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Focke-Wulf Fw 42

41.4k MrVaultech  6.8 years ago

Here it is peeps! She was surprisingly easy to make, and flys amazingly well for it's unorthodox shape. Anyways, more stuff will follow after the fluff;

(Also, something I feel obligated to say; First!)

After receiving mostly positive results with his F 19 and F 19a "Ente" (Duck) light transport aircraft, Focke proceeded to design a twin-engined "Ente" (Duck) bomber for the fledgling Luftwaffe in 1931. This aircraft went through several design changes (January 13, 1932 - December 25, 1933), mainly concerning the placement of the front horizontal tail (canard) and the rear vertical tail. The first design placed the forward canard above the fuselage, and there were two fins and rudders mounted on the each wing end, with two more fins along the wing trailing edge outboard of the engine nacelles. Windtunnel tests showed that directional stability was only slightly better with the four fins than a large single vertical fin and rudder. Therefore, the decision was made to go with the single large fin, due to the lower component cost and ease of construction. Also, the forward canard was moved down to the fuselage bottom, thus improving the pilot's view and the forward gunner's field of fire. On all versions, the fuselage was narrow and long, with open MG firing stations in the extreme nose and tail. Two BMW VIu 12 cylinder engines (750 horsepower for takeoff) were mounted beneath each wing, and were provided with a four bladed propeller of 3.8 m (12' 6") in diameter. The landing gear was retractable and the cockpit was located approximately mid-fuselage, with the forward fuselage stepped down in front of the cockpit. A crew of 6 was to man the Fw 42.
A full sized mock-up was built for the Fw 42, which was equipped with MG stations and control units. It was visited by the Russians and/or Japanese, for possible export license or production purchases. Although good results were reported from the windtunnel tests, a construction contract was not issued, so all work ceased on the Fw 42, which would have certainly been one of the most unusual bombers ever constructed.
As a historical note, almost the entire story of the Fw 42 would have been unknown except for a series of fortuitous events. In 1945, the Fw 42 file was forgotten in the evacuation of a shelter where Focke-Wulf had stored many of their documents. Moments later, this shelter was blown up in an attempt to hide any other data which could not be carried away. When the ruins of this shelter were being cleared 24 years later, Georg Graf zu Dohna, arranged with the excavators to pay attention in case anything of interest was uncovered. Incredibly enough, a file was soon uncovered which contained all the Fw 42 data, including photos and 12 windtunnel reports, and were almost completely undamaged, even though they had lain under the rubble for several decades!

Back to what I was saying, she was super easy to take, only took a couple hours to make, and flys amazing well, and does pretty well as a glider too. Only a few things had to be changed around on the plane, like it's length some, and also the landing gear. Since no pictures of blueprints existed showing the landing gear, I had to design up my own for it.
Would of been a sight seeing these bombing London instead of those boring He 111s

General Characteristics

  • Successors 2 airplane(s)
  • Created On Android
  • Wingspan 82.4ft (25.1m)
  • Length 57.7ft (17.6m)
  • Height 20.2ft (6.2m)
  • Empty Weight 15,832lbs (7,181kg)
  • Loaded Weight 19,607lbs (8,893kg)

Performance

  • Horse Power/Weight Ratio 0.306
  • Wing Loading 22.9lbs/ft2 (111.8kg/m2)
  • Wing Area 856.1ft2 (79.5m2)
  • Drag Points 9157

Parts

  • Number of Parts 206
  • Control Surfaces 5
  • Performance Cost 854
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  • Profile image
    41.4k MrVaultech

    Danke, glad you enjoy it
    @Mustang51

    +1 6.1 years ago
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    25.4k Mustang51

    Very very nice build. This is such a cool plane!

    6.1 years ago
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    32.4k TheAceOwl

    @DragonAerotech The person that made the sub posted the engines.

    6.8 years ago
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    @TheOwlAce Yeah, I cannot get over the complexity of those new props and that submarine kicks absolute butt! I need to take it apart to see exactly how he got it into that nice neat fitting shape. There's also that new mod that links an engine to a rotator thingy which I thought would work well for underwater props too - maybe even airship props! lol I'm looking at using the "power eggs" on the bomber design you've been commenting on for my first airship. Those don't guzzle fuel like the radials or turboprop engines, even when coupled or tripled.

    6.8 years ago
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    32.4k TheAceOwl

    @DragonAerotech ohhhh thats a good idea. That might get my new carrier project to work.

    6.8 years ago
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    @MrVaultech French seaplane magic! lmao! They had to use some of that to get some of their WW2 flying boats into the air, I swear. XD Nah, @TheOwlAce has been trying to get me to do an airship forever and a day and since I haven't figured out my next direction in construction practice I thought I'd try that out. It was that or to try to use those new rotator props introduced for ships and just build an ordinary boat! (In fact I'm adapting this from a torpedo boat design I had about 1/3 finished a year ago.)

    6.8 years ago
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    41.4k MrVaultech

    Just do some SP magic, or maybe some French Seaplane Magic. That should help it fly
    @DragonAerotech

    6.8 years ago
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    @MrVaultech Bitte! lol I know how that goes, I haven't created a turreted plane in quite a while but I'm working on a project where I'll need both turrets and casemates. I have no idea if it'll even fly yet! lol

    6.8 years ago
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    41.4k MrVaultech

    Heh, danke! Glad ya liked flying around in this. The turrets I had issues with. They kept sticking so I went "screw it"
    @DragonAerotech

    6.8 years ago
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    @MrVaultech This bird flies very well! I had fun with it, take off and landing without a hitch except coming in once with my airspeed too low and losing a prop but it happens. lol Also managed to pick off a bridge with its internal bombload on my first flight! Not bad! Was a little disappointed the turrets didn't work but ah well, fun none the less!! Great history lesson too, by the way!!

    6.8 years ago
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    41.4k MrVaultech

    Sounds like... a waste of a pilot
    @WEAPONSMITH

    6.8 years ago
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    41.4k MrVaultech

    Same. Hearing records being destroyed for possible super planes disheartens me
    @Toast

    6.8 years ago
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    1,147 Toast

    I always hate when I hear that records were destroyed. I cringe when I hear they were intentionally destroyed.

    6.8 years ago
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    16.4k ThePrototype

    True@MrVaultech

    6.8 years ago
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    41.4k MrVaultech

    Well, like literally everyone here would say, just practice some with it.
    @ThePrototype

    6.8 years ago
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    16.4k ThePrototype

    But I suck at making them @MrVaultech

    6.8 years ago
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    16.4k ThePrototype

    By canard design I mean the wings in the back and elevators on front @MrVaultech

    6.8 years ago
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    41.4k MrVaultech

    Really? Canards are pretty easy to make, well, for me anyways...
    @ThePrototype

    6.8 years ago
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    16.4k ThePrototype

    I wanted to build this but I'm not good at building plane with a canard design

    6.8 years ago
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    41.4k MrVaultech

    Alrighty
    @FlyingThings

    6.8 years ago
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    47.7k FlyingThings

    @MrVaultech yeah, its basically that in german.

    6.8 years ago
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    41.4k MrVaultech

    What about canards?
    @FlyingThings

    6.8 years ago
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    47.7k FlyingThings

    Entenbauweise. (If you dont know what that means i explain)

    6.8 years ago