BV 141 - The Most Asymmetrical Airplane of WW2

it didn't look like it should be able to fly despite blowman voss being a famed ship and seaplane builder during world war ii it might be the creation of the bv141 for which it's most remembered despite only 20 in some form or another having actually been built the german airframe was easily distinguished by its unique structural asymmetry a single engine on the main body of the aircraft with a pod containing the pilot an observer and a rear gunner mounted on the starboard side the bb-141 was initially intended to be a reconnaissance plane and sought to offer unparalleled visibility from the pod compared to other single engine cockpits where clear sight lines were greatly restricted [Music] the rex lift up miniserium was reportedly aghast when the bazaar configuration was submitted as a proposal in a design contest yet the plane won over a number of fans most notably luftwaffe colonel general ernst udit after it satisfied nearly every mission requirement in testing hermann goering luftwaffe supreme commander remained unconvinced competing against the bb-141 with a focal wolf fw 189 uhu and the erado ar 198 even though the contest design requirements demanded a single engine aircraft proposal both submitted twin engine designs chief designer of the bb-141 dr richard fucht refused to be moved however and pushed forward with an unusual [Music] prototype [Music] the german erection of that ministeria mandated a single engine three-seater aircraft for short-range reconnaissance and observation they emphasized it have excellent visibility in response both errado and focal wolf submitted proposals the head of hamburger flukes like bao richard fucht pursued a novel approach with bloom and voss hamburger flukes like bau's parent company at that time the aircraft company was mostly known for its flying boats or float planes which were used by the german luftwaffe yet the registered fafsarium had all been promised erado the contract of the airplane they were developing the 198 favored by german officials at the time yet that aircraft turned out to be a disappointment and was subsequently abandoned after our autos attempt volkevolf earned the contract for its fw 189 uhu they failed to provide single engine because of the twin boom design which required two small engines richard fuchs proposal was a part of his passion project however the german government had not invited him or bloemann foss to participate nevertheless he did not let that stop him he delivered a unique asymmetrical design [Music] his belief was that the only way to create the intended single-engine plane was to develop a light bomber with an asymmetrical configuration walter bloem and his company long held the idea that military need for flying boats would give way to commercial business after the war [Music] sea planes would eventually replace passenger ferries and boat lines to transport people across continents and countries following this line of thinking loman vos always sought to keep their designs and developments considering possible commercial interest despite their limited capacity previous world war one infantryman and aviator richard fucht designed his own aircraft for over 10 years before joining bloemann voss although his early designs didn't suffice he did create a name for himself in the aviation industry that was familiar described him as an ambitious and outspoken character who was focused and driven [Music] with the unique vision for the future of aviation he held his designs to higher standards than the industry rather than work on traditional aircraft he wanted to innovate as world war ii began aircraft production transitioned from wood and canvas biplanes to metal monoplanes design and development took a conventional approach to military and civilian planes this model required a contoured fuselage that tapered at the rear with an engine in front of the cockpit furthermore almost all designs featured standardized straight edge wings in the forward portion of the airframe with vertical fins positioned at the tail few tried to innovate yet engineers struggled with drawbacks to the conventional airframes first the cockpit's design left crews with poor visibility above and behind its wings and engine since the forward-mounted engine was almost always centralized the propeller's air circulated motion in a way that aggressively hit rudders this forced the planes to run counter to pilot controls not only that but the conventional engine placement forced pilots to regularly counteract the unwanted friction the plane's torque skewed flight to one side caused by the conventional plane's powerful engine needed to rotate its large propeller although symmetrical airframes were the norm the planes did not fly symmetrically therefore richard folke sought to find another type of design that could provide symmetric performance and handling [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the blowman vos bv141 was a standout aircraft for its unique design it used plexiglas glazed gondola starboard which provided excellent visibility similar to that of the fw 189 but with even more glass paneling this cockpit could carry a pilot an observer and a gunner to man rear artillery the fuselage on the port side carried the bmw 132 n radial engine and extended to the tail unit at first look the aircraft's weight distribution seemed like it would cause roll however weight was evenly supported by lift the original design laid out a symmetrical tail plane made asymmetrical for the 141b with the starboard tail plane removed to improve the rear gunner's view for firing the initial prototype while novel was still conventional compared to the final form a pair of slim booms one of them slightly