Fiesler Fi 167

[ohogain]

In "Biplanes, Triplanes and Seaplanes" by Michael Sharpe, it says that the Fiesler Fi 167, a two-seat torpedo bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, was built to German Air Ministry requirement for a multi-role carrier-borne warplane with the strength to make dive-bombing attacks at high speed. In all other references, I see that the Fiesler Fi 167 was a torpedo bomber only. Was the Fiesler Fi 167 both a torpedo bomber and a dive bomber, or a torpedo bomber with dive bomber capabilities? It could carry bombs in lieu of a torpedo, so it could function as a bomber in some manner.

 

[Denniss]

Never heard of a dive-bombing capability. If ever it was some kind of glide-bombing also used by Ju 88, Do 217 and He 177.

 

[Shortround6]

Well, with a good head wind it could descend vertically (flight path) while maintaining a horizontal flight altitude

Nice trick but pretty useless in combat (although not for carrier landing?)

Biplanes had enough drag that they could usually "dive bomb" without getting up to too high a speed.

Problems became having enough strength to handle the pull outs (repeatedly) and having the proper bomb dropping gear. No pictures seem to exist ( could be wrong) of a Fi 167 with a bomb crutch to swing the bomb clear of the propeller arc but that doesn't mean one could not be fitted.
Practical dive bombing requires a slow enough dive to maintain could controlability and time to aim while being fast enough to minimize exposure to AA fire.

I would note that while the Curtiss SBC Helldiver had retractable landing gear it did NOT have 'dive brakes' and was about 20-30mph faster than a Fi 167 in level flight.

I would tend to doubt the ability of the Fi 167 to do a high speed anything.

 

[ohogain]

That was my feel as well. Probably glide bombing was all it could realistically do, but I thought someone might know otherwise. According to Wikipedia, the initial complement of aircraft planned for the Graf Zeppelin was 10 × Messerschmitt Bf 109T fighters + 13 × Junkers Ju 87C or -E dive bombers + 20 × Fieseler Fi 167 biplane torpedo bombers. It didn't make sense to me to have the Ju 87s if the Fi 167 could also function as a dive bomber. Thanks.

 

[parsifal]

The Fi 167 was roughly similar in performance to the Swordfish, and the Swordfish was a reasonable ersatz divebomber because of its low speed.

I dont doubt it was intended for use as a divebomber, but it was a secondary role, and evidentlly the Germans consisdered the Ju87 to be better at it......

The Fieseler Fi 167 was designed as the prime torpedo and reconnaissance bomber for German aircraft carriers. With the beginning of the construction of the Graf Zeppelin in 1937, two aircraft producers, Fieseler and Arado, were ordered to produce prototypes for a carrier based torpedo bomber. By summer of 1938 the Fiesler design proved to be superior to the Arado design, the Ar195.

Like the famous Fieseler Fi 156 Storch, the Fi 167 had surprising slow speed capabilities, the plane would be able to land almost vertically on a moving aircraft carrier.

After two prototypes (Fi 167 V1 Fi 167 V2), twelve pre production models (Fi 167A-0) were build which only had slight modifications to the prototypes. The aircraft exceeded all requirements by far, and had excellent handling capabilities and could carry about twice the required weapons payload.

Since the Graf Zeppelin was not expected to be completed before the end of 1940, the construction of the Fi 167 only had a low priority. When the construction of the Graf Zeppelin was stopped in 1940, the completion of further aircraft was stopped and the existing ones were taken into Luftwaffe service in the "Erprobungsgruppe 167".

After the construction of the CV Graf Zeppelin was continued in 1942 the Junkers Ju 87 C took over the role as an reconnaissance bomber and torpedo bombers weren't seen to be needed anymore. Nine of the exisiting Fi 167 were send to a coastal naval squadron in the Netherlands and returned to Germany in summer of 1943. After that they were sold to Romania. The remaining planes were used in the "Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt" (German Aircraft Experimental Institute) in Budweis, Czechia for testing several different landing gear configurations

Some sources say the Fi167s were passed to the Rumanians in 1943, whilst others saay they were passed to the Croats. I have no information on tyjheir usage or fates after that time.