Warplanes of Germany: Luftwaffe Doblhof helicopters

Deutsche Kampfflugzeuge der Luftwaffe 1939-1945: Doblhof

German Warplanes flown by the Luftwaffe 1939-1945: Doblhof

During and after the end of the Second War a number of German Warplanes were captured and evaluated by the Allied forces.  Most of these aircraft were later scrapped and therefore only a handful have survived.  This is a partial list of aircraft that were known to have been flown by the Luftwaffe.

Während und nach dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs wurden eine Reihe deutscher Kampfflugzeuge von den Alliierten erbeutet und ausgewertet.  Die meisten dieser Flugzeuge wurden später verschrottet und daher haben nur eine Handvoll überlebt. Dies ist eine unvollständige Liste von Flugzeugen, von denen bekannt war, dass sie von der Luftwaffe geflogen wurden.

Doblhof WNF 342V-4 helicopter

(NARA Photos)

Doblhof WNF 342V-4 helicopter, USA FE-4615, later T2-4615.  This helicopter was sent to General Electric, Schnectady, New York, last reported in 1949.

The Doblhof WNF 342V-4 helicopter was the fourth prototype constructed by Friedrich von Doblhoff as the world's first tip jet powered helicopter.  This helicopter used a seven cylinder Sh 14A radial engine that had powered an earlier model designated the V3.  All four Doblhof prototypes used an Argus As 411 supercharger as an air compressor.  The V4 was a two-seat version with a faired fuselage (the  prototypes were all single seat).  The helicopter was designed with a twin boom layout and had a single vertical stabilizer mounted on top of a horizontal tail that ran between the booms.  The V4 had a gross weight of 1411 pounds and a rotor diameter of 32.68 feet.  Testing of the WNF 342 V4 took place in the spring of 1945, with 25 hours of flying conducted before the war ended.  As the Soviet Army approached Vienna on 3 April 1945, the engineers and mechanics loaded the WNF 342 V4 onto a trailer and drove West for 12 days on roads overcrowded with other refugees until they encountered the American forces.  The German design team was the team was interrogated  by Allied intelligence and engineering officers, and then the V4 prototype was crated and shipped to the USA for further evaluation.  Friedrich von Doblhoff went to work for McDonald Aircraft, becoming their chief helicopter engineer and and worked on the McDonald XV-1 convertiplane and  the McDonald model 120 flying crane which both used the jet rotor and the pusher propeller. Theodor Laufer who had done the detailed design of the jet rotor went to work for France's Sud Aviation, where he was responsible for the Djinn (Genie) jet helicopter.  A. Stefan who had done the structural design and most of the test flying of the WFN 342s, joined Fairey Aviation in great Britain and contributed in the design of several jet rotor aircraft including the Fairey Gyrodyne helicopter and the giant 48 passenger Fairey Rotodyne convertiplane.

J.R.Smith, Antony L. Kay "German Aircraft of the Second World War", 1972.

Norman Polmar, Floyd D. Kennedy, Jr. "Military Helicopters", 1985.

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