offset towards the port side of the center line generated the power plant and tail unit the other offset towards starboard had a plexiglass crew nacelle this provided excellent visibility for the three-man crew with two cylindrical structures attached to each other using a single long straight edge wing design with clipped tips the wings were mounted towards the front of the design in standard monoplane configuration the tail unit or empanadas was simply a rounded highly swept tail plane and a horizontal tail plane towards the port side this first design carried a conventional radial piston-powered three-blade propeller system charged by a single bmw 801a engine with 1560 horsepower and a maximum speed of 272 miles per hour this first prototype could fly up to 31 810 feet with a range of 1181 miles once the final design was set the bb-141 featured its single tail system with an asymmetrical arrangement the plane distributed its weight and fixed the handling problems which plagued previous aircraft [Music] [Music] loman voss contributed significantly to the development of float planes used by the german air force for strategic bombing during world war ii yet their contribution to asymmetric design was also significant the engineers developing the aircraft knew it would be one of the most unique planes of the world war ii era in line with the novel planes and military developments germany produced developers knew that keeping the engine in the nose without placing the cockpit above it would offer more efficient aerodynamics than conventionally arranged aircraft furthermore this choice would prove an asymmetric airframe could maintain the same quality of performance and handling as symmetric models valtter blom hoped that the bb-141 would bewilder the enemy due to its shape and lead them to believe it was a fighter and not a bomber from the start of development in 1938 his company found that a plane capable of going against the hurricane mk-1 was needed the intrepid hurricane aircraft had been used previously by allies on the western front and was still being used unfortunately their passion project and excitement led to several errors being overlooked until prototypes were fully produced the first major problem was the rudder was under constant assault from drag another prominent issue was the cockpit placement novel and helpful for aerodynamics it left crews vulnerable more extended wing was lengthened to maintain balance needed for the additional weight of the machine guns and crew [Music] three prototypes were completed for testing with an evaluation batch of five version a production was reportedly backed by german private and luftwaffe general ernst udette yet their exclusive ministerium established on april 4th 1940 that while the plane mostly exceeded expectations it's still underperformed nevertheless it showed promise as a reconnaissance plane therefore in 1939 germany ordered 500 bb-141s although the engineers and designers were somewhat disappointed that their intended bomber failed they were grateful to receive a contract at all by 1941 production was almost ready to enter full swing yet after 12 examples were shown the german government decided that the unique design of the bv141 couldn't be produced as efficiently as more conventional aircraft [Music] instead it still relied on their significant stock of focal volt 189s which performed well enough the 12 confirmed production aircraft featured more powerful and impressive bmw 801 engines which may have also played a role in the plane's cancellation as these engines were still urgently needed for the fw 109 fighter plane the fate of the bb-141 was ultimately sealed after an allied bombing raid destroyed the focal factory in bremen it was manufacturing the fw 200 condor an aircraft model used as one of hitler's personal transport and envisioned as a heavy bomber supporting germany's thrust into the soviet union bloemann vos could do nothing as much of their production capacity was taken over by the condor as the allies took germany soldiers discovered the wreckage of several bb-141s at least one was collected by british forces and sent back to england for examination record entries in the bibliography of scientific and industrial reports suggest that the us's air material command may have gotten their hands on at least one other bb-141 for testing as well based on german records of production a total of 20 bv141bs were produced rather than the widely believed set of only 12. none of the aircraft or its 38 planned variants ever saw combat some were only ever piloted during testing between 1939 and 1940. the initial plan to send as many of them to the eastern front as possible for reconnaissance never materialized sadly not a single bloemann voss bb-141 survives to this day as the war in europe concluded richard fult was brought to the united states as part of operation paperclip where his interest in unconventional aircraft designs continued he reportedly worked on designs for nuclear-powered bombers before joining boeing as a civilian [Music] consultant you

Channel: Dark Skies

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Keywords: aviation, documentary, history, airplane, airplanes, aircraft, ww2, wwii, history channel, aviation channel, aviation history, short documentary, world war 2, world war ii, planes, germany, german, luftwaffe, bv 141, bv141, bv-141, Blohm & Voss, documentaries, aeroplane, ww2 documentary, flight, blohm und voss, blohm & voss bv 141, blohm and voss, reconnaissance

Id: dOcZJ_PYW2E

Length: 13min 23sec (803 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 12 2020

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wiki : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blohm_%26_Voss_BV_141