Fa 330A
FE-4618
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Focke-Achgelis Fa 330A-1 Bachsteltze (Water Wagtail)

This rotary-wing kite allowed German submarines to locate targets in heavy seas. Towed aloft by Type IX D2 U-Boats to a maximum altitude of 220 meters, the pilot had a possible sighting distance of 53 kilometers. U-Boat commanders disliked the Fa 330, because it gave away the location of the submarine, both visually and on radar. Only U-Boats operating in the Indian Ocean deployed them, because Allied naval superiority in the Atlantic Ocean made surfacing in the daylight extremely hazardous.

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War Prizes
pg 229		 storage at Freeman Field by 19th June 1946
War Prizes
pg 229		 transferred to Wright Field during July 1946
War Prizes
pg 229		 1948, it was test flown from a USAF patrol boat in Tampa Bay, adjacent to MacDill AFB, Tampa, Florida
War Prizes
pg 229		 the kite broke away as it was launched, due to a mechanical failure of the cable connection. After the pilot was rescued from the sea, the site of the crash was marked with a buoy, but this was stolen, or washed away in a hurricane, before the kite could be recovered
NASM The aircraft mysteriously disappeared from the spot where it sank only to reappear, according to rumor, in an army surplus store over twenty years later.
Rotor Diameter 8.5 m (28 ft)
Length 4.5 m (15 ft 8 in)
Height 1.7 m (5 ft 6 in)
Weight Empty, 75 kg (165 lb)

This Fa 330 was in store at Freeman Field by 19th June 1946. It was transferred to Wright Field during July. FE-4618 was test-flown at Wright Field, towed behind a truck. Four successful flights were made, followed by two in which the kite overturned on landing and was damaged. The damage was blamed on the tall wheeled undercarriage which had been fitted. This resulted in a high centre of gravity, which made the kite unstable on the ground and during the take-off phase. Previously, one of the Fa 330s had been rigidly mounted on a tiltable platform on a truck, which had been driven along a runway at speeds up to 35 knots to determine the adequacy of the rotor hub and blade strength.

Later, during 1948, it was test flown from a USAF patrol boat in Tampa Bay, adjacent to MacDill AFB, Tampa, Florida. The trials were initiated as a means of carrying out extended flights of the Fa 330, which were not possible under tow behind a truck confined to the length of the Wright Field runway. Another factor was consideration of a serious application-the possible use of the kite by the USAF as a means of extending the visual search range of small Rescue Boats.

The trials commenced in August 1948 and involved the construction of a platform on the aft deck of an 85-foot rescue boat. The kite was to be towed by a cable attached to a Navy Mark VII hydraulic winch installed on the boat. Several trials were conducted with the rotor kite tied down to the platform, before an attempt was made to carry out towed flight tests. The pilot was Capt Raymond A. Popson from the Flight Test Division at Wright Field. He was later killed in October 1953 in the crash of the second prototype Bell X-5 variable-sweep test aircraft.

Unfortunately, the kite broke away as it was launched, due to a mechanical failure of the cable connection. After the pilot was rescued from the sea, the site of the crash was marked with a buoy, but this was stolen, or washed away in a hurricane, before the kite could be recovered. The trials were therefore terminated. Although the pilot reported favorably on the trials, they were not continued. At the time the project ended, two further Fa 330s were available to conduct further flights. The test results were reported in Memorandum Report No. MCREXE-670-8-A of 31st December 1948, published by the Equipment Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB.

source: "War Prizes" by Phil Butler, pg 229

James D. West
www.IndianaMilitary.org
Host106th@106thInfDivAssn.org