Aviation of World War II
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Aviation of World War II |
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Bü.180 Student
The Bü.180 Student was a monoplane whose wing and empennage had a wooden structure covered mainly with plywood and linen. The frame of the forward fuselage is welded from steel pipes, the aft fuselage is a wooden monocoque, the fuselage skin is canvas, excluding the engine, where the skin was made of light alloy. Chassis - non-retractable, tricycle, with tail support. The aircraft is equipped with one Walter Mikron II (Bu.180B) or Zundapp 9-092 (Bu.180A) engine. Two crew members are accommodated in tandem in open cockpits. The prototype made its first flight in the fall of 1937. A small series for civilian use was released. In 1938, the aircraft participated in the Trans-African flight, covering over 25,000 kilometers. The following year, it broke the world record for light sport aircraft - the Bu.180 flew over 1,000 kilometers at an average speed of 171.95 km/h.
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Bü.181 Bestmann
The Bü.181 Bestmann is a mixed design single-engine monoplane with fixed landing gear. Designed in the design bureau of the Bücker Flugzeugbau company under the direction of A. Andersson. Bucker began designing a new trainer aircraft, which was assembled using the same technology as on the Bu 180 variant. But in the closed cockpit of this apparatus, the seats were located side by side. The new Bucker Bu 181 Bestmann aircraft received a wing and empennage with a wooden load-bearing structure and plywood-fabric sheathing and a fuselage, the nose compartment of which had a steel pipe truss structure, and the tail compartment a wooden monocoque structure. The aircraft was equipped with a tricycle landing gear with a tail wheel. The Hirth HM 504 engine was used as the power plant. The prototype Bu 181 took off in February 1939. From the end of the same year, mass production began at the Bücker plant in Rangsdorf. After successful testing in the Luftwaffe, mass production of the Bü.181A variant was ordered. The number of copies built for the Luftwaffe is several thousand. As a training aircraft, it was in service in Germany and Sweden since 1940, in Bulgaria - since 1942. In March 1945, the conversion of previously built aircraft into tank destroyers armed with four rocket-propelled anti-tank grenade launchers began. In total, about 50 copies were modified. Crew - 2 people. (in the role of an attack aircraft - 1 person). Engine HM 504A. Since March 1945, three squadrons of light attack aircraft were being prepared, only one took part in the hostilities. In April, she acted against Soviet tanks near Ringingen and on the outskirts of Berlin. In Germany, production ceased in 1945. In addition to machines built by Bucker, 708 copies were assembled by Focker in the Netherlands; in the period from 1944 to 1946. 125 aircraft were produced in Sweden under the designation Sk 25 for the Swedish Air Force. Serial production also began in Czechoslovakia by Zlin. This company produced civilian versions of Z.281 and Z.381, as well as military C.6 and C.106 for the Czech Air Force. After the war, serial production under a license obtained in Czechoslovakia was started by the Egyptian company Heliopolis Aircraft Works. It produced the Zlin Z.381-like variant of the Gomhouria for several Arab states and for the Egyptian Air Force. In total, 7516 copies were built during the war years, incl. 125 copies in Sweden.
Bü.182 Kornett
In parallel with the Bü.181 Bestmann, the Bu.182 Kornett single-seat training aircraft was developed at the Bücker Flugzeugbau design bureau. This aircraft was intended for the training of fighter and dive bomber pilots. During its development, great attention was paid to high flight performance and low operating costs. The first prototype of the Bü.181A flew into the air at the end of 1938. It was a single-seat, low-wing monocoque fuselage, offset design, powered by a Czechoslovak 60 hp Walter Mikron II engine. For training in dive bombing techniques, bomb locks for four 1.5 kilogram bombs were placed under the wing. After successful testing, four more Bü.182B and Bü.182C vehicles were completed with four-cylinder Bücker BU M 700 engines with an 80 hp power. It was assumed that the Bu.182C version would become serial. However, the RLM rejected the aircraft, arguing that the Luftwaffe already has a sufficient number of training aircraft in service, although not as highly specialized. In 1943, all built aircraft were destroyed as a result of a raid by Allied bombers.
Bibliography
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