Forgot about that. I'll have to watch it again. I remember my mom commenting about how refreshing it was to watch a movie with no swearing lol. I said yes, killing and war is fine as long as you don't use bad language. She laughed
We often do the same now with modern stuff. It's just not something people think about until it's too late. Our local aviation museum had to "guilt" a retired FA18 airframe into being donated rather than scrapped. I know a guy who works a crane in a scrapyard. He said it makes him want to cry the number of old cars that get melted down. Some old farmers relatives usually cleaning up his property after he dies.
They seemed to have a tendency to scrap everything. Including all their own warships and such. Hardly anything is left of the stuff the British built themselves, or got their hands on.
@General Guisan Quai i This helicopter crashed in 1945, the Allies had spent 6 years at war with Germany so I don't suppose they had any real feelings to preserve the destroyed helicopter.... and racism? well that might be a bit strong but 6 years of war doesn't make you good friends!
If germans invented rocket pods for it, it would have been massively useful! Imagine the IL-2 but with the ability to fly low and slow, hide behind terrain, and zig-zag out of AA fire.
The fact it was written off in a crash likely meant that there wasn't much left to repair. And that's without taking account the fact that replacement parts would likely have to be made rather than source since there wouldn't be any serial producting by that point
The US had operational Sikorsky R-4 helicopter squadrons in 1943, and they operated from ships and land. They were in Burma, the South Pacific, Burma, Britain, and Europe as the allies advanced. The Coast Guard gained a lot of experience flying the Navy version, HNS-1, on rescue and patrol flights along the US East Coast in 1944-45. The USN and RN flew R-4s from shipboard landing decks as early as 1944, and the USN was regularly flying the first vertical replenishment flight in the Pacific by late 1944. United Aircraft, Sikorsky's parent company, had built 100 R-4's by November of 1944. They were already building the R-5 (also named Dragon), a much larger and more powerful machine, by March, 1944, and the first went into service by February, 1945. So, just to be clear, the Germans were not ahead of the allies when it came to helicopters in general. What they were ahead on what was the first heavy lift helicopter, the Fa 223. Even the Fa 223 was a dead end in terms of heavy lift birds as the the widely separated rotors required a plethora of chains, wires, and gears shafts, a fatal flaw that caused most of the Fa 223 crashes. Some of the design details were used in experimental US helicopters that led the CH-37 Mojave, largest helicopter in the world at the time of the first flight in 1953, and the first large enough a vehicle could drive onboard.
Read about “Operation Paperclip”. The USA had special teams to grab as much technology and scientists as possible after the war, because Germany was so advanced. Russia did the same and the reason the jet fighters (for the North and the South) in the “Korean War” looked the same was because both sides had fighters designed by German scientists.
I heard an interview with a Wehrmacht officer, a 1st Lt., where he explained that he was Medevac'd on a 6 seater helicopter after being hit by a special clipped bullet in the face. Supposedly the Russians would clip the tips off bullets to increase lethality and maiming. I had to pause the video and check if we were still talking about WW2. Sure enough, he was talking about this very aircraft.
The clipped bullet thing sounds dubious, surely it would wreck the accuracy of each bullet unless it was done very carefully on a lathe or some such machine?
This would mean a dumdum-bullet. Sounds dubious, I've heard of the russians using explosive bullets but never dumdum. This would also have lead to the germans doing the same, which would probably be even better known. SU had signed the treaty prohobiting such munitions.
Another great and interesting video, just like to add a couple of things. Famous German female test pilot Hanna Reitsch was a helicopter pilot flying the FW 61. The Flettner FL282 Kolibri can be seen in its evolved form as the Kaman K-Max.
You don't hear much about helicopters in World War II because they had almost no effect. However, I've read about them in WWII aviation history books and on Wikipedia. It's not a huge secret. Helicopters first became militarily significant in the Korean War. And then they achieved mythological status in Vietnam as everyone knows. In hindsight, the Allies could have readily used helicopters in WWII for antisubmarine duty with convoys. Cargo ships could have been outfitted with helipads, to launch helicopters to hunt the U-boats and drop depth charges on them. Helicopters would have helped with amphibious landings. The thousands of Allied soldiers getting shot up on Omaha Beach could have benefited from helicopters simultaneously landing more soldiers behind the defenders and attacking from the vulnerable side. Every Allied operation that involved taking a beach, crossing a river, or trying to capture bridges with paratroopers (e.g., Arnhem) could have benefited from helicopters. Dropping soldiers with parachutes from fixed-wing aircraft and trying to keep them resupplied with more parachute drops is less practical. Often the Allies merely resupplied the Germans when the cargo planes missed their targets.
