Captured Luftwaffe aircraft in the RAF.

[Adam Elsdon]

Found this on YouTube, films from the period showing various German aircraft such as the ME109, FW190, HE111 and Stuka etc in use or under test by the RAF, makes a nice change from pictures of captured vehicles the Germans used during the war!

 

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bLW09CSQB-w&feature=related

[Degsy]

IIRC captured aircraft were taken to Farnborough for technical assessment and test flying, sometimes in simulated combat conditions against our own aircraft to assess the strengths and weaknesses.

[Tony B]

Have a look at the articale in this link as well. http://books.google.com/books?id=3CEDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA48-IA1&lpg=PA6&dq=Signal+Corps+truck+Model&lr=&as_brr=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=htm

[Snapper]

If you ever watch the classic In Which We Serve - you'll see a JU88 doing it's stuff for the camera. I think this is a captured one - but someone will correct me.

 

M

[antarmike]

One of the stranger aircraft captured and flown for evaluation was the Focke-Achgelis Fa233-E Drache (or kite).

 

The US captured it from Luft-Transportstaffel 40 at Ainring. no-one knew how to fly it so the german crew were persuaded to fly it, not to Farnborough but to the Airborne Forces Experimental Station at Beaulieu.

 

It was evaluated in the roles of Transport, anti submarine, air sea rescue and reconnaisssance, but it was wrecked during October 1945 in an accident before the evaluation procedure was completed.

Edited December 30, 2008 by antarmike

[antarmike]

The British were desperate to gain an Fw 190 for evaluation and even concidered a commando raid on an airfield on the Cherborg peninsula to capture one but were saved the trouble when a German pilot landed on British soil by mistake.

 

On 23rd June 1942 the plane was being flown by Oberleutnant Arnim Faber, based in Morlaix in Bittany. Faber was dog fighting Spitfires of Exeter and Portraeth wings when he became dis-orientated, flying off in a reciprocal direction having downed a Spitfire. He mistook the Bristol Channel for the English Channel and performed a Victory roll over Pembury, believing it to be Morlaix. He lowered his undercarraige while still inverted in the roll and rolled back, made a sharp turn and landed, not really having had much time to look at the topography.

 

The machine was flown to Farnorough, given the serial MP499 and a P for prototype, testing commencing on 3rd July 1942.

 

After 10 days it was transferred to the Air Fighting Development Unit At Duxford, where it was tested in mock combat against British fighters.

Edited December 30, 2008 by antarmike

[Tony B]

Headcorn have a Angelis that was used for U boat scouting, towed behind. The problem is cost of new rotors, they also have a manned V1.

[antarmike]

A flight of German Spitfires!

Well not actually. These are RAF Spitfire XVI's of 17 Squadron. Their clipped wings gives them a sort of Me109 shape, and these are dressed up with Yellow spinners and Swastika's to represent enemy Me109's, at the 1950 RAF Farnborough Airshow.

 

Note three runway airfield?? , lying just ahead of the photo-plane's spinner. (any suggestions welcomed)

 

Opps two are full blister cockpit Spits, others are ridgebacks. Make up your own minds as to the marks of Spitfire

Edited December 31, 2008 by antarmike
Noticed my type designation is probaly wrong!!!

[antarmike]

And now for something completely different,,,as Monty Pythyon used to say,

A captured Japanese plane in RAF ownership

I doubt that this Yokosuka Ohka aircraft was ever test flown by the RAF since it is a suicide aircraft, with no landing gear, designed to make a one way Kamakaze flight!

 

Seen here as a gate guard/ Trophy

[antarmike]

Back on topic (rare for me)

A Captured Heinkel He-177 Greif.

 

One of the rarer German Aircraft. The Germans had very few four engined Heavy Bombers. This is one of them.

[antarmike]

And for those of you who, rightly, can only see two propellers on the Greif, and think I am mad, here is the explanation.

