britain and Operation Sea-lion which lead to Great Britain's defeat in early 1941, teams of the RLM searched for useful work in Britain's aircraft industry and transferred to the major German aircraft manufacturers.

In 1948, Focke-Wulf presented the prototype of the FW-800, a 60 passenger jet-powered passenger aircraft using the new Jumo-008 engines - which were enlarged version of the Jumo-004 used on the Me 262.
With a range of about 2000km, the plane was  usable for air traffic within Europe and got a best-seller soon. Over 600 of those aircraft were build between 1949 and 1961. Lufthansa, being the initial user of the FW-800 used about 300 of all build planes which soon got the workhorse for short and medium range air travel.

With the fast development in the aircraft industry in the 1950s and 1960s, more modern jet aircraft were developed with higher range and capacity. Therefore, Lufthansa started to sell used FW-800 from the late 1950s on to other, smaller airlines.

Among those was the Südflug. Founded in 1958, Südflug was a first attempt to provide holiday traffic to the Mediterranean coast of Italy, Spain and Greece. First operating used FW200 and Ju90s, the airline took the chance to buy 11 FW-800 from Lufthansa in 1961.
The FW-800 were used by Südflug until 1968 when the airline went out-of-business.

The model shows the 9th FW-800 (D-ASME) in July 1963.









The Model:

The model is mainly based on a 1/44 S&M Vickers Viscount kit with the engines of a 1/72 scale Revell Me 262. Plus a few parts of the spare part box. The S&M model is very basic (never heard of this manufacturer before), but it contains a very good decal set. The original turboprops were removed and replaced by the Me-263 jet engines. The wings had to be swept a little bit backwards.
Airbrushed with Revell Aqua Color, the original decals were used for the window line as well as some of the Me 262 ones. Several other like the logo were elf made.

[Knightflyer]

Das ist sehr gut!  (unlike my level of German that I'm attempting to learn at the moment!  )

[PR19_Kit]

SUPER model, and a very relevant colour scheme too. 

[zenrat]

Wonderful.

[Leading Observer]

Excellent work And very enterprising to use Elf labour at this time of the year, before they gear up for Christmas

[Dizzyfugu]

That's lovely - ready for take-off to the German enclave on Mallorca!

[NARSES2]

That really is a nice piece of work 

[TheChronicOne]

Smashing!!! Great work!!

[nighthunter]

From the trouble that I recall you having with the kit, S&M could stand for Sadomasochism, lol!

[KiwiZac]

From the trouble that I recall you having with the kit, S&M could stand for Sadomasochism, lol!

A joke often made regarding this manufacturer's kits!

Lovely work, what a stroke of genius with the powerplant.