Zom/Lin--There are many obscure and little known technologies out there just awaiting your mouse click. there was a concerted effort to keep many of these "secrets" for fear of falling into Soviet hands @ the end of WWII.
This is something I never knew. The information I've gleaned from this channel has been remarkable! Thanks Mark for all the effort and time you've put in.
German engineers are inventive and make fine durable machinery. Aircraft, cars, etc. created to be functional with minimal repairs. Hitler, was a power hungry space case. Yet there's no denying his futuristic ideas. His Engineers and Scientists, capitalized on others failures and their own ideas. Kudos to German Enginuity.
Good stuff, as usual. I think, however, that the Sikorsky R-4 Hoverfly was flying part supplies missions over water in the Pacific as well as mountain wounded evac missions in Burma all during 1944. At least that's what the wiki page says about the R-4. Either way, Germany and the US were working hard on this technology.
Wow that was fascinating and so well detailed...the Germans were astounding with their tech advantages above us...and Clearly one dislike on here is a testament to your channel
Once again Mark , great work. Germany should never have been an enemy. Brilliant people , hardworking , loyal and fearless...exactly what the world is now lacking. War between brothers is so sad.
See the bright part : for more than 70 years now we have Germany as a strong ally, the backbone of NATO in Europe along with the UK and France. These 3 Powers together are something serious for any potential enemy.
I’m really glad I discovered this channel. It’s full of little nuggets of obscure information that I never knew about wars of the 20th century. Keep up the good work!
the Japanese army developed and produced 98 autogyros during WW II which first flew in 1941 and were in service until the end of the war. they were initially developed for artillery spotting, but were were eventually pressed into service as anti-submarine patrol aircraft on ships
Autogyros superficially resemble but are actualy very different from helicopters. For example, they can not land or take off vertically and they cannot hover.
Oh my god, another amazing story and footage. I thought I've heard everything about world war II, and not only the hidden story but to see the images is blowing my mind. I never knew the Germans were building helicopters Heck the one with the single rotor looks like an early Apache helicopter
Just imagine the damage that could have been done to the Allies if the Germans had been the first to develop and use a Helicopter Gunship with a 30mm Cannon and rocket pods.
When I was visiting my grandfather in West Berlin,1974, summer after my freshman year here in Cincinnati, my mother's cousin Dieter who was in his late 30s, took me 2 West Germany for a few days and took me to a helicopter museum which was essentially a guy's very large house and backyard. The first thing I asked him is how fast a helicopter went. Being first-generation german-american, I understood when he was yelling at me. Why do the young people always ask how fast the helicopters went? Sorry... Anyway, great work Mark!
G'day Mark, Wow! Being a military historian and ex-air force, it's not often that I hear about a hitherto unknown aircraft that actually saw squadron service during WW2. Thank you for the info. Most interesting. Probably because of it's destruction in Oct '45 is the reason so it's good that more people will now know about this amazing chopper. Cheers, BH
The Dragon flies beautifully compared to other early machines (a decade later!). The test pilot, a favourite of the Nazi party, Hannah Reitsch (?) flew the first prototype Focke Wulf FW61 regularly inside the Olympic stadium to advertise Nazi engineering to the world. Can't say her politics were spotless but her amazing history (with aircraft) and record flights made is something else.
I have been down the rabbit hole of wwii my whole life yet I did not know this. I thought helicopters were just an idea back then. Thanks! Great channel
The British did not "SCRAP" the Dragon it was so badly damaged by a heavy landing in October 1945 and was written off as beyond repair. Also don't forget Britain was economically on her knees after 5 long years of war. Things like preservation were not a priority. I know I lived through it. We did not even preserve our own famous aircraft.
Dear Admin you are reailly hard working man explore those aspects of history which are hidden in general public eyes Keep it up and wish you all the best
Thank you for sharing this info! I heard that the Germans developed a working heli, but never got any further info than "this was quite significant". Nobody bothered to show WHY this was significant, and that they actually used a small fleet of them. You showed all of this right here in just 5 minutes. You're an example to us all.
