In
Service: 26 June 1936 to 1945
First Flight: 26 June 1936
Manufacturer: Focke
Achgelis Number built: 2
Type: Prototype helicopter
Crew: 1 man
Length: Rotor diameter: 7.01 m
Disc area 38.6 m²
Height: Empty: 800 kg
Loaded: 953 kg
Engine:
1 ×
Siemens
Bramo Sh 14A 7 cylinder air cooled radial engine producing up to 160 hp
Maximum speed: 123 km/h
Range: 230 km
Service ceiling:
2,410 m
Armament: Bomb load up to
Electronics:
Operators: Luftwafe
Variants: Other: Prototypes
Articles: The Focke Achgelis Fa 61 was the first fully controllable helicopter.
It first flew in 1936. It is more properly known as the Fa 61 as it was a research
aircraft of the Focke Achgelis company.
Prof. Heinrich Focke and engineer
Gerd Achgelis started the design for this helicopter in 1932. The airframe was
based on that of a well tried training aircraft, the Focke-Wulf Stieglitz. A single
engine drove twin rotors, set on outriggers to the left and right of the fuselage
the counter rotation of the two rotors solved the problem of torque reaction as
also shown by Louis Bréguet Only a prototype was produced. In February
1938 it was demonstrated by Hanna
Reitsch indoors at the Deutschlandhalle sports stadium in Berlin, Germany.
It subsequently set several records for altitude, speed and flight duration
culminating, in June 1938, with an altitude record of 3,427 m and a straight line
flight record of 230 km.
The Warplanes
of the Third Reich.
ISBN-10: 0385057822
German Aircraft of the Second
World War.
ISBN-10: 0370000242
Hitler's Luftwaffe.
ISBN-10: 051718771X
For a complete list of
sources 