Fieseler Fi 156

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Fieseler Fi 156

Type	Reconnaissance & communications
Manufacturer	Fieseler
Maiden flight	Spring 1936
Introduced	1937
Status	Out of service
Primary user	Luftwaffe
Number built	2,900
Variants	Antonov OKA-38 MS.500 Criquet

The Fieseler Fi 156 Storch (stork) was a small liaison aircraft built by Fieseler before and during World War II, and production continued in other countries into the 1950s for the private market. It remains famous to this day for its excellent STOL performance, and French-built later variants are a common fixture at air shows.

[edit] Design and development

In 1935, the RLM (Reichsluftfahrtministerium — “Reich Aviation Ministry”) put out a tender for a new liaison aircraft for the Luftwaffe to several companies. Fieseler's entry was the most advanced in terms of STOL performance, by far. A fixed slat ran along the entire leading edge of the long wings, while the trailing edge, inspired by earlier 1930s Junkers aircraft wing control surface designs, including the ailerons, was a hinged and slotted flap. The wings could be folded back along the fuselage, allowing it to be carried on a trailer or even towed slowly behind a vehicle. The long legs of the landing gear contained oil and spring shock absorbers that compressed about 450 mm (18 inches) on landing, allowing the plane to set down almost anywhere. In flight they hung down, giving the aircraft the appearance of a very long-legged, big-winged bird. Hence its nickname, the Storch. With its very low landing speed the Storch often landed "at place" or even backwards, in case of wind from directly ahead.

[edit] Versions

Swiss Air Force Fi 156C-1

The first Fi 156A prototype flew in the spring of 1936. It was powered by a V-8 180 kW (240 hp) Argus As 10 C engine, which gave the plane a top speed of only 175 km/h (109 mph). An Argus As 10 C engine can be seen in the foreground in the lower picture. But that power was not wasted; the Storch could fly as slow as 50 km/h (32 mph), take off into a light wind in less than 45 m (150 ft), and land in 18 m (60 ft). It was immediately ordered into production by the Luftwaffe with an order for 16 planes, and the first Fi 156As entered service in mid-1937.

Fieseler then offered the Fi 156B model which allowed for the retraction of the leading edge slats and a number of minor aerodynamic cleanups, boosting the speed to 208 km/h (130 mph). The Luftwaffe didn't consider such a small difference to be important, and Fieseler instead moved on to the main production version, the C model.

The Fi 156C was essentially a "flexible" version of the A model. A small run of C-0s were followed by the C-1 three-seater liaison version, and the C-2 two-seat observation plane with a MG 15 machine gun in the rear for defense. Both models entered service in 1939. In 1941 both were replaced by the C-3 with a "universal cockpit" that could be used in any role. Last of the Cs was the C-5, which was a C-3 model that included a hardpoint under the fuselage for a camera or fuel tank. Some were fitted with skis, rather than wheels, for landing in snowy regions.

[edit] Operational history

Fi 156 in Luftwaffe markings

The Storch could be found on every front throughout the war. It will probably always be most famous for its role in the rescue of deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from a boulder-strewn mountaintop, surrounded by Italian troops. German commando Otto Skorzeny dropped with 90 paratroopers onto the peak and quickly captured it, but the problem remained of how to get back off. A Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Drache helicopter was sent, but it broke down en route. Instead, pilot Walter Gerlach flew in a Storch, landed in 30 m (100 ft), took aboard Mussolini and Skorzeny, and took off again in under 80 m (250 ft), even though the plane was overloaded. The involved Storch rescuing Mussolini bore the radio code letters "SJ + LL" in motion picture coverage of the daring rescue.

On 26 April 1945 a Storch was one of the last planes to land on the improvised airstrip in the Tiergarten near the Brandenburg Gate during the Battle of Berlin and the death throws of the Third Reich. It was flown by the test pilot Hanna Reitsch, who flew he lover Field Marshall Robert Ritter von Greim from Munich to Berlin to answer a summons from Hitler. Once in Berlin von Greim was informed that he was to take over command of the Luftwaffe from Hermann Goering.^[1]

A Storch was the victim of the last dog fight on the Western Front and another was fittingly downed by a direct Allied counterpart of the Storch - a Piper L-4 Grasshopper-from the L-4's crew directing their pistol fire at it. The involved Storch was the only aircraft known to have been downed by handgun fire in the entire war.

A total of about 2,900 Fi 156s, mostly Cs, were produced from 1937 to 1945. When the main Fieseler plant switched to building Bf 109s in 1943, Storch production was shifted to the Mráz factory in Czechoslovakia. A large number were also built at the captured Morane-Saulnier factory in France, starting in April 1942, as the MS.500 Criquet. Both factories continued to produce the planes after the war for local civilian markets (in Czechoslovakia it was made as K-65 Čáp, 138 were made by 1949).

During the war at least 60 Storchs were captured by the Allies, one becoming the personal aircraft of Field Marshal Montgomery.

Because of its superb STOL characteristics (which would be of obvious great benefit to bush pilots, for example) there have been many attempts to recreate or outright copy the Storch in modern form, namely in the form of various homebuilt aircraft.[1]