The Alies had the technology but chose to focus production efforts on improving and ensuring overwhelming quantities of proven models and technology. Having said that a few American helicopters did serve valiantly in the Pacific theatre and A couple of British and American jet models were ready to go into full production if required. and even saw limited combat service in the closing weeks of the air campaign in Europe.
Thanks Mark! I've been aware of these helicopters for many years. Strange that they never got much attention considering how innovative they were. The footage you've shown is breathtaking! Would be interesting to finance and build a flyable replica like the Me 262 (Me 262 Project) replicas.
Wow...! Amazing....looks like the Third Reich is a constant source of technical surprises ! I always thought that big helicopters like the Dragon made their first appearances at the outbreak of the Korea war, around 1950...and here we see one airlifting a Fieseler Storch, which was the German version of the"Piper Cub" during WW2 ! and these guys had every city and middle sized town air raided day and night during 4 years...! Even so they managed to manufacture such incredible wonders...! The German people is truly admirable.
i always considered myself someone who knows a lot about ww2 but somehow this never came to my attention. was very interesting and i would love to know more about this aircrafts. thank you for this video!
It's something which has consistently struck me about Germany during WWII. Technologically, Germany was (often, although not always) ahead of both the Allies and the other Axis powers. What let Germany down during the war was not its technical or military aptitude, but the strategic location of Germany, its limited naval strength, its lack of essential resources (including manpower), and the handicap posed by the Nazi ideology.
Another extremely watchable and very interesting video Mr Felton! Top marks from me. 👍 I'd long wondered how much helicopters were involved in WW2. I'd done a little research of my own before, but there were still a few facts here that I was unaware of. What a shame that we can't see one of these on display now, especially as they were intact at the war's end. Still, at least we have some footage of them in action and performing their greatest feat, lifting that whole recon plane. Thanks for your research and dedication! I'm going to have a look at finding the books you have written when I get paid at the end of the month.
The operational history of fa-223 is quite covered by fog, literature sources are not many. This machine was supposed to be used for the first time for the rescue of Mussolini from his prison on the top of Gran Sasso mountain. But at the end, they apparently switched to the well known Fieseler Storch due mechanical failures. Then the Danzig flight in the last months ww2, one rescue operation of downed pilot along the Soviet lines. Quite fascinating...
Jeez- 110 mph cruise, 23,000' ceiling (holy crap!) 300 mile range and 1 ton payload. That's remarkable performance even for helicopters built decades later. Most STILL can't fly that high, and it did it on a naturally aspirated piston engine!
I suspect the reason is the difference in power plant technology. Those old German helicopters used piston engines, instead of gas turbines, as modern helicopters do. Gas turbines have the advantage that they can produce way more power out of a smaller, lighter package, but they have the drawback that they basically always run on full power. They can't really be throttled and run at half speed, like a piston engine. That makes designing a new helicopter a very complicated endeavour, because you basically determine how much fuel it will use at the drawing board. The pilot has almost no influence on that. That means, you always want to design the helicopter with the smallest, weakest engine possible, just big enough to get the job done, because if you give it too much power, it will always use that maximum power and consume fuel accordingly, even if it doesn't need that amount of power. The point being, you could build a helicopter with gas turbines that can lift it crazy high, but that helicopter would always use way more fuel than it has to, whenever you don't fly crazy high. That is why they need to use crude methods, like giving a heavy lift helicopter additional engines. The new CH-53K King Stallion heavy lift helicopter has 3 gas turbines. 2 it uses in normal operations and the third one gets switched on when it needs to lift extra heavy stuff. That is basically the only way you can adjust and throttle the power output and fuel consumption with gas turbines. Of course that has the big disadvantage that you are always schlepping around that 3rd engine, even when you don't need it. And that is the advantage of a conventional piston engine helicopter like the Dragon. You can give it the most powerful engine you can fit in there and draw on that power if you need, but also run the engine on a fraction of that power and use less fuel, when you don't need all that power. Long story short, modern helicopters could easily outperform that service ceiling stat, but designing them that way makes no sense.
