Fieseler 156 on German Ships

The Fieseler 156 had some amazing STOL abilities, and among them was the capability to hover in a 25mph wind, or in other words, fly at 25mph.

Now a German commerce raider like the Leipzig or the Deutschland could make over 30mph on a good day. Sail into the wind and the air rushing past the ship is going at 40-50mph, which is easily enough for one of the little planes to get airborne. So for an Fi 156 to take off from the ship, all that would be needed is a pad the size of the aircraft's dimensions (33 x 47ft).

Some versions of the Fi 156 could carry small bombs or depth charges. Could an Fi 156 'T' variant, flying off of small pads in German surface vessels, be a reality?
 

Cook

Banned
Skip the small bombs or depth charges idea, the best use of an aircraft on a raider is reconnaissance.

An immediate problem is going to be navigation. Just finding the raider again is going to be a serious issue and would probably require a radio beacon on the raider, which could be detected by the Royal Navy.
 
A few WW1 and WW2 German surface raiders did ship aircraft with varying success and primarily for reconnaissance as Cook wrote. One WW2 raider did use it's single aircraft to attack targets, albeit in a very limited manner. The aircraft was part of the raider's "Don't and/or stop using your radio or you'll be attacked" message and would strafe a target, drop hand grenades, and even attempt to tear down radio aerials with grapnels as part of that "message".

Along with the navigation and launch/recovery issues Cook also mentioned, the aircraft were hard to maintain and harder keep hidden. One WW1 raider literally had to reassembly it's floatplane before each use.

Another factor which worked against using aircraft was the presence of the aircraft themselves. Seeing an aircraft operating well beyond the range of any shore base means that the aircraft must be operating from a ship, a ship that could be either friend or foe. Spotting an aircraft was thus an unusual event that ships would more often than not make a radio report about. An embarked aircraft could find a raider more potential targets but only at a much greater risk of revealing the raider's presence.

The WW2 raider I mentioned earlier didn't use her aircraft for extensive reconnaissance for this reason. That raider would normally launch her aircraft once the target was already nearly within range of the raider's own weapons. The aircraft was thus part of the "shock & awe" the raider employed to make a target submit quickly and without transmitting.
 
Light planes could sink subs if they were lucky. The Civil Air Patrol proved it. Against shipping...they'd likely be shot out of the sky by an AA-armed vessel.
 

Cook

Banned
An alternative would be an autogyro or gyrocopter.

Some German U-boats used gyrogliders for surveillance purposes. This was an unpowered gyrocopter, launched from the back deck of the U-boat it was towed along on a cable, deriving lift from the U-boat cruising into the wind and the pilot acted as an observer allowing far greater visual range than from the fin (conning tower) of the U-boat.
 

Cook

Banned
German land based aircraft were able to hit convoys well out into the Atlantic and those doing the Murmansk run, which resulted in such desperate measures as Hurricane fighters being catapult launched off freighters to attack the German aircraft and then be ditched into the waters of the Atlantic, the pilot having to parachute into the ocean and hope to be picked up.

CAM-ship_hurricaneoncatapult.jpg
 
The Fieseler 156 had some amazing STOL abilities, and among them was the capability to hover in a 25mph wind, or in other words, fly at 25mph.

Now a German commerce raider like the Leipzig or the Deutschland could make over 30mph on a good day. Sail into the wind and the air rushing past the ship is going at 40-50mph, which is easily enough for one of the little planes to get airborne. So for an Fi 156 to take off from the ship, all that would be needed is a pad the size of the aircraft's dimensions (33 x 47ft).

Some versions of the Fi 156 could carry small bombs or depth charges. Could an Fi 156 'T' variant, flying off of small pads in German surface vessels, be a reality?
is the thing going to land? or just ditch, like the hurricat? because it might take off from a small strip, of landing it needs more space...
 
I watched a Storch turn in mid-air flat level without losing altitude, using prop-wash for lift, so low speed wasn't a problem. However, ship superstructures create turbulence, and missing the deck to one side did create a problem. The Storch wasn't a great load carrier and lacked range, performance being degraded enough by carrying a single defensive machine gun.
 
I can se some considerable problems with this one folks , if only because it was tried before. During WW1 the British conducted a variety of experiments into this form of Aircraft launch and recovery. In particular , they utilised the quasi-experimental carrier HMS Furious to test the ability to "Hover" an aircraft for landing. From what I gather , they would launch a sopwith pup from a flight-deck built over the main guns in the Bow. The pilot would land by drawing in front of the vessel and reducing his speed until he was hovering just above the makeshift deck , at which point ratings (Who had clearly done something to piss off the officer of the watch) had to jump onto the deck and grab leather straps attached to the wings and pull the machine onto the deck. Trials proved this could be done , but that it was extreemly dangerous to everyone involved. The slightest crosswind would result in the aircraft being too unstable to be hauled down , and any adjustment could result in a fatal stall. The tests were curtailed after a botched landing resulted in the death of one of the test pilots

Dunning_Landing-on_Furious_In_Pup.jpg


This is an actual photo of the proceduce being done. Notice the straps under the wings and the Deck hands moving to grab them. I imagine that the superstructure of the vessel didnt help airflow matters much. Either way , this was never going to be particualrly practical. By the second world war , the use of small seaplanes was probably a better option.
 
Technically the Fiesler Storch was capable of operating from ships, although what would it be worth to have a very limmited ranged slow moving airplane, when better (and larger) aircraft with more capabilities are available? The Fielser 156 was therefore better suited to recon only over land, as here the limmited range was not so much a problem. (The plane could easily land on a small straight roud and refule then.) By the way, it was ultra light due to the fact it had no large amount of fuel to carry!!!
 
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