Well the actual development of rotary-winged craft was amazing enough as it was-


Dr. Heinrich Karl Johann Focke developed several helicopters that flew during WW II. The FA 269 tilt-rotor concept will be seen but there were several viable models of normal rotary wing craft too.

In late 1940, pilot Karl Bode flew the Fa 223 Drache (kite) V1 over to the Rechlin test center where its performance set a new world helicopter speed record of 113 MPH with a climb rate record of 1,732 feet per minute and an altitude record of 23,294 feet. In America 1944 Igor Sikorsky’s R-4B had a top speed of only 75 MPH with a ceiling of 8,000 feet.

Five versions were envisioned- an anti submarine helicopter carrying either two 550-lb. bombs or depth charges, a reconnaissance helicopter; for search and rescue; a transport helicopter; and a dual control trainer.

The Fa 223 made 115 flights before a crash destroyed it. Other prototypes continued to test lift capabilities in field operations. 1,100 lbs. could be hauled 6,500 feet high in seven minutes. In actual combat conditions in February 1945 a 223 picked up a downed Bf 109 pilot near Danzig and overflew Russian forces to safety. The mission, commencing at Templhoff Airdrome, racked up 1,041 miles proving the machines usefulness.

This machine would have rescued Mussolini had it in service the day of his mountain top rescue.

At the war’s end a Luftwaffe pilot escaped to France then on to England making the first crossing of the English Channel by helo. Most of the Allies got their hands on surviving Fa 223 examples and the rest is history.

The Fa223 weighed 11,000 lbs. with its twin rotors spanning 39.3 feet in diameter. The fuselage was 40.2 feet long. Takeoff power came from a fan-cooled 1,000 HP BMW Bramo 323 9-cylinder radial aft of the cockpit. Normal output was 620 HP. It could cruise at 76 MPH for 435 miles with auxiliary fuel, had a 109 MPH top speed, a climb rate of 1,100 FPM and a ceiling of 16,000 feet. This type of performance would not be seen till much later in post-war machines.

Focke was not left behind in performance helos either. The Fa 283 was to mount an unnamed jet engine in the fuselage driving a three-blade rotor. The jet was not to turn those blades directly but instead would provide thrust to make an auto-gyro effect. It had fully retractable landing wheels. No other specifications exist.

The much later Sikorsky Skycrane notion was already considered in the Fa 284. The 2-seater was to use two 59.5-foot side-by-side, outrigger rotors above a 45-foot fuselage that made it about half again the size of the Fa 223. 1,600 HP BMW 801 radials mounted on the outriggers so complex gearing or shafts were not needed. Empty it would weigh 8,100 lbs. and loaded 26,460 lbs.

It would cruise at 129 MPH with a top speed around 155 MPH and be able to climb at 1,000 FPM. Range was estimated at 248 miles but lifting weights were not proposed.
It was proposed that two Fa 223s be combined to accomplish the same job with four rotors and the venture was cancelled in 1943.

With his pioneering work in helicopters, Dr. Heinrich Karl Johann Focke had already built and flown several designs. The Fa 223 was quite progressive with a twin rotor layout and seating for four in a fully enclosed fuselage. Three survived the war in airworthy condition.

But Focke predated the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor craft by half a century with his Fa 269! It was called a convertiplane back in 1943 during its design. The 32.9-foot wings each had a DB 605 at mid-span driving large diameter (16 feet proposed) three-blade pusher props. The fuselage of 29.1 feet in length sat on a very snout-high landing gear with a transparent nose floor housing a 2-man crew. The possible uses in WW II are the same as today’s making it a handy aircraft.

In Focke’s layout he didn’t envision the whole wing rotating like the Osprey, only the engines and their props downward at 85-degrees. There was a special pivoting gearbox at the front of each engine, from which a drive shaft passed back between the engine cylinder banks to drive its propeller behind the wing’s trailing edge. In the completely down position, the propellers were almost parallel to the ground. For this reason a very long tail wheel was needed, which retracted into the fuselage.

Maximum speed was reasoned to be about 373 MPH depending on the horsepower and engine model. Further specs are not known. The project was dropped in 1944 since considerable development was needed for the special gearboxes, drives, pivoting mechanisms and prop pitch controls for landing and taking off. Since the wings didn’t tilt they could continue to provide lift even during slow forward travel as transition of the engines occurred.

I'd say that if helos had been developed a bit earlier they would have contributed to logistics in Korea with the ability to lift larger payloads in rescue work and deploying troops with the concept of armed rotor craft being experimented with about then.

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