It wasn't mass produced because Germans didn't have CCR to play Fortunate Son back then
So "Where eagles dare" was not wrong. The germans did have helicopters in the bavarian alps.
Forgot about that. I'll have to watch it again. I remember my mom commenting about how refreshing it was to watch a movie with no swearing lol. I said yes, killing and war is fine as long as you don't use bad language. She laughed
CommissarZhukov 😂 I wanted to make a similar comment! But you beat me 😊
I think (don't quote me) that the producers found an American R-4 of the correct vintage for use in that film. Helluva good movie!
@@itsjohndell It was a Bell 47 in that film.
A reasonable substitute, considering.
The Germans are really genius engineers...
Always wanted to learn about these machines. Thanks again Dr. F
I know but imagine strapping on a mg42 on a side door ;:
@@d5m2t2k41 or a couple of panzerfausts. Bet no one thought of that. 😊👍
Yes Very nice WORK he never disepointet me
@@bigblue6917 The back-blast would burn the helicopter down
@@bigblue6917 These were real Germans. I bet they did think of it.
It always annoys me that the allies scrapped most of the German Tanks and vehicles
I mean after a terrible war would you want to keep the relics of the evil that threatened your very existence?
Reportedly, the Brits tossed millions of small arms into the ocean following WWI, and when WWII rolled around, were scrambling for small arms.
Well... There were tons of them and Europe was in ruins thanks to the Germans. There were other priorities at the time.
Mich auch!
We often do the same now with modern stuff. It's just not something people think about until it's too late. Our local aviation museum had to "guilt" a retired FA18 airframe into being donated rather than scrapped. I know a guy who works a crane in a scrapyard. He said it makes him want to cry the number of old cars that get melted down. Some old farmers relatives usually cleaning up his property after he dies.
Too bad the British scrapped the Dragon, even damaged it would have been a fine museum piece today.
They seemed to have a tendency to scrap everything.
Including all their own warships and such.
Hardly anything is left of the stuff the British built themselves, or got their hands on.
@General Guisan Quai i This helicopter crashed in 1945, the Allies had spent 6 years at war with Germany so I don't suppose they had any real feelings to preserve the destroyed helicopter.... and racism? well that might be a bit strong but 6 years of war doesn't make you good friends!
Imagine the concept of air cavalry in the 1940s
If germans invented rocket pods for it, it would have been massively useful!
Imagine the IL-2 but with the ability to fly low and slow, hide behind terrain, and zig-zag out of AA fire.
Gliders were used by both sides but the helicopter gives you more options in combat. Big problem was it was probably very slow.
This was before gas turbine helicopters. So mounting weapons are kinda risky also I doubt it had any protection
@@firepower7017 They were looking at turbo props at this time so it would have been possible to get something more powerful
@@KorianHUN back to the panzerfaust 👍
What a pity it was scrapped, a bit shortsighted.
Foolish
Different times
You have to see how bad it was damaged in the accident. Was it Hindenburg'd? Or was it just a soft landing that damaged some struts?
The fact it was written off in a crash likely meant that there wasn't much left to repair. And that's without taking account the fact that replacement parts would likely have to be made rather than source since there wouldn't be any serial producting by that point
@@WarReport. I'll pretend I didn't hear you say (foolish)
damn i didnt know that helicopters got a use in ww2. As always Mark great video!
The US had operational Sikorsky R-4 helicopter squadrons in 1943, and they operated from ships and land. They were in Burma, the South Pacific, Burma, Britain, and Europe as the allies advanced. The Coast Guard gained a lot of experience flying the Navy version, HNS-1, on rescue and patrol flights along the US East Coast in 1944-45. The USN and RN flew R-4s from shipboard landing decks as early as 1944, and the USN was regularly flying the first vertical replenishment flight in the Pacific by late 1944. United Aircraft, Sikorsky's parent company, had built 100 R-4's by November of 1944. They were already building the R-5 (also named Dragon), a much larger and more powerful machine, by March, 1944, and the first went into service by February, 1945.
So, just to be clear, the Germans were not ahead of the allies when it came to helicopters in general. What they were ahead on what was the first heavy lift helicopter, the Fa 223. Even the Fa 223 was a dead end in terms of heavy lift birds as the the widely separated rotors required a plethora of chains, wires, and gears shafts, a fatal flaw that caused most of the Fa 223 crashes. Some of the design details were used in experimental US helicopters that led the CH-37 Mojave, largest helicopter in the world at the time of the first flight in 1953, and the first large enough a vehicle could drive onboard.
