The Blohm & Voss Bv 141 - A Technical Guide

Airframe Detail No. 1, Richard A. Franks, Valiant Wings Publishing Ltd., Bedford, England, 2014, ISBN 978-0-9575866-7-3. Illustrated, softcover, published in English.

Cover image © by Valiant Wings Publishing Ltd., 2014.

It is pleasantly astonishing that we live in an age where aircraft formerly thought of as rather obscure - or even outright unworthy of any attention - become the subject of lavish, dedicated publications. I do remember the time well when books on the former German Luftwaffe focused only on the most well known aircraft or units but still rendered all interested parties happy merely due to the fact that one was starved for a publishing house that would actually consider us odd crowd. If a glimpse at aircraft other than, say, Ju 52s, Bf 109s, or Fw 190s was desired, one was left with occasional brief but, in hindsight, vastly pioneering articles in magazines such as Flug Revue + flugwelt (authored by Hans Redemann), Modell Magazin (Heinz Birkholz, Theodor Mohr, Karl Kössler, Heinz Mankau, and many others), Modell Fan (Manfred Leihse, Gebhard Aders, etc.), or Luftfahrt international (Günther Ott, Karl Kössler, etc.).

Things have changed dramatically in the past thirty or forty years, of course. We are now not only treated to the substantial array of information available through the internet (as utterly flawed and/or regurgitated as it often is), the possibility of near-instant exchange of research and images provided by the very same medium, and plenty of books about rare types such as, e.g., the Junkers Ju 287, Messerschmitt Me 264, Horten Ho 229, or Focke-Wulf Ta 152. Happy times, indeed, and among the latest such publications is Richard Frank's Airframe Detail No. 1 on the rare but truly unique Blohm & Voss BV 141.

By and large the book follows the concept of earlier releases by Franks/Valiant Wings. And those have set a reasonably high standard. At 66 pages and a format of 29 x 21 cm, the layout, paper quality, and text and image reproduction of the book are quite exceptional, as expected.

Once again, as with Franks' previous Valiant Wings releases, The Blohm & Voss Bv 141 is a comprehensive examination of the aircraft's various details, preceded by an 11-page illustrated overview of the history of the BV 141. The material provided in the technical description section of the book is beautifully opulent, consisting of 38 pages of close-up photos as well as reproductions of drawings sourced from the aircraft's handbook. This comprises cockpit and interior details, landing gear, wings, empennage, armament, and equipment. Much of this material is known to those seriously studying the Luftwaffe, and the handbook has been available commercially for considerable time. Even so The Blohm & Voss Bv 141 serves as a significantly valuable collection of relevant information.

This content is bookended by a 9-page section discussing camouflage and markings. It also includes numerous rather lovely colour profiles. The profiles are a bit small, however, due to the probably inevitable decision to print them horizontally across the pages rather than vertically. The latter would have resulted either in less aircraft featured or more pages added to the publication. Nonetheless, it works as it is. The book concludes with a 5-page look at BV 141 scale models and a bibliography. All of this makes for a precious and thorough work of reference, not least given the lack of attention this fringe aircraft has endured through past decades. All that is lacking, mysteriously, is a good set of line drawings.

It seems perhaps a bit odd that some authors or publishing houses chose to accompany their specialist publications by advertising or content statements which, upon closer examination, simply serve to direct the reader's attention to very limitations of the publication in question. On page 3 of the book, Franks states that he believes that his The Blohm & Voss Bv 141 contains every existing photo of the BV 141. To anyone familiar with serious Luftwaffe research, this is of course an utterly perilous statement. In spite of the wealth of excellent photos actually featured in Franks' work, it is thus not surprising that a number of previously known photos are missing from the book (e.g. landing gear well details, tail wheel details, canopy details, etc.). Some of them have been available online for many years, for example, courtesy of Lars Kambeck and Gary Webster, or were part of Lars Kambeck's truly excellent four-part series of articles on the BV 141, published in Jet & Prop magazine in 2003 and 2004.

Also on page 3, Franks states that he has chosen a certain manner of writing the aircraft's designation (i.e., Bv 141, Bv 141A-0, etc.). This in spite of the fact that a majority of surviving Blohm & Voss company documentation (some of which is even reproduced in Franks' book) contradicts this (as evidenced by the manner used in this blog). An unimportant detail to some, perhaps, but I find this rather unnecessary and annoying, and it certainly doesn't serve to ensure historical accuracy and prevent confusion.

There are some further puzzling observations, most likely caused by an unfortunate yielding to production requirements. The photo of the cockpit of the BV 141 V2 on page 15, top, for example, also exists in an uncropped version (published by Kambeck) that actually shows the instrument panel referred to by Franks in its very caption. Moreover, some detail shots (a random example would be the cockpit port side shot on page 16, bottom left, or the rear observer's station and cabin interior images on page 17, top) are reproduced so small that they offer hardly any value. In addition, they have been reproduced far larger elsewhere. Odd for a publication named Airframe Detail.

