FGP 227

The FGP 227 was a ¼ scale flying model of the Blohm & Voss BV 238 flying boat, built to provide data for the development of the BV 238.

Design and development
The FGP 227 was a faithful scale model with accommodation for a pilot in the front cockpit and a flight test observer in a cockpit aft of the wing. Power was supplied by six 15.7 kW ILO F 12/400 air-cooled two-stroke engines driving three bladed propellers.

Completed early in 1944 the FGP 227 (BQ+UZ) was fitted with a temporary wheeled undercarriage of ten small wheels fitted with low-pressure tyres. Intended to allow flight tests to commence from the manufacturers airfield, the FGP 227 refused to take-off from the grass airfield. To allow flight test to begin the aircraft was dismantled and transported to Erprobungsstelle See, Travemünde, (E-Stelle - flying boat testing station). During transport French prisoners of war loading the wing onto flat-bed trucks allowed it to fall from a crane causing damage which was not repaired until September 1944.

Operational history
Flight tests commenced in September 1944 as soon as the repairs were completed, but all six engines stopped due to fuel starvation soon after take-off, resulting in a heavy landing on the water. The FGP 227 was again repaired after which the aircraft flew several more times. However, by this time the BV 238 programme had been halted, not least because BV 238 V1 had been sunk at its moorings on Lake Schaal by allied fighters, so no useful data were gleaned from the programme.