Focke-Wulf Fw 58 Weihe
The Focke-Wulf Fw 58 Weihe was a German twin-engine multi-role aircraft, first flown in the summer of 1935 and in Luftwaffe service from 1937 as an advanced crew trainer, particularly for navigation, and as a light transport, communications aircraft and air ambulance. Around 1,350 were built, most of them the unarmed Fw 58C with its faired-in nose, and twenty-five B-2s were built under licence in Brazil; the type served through the Second World War in second-line roles and was exported to several countries in Europe and beyond.
Why It Mattered
The Fw 58 Weihe gave the expanding Luftwaffe one twin-engine aircraft that could serve as an advanced trainer for pilots, gunners and radio operators alike. History of War describes it as a light transport, air-ambulance and navigational trainer, and it filled those roles, communications among them, through the Second World War. Around 1,350 were produced, the unarmed Fw 58C the most numerous version, and the type was exported across Europe and beyond and built under licence in Brazil. Its ambulance work earned the Fw 58C the nickname "Leukoplast-Bomber", the sticking-plaster bomber.
Design Notes
The Fw 58 was designed to the same Luftwaffe specification as the less successful Arado Ar 77. Its two 240 hp Argus As 10C inverted-V engines sat in nacelles below the low-mounted wings, which were semi-cantilevered and braced by struts linking the nacelles to the fuselage. The fuselage was a welded steel-tube structure with a mix of fabric and metal covering, the metal-framed wings were fabric-covered behind the main spar, and the main wheels retracted into the nacelles. The first prototype, flown in the summer of 1935, was a six-seat transport with a smooth streamlined nose; the second prototype introduced open gun positions in the nose and behind the cabin, each mounting a single MG 15. The fourth prototype led to the Fw 58B, whose glazed nose could carry an MG 15 machine gun and which could lift a number of bombs on racks under the wings. The definitive version was the Fw 58C, based on the eleventh prototype: an unarmed six-seat transport with the nose faired over. Fitted with floats, the B became the Fw 58BW.
Operational History
Production for the Luftwaffe began with the Fw 58 B-1, and the type entered regular service in 1937. Production reached around 1,350 aircraft, the Fw 58C accounting for the bulk of them. In German service it trained crews, above all in navigation, and worked as a communications aircraft, an air ambulance and a light transport. Many operational units were equipped with multiple aircraft, Fw 58Bs or Fw 58Cs, for light transport and communications purposes. Deutsche Luft Hansa received eight aircraft as six-passenger commercial transports before the outbreak of war. Exports went to Argentina, Bulgaria, China, Hungary, the Netherlands, Romania and Sweden, and twenty-five B-2s were built under licence in Brazil. On the Eastern Front, some aircraft sprayed infected ground to protect the German troops below. A few aircraft went to experimental work, among it early trials of aerial refuelling apparatus, and some were flown as personal aircraft by private pilots, the aeronautical engineer Kurt Tank among them.
Afterlife
The only Fw 58 on display is at the Museu Aeroespacial in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That aircraft is a B-2, one of the twenty-five licence-built in Brazil by the Fábrica de Galeão around 1941, and Brazil used the type mainly for maritime patrols. A second survivor, an Fw 58 C-2, is held in storage by the Norwegian Aviation Museum at Bodø. A third aircraft survives only as a wreck: an Fw 58 C that came down in France's Lac du Bourget during a training flight, after a low pass over the water went wrong, still lies at a depth of over 112 meters, fairly well preserved in the dark and cold water. Raising the wreckage has been proposed, but local divers oppose it, citing its status as a war grave and the risk of damage.