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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0104.PDF
104 FLIGHT Four more personalities: Karl Schwarzler, technical director of Heinkel A.G. and chief designer since 1922; Arthur Rothe, director of Focke-Wulf; Hans Hornung of Messerschmitt, who designed the post-war MelOO and Me200 in Spain; and a political supporter of the aviation industry, State Secretary Professor Leo Brandt of North Rhine-Westphalia. GERMANY'S AVIATION INDUSTRY . . . As for the Noratlas, the present programme is that the fuselagewill be made by Blohm und Voss, the mid-wing by "Weser," the wing-tips by Henschel, and the tailplane and engine nacelles bySiebel—the components from the other firms to be shipped to Hamburg for assembly by Blohm und Voss, where the best runwayis said to be available. Group II.—This is also a northern group, consisting simplyof Focke-Wulf G.m.b.H., Bremen, and the engineering office at Duisburg of Professor Blume, late chairman of Arado, and designerof the most promising jet aircraft of the war, the Ar234 four- engined reconnaissance bomber, which was able to photographBritain unmolested. It was he who recently obtained the licence for the production by Focke-Wulf of the Piaggio 149 primarytrainer—work which has not yet started. Though Prof. Tank, former chief designer of Focke-Wulf,recently returned to Germany from the Argentine, there is no immediate indication of his rejoining his old firm, which at presentconsists of a humble administrative building on the edge of Bremen airport and a waste of blasted workshops, only one of which hasso far been recommissioned. The floor space of this building occupies 12,000 square metres (129,600 sq ft), and its presentproduction consists of Kranich III and Weihe gliders, light metal products for the shipbuilding industry, appliances and tools forthe automobile industry, and hydraulic apparatus for industrial workshops—all of which, it was stressed, are readily switchableto aircraft production. I also saw under construction the prototype fuselage of the first all-German, all-metal post-war aircraft, theBlume 500—a four-seater, single-engine job which will no doubt meet the needs of the German Aero Club more cheaply thanimported aircraft. Though Focke-Wulf at present have a nucleus of only 200trained workers, some 10,000 former employees are still in Bremen, currently employed in the automobile (Borgward) and shipbuilding("Weser") industries. The present director, Arthur Rothe (no relation to the chairman of the Association) is also optimisticabout the resurrection of at least some of the neighbouring work- shops, whose steel structures are intact. So, relatively speaking,is the financial structure, inasmuch as 25 per cent of the firm's capital is owned by Cafe Hag, Bremen (coffee importers), and afurther 25 per cent by the firm of Lorenz, Stuttgart, makers of radio amplifiers, teleprinters, telephone apparatus, etc., which inturn is owned by the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation of the U.S.A., and from which firm Herr Rothemoved over three years ago. Though it looks as if it will be some time before Focke-Wulfcan begin the series production of any aircraft, the association with Prof. Blume and his designing team should provide plenty offuture scope. According to reports the Professor already has a twin-engined turboprop civil aircraft on the drawing board, forinitial production probably by Piaggio in Italy. The Bremen run- way, moreover, is 2,000 metres (2,190 yd) long. The Southern Groups.—With the East gone, there are prac-tically no aviation firms between the extreme north and the extreme south, and none at all in that otherwise highly industrialprovince, North Rhine-Westphalia. (The plan largely sponsored by Leo Brandt to utilize the waste factory area of Kxupps in Essenseems to have been discarded.) Group III therefore comprises the firms of Ernst Heinkel A.G.and Messerschmitt A.G., whose first official commitment for the Luftwaffe is expected to be the construction of the French Fouga CM. 170R Magister jet trainer, for which Prof. Messerschmitt' has obtained the licence. The present Heinkel factory at Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen is all thatis now left of his former empire that stretched from Rostock, the headquarters on the Baltic, to Vienna and the Tyrol. It wasbought in 1941, at the instance of the German air ministry, from the Hirth Motorenwerke for the purpose of developing Heinkelturbojets like the He S.ll and S.30. These never reached the operational stage during the war, though six of the former werebuilt afterwards for experimental use by the U.S. Navy. The factory is quite unsuitable for airframe production, andHeinkel only got it back in 1950. Since then the production has consisted of Mopet light motor cycles (to ride which in Germanyno licence is required!), plus engines, some two-stroke, with two, three or four cylinders, for delivery vans and cars. A furtherworks at Karlsruhe was acquired in 1954 for the production of the Heinkel Tourist scooter, and, recently, a third works has beenadded, at Speyer. Provisionally the last is allocated to the pro- duction of the new Heinkel cabin scooter, due to appear this year;but this is also where aircraft production is planned. The ground is flat, a runway will be available, and no doubt the presses usedfor scooter bodies can be adapted to airframes. Few of the present 1,400 employees will go to Speyer, but advertisements in theGerman aviation Press for aircraft technicians imply that a re- cruiting drive is afoot. ; Two views of the Me200 designed by the Messerschmitt team working in Spain. The aircraft is a jet trainer powered by two Turbomeca Marbore 2 engines. Something of the characteristic Messerschmitt stamp is apparent in the side view.
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