Finally, on page 36, bottom left, there is a photo depicting a pair of devices under the aircraft's starboard wing (they are visible in other photos as well). Franks asks what they are and presumes they might serve to "measure gust". They are, in fact, the Paddelausgleich (Fahnenausgleich) zur Ausrichtung des Querruders [paddle balance supporting aileron movement].

The Paddelausgleich helped the pilot in operating the ailerons. It consisted of two sets of pairs of small, square paddles, mounted under the port and starboard outboard wing segments on slim, forward-pointing support arms. They were linked internally by means of rack and pinion linear actuators, and connected to the aileron by push rods, moving inversely. With increasing deflection of the aileron, the paddles were spread apart into the airstream, thus opposing the force of the control surface and relieving the pilot.

The Paddelausgleich was a device frequently seen on Blohm & Voss aircraft. It is featured, for example, in Modell Magazin 5/1976 (referring to the Blohm & Voss BV 222), Modell Fan 4/1977 and Modell Magazin 4/1977 (Blohm & Voss BV 138) or in Flugzeug Extra 2 (Blohm & Voss Ha 139).

E-Stelle See

E-Stelle See - Die Geschichte der Seeflug-Erprobungsstelle Travemünde und der daraus hervorgegangenen E-Stelle für Flugzeugbewaffnung in Tarnewitz

Edited by Heinrich Wollé, Dr. H.A. Caspari & Oskar Passoth, Luftfahrt-Verlag Axel Zuerl, Steinebach-Wörthsee, Germany, 1972. Illustrated, hardcover, 130 x 200 mm, 312 printed pages, published in German.




E-Stelle See Travemünde - Die Geschichte der Seeflug-Erprobungsstelle Travemünde und der daraus hervorgegangenen E-Stelle für Flugzeugbewaffnung in Tarnewitz - Band 2

Edited by Heinrich Wollé, Dr. H.A. Caspari & Oskar Passoth, Luftfahrt-Verlag Axel Zuerl, Steinebach-Wörthsee, Germany, [year?], ISBN 3-87500-024-2. Illustrated, hardcover, 130 x 200 mm, 336 printed pages, published in German.




E-Stelle See - Die Geschichte der Seeflug-Erprobungsstelle Travemünde und der daraus hervorgegangenen E-Stelle für Flugzeugbewaffnung in Tarnewitz - Band 3

Edited by Heinrich Wollé, Dr. H.A. Caspari & Oskar Passoth, Luftfahrt-Verlag Axel Zuerl, Steinebach-Wörthsee, Germany, [year?]. Illustrated, hardcover, 130 x 200 mm, 320 printed pages, published in German.

Cover images © by Luftfahrt-Verlag Axel Zuerl.

These three books constitute one of the most comprehensive series of publications on a specific topic related to the Luftwaffe. And in spite of having been published decades ago, their contents are still relevant. Some of the information contained in the three volumes of E-Stelle See has in the meantime found its way into more recent magazine articles or books, but the combined 968 pages of this study still make it an undisputed and excellent single source reference on the seaplane testing center Travemünde and the affiliated aircraft armament testing center in Tarnewitz.

I first found out about E-Stelle See when, as a teenager, I read glowing reviews about these books in German specialist magazines Modell Magazin and Modell Fan in 1976 and 1980. It took until the early 2000s until I finally managed to track down pristine second hand copies of what had by then become collector's items. They were well worth the patience and persistence, however. Incidentally, a small address sticker in my copy of volume 2 shows that this book was once owned by one of the editors of Modell Fan magazine!

The three volumes of E-Stelle See are a collection of accounts, records, and archive material by former members of the Travemünde and Tarnewitz testing centers. Over a dozen authors thus contributed to make this a very wide-ranging compilation of facts and images, although the introduction states explicitly that there are inevitable gaps in the information thus compiled.

E-Stelle See opens with a brief history of German seaplane aviation and the inception of the Travemünde testing center. Even from the very beginning, there are remarkable photographs showing, for example, the testing center, the Dornier Do X in the dry dock, and Junkers, Heinkel, Dornier, and Rohrbach aircraft of the period. A frequent drawback is that the photos are often printed to a rather small size due to the fairly small dimensions of these books. In addition to the plentiful photo content of E-Stelle See, the text is also supported by tables, original documents, and drawings.

The narrative then describes the massive development of the testing center undertaken after 1933 and following the official establishment of the Luftwaffe. More modern aircraft types soon enter the picture, such as the Heinkel He 59, Blohm & Voss BV 138, Arado Ar 195, or Fieseler Fi 168. Also intriguing are the trials conducted with the Focke Achgelis Fa 330. The text continues to be generously illustrated with photos which are at times so specialized that one is unlikely to find them in any other, more generalized publication.