An unusual feature of the aircraft was the use of twin engines in each nacelle driving a single propeller, as the components of a "power system". Siegfried Günther, chief designer of Heinkel, chose to use the Daimler-Benz DB 606, which consisted of two Daimler-Benz DB 601 engines coupled together to use a common propeller, in order to minimise drag. The two engines were coupled side by side in each nacelle and inclined inwards at the crankcases' upper surfaces, so that the inner cylinder banks were disposed almost vertically, a single gear casing connecting the two crankcases, and the two crankshaft pinions driving a single airscrew shaft gear. The insistence of this engine configuration stemmed directly from the RLM's determination that the He 177 should be capable of dive bombing. The use of only two propellers on a heavy bomber also offered a substantial reduction in drag and a marked improvement in maneuverability. Indeed, the initial prototypes and pre-production models of the bomber had an airspeed and maneuverability comparable to many heavy fighters of the time.

[No Signals]

[quote name=antarmike;115774

 

Note three runway airfield?? ' date=' lying just ahead of the photo-plane's spinner. (any suggestions welcomed)

 

 

I see what you mean about the 3 runway pattern. Adjacent to the runways it does seem though that there are some very mature trees and substantial buildings a bit too close for comfort? Maybe the pattern is just a coincidence in this instance? The 'runway' running across the centre also appears to continue and become a road off to the left. Were unusable decoy airfields laid out? Maybe this is the remains of one of them? Certainly the trees look too well established to have grown in the period after the construction of airfields of this pattern, given the photo was taken in 1950.

[Lauren Child]

Theres a pic of an RAF coloured ME109 under evaluation at the AFDU Duxford here -

http://duxford.iwm.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.651&PHPSESSID=cd548ea948d6301469f475c9c2418106

[Enigma]

About the Greif.

Weren't the engines prone to overheating even resulting in explosions?

[Bystander]

About the Greif.

Weren't the engines prone to overheating even resulting in explosions?

 

Absolutely - if one looks at a DB610 it looks all wrong - the bottom pair of cylinder banks are too close together IMHO (The DB610 was a pair of DB605 inverted V12 engines nailed together). As you say they were notorious for catching fire, with disasterous consequences for the integrity of the wing. Allegedly this originated out of the traditional Heinkel obsession with reducing drag, resulting in both the configuration and tight-fitting engine cowlings.

 

Who can guess where the photo was taken?

[tailgunner]

apparantly some time after the war, quite a number of the captured german aircraft were damaged in a storm?

a mate of mine who had no intrest in aviation at the time (he certainly does now)used to be a JCB driver , he remembers he had to bury a lot of the wreckage some where away from the airfield.

Can he remember where.........NO!

He has wracked his brain but to this day he cant remember, other than engines ,props , wheels ,fuselage sections ,you name it , it went in the hole:???............dam and blast!

i wonder if hypnosis would work?

[Enigma]

Hypnosis seems to work on repressed or forgotten experiences.

[simonsfotos]

Thank you so much for posting these, especially the film that started the thread off. Living in Fleet as I do, and with my connections with the Farnborough Air Sciences Museum at the former RAE, I have a passion for 'Captured Eagles' and am building quite a collection of models of them - including the 'Italian' Stuka featured in the film. It's the first time that I've seen any of these captured aircraft in flight. Much of the film I recognise as being shot at RAE Farnborough rather than with the RAF.

 

There are two very interesting books on this subject (which may have already been mentioned). First off was Phil Butler's 'War Prizes' which is the definitive history of these aircraft and that was followed a couple of years ago by his photo album study 'War Prizes - The Album' which contains hundreds of photos of the aircraft.

 

A couple of other books which may be of interest are 'Farnborough - 100 Years Of British Aviation' by Peter Cooper which is the complete history of RAE and obviously includes the testing of captured axis aircraft, and 'Wings On My Sleeve' by Eric 'Winkle' Brown who not only holds the record for the number of aircraft types flown by a single pilot but who was also the senior test pilot at RAE at the time of the testing.

 

Hope that's of interest.