Focke-Wulf

Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during World War II. Many of the company's successful fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.

History
The company was founded in Bremen on 24 October 1923 as Bremer Flugzeugbau AG by Prof. Henrich Focke, Georg Wulf and Dr. rer. pol. Werner Naumann Almost immediately, they renamed the company Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG (later Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH).

Focke-Wulf merged, under government pressure, with Albatros-Flugzeugwerke of Berlin in 1931. Albatros-Flugzeugwerke engineer and test pilot Kurt Tank became head of the technical department and started work on the Fw 44 Stieglitz (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.

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.

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 continued handling the financial affairs of Focke-Wulf as chief of Seehandel A.G.

Hanna Reitsch demonstrated the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first fully controllable helicopter (as opposed to autogyro), in Berlin in 1938. The four-engined Fw 200 airliner flew nonstop between Berlin and New York City on August 10, 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 August 13, 1938 took 19 hours and 47 minutes. These flights are commemorated with a plaque in the Böttcherstraße street of Bremen.

The Fw 190 Würger (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.

Repeated bombing of Bremen in World War II resulted in the mass-production plants being moved to eastern Germany and Poland, with AGO Flugzeugwerke of Oschersleben as a major subcontractor for the Fw 190. Those plants used many foreign and forced labourers, and from 1944 also prisoners of war. Focke-Wulf's 100 acre plant at Marienburg produced approximately half of all Fw 190s and was bombed by the Eighth Air Force on October 9, 1943.

Many Focke-Wulf workers, including Kurt Tank, worked at the Instituto Aerotécnico in Córdoba, Argentina between 1947 and 1955. Focke-Wulf began to make gliders in 1951, and in 1955, motorised planes. Focke-Wulf, Weserflug and Hamburger Flugzeugbau joined forces in 1961 to form the Entwicklungsring Nord (ERNO) to develop rockets. 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. Focke-Wulf formally merged with Weserflug in 1964, becoming Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW), which after several further mergers is now part of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V. (EADS).

List of Focke-Wulf aircraft

 * Focke-Wulf S 2
 * Focke-Wulf A 16
 * Focke-Wulf A 17/A21/A29
 * Focke-Wulf GL 18
 * Focke-Wulf F 19 Ente (Duck)
 * Focke-Wulf A 20
 * Focke-Wulf S 1
 * Focke-Wulf W 4
 * Focke-Wulf S 24
 * Focke-Wulf Fw A 21
 * Focke-Wulf C.20 license-built (autogyro)
 * Focke-Wulf C.30 Heuschrecke (Grasshopper), license-built (autogyro)
 * Focke-Wulf L 101 D Albatros
 * Focke-Wulf A 32 - airliner
 * Focke-Wulf A 33 - airliner
 * Focke-Wulf A 38 - airliner
 * Focke-Wulf S 39
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 40
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 42 Bomber (canard configuration)
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 43 utility aircraft
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 44 Stieglitz (Goldfinch), trainer (biplane)
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 47 weather aircraft
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 56 Stösser (Falcon Hawk), trainer (parasol monoplane)
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 57, twin-engined heavy fighter + bomber (prototype)
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 58 Weihe (Kite), transport + trainer
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 61, helicopter (prototype)
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 62, ship-borne reconnaissance (biplane seaplane)
 * Focke-Wulf Ta 152, interceptor/fighter (derived from Fw 190)
 * Focke-Wulf Ta 154 Moskito (Mosquito), night-fighter with wood structure like its British namesake
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 159, fighter (prototype only)
 * Focke-Wulf Ta 183, jet-engined fighter (prototype)
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 186, autogiro reconnaissance aircraft (prototype)
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 187 Falke (Falcon), twin-engined heavy fighter ("Zerstörer")
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 189 Uhu (Owl), twin-engined army cooperation/tactical reconnaissance
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger (shrike/butcher-bird), fighter/interceptor
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 191, twin-engined Bomber B design competitor (prototype)
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor, multi-engined passenger airplane + maritime patrol-bomber

Planned/unfinished designs

 * Focke-Wulf Fw 42 - bomber aircraft
 * Focke-Wulf Ta 154 - interceptor/fighter (derived from Fw 190)
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 160 - A design for a four-engined bomber with a twin-boom, unconnected tail.
 * Focke-Wulf Ta 254 - proposed version of the Ta 154 fighter.
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 206 - commercial aircraft project
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 259 Frontjäger (concept)
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 260 - 1960s VTOL airliner proposal
 * Focke-Wulf Ta 283 - interceptor fighter project
 * Focke-Wulf Fw 300 proposed long-range version of Fw 200
 * Focke-Wulf Ta 400 - Amerika Bomber design competitor, never built
 * Focke-Wulf Fw P.0310.025-1006
 * Focke-Wulf Fw P.0310.025 - A 1944 design with a swept wing, a forward-swept V-tail, and two pusher propellers at the rear.
 * Focke-Wulf Fighter Project w/BMW803 - A design with a connected twin boom tail, slightly swept back wings, and two pusher propellers at the rear.
 * Focke-Wulf Flitzer - fighter project
 * Focke-Wulf Project I
 * Focke-Wulf Project II
 * Focke-Wulf Project III
 * Focke-Wulf Project VIII
 * Focke Rochen - 1950s VTOL fighter project
 * Focke-Wulf Super Lorin - Ramjet-rocket combo powered fighter
 * Focke-Wulf Fw Triebflügel - tail-sitter VTOL interceptor design
 * Focke-Wulf Volksjäger - rocket-powered interceptor fighter project
 * Focke-Wulf VTOL Project
 * Focke-Wulf 1000x1000x1000 series of bomber designs