I have been trying for a while to get this Helicopter added to War Thunder to no avail.
Most famous use of the Dragon during WWII was used by the Fallschirmjäger to retrieve Mussolini.
@@sarjim4381 Came here to post that, saw that it was, I ain't even angry! :)
@ also in burma if memory serves me right
Notice how old German WWII ideas are brought back in modern times.
The Osprey comes to mind on this helicopter.
Read about “Operation Paperclip”. The USA had special teams to grab as much technology and scientists as possible after the war, because Germany was so advanced. Russia did the same and the reason the jet fighters (for the North and the South) in the “Korean War” looked the same was because both sides had fighters designed by German scientists.
it feels so good to learn something new. I got this feeling a lot with your videos
Holy crap another AMAZING video from you, absolutely the best WW2 historical channel out there.
I heard an interview with a Wehrmacht officer, a 1st Lt., where he explained that he was Medevac'd on a 6 seater helicopter after being hit by a special clipped bullet in the face. Supposedly the Russians would clip the tips off bullets to increase lethality and maiming. I had to pause the video and check if we were still talking about WW2. Sure enough, he was talking about this very aircraft.
The clipped bullet thing sounds dubious, surely it would wreck the accuracy of each bullet unless it was done very carefully on a lathe or some such machine?
This would mean a dumdum-bullet. Sounds dubious, I've heard of the russians using explosive bullets but never dumdum. This would also have lead to the germans doing the same, which would probably be even better known. SU had signed the treaty prohobiting such munitions.
Another great and interesting video, just like to add a couple of things.
Famous German female test pilot Hanna Reitsch was a helicopter pilot flying the FW 61.
The Flettner FL282 Kolibri can be seen in its evolved form as the Kaman K-Max.
How is this the first time I'm hearing of this?! This is nuts!
Same here & I.m no spring chicken
Same! This channel is a blessing for preserving history. So many documentaries don't have time to mention these little gems of history
But . . . It's only one day old, calm down!
You don't hear much about helicopters in World War II because they had almost no effect. However, I've read about them in WWII aviation history books and on Wikipedia. It's not a huge secret. Helicopters first became militarily significant in the Korean War. And then they achieved mythological status in Vietnam as everyone knows.
In hindsight, the Allies could have readily used helicopters in WWII for antisubmarine duty with convoys. Cargo ships could have been outfitted with helipads, to launch helicopters to hunt the U-boats and drop depth charges on them. Helicopters would have helped with amphibious landings. The thousands of Allied soldiers getting shot up on Omaha Beach could have benefited from helicopters simultaneously landing more soldiers behind the defenders and attacking from the vulnerable side. Every Allied operation that involved taking a beach, crossing a river, or trying to capture bridges with paratroopers (e.g., Arnhem) could have benefited from helicopters. Dropping soldiers with parachutes from fixed-wing aircraft and trying to keep them resupplied with more parachute drops is less practical. Often the Allies merely resupplied the Germans when the cargo planes missed their targets.
Zom/Lin--There are many obscure and little known technologies out there just awaiting your mouse click. there was a concerted effort to keep many of these "secrets" for fear of falling into Soviet hands @ the end of WWII.
Your short videos are my everyday highlights
I am from Germany and didn't even know about the helicopters!
@Slirfy ## Hitler once remarked that he felt Islam would've better suited the German people than Christianity.
@NatSoc Mountaineer NPD is an obvious BND honeypot for nazi larpers, nobody votes for these retards
one of a kind german experimental aircraft that has irreplaceable historic and technological value: exists
allied nations: scrap time
Absolutely love this Channel and as many, I wanted more information on the first helicopters. This was an amazingly interesting video!!
This is something I never knew. The information I've gleaned from this channel has been remarkable! Thanks Mark for all the effort and time you've put in.
German engineers are inventive and make fine durable machinery. Aircraft, cars, etc. created to be functional with minimal repairs.
Hitler, was a power hungry space case. Yet there's no denying his futuristic ideas. His Engineers and Scientists, capitalized on others failures and their own ideas.
Kudos to German Enginuity.
