FS98/CFS1 Fieseler Fi.186 STORCH - North Africa (1).
The Fieseler Fi 156 Storch (stork) was a small German liaison aircraft built by Fieseler before and during World War II, and production continued in other countries into the 1950s for the private market. It remains famous to this day for its excellent STOL performance.
In 1935, the RLM (Reichsluftfahrtministerium, Reich Aviation Ministry) put out a tender for a new Luftwaffe aircraft suitable for liaison, army co-operation (today called Forward Air Control), and medical evacuation, to several companies. Conceived by chief designer Reinhold Mewes and technical director Erich Bachen, Fieseler's entry was by far the most advanced in terms of STOL (Short Take Off and Landing) performance. A fixed slat ran along the entire leading edge of the long wings, while the entire trailing edge, inspired by earlier 1930s Junkers "double-wing" aircraft wing control surface designs, including the ailerons, was a hinged and slotted flap. In a design feature rare for land-based aircraft, the wings on the Storch could be folded back along the fuselage in a manner not unlike that of the US Navy's F4F Wildcat fighter, allowing it to be carried on a trailer or even towed slowly behind a vehicle. The long legs of the main landing gear contained oil-and-spring shock absorbers that compressed about 450 mm (18 inches) on landing, allowing the plane to set down almost anywhere. In flight they hung down, giving the aircraft the appearance of a very long-legged, big-winged bird, hence its nickname, Storch. With its very low landing speed the Storch often appeared to land vertically or even backwards, in strong winds from directly ahead.
The Storch could be found on every front throughout the European and North African theaters of operation in World War II. It will probably always be most famous for its role in Operation Eiche, the rescue of deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from a boulder-strewn mountain top near the Gran Sasso, surrounded by Italian troops. German commando Otto Skorzeny dropped with 90 paratroopers onto the peak and quickly captured it, but the problem remained of how to get back off. A Focke Achgelis Fa 223 helicopter was sent, but it broke down en route. Instead, pilot Walter Gerlach flew in a Storch, landed in 30 m (100 ft), took aboard Mussolini and Skorzeny, and took off again in under 80 m (250 ft), even though the plane was overloaded. The Storch involved in rescuing Mussolini bore the radio code letters, or Stammkennzeichen, of "SJ + LL" in motion picture coverage of the daring rescue.
On 26 April 1945 a Storch was one of the last planes to land on the improvised airstrip in the Tiergarten near the Brandenburg Gate during the Battle of Berlin and the death throes of the Third Reich. It was flown by the test pilot Hanna Reitsch, who flew her lover Field Marshall Robert Ritter von Greim from Munich to Berlin to answer a summons from Hitler. Once in Berlin von Greim was informed that he was to take over command of the Luftwaffe from Hermann Göring.
A Storch was the victim of the last dog fight on the Western Front and another was fittingly downed by a direct Allied counterpart of the Storchan L-4 Grasshopperfrom the L-4's crew directing their pistol fire at it. The pilot and co-pilot of the L-4, Lts. Duane Francis and Bill Martin, opened fire on the Storch with their .45 caliber pistols, forcing the German air crew to land and surrender. The involved Storch was the only aircraft known to have been downed by handgun fire in the entire war.
A total of about 2,900 Fi 156s, mostly Cs, were produced from 1937 to 1945. When the main Fieseler plant switched to building Bf 109s in 1943, Storch production was shifted to the Mráz factory in Chocen, Czechoslovakia. A large number were also built at the captured Morane-Saulnier factory in France, starting in April 1942, as the M.S.500 Criquet. Both factories continued to produce the planes after the war for local civilian markets.
Because of its superb STOL characteristics (which would be of obvious great benefit to bush pilots, for example) there have been many attempts to recreate or outright copy the Storch in modern form, namely in the form of various homebuilt aircraft. One of the most successful recent examples of this is the Slepcev Storch designed by Nestor Slepcev. It is a 3/4 scale reproduction of the original with some modification for simplicity. Through the use of modern materials the aircraft features better STOL performance than the original with a take-off run of 30 m and landing-roll of 50 m with no headwind.
General characteristics
Crew: 2
Length: 9.9 m (32 ft 6 in)
Wingspan: 14.3 m (46 ft 9 in)
Height: 3.1 m (10 ft 0 in)
Empty weight: 860 kg (1,900 lb)
Loaded weight: 1,260 kg (2,780 lb)
Powerplant: 1× Argus As 10 air-cooled inverted V8 engine, 180 kW (240 hp)
Performance
Maximum speed: 175 km/h (109 mph) at 300 m (1,000 ft)
Combat radius: 380 km (210 nmi, 240 mi)
Service ceiling: 5,200 m (17,060 ft)
Rate of climb: 4.8 m/s (945 ft/min)
Power/mass: 143 W/kg (0.087 hp/lb)
Armament
Guns: 1 x MG 15 machine gun
Original FS98 model creators: Terry Hill and Ed Ziegler.
Panel by relik@techie.com.
All reworked to FS98/CFS1 with new textures, damage profile and moving parts: Edmundo Abad 2010.
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Repainted as Luftwaffe Fi.186 STORCH # DO+AI, North African theater.
I have included new textures, moving parts and damage profile for use with CFS1, with armament of one 7.92 mm machine gun.
This virtual model is up-scaled to obtain a better view in Combat Flight Simulator.
(for accurate scale in FS98, replace the file Storc1.mdl by Storc1.old.mdl and rename this as Storc1.mdl)
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Installation FS98/CFS
1. Unzip to Temporaly directory "Storch-Trop1.zip".
2. Copy "Storch-Trop1" folder to X:\CFS\aircraft directory.
3. Copy "gauges" folder to X:\CFS\gauges directory.
