Flettner Fl 282 Kolibri (Helicopter)

[Louis]

Designed by Anton Flettner (1885/1961), it featured an innovative “intermeshing” rotor design and a 160-horsepower engine. This helicopter was created for naval purposes during World War II, serving as a hovering platform for submarine detection and artillery spotting.

The Fl 282 fuselage design had a central engine housing, an open-air cockpit for the pilot, and fixed undercarriage. Initially, it went through flight testing with enclosed cockpits, but subsequent versions had the iconic open-air design. The German Navy ordered fifteen for evaluation, leading to variations like the Fl 282A-1 for surface ships and the Fl 282B-2 for submarines, featuring a second observer seat.

These helicopters were tactically valuable, needing no runway, having low-maintenance engines, and working well in adverse weather conditions. They were tested in mock dog fights against FW 190’s and flying at low level they were found to be difficult to attack. The Luftwaffe ordered 1,000 units in 1944, but due to Allied bombing, this ambitious goal was never met with 22 or 24 being produced. Some Fl 282s served in the final weeks of the war as artillery spotters on the Eastern Front.

 

[mTk]

I can barely imagine how loud those things must have been for the pilot.

 

[HOA_KSOP]

I can barely imagine how loud those things must have been for the pilot.

And windy, very, very windy...

 

[Gunner]

First thing I thought of was the scene in the movie “Where Eagles Dare” where the helicopter comes in for a landing.

Unfortunately….
“The helicopter seen landing in the castle courtyard is a Bell model 47G, not built until well after the war in 1953. While the Germans had a small number of working helicopters during the war (none of which would have been readily available to the filmmakers), the Bell does not make a convincing stand-in for any of them.”