German Luftwaffe Warplanes of the Second World War: Fieseler Fi 167

German Luftwaffe Warplanes of the Second World War: Fieseler Fi 167

Deutsche Flugzeuge aus dem Zweiten Weltkrieg: Fieseler Fi 167

The aim of this website is to locate, identify and document Warplanes from the Second World War that have been preserved. Many contributors have assisted in the hunt for these aircraft to provide and update the data on this website. Photos are as credited. Any errors found here are by the author, and any additions, corrections or amendments to this list of Warplane Survivors of the Second World War would be most welcome and may be e-mailed to the author at [email protected].

Ziel dieser Website ist es, erhaltene Kampfflugzeuge aus dem Zweiten Weltkrieg zu lokalisieren, zu identifizieren und zu dokumentieren. Viele Mitwirkende haben bei der Suche nach diesen Flugzeugen mitgewirkt, um die Daten auf dieser Website.bereitzustellen und zu aktualisieren. Fotos gelten als gutgeschrieben. Alle hier gefundenen Fehler sind vom Autor und Ergänzungen, Korrekturen oder Ergänzungen zu dieser Liste der Überlebenden des Zweiten Weltkriegs sind sehr willkommen und können per E-Mail an den Autor unter [email protected] gesendet werden.

(Kriegsmarine Photo)

Fieseler Fi 167 torpedo bomber.

The Fieseler Fi 167 was a German carrier-based torpedo and reconnaissance biplane, developed in the late 1930s for service aboard the Kriegsmarine's planned aircraft carrier, Graf Zeppelin. Though technically advanced for its class and impressively maneuverable, the Fi 167 never entered large-scale production due to strategic shifts and the eventual cancellation of Germany's naval aviation ambitions.

The Graf Zeppelin's primary offensive power would have been its aircraft complement. Graf Zeppelin would have carried 42 aircraft as designed: 12 navalized Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bombers, 10 Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters, and 20 Fieseler Fi 167 torpedo bombers. Later during the construction process, the aerial complement was reworked to consist of thirty Ju 87s and twelve Bf 109s, and the Fi 167s were removed altogether. As designed, Graf Zeppelin was to be fitted with eight 15-cm SK C/28 guns for defence against surface warships. This number was later increased to sixteen. Her anti-aircraft battery consisted of ten 10.5-cm SK C/33 guns, later increased to twelve, twenty-two 3.7-cm SK C/30 guns, and twenty-eight 2-cm guns. The ship's flight deck was protected with up to 45 millimeters (1.8 in) of Wotan Weich steel armour. A 60-mm (2.4-inch) thick armoured deck was located under the deck to protect the ship's vitals from aerial attacks. Graf Zeppelin had a waterline armour belt that was 100-mm (3.9-inch) thick in the central area of the ship.

The aircraft exceeded by far all requirements, had excellent handling capabilities and could carry about twice the required weapons payload. Like the company's better known Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, the Fi 167 had surprising slow-speed capabilities; under the right conditions, the plane would be able to land almost vertically on a moving aircraft carrier. During a test flight, Gerhard Fieseler himself let the plane drop from 3,050 to 30 metres (10,000 to 100 ft) while staying above the same ground point. For emergency landings at sea the Fi 167 could jettison its landing gear, and airtight compartments in the lower wing would help the aircraft stay afloat at least long enough for the two-man crew to evacuate.Two prototypes (Fi 167 V1 and V2) were built, followed by twelve pre-production models (Fi 167 A-0) which had only slight modifications from the prototypes.

ince the Graf Zeppelin was not expected to be completed before the end of 1940, construction of the Fi 167 had a low priority. When construction of the Graf Zeppelin was stopped in 1940, the completion of further aircraft was stopped and the completed examples were taken into Luftwaffe service in the Erprobungsgruppe 167 evaluation/test unit, with nine Fi 167s taken to the Netherlands for coastal trials. When construction of the Graf Zeppelin was resumed in 1942 the Ju 87C took over the role as a reconnaissance bomber, and torpedo bombers were no longer seen to be needed. The Fi 167s returned to Germany in mid-1943. After that they were sold to Croatia.The remaining planes were used in the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt (German Aircraft Experimental Institute) in Budweis, Czechoslovakia, for testing different landing gear configurations. The two test aircraft had their lower wings removed just outboard of the landing gear to increase the sink rate for some of the tests. The Fi 167's short-field landing and load-carrying abilities made it ideal for transporting ammunition and other supplies to besieged Croatian Army garrisons, between their arrival in September 1944 and the end of the war. (Wikipedia)