The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor was a long-range German airliner that first flew on 27 July 1937. Powered by four Bramo 323 Fafnir engines, it has the distinction of being the first aircraft to fly non-stop from Berlin to New York and return, which it did in August 1938.
Passenger capacity was usually 26 people in a 2 x 1 arrangement and up to 30 could be carried in a military transport role. Airline operators were Luft Hansa, Det Danske Luftfartselskab (Danish Air Lines) and Syndicato Condor.
Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor Video
Following on from the last video about the Junkers G.38 where passengers sat in the wings, this time we stay in Germany for a look at the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor. Running for just over 11 minutes, this video gives a good history of the aircraft in both civil and military service.
The close ties between Germany and Japan at the time are evident, as the plane was sent to Tokyo on a promotional flight. It was even ordered by Imperial Japanese Airways, but the outbreak of war meant these were never delivered.
Due to the war, the Luftwaffe operated the aircraft in a maritime patrol and reconnaissance role and it could be fitted with bombs and mines to sink the enemy’s shipping. Structurally it turned out to be a bit problematic, with wing spars failing and fuselages breaking.
One Focke-Wulfe Condor was even adapted as Adolf Hitler’s personal transport aircraft, which is perhaps not too surprising. He was the leader of the country at the time so why not have the biggest and best.
Overall Thoughts
There were 276 Focke-Wulfe Condor’s manufactured between 1937 and 1944 and today just one still exists. It is on display at the former Berlin-Tempelhof Airport and was raised from Trondheim Fjord in Norway. Restoration took place between 1999 and 2021, which is a remarkable achievement considering it was just a wreck when they started.
It’s interesting to think about how things may have been different if war had not occurred. Perhaps the Condor would have been found crisscrossing the North Atlantic between Germany and the USA on a regular basis. Who knows!
Have you ever heard of the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor? What did you think of the video? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image via PNP.
Funny co-incidence, as only TWO hours ago, I was conversing (via forum P.M), to a well-known author who’s already written THREE books about the Focke Wulf Fw.200 Condor. I was asking him about the fate of THIS very Fw.200, marked as ‘F8+LH’ (see attachment) I first learned about this plane (type), around the time The Beatles broke up (1970), so, asking my Dad’s brother (RAF) he supplied me with a SUPERB ‘William Green’ (Purnell / McDonalds) book on the Fw200 and ALL of it’s sub-types & sub-variants – Fascinating for a kid like me, who was (then) heavily into building Military… Read more »
What a fascinating piece of information you’ve shared there. I really enjoyed getting to hear all the details of this aircraft, which isn’t one I was particularly familiar with previously. Thanks so much for taking the time to write all that up, along with the picture and the excellent detail. Really enjoyed the read – much appreciated!
Thanks T.F.D – Glad to add some info’ to your piece. In addition to all the above (in my previous post), I’ve since, recently come across another superb web-page article, about an Fw.200 (of KampGeschwader 40), that just happened to find itself “in Greece” towards the later stages of the war, narrowly being involved being strafed by harrasing RAF Beaufighters – The Fw200 survived & was eventually flown by the South Africans – However, they were NOT aware that the Fw200’s BMW.801 radial engines had already been ‘sabotaged’ by the KG.40 crew (on demand of their cranky officer, who the… Read more »
That article is a great find and very thoroughly researched. Nice to see some good sleuthing going on. A shame they contaminated the oil with sand, otherwise who knows what would have happened to the aircraft. Thanks for linking to that, really interesting stuff!
Yes, I remember seeing pictures of that sleek looking plane and thank you for posting photos without showing a swastika emblazoned on the tail, which most LH planes had at the time. Politics aside, as with most of these old birds you scrounge up it would have been a thrill to take a flight on one.
“Scrounge up” is pretty much right. Still plenty to go, but they’re becoming more and more obscure as the time goes on. Keeps it interesting for me, as I’m learning as I go 🙂
I’ve read about them a bit in the Honor books about WWII Argentina by W.E.B. Griffin. An astonishing plane with capabilities ahead of its’ time.
Interesting, I’ll have to see if I can check that out. Thanks for that!