Very nice video....... Super song and video!
You Germans really know how to do wonders and perfection techniques ......
Good stuff, as usual. I think, however, that the Sikorsky R-4 Hoverfly was flying part supplies missions over water in the Pacific as well as mountain wounded evac missions in Burma all during 1944. At least that's what the wiki page says about the R-4. Either way, Germany and the US were working hard on this technology.
I have learn't so much fascinating history from your channel that I have never read or seen anywhere else, thank you so much.
One million subscribers by 2020... wanna bet?
Not with article 13
@@davidschlieber2543 EU for you. The pro Brexit peeps were right..
@@@kebman No point in saying 'we told you so' now is there. :-/
I'm still waiting .........
Wow that was fascinating and so well detailed...the Germans were astounding with their tech advantages above us...and
Clearly one dislike on here is a testament to your channel
The Germans were not ahead when it came to helicopters
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_R-4
Once again Mark , great work.
Germany should never have been an enemy. Brilliant people , hardworking , loyal and fearless...exactly what the world is now lacking.
War between brothers is so sad.
Well if they hadn't been run by literal Nazis they probably wouldn't have invaded most of Europe. Perry big shift in history for that
All wars are pretty sad 😟
@@tyger5645 - Commies are a lot WORSE than fascists !
See the bright part : for more than 70 years now we have Germany as a strong ally, the backbone of NATO in Europe along with the UK and France. These 3 Powers together are something serious for any potential enemy.
Tyger56 Is this coming from the same people who believe that Iraq was a rightful enemy?
I’m really glad I discovered this channel. It’s full of little nuggets of obscure information that I never knew about wars of the 20th century. Keep up the good work!
Another lesson learned! Thanks for the good work and keep up bringing these stories to the surface.
Superb video. You learn something every day.
the Japanese army developed and produced 98 autogyros during WW II which first flew in 1941 and were in service until the end of the war. they were initially developed for artillery spotting, but were were eventually pressed into service as anti-submarine patrol aircraft on ships
JagdFlanker the RAF were using autogyros in the late 1930s. Some were used to calibrate the Chain Home system.
Autogyros superficially resemble but are actualy very different from helicopters. For example, they can not land or take off vertically and they cannot hover.
*ride of the Valkyries plays in the distance*
I really had no idea that the Germans were using helicopters to this extent. Amazing. Thanks, I love this channel. Learn something new every day!
Oh my god, another amazing story and footage. I thought I've heard everything about world war II, and not only the hidden story but to see the images is blowing my mind. I never knew the Germans were building helicopters Heck the one with the single rotor looks like an early Apache helicopter
This was wunderwaffe. Practical, advanced, applicable.
Great story, I really didn't know that any helicopters were in operation during ww2. Keep up the good work
First jets, first rocket plane, first ballistic missiles, first in space, first practical helicopter....those Germans were amazing...
Your videos are packed full of info and concerning subjects I have not heard much about. And for that I subscribed. Keep em comming!
turned over for "evaluation" = stealing ideas :)
Not enough documentaries about these machines. Fantastic video!.
I appreciate your clear delivery.
Just imagine the damage that could have been done to the Allies if the Germans had been the first to develop and use a Helicopter Gunship with a 30mm Cannon and rocket pods.
Even more so, than with the Stuka, I think that would have required air superiority. But yes, in that case, they would probably be quite effective...
Combining it with the infrared-tech they had at the end of the war for doing night raids..could've been interesting..
Just moving medium artillery,
And light infantry......
Then wounded and resupply.....
A major game changer.
Knut Der Große ; what if these were used in the relief & resupply of Stalingrad ?
I doubt it. Even today, helicopters are delicate machines. A single well placed bullet on those early designs could cause a catastrophic failure.
Eye-opening and informative stuff. Great work!
When I was visiting my grandfather in West Berlin,1974, summer after my freshman year here in Cincinnati, my mother's cousin Dieter who was in his late 30s, took me 2 West Germany for a few days and took me to a helicopter museum which was essentially a guy's very large house and backyard. The first thing I asked him is how fast a helicopter went. Being first-generation german-american, I understood when he was yelling at me. Why do the young people always ask how fast the helicopters went? Sorry... Anyway, great work Mark!
Mark Felton has the best WWII content!
