Focke-Achgelis Fa 330
The Focke- Achgelis Fa 330 " wagtail " was a motorless Small gyrocopter, which was intended for use on submarines and ships.
The machines could start already at a speed of 30 km / hr. They were driven solely by the speed of the submarine and by the wind and lifted up ( autorotation ). The setup was extremely simple in design and consisted of a steel tube construction and a 7.31 m diameter measured main rotor, which consisted of three rotor blades.
The gyrocopter could be folded. They were not stored in the interiors of ships or submarines, but in two closed with watertight lids large pressure containers ( 60 cm diameter ), which were mounted vertically on the tower of the submarine. One of the containers contained the three rotor blades and the hub, the other fuselage frame, control and tail.
The launch took place from a starting table, which was mounted in the so-called winter garden of the submarine. The single observer had a greatly enlarged sight, which should improve the detection of targets. Fraud, the sight of the tower of the submarine usually no more than 5 nm, the observer could see of the wagtail of 25 nm, as the gyroplane at 300 m long tow reached a height of about 120 m.
To make the machines on a submarine ready for use, were seven minutes necessary, the packing was done in two minutes. In an emergency, the pilot could jettison the rotor and then land with the rest of the machine on a parachute hanging. More than 112 of these simple, but technically advanced for their time units have been built and used on the U- boats of the type IX D 2.
It was still working on a by a 60 hp Walter Mikron driven variant. Of this, said to have been finally assembled at Weserflug in Hoykenkamp around 200 copies. Some of them came to England in 1945 and were at the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment, RAF Beaulieu was investigated. Another prototype was completed after the war in France as SNCASO SE -3101.
Aircraft received
A number of Fa 330 are received and will be issued:
- Helicopter Museum Biickeburg, Germany
- Imperial War Museum Duxford, UK
- German Museum of Technology, Germany