Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau
AG (German pronunciation:[ˌfɔkəˈvʊlf]) was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during
World War II.[1] Many of the company's successful
fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the
Focke-Wulf Fw 190. It is one of the predecessor companies of today's
Airbus.
History
The company was founded in
Bremen on 24 October 1923 as Bremer Flugzeugbau AG by Prof.
Henrich Focke,[a]Georg Wulf[b] and Dr. rer. pol.
Werner Naumann.[c] Almost immediately, they renamed the company Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG (later Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH).[2]
Focke-Wulf merged, under
government pressure, with
Albatros Flugzeugwerke of
Berlin in 1931. The Albatros Flugzeugwerke engineer and test pilot
Kurt Tank became head of the technical department and started work on the
Fw 44Stieglitz (Goldfinch).
Dr
Ludwig Roselius became Chairman in 1925 and handed over to his brother Friedrich in early 1933. In 1938 Roselius' HAG combine increased its shareholding to 46% and
C. Lorenz AG secured 28%. The company was reconstituted as Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH and no longer had to publish its accounts. A substantial capital injection occurred at this time.[3]
In August 1933 Hans Holle and Rudolf Schubert were given power of attorney over the Berlin branch of Focke-Wulf. Then in October 1933, Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau A.G. Albatros Berlin was officially registered with the Department of Trade.[4]
Dr Roselius always remained the driving force of Focke-Wulf. He and his closest collaborator,
Barbara Goette, often met with technical director Professor Kurt Tank. When Roselius died in May 1943, Heinrich Puvogel (later chair of Focke-Wulf) raised 4 million RM and continued handling the financial affairs of Focke-Wulf as chief of Seehandel A.G.[5]
Hanna Reitsch demonstrated the
Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first fully controllable
helicopter (as opposed to
autogyro), in
Berlin in 1938.[6] The four-engined
Fw 200 airliner flew nonstop between
Berlin and
New York City on 10 August 1938, making the journey in 24 hours and 56 minutes. It was the first aircraft to fly that route without stopping. The return trip on 13 August 1938, took 19 hours and 47 minutes. These flights are commemorated with a plaque in the
Böttcherstraße street of
Bremen.
The
Fw 190Würger (Shrike/butcher-bird), designed from 1938 on, and produced in quantity from early 1941–1945, was a mainstay single-seat fighter for the Luftwaffe during
World War II.
ITT Corporation, which had acquired a 25% stake in the company prior to the war, won $27 million in compensation in the 1960s for the damage that was inflicted on its share of the Focke-Wulf plant by WWII Allied bombing.[9] Colonel
Sosthenes Behn,
Ludwig Roselius and
Barbara Goette outfoxed
Hitler in 1936 when he tried to have Roselius removed as a major stakeholder from Focke-Wulf A.G. and reconstitution followed resulting in the privatized company Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH.[10] Focke-Wulf formally merged with
Weserflug in 1964, becoming
Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW), which after several further mergers became the
European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V. (EADS). EADS was later renamed as
Airbus SE.
In early 2021 Focke Wulf Aircraft was re-registered as a trademark across the EU, the UK and Australia as a retailer of aviation watches and associated official Focke Wulf merchandise.[11]
^Georg Wulf died during a test flight 29 September 1927.
^Dr. rer. pol. Werner Naumann is not to be confused with Dr. rer. nat.
Werner Naumann, state secretary in Joseph Goebbel's Propagandaministerium.
References
^Yenne, William (2003). From Focke-Wulf to Avrocar: Secret Weapons of World War II: The Techno-Military Breakthroughs That Changed History. New York:
Berkley Books. pp. 281–283..
^
Initially, it produced several commercial aircraft, typically with thick wings mounted high over bulky fuselages.
"Focke-Wulf". Retrieved 1 July 2006.
^Dieter Pfliegensdörfer; Volker Bergmann; Willi Elmers; Manfred Fittkau; Michael Jung; Michael Wolf; Wolfgang Günther. Wellblech & Windkanal. Arbeit und Geschäfte im Bremer Flugzeugbau von den Anfängen 1909 bis heute. Steintor, 1989,
ISBN3926028513
^Hanna Reitsch “Fliegen, mein Leben” on p. 180–198. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt Stuttgart 1952
^Gurney, Gene (Major, USAF) (1962). "The War in the Air: a pictorial history of World War II Air Forces in combat". New York: Bonanza Books: 219. {{
cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (
help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
^Sampson, Anthony: The Sovereign State, Hodder and Stoughton, 1973,
ISBN0-340-17195-2
^The Office of Military Government US Zone in Post-war Germany 1946-1949, declassified per Executive Order 12958, Section 3.5 NND Project Number: NND 775057 by: NND Date: 1977