G'day Mark, Wow! Being a military historian and ex-air force, it's not often that I hear about a hitherto unknown aircraft that actually saw squadron service during WW2. Thank you for the info. Most interesting. Probably because of it's destruction in Oct '45 is the reason so it's good that more people will now know about this amazing chopper. Cheers, BH
The Dragon flies beautifully compared to other early machines (a decade later!). The test pilot, a favourite of the Nazi party, Hannah Reitsch (?) flew the first prototype Focke Wulf FW61 regularly inside the Olympic stadium to advertise Nazi engineering to the world. Can't say her politics were spotless but her amazing history (with aircraft) and record flights made is something else.
Great video as always . Thank you .
Another excellent history lesson from Mark !
I have been down the rabbit hole of wwii my whole life yet I did not know this. I thought helicopters were just an idea back then. Thanks! Great channel
This was a superb and very modern piece of helcopter for that time! Would still work great even today!
Always a good show, thanks.
Thanks Mark. Love the show
The British did not "SCRAP" the Dragon it was so badly damaged by a heavy landing in October 1945 and was written off as beyond repair. Also don't forget Britain was economically on her knees after 5 long years of war. Things like preservation were not a priority. I know I lived through it. We did not even preserve our own famous aircraft.
Great video Mark, well done
Thanks for this, Mark, you're the only one that has more information on this subject.
Ive wanted to know more about the Drache for a while, thanks. Great video as always.
Do you want to fly? ruclips.net/video/2HSTv_4hiHU/видео.html
Great job on this documentary!
Good Video.
Why haven’t I heard of these craft despite reading and seeing what I thought was everything about WWII aircraft? Thank you much, Mark.
Dear Admin you are reailly hard working man explore those aspects of history which are hidden in general public eyes Keep it up and wish you all the best
Wow. I learnt so much from this one. You are fast becoming my fave channel.
Thank you for sharing this info! I heard that the Germans developed a working heli, but never got any further info than "this was quite significant". Nobody bothered to show WHY this was significant, and that they actually used a small fleet of them. You showed all of this right here in just 5 minutes. You're an example to us all.
Another interesting video and revealing something that only the enthusiast (not me) would know about. Thanks for creating this and the other videos.
Great video. I'd often wondered about what happened to the German research on helos. Thanks.
The germans seem to set a lot of records
The Alies had the technology but chose to focus production efforts on improving and ensuring overwhelming quantities of proven models and technology. Having said that a few American helicopters did serve valiantly in the Pacific theatre and A couple of British and American jet models were ready to go into full production if required. and even saw limited combat service in the closing weeks of the air campaign in Europe.
The British Gloster Meteor jet fighter entered squadron service in England in July 1944
Happy watching this, what a cool helicopter
Thanks Mark! I've been aware of these helicopters for many years. Strange that they never got much attention considering how innovative they were. The footage you've shown is breathtaking! Would be interesting to finance and build a flyable replica like the Me 262 (Me 262 Project) replicas.
Wow...! Amazing....looks like the Third Reich is a constant source of technical surprises ! I always thought that big helicopters like the Dragon made their first appearances at the outbreak of the Korea war, around 1950...and here we see one airlifting a Fieseler Storch, which was the German version of the"Piper Cub" during WW2 ! and these guys had every city and middle sized town air raided day and night during 4 years...! Even so they managed to manufacture such incredible wonders...! The German people is truly admirable.
Your footage used is incredible
i always considered myself someone who knows a lot about ww2 but somehow this never came to my attention. was very interesting and i would love to know more about this aircrafts. thank you for this video!
The more of Mark's videos I watch, the less outlandish all those alternative history books, films and games seem.
Vielen Dank!
Viele Grüße,
Achim
Amazing... Thank You
Brilliant Research
Very nice video great work
Great one. Helicopter 🚁 stories are my favorites
It's something which has consistently struck me about Germany during WWII. Technologically, Germany was (often, although not always) ahead of both the Allies and the other Axis powers.
What let Germany down during the war was not its technical or military aptitude, but the strategic location of Germany, its limited naval strength, its lack of essential resources (including manpower), and the handicap posed by the Nazi ideology.
Germany was not ahead of the Allied powers when it came to most things.
