Focke-Wulf Fw 238

The  'Focke-Wulf Fw 238'  was a four-engine (six engined in its variant Fw 238 C) low wing  strategic bomber developed by the  German aeronautical company Focke-Wulf-Flugzeugbau AG in the early 1940s and remained at the project stage. Designed to the same specifications issued by the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM) which led to the Focke-Wulf Ta 400 and Junkers Ju 390, its development was cancelled by the RLM.

Design and development
In March 1941 the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (ministry of the air, abbreviated RLM), the ministry that during the Nazi period was responsible for the whole aviation of Germany, expressed the need to acquire a new long-range bombardment aircraft capable of carrying a war load of 5,000 kg of bombs with a range of 15 000  km. Focke-Wulf and Junkers responded to the request by starting a project for a large tactical bomber suitable to meet the specifications issued.

Focke-Wulf planned the development of an all-encompassing four-engine aircraft in a trailing configuration that could be equipped with the best engines currently being developed, the BMW 803 of 3 900 PS combined with four-bladed propellers counter-rotating or Junkers Jumo 222. The long fuselage integrated the cockpit pressurized for the five (or according to other sources ten) crew members on the front, the ventral bomb compartment and a empennage bi  drift chosen to improve the shooting range of the two  barbette hydraulically driven backbones equipped with a pair of  cannoncini] automatic  MG 151/20  gauge  20 mm. To these were two other identical barbette and, optional for the antinave configuration, a gondola equipped with 4 cannons MK 108 caliber 30 mm. The landing gear chosen re-proposes a classic configuration, with the two front axle springs cushioned and equipped with twin wheel  integrated by a third rotated element placed near the tail.

In addition to the three planned versions, the first two (A and B) equipped with the four supermotors and a third, the Fw 238 C, which had to make up for the impossibility of being equipped with the BMW 803 and Jumo 222 still too fragile (and that failed never to overcome the reliability problems encountered) with six more traditional and reliable 12 inverted V cylinders chosen from Daimler-Benz DB 603 or Junkers Jumo 213, there was one development for a small four-engine version, equipped with radial BMW 801 D, with a length of 30.6 m by 5.8 m height with a 50 m opening wing and a surface area of 240  m².

In reality none of the versions passed the phase design and their development, which according to some estimates could have been realized at least in a prototype able to fly by the end of 1944, was definitively interrupted for an order dated 14 February 1943 in which the RLM required companies to devote themselves as a priority to the development of models to be used in the air defense of the German territory.

Variants

 * Fw 238A
 * four-engine version equipped with BMW 803 radial engines driving counter-rotating propellers.


 * Fw 238B
 * four-engine version equipped with Junkers Jumo 222.


 * Fw 238C
 * Examotor version equipped with six Daimler-Benz DB 603 or Junkers Jumo 213.


 * Fw 238H
 * small four-engine variant, length - 30.6 m, height - 5.8 m, span - 50 m, wing area 240 m2, equipped with BMW 803 engines.