The Focke Wulf Alternativer Antriebsflügel - DONE!

[PR19_Kit]

That's what I figured when I thought about it.

I could paint spirals on the spinners of the baby props though, IF I had a single haired brush...................... 

[jcf]

You'd just need to have a tighter spiral. 

[zenrat]

You'd just need to have a tighter spiral. 

I am feeling sleepy...my eyes are closing...i feel compelled to do what Jon tells me...i am a chicken bwaaaarrrrrk, bwuk bwuk bwuk...

[PR19_Kit]

I've filled the gunports in on the Alternativer Antriebsflügel, as it would be pretty short on fuel with that socking great DB V12 in the middle of the fuselage, so every little bit of weight would count.

I've also fully primed it and it's looking quite good now. As for the colour scheme, I'm toying with doing it all NMF, with some panels picked out in different shades. My logic for that is that it's the V1 prototype, a 'proof of concept' aircraft, and the RLM probably wouldn't give damn what colour it was painted in, plus paint is heavy............ 

[Rick Lowe]

And silver with the German crosses is sufficiently 'different'... well, the whole project is too, but you know what I mean.

[jcf]

Mostly bare aluminum with some steel panels in RLM 02?

[PR19_Kit]

The Alternativer Antriebsflugel is done. 

A mix of scanned, self-printed, and commercial decals for the number codes were painfully applied this morning, and some paint trimming carried out last night, and now it's as good as it's going to get.



The Type 345 Alternativer Antriebsflugel was Focke Wulf's third attempt at proving this concept would actually work with a piston engine before they started on the planned production ramjet powered version. The previous two attempts had ended in abject failure as the somewhat puny BMW 116 V12 engine was too heavy for its power output, and the Versuch A shook itself to bits without even leaving the ground. The similarly powered Versuch B just about lifted off, after a radical weight reduction programme had taken place, but the pilot, Herrman Solche, was so surprised that it HAD lifted off that he tried to turn the machine horizontally far too low and the spinning rotors struck the Bremen control tower, wrecking itself and the tower, and putting him in hospital for some time!

After an even more radical re-design the 'Ultimativen Alternativer Antriebsflugel' was built, and powered by a much more suitable DB 605. This had a much greater power/weight ratio than the BMW 116 and promised to finally prove the technology actually worked. The FW Design Office were so confident that the 'Dritte Versuch' would work that they gave it a pre-prototype number of 'V0', the 'V1' number being reserved for the ACTUAL ram jet powered prototype.



The re-design and build took some 9 months, and in that time Herr Solche had recovered enough to re-take his place in the Alternativer Antriebsflugel's cockpit, and by early April 1945 was ready to make yet another attempt to prove the concept. With all three tip propellers spinning away, the main rotor wing accelerated up to its intended take-off speed and after a short while the development team gave Solche the OK to lift off. Easing back on the stick increased the angle of incidence of the rotor wing and the Alternativer Antriebsflugel lifted smartly into the air. This time Solche was ready for the event and climbed to almost 1000 ft before attempting to transition into horizontal flight, but no sooner had he done so when he got a fuel warning light come up on his panel, and had to make immediate preparations to return to earth!



As this entailed slowing down and turning nose up, while at the same time throttling up to prevent a rapid, tail first descent, Solche had his hands full, to say the least.  Backing down towards the surface, while checking the somewhat lo-tech rear television cameras mounted on the four tailfins was not easy, and required 3-4 attempts, and subsequent rapid increases in throttle to prevent a crash landing, but on the 5th attempt it was case of 'do or die' almost literally as the 2nd fuel warning light had shown meaning that there was less than a minutes worth of fuel left!

Luckily Solche managed to plonk all five wheels on the landing pad at around the same time at which point the engine shut down having run out of fuel totally. Solche had to be helped from the cockpit as he was shaking so badly and he demanded to be returned to the hospital where he'd been for the previous few months!



While the FW Design Office were pleased that their concept had been proved to work, the lack of endurance of the V0 meant that the full flight envelope couldn't be explored. Of course the much larger and fuel thirsty DB605 took up much of the space in the small fuselage of the aircraft, leaving only enough fuel for very brief flights. Work commenced immediately on the V1 ramjet powered Type 345, but had made little progress by the time WWII in Europe came to an end in September that year, only the airframe having been adapted from that of the V0 aircraft, and the entire project came to an end.

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I'm afraid any pics of the Alternativer Antriebsflugel can't help but look similar as it looks the same from almost any direction, so the ones above are what you get, bar the fourth one of the totally outrageous landing gear. Those gear doors, all TEN of them, are the very devil to stay attached, and I've re-glued most of them at least once each. 

[Old Wombat]

       Nice one, Kit! 

[Rick Lowe]

Cool!
Poor Herrman...

[NARSES2]

That does look good Kit 

Poor Herrman...

Depends on whether or not "that" nurse had been moved on to another ward

[Wardukw]

  
Very nicely done matey 😊😊

[Rick Lowe]

Depends on whether or not "that" nurse had been moved on to another ward

Oh, I hadn't considered that... I like the way you think. 
Very Steiner and Cross of Iron...

[Glenn Gilbertson]

Great model & story - well done, Kit!

[frank2056]

It came out great! Props vs ramjets makes it slightly more realistic.

Those little doors are pure evil, in plastic.

[63cpe]

Ah, beautiful! This conversion is realistic and funny at the same time. Love it!

David aka 63CPE