Another extremely watchable and very interesting video Mr Felton! Top marks from me. 👍
I'd long wondered how much helicopters were involved in WW2. I'd done a little research of my own before, but there were still a few facts here that I was unaware of. What a shame that we can't see one of these on display now, especially as they were intact at the war's end. Still, at least we have some footage of them in action and performing their greatest feat, lifting that whole recon plane.
Thanks for your research and dedication! I'm going to have a look at finding the books you have written when I get paid at the end of the month.
2:42 Flettner's intermeshing rotors are used in the K-Max K-1200 which is the only helicopter specifically designed for lifting external sling loads.
The operational history of fa-223 is quite covered by fog, literature sources are not many. This machine was supposed to be used for the first time for the rescue of Mussolini from his prison on the top of Gran Sasso mountain. But at the end, they apparently switched to the well known Fieseler Storch due mechanical failures. Then the Danzig flight in the last months ww2, one rescue operation of downed pilot along the Soviet lines. Quite fascinating...
These would have been great at Stalingrad!
Pilot:"Bolshes don't surf"
The soviets has Air Superiority at Stalingrad so it would have just been shot down
0:54: Immediately upvoted when I heard an English speaker pronouncing "Achgelis" correctly. :)
Excellent! Who’d have ever known?
Ahhh the grand-daddy to the lovely V-22 Osprey, beautiful work once again Germany
excellent,thanks mark!
Strange or something. Hanna Reitsch and helicopter on her air show is usually brought up. The fact that heli was in service has been kept secret.
Had no idea thank you you must do longer videos
Silly me, I thought helicopters were a 50'-60' invention. A cold war thing.
So the helicopter in "Where Eagles Dare" isn't that much of a crazy notion. It's just not the right kind.
As ever an interesting, educational, informative well presented video. Well done Sir.
Yet again!!! Amazing informative historically important information. Thank you so much.
Perhaps the Germans are special....
Thank you Mark, it did not know any of these amazing facts. You constantly inform and entertain. Keep up the good work, justin from staffordshire.
Fascinating. Always wondered about these. I remember a German helicopter in the old Clint Eastwood film "Where Eagles Dare".
Which was actually an American Bell 47. Still a good movie though.
That was a post war American one in real life I'm pretty sure. A Bell something? For some strange reason they couldn't get an original German one lol
It was a modern american helicopter repainted as german.
@Al Swann Yep, I will always remember that too. Good scene in a great film!
Jeez- 110 mph cruise, 23,000' ceiling (holy crap!) 300 mile range and 1 ton payload. That's remarkable performance even for helicopters built decades later. Most STILL can't fly that high, and it did it on a naturally aspirated piston engine!
I doubt those numbers in whole. Simply not possible.
I suspect the reason is the difference in power plant technology. Those old German helicopters used piston engines, instead of gas turbines, as modern helicopters do. Gas turbines have the advantage that they can produce way more power out of a smaller, lighter package, but they have the drawback that they basically always run on full power. They can't really be throttled and run at half speed, like a piston engine. That makes designing a new helicopter a very complicated endeavour, because you basically determine how much fuel it will use at the drawing board. The pilot has almost no influence on that. That means, you always want to design the helicopter with the smallest, weakest engine possible, just big enough to get the job done, because if you give it too much power, it will always use that maximum power and consume fuel accordingly, even if it doesn't need that amount of power.
The point being, you could build a helicopter with gas turbines that can lift it crazy high, but that helicopter would always use way more fuel than it has to, whenever you don't fly crazy high.
That is why they need to use crude methods, like giving a heavy lift helicopter additional engines. The new CH-53K King Stallion heavy lift helicopter has 3 gas turbines. 2 it uses in normal operations and the third one gets switched on when it needs to lift extra heavy stuff. That is basically the only way you can adjust and throttle the power output and fuel consumption with gas turbines.
Of course that has the big disadvantage that you are always schlepping around that 3rd engine, even when you don't need it.
And that is the advantage of a conventional piston engine helicopter like the Dragon. You can give it the most powerful engine you can fit in there and draw on that power if you need, but also run the engine on a fraction of that power and use less fuel, when you don't need all that power.
Long story short, modern helicopters could easily outperform that service ceiling stat, but designing them that way makes no sense.
TrangleC interesting. Thanks.
Another greatt video
Super cool machines for the time.