Current and Finished Projects > Stories
Stealing the Stuka
upnorth:
Setting Up
The initial welcome of the former Junkers men to FMA was a genuinely warm one. The executive levels of the company were happy at the prospect of a potentially new aircraft to keep the factory going and people employed.
They were given generous access to drafting facilities and all other personel and machinery required to produce the prototype.
They were, however, also given a supervisor. The supervisor was a fellow German and a former engineer of Dornier; He was also very cold to the idea of having anything to do with the aircraft as soon as he was presented with the old Stuka blueprints and the sketches for refinements the other men had made.
The man was philosophically in complete disagreement with Hitler but still loved his homeland; he chose to leave Germany rather than be associated with the one Hitler was creating.
He had been emensely happy at the news of the Stuka prototype being destroyed and the whole program cancelled. One less tool for Hitler to use to bring others to their knees could only be a good thing. Seeing evidence that the aircraft had survived in any form made his heart sink.
Knowing full well what the original design was for, he was not in any way comforted by civilian adaptations to the design; it would always be the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing in his eyes. “It’s killer, plain and simple! You can’t civilize a killer!” was his frequent refrain.
Initially refusing to supervise the project, the man relucatntly accepted when faced with being terminated from FMA entirely. He was no Nazi, but he was also no Socialist; in the bigger picture he knew the company needed to keep producing, people needed to be kept working and profits had to be made.
At a more personal level, he knew that he was as much a disident as the Stuka was a killer. He was in Argentina as a guest and couldn’t risk doing anything to wear out his welcome. While his engineering expertise was quite valuable, it in no way made him indispensible. He’d be a dead man if he was ever deported to Hitler’s Germany; of that he was all too aware.
GTX_Admin:
Keep it coming...I hope there are also some pictures soon to illustrate this story!!!
upnorth:
After my holidays I might sit down with my sketchbook and draw a few out and post them here. My computer can't handle the drawing gear that Apophenia and some of the other profilers have .
upnorth:
Stuka Solution
As July 1936 drew to a close and the five men began their work on the refined civilian Stuka, which had tentatively been given the project name “Garza”; the Spanish term for heron; Germany was busy continuing it’s pursuit of a dive bomber.
What funding had been earmarked for the Junkers machine had been reassigned to the Heinkel He-118 dive bomber project. The Heinkel machine was left wanting in various aspects, not the least of which was its relatively shallow maximum dive angle for the dive bombing mission.
While the RLM were nonplussed by the He-118 in test flights, a japanese trade envoy who was on hand to witness them did see a great deal of potential in the aircraft as a means to build the strength of the imperial Japanese army and naval air arms. After brief negotiations the purchase of two He-118 airframes for further evaluation in Japan was completed.
With respect to the company’s existing cooperation with Heinkel, responsibility for the assembly and flying of the He-118 in Japan was placed in the hands of Aichi.
Yes and No
Aichi test pilots were generaly pleased with the He-118’s handling; army and naval pilots felt much the same way. The Admiralty and high brass of the army were more or less impressed with all but one thing, the inline engine. Japanese maintenance crews were much better versed on radial engines than inline and the Japanese maintenance infrastructure network for aero engines was build with radial engines primarily in mind.
Aichi was ordered to modify the He-118 to fly with an existing Japanese radial engine and prepare to display the type again. In October 1936, Aichi unveiled a modified He-118 married to a Mitsubishi Kinsei 44 radial engine. The display went well until the aircraft bounched on landing and went off the side of the runway and was heavily damaged.
While the aircraft was being modified to take the radial engne, German military attaches had told the higher echelons of the Japanese military of the aircraft’s intended purpose as a dive bomber. The Admiralty were not the least bit impressed that Aichi had not mentioned that aspect of the aircraft to them. That, combined with the landing incident, was enough for Aichi to be relieved of the project. Before October was over, anything to do with the aircraft was the responsibility of Yoksuka.
Yokosuka was ordered to keep the Mitsubishi engine, but modify the rest of the aircraft as required to make it fit the dive bomber mission. They were given until January of 1937 to produce a flyable prototype.
The list of alterations Yokosuka had planned for the He-118 design rivaled, and in ways exceded, the refinements planned for the Stuka’s Argentine progeny.
A Cut of the Pie
Germany and Heinkel were taken aback by what had transpired with the He-118 in Japan. It was still a Heinkel aircraft and they did not wish to lose complete control over it.
Germany was impressed at the marriage of the aircraft to a radial engine and Heinkel engineers found several of Yokosuka’s ideas for modifications to the design intriguing and worthy of merit.
With nothing better on the near horizon for a dive bomber in Germany; the RLM and Heinkel proposed a full joint project with Yokosuka which would give Japanese engineers full access to Heinkel advisors and design specifications. In turn, the cooperation would give Germany it’s much wanted dive bomber.
The German/Japanese team began working furiously on the project. January 1937 was not far off.
apophenia:
Great stuff 'north. Keep 'er coming!
I've spun off from your description of the early work - I love unbuilt projects ;)
http://beyondthesprues.com/Forum/index.php?topic=351.msg20279#msg20279
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