The wealth of material is simply far too extensive to be listed in full here. A few examples:

- engine and armament evaluation

- weapons testing in Tarnewitz, including, for example, turret development, or the various cannon fitted to the Henschel Hs 123

- Rohrbach flying boats

- sea trials in various conditions and involving the He 115, Ha 140, and Ar 196

- catapults and catapult testing with the Fi 168, Ar 197, Bf 109, Ju 87, and even the Ar 96

- landing trials with a Fieseler Fi 156 on board of the ship "Greif"

- evaluation of the Bf 109, Fw 159, Ar 80 and He 112

- helicopter testing

- evaluation of navigation and radio equipment

- tests involving flotation gear in aircraft

- supply flights to Narvik with BV 138 and Do 24

- organization of the RLM testing centers

- aircraft carrier-based version of the Ju 87

- a large section dedicated to affiliated ships and boats

- an illustrated list of German seaplanes and flying boats from 1920 to 1945

and much more.

One of the most intriguing sections reveals just how many aircraft carriers Germany was planning to build. Next to the well-known "Graf Zeppelin", which is covered in somewhat greater detail, drawings illustrate the projected (and, in some instances, commenced) "Flugzeugträger B" (a.k.a. "Peter Strasser"), "Weser I", "De Grasse", "Europa", "Elbe I", "Elbe II", and the converted "Gneisenau".

Newer publications - such as, for example, Flugerprobungsstellen bis 1945 (Heinrich Bauvais, Karl Kössler, Max Mayer & Christoph Regel, Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Germany, 1998) - have since also covered this topic and included newer research. But E-Stelle See remains an essential and utterly abounding three-volume study on a most fascinating aspect of past German military aviation.

Military Aircraft In Detail: Heinkel He 100 Record Breaker

Erwin Hood, Midland Publishing, Hinckley, England, 2007, ISBN 978-1-85780-260-3. Illustrated, softcover, published in English.

Cover image © by Midland Publishing, 2007.

I first became intrigued by the Heinkel He 100 as a young teenager when, in December of 1975, Manfred Leihse published his excellent article Weltrekordflug Heinkel He 100 V8 in the German magazine Modell Fan. The article, still relevant today, also contained outstandingly detailed scale drawings of the He 100. But more than three decades later, published information regarding this elusive aircraft still remains scarce, not least due to the fact that little original source material has survived the war.

Having to make do with such limited resources, it is to Erwin Hood's credit that he still managed to create such a detailed, meticulously researched monograph about one of Ernst Heinkel's most fascinating aircraft. Barring a possible future discovery of currently unknown information regarding the He 100, Hood's book will likely remain the one-stop, landmark study on this topic.

In spite of the aforementioned dearth of material and the limited page count of the books in Midland Publishing's Military Aircraft in Detail series, Heinkel He 100 Record Breaker is an extremely comprehensive and complete reference publication, and, as such, long-overdue. Starting off with a brief look at the Heinkel factory and the pursuit of speed in 1930s German aircraft design, the book then delves into the history of the gestation and the technical anatomy of the aircraft. The various prototypes receive due attention, along with Heinkel's efforts to utilize the He 100 to achieve the absolute world speed record. Equally meticulously illuminated are the ultimately unsuccessful attempts to convince the German air ministry (RLM) to acquire the He 100 as an operational Luftwaffe fighter. A further chapter details the efforts to export the design and technical know-how to Russia and Japan. The narrative concludes with a look at the He 100's eventual use as a propaganda tool and in Heinkel's factory defense force - a rather ignominious end for such a cutting edge aircraft.

Heinkel He 100 Record Breaker is an immensely absorbing publication, not least due to the wealth of photographs, color profiles (created by Tom Tullis), and period documents reproduced therein. Erwin Hood's own detailed line drawings of the various prototypes and A-series aircraft conclude the book. The book has been printed on high-quality, glossy paper, which provides for a good photo reproduction. The impression is slightly marred, however, due to the intermittent application of superfluous sepia tones, as is periodically in vogue for history books. While a modern book design is very welcome, this particular publication is directed at a highly specialized audience interested in written and visual facts and not at teenagers dazzled by fashionable photo coloration. It is simply annoying, although such criticism is of course highly subjective.



Needless to say, the compiling of a perfect reference is impossible, even under the best of circumstances, and in spite of decades of expert research into the field of German aircraft 1933 to 1945, there remain significant gaps in knowledge und uncounted questions. Hood's truly excellent book reflects that reality. There are still no known cockpit shots of the He 100, for example. Or there is the photo of the He 100 V8 prototype, on page 59, the caption of which states that it was displayed at the Deutsches Museum [German Museum] in Munich (under the spurious designation of He 112 U). Other sources have identified the location of this display as the near-mythical Deutsche Luftfahrtsammlung [German Aviation Collection], in Berlin, however. And indeed, a photo in our collection seems to show the very same aircraft, mounted in front of a wall and underneath a roof which can clearly be identified as part of the Deutsche Luftfahrtsammlung building in Berlin (see above). Perhaps the V8 was displayed in both locations, at different times.

Such observations constitute nitpicking, of course, and are perhaps even unfair. Fact is, Erwin Hood has created a truly outstanding new standard reference on the He 100.

[Entry amended January 20, 2020]