VFW-614 - Development, Variants and Projects

Apophenia

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Sorry if this has been covered before. Were all early VFW-614 concepts swing-nose types?

Attached in a manufactures 3-view drawing showing a swing nose. Note: at this stage, the Weser Fluzeugbau WFG-614 was to be powered by twin Lycoming PLF1B-2s.
 

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This is from volume 2 of the "Chronik des Lemwerder Flugzeugwerkes 1964 - 1994" by F.-Herbert Wenz (ISBN 3-927697-15-X). It shows an early layout of the ERNO 61-4 (Project No. 4 of the year 1961) with engines on the fuselage and another body section than the later development stages. The tables give an impression of the design evolution.
 

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Wow, a lot more variations there than I had imagined.

So, the swing nose lasts from 1963 until 1967. Cheers :)
 
From "Der Flieger", July 1963 a photo of a model (or mock-up ?) of the WFG-614,
later VFW-614
 

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Jemiba said:
From "Der Flieger", July 1963 a photo of a model (or mock-up ?) of the WFG-614,
later VFW-614


Great find my dear Jemiba.
 
Apophenia said:
Sorry if this has been covered before. Were all early VFW-614 concepts swing-nose types?

Attached in a manufactures 3-view drawing showing a swing nose. Note: at this stage, the Weser Fluzeugbau WFG-614 was to be powered by twin Lycoming PLF1B-2s.

These photos are from a brochure that was printed in 1963. More detail on the swing open nose. It seems that along with the opening nose came the rear stairs like found in the 727 and DC-9s.
 

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These are from a 1966 brochure, still has the swing nose but may have lost the rear airstairs. My next brochure came from about 1969-70 (not exactly shure) and it was pretty much the production design without swing nose or airstairs.
 

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Thanks for posting these brochures ! They show the change of role of this design, which started as another
contender for already crowded the DC-3-replacement market and ended as a commuter aircraft without
gaining commercial success.
BTW, until February this year an example of this type still could be seen on Berlin-Tempelhof Airport in the
open. It is owned by the Technical Museum Berlin and had to be disassembled and brought to a hangar of
a former military airfield near Berlin. The aircraft was too often a burden for the fashionshows, which are
the main source of income for the old airport now. If and when (and if it all !) the VfW-614 will be displayed
is uncertain.
 
Neat stuff, thanks. The swing-nose design seems an odd choice when the over-wing placement of the engines would have made something like clamshell doors in the lower tailcone relatively easy. The swing-nose complicates control and instrument runs enormously.
 
Jemiba said:
[...]
BTW, until February this year an example of this type still could be seen on Berlin-Tempelhof Airport in the
open. It is owned by the Technical Museum Berlin and had to be disassembled and brought to a hangar of
a former military airfield near Berlin. The aircraft was too often a burden for the fashionshows, which are
the main source of income for the old airport now. If and when (and if it all !) the VfW-614 will be displayed
is uncertain.
It was brought to a hangar at the former military airfield Werneuchen near Berlin.
 
Hi,


in Luftfahrt International,I found a Model to VFW-614 aircraft,with a strange
section over the middle of the fuselage,can anyone explain what was this ?.
 

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For short: - The last built VFW 614 was destined to be used as experimental aircraft by the "Deutschen Forschungs
und Versuchsanstalt für Luft- und Raumfahrt" (German research and testcenter for aviation and space flight).
One main aim was to improve the flight control of aircraft to allow more aircraft to use a given airspace, to shorten
loitering times before landing and the ability to control more aircraft in the landing pattern. The VFW 614 sjould be
used as flying simulator to simulate a wide variety of aircraft of different sizes. A fly-by-wire system would have been
mandatory, with a mechanical back-up system for the co-pilot only, to reproduce the handling of a much bigger type.
This VFW 614 should be delivered until the end of 1984. The model shows the version as a test aircraft, but in the final
guise the dorsal fin should be deleted and the boom shortened. -

Maybe comparable to the F-104 CCV conversion (although for a different purpose) and the shown picture showed a
configuration, that already was more or less outdated
 
Excellent my dear Jemiba,many thanks.
 
cluttonfred said:
Neat stuff, thanks. The swing-nose design seems an odd choice when the over-wing placement of the engines would have made something like clamshell doors in the lower tailcone relatively easy. The swing-nose complicates control and instrument runs enormously.

The advantages of the rear airstair would have offset that, at least to a degree.
 
Announced in the FliegerRevueX N° 50 for the next issue is an article about a proposal for
the VFW 614 as a maritime recce aircraft, with a artist impression showing the aircraft fitted
wirh a belly radom, an E/O-turret nder the nose antenna housing on the fin and missiles
(Harpoon ?) under the wing.
Maybe worth reading !
 

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boxkite said:
This is from volume 2 of the "Chronik des Lemwerder Flugzeugwerkes 1964 - 1994" by F.-Herbert Wenz (ISBN 3-927697-15-X). It shows an early layout of the ERNO 61-4 (Project No. 4 of the year 1961) with engines on the fuselage and another body section than the later development stages. The tables give an impression of the design evolution.


And from Der Spiegel 1977.
 

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Some local history that I discovered. Originally Short Brothers of Northern Ireland were to be the UK participants in the tri-partite 614 project, but the British Government ( then owning 100% of Shorts ) decided that the company would disengage from aircraft production.

Shorts only needed around £6 million to continue on the design studies but the Government refused to provide this and Hawker-Siddeley were nominated as the UK participant.

However HSA had little interest, they wanted to develop a direct competitor to the F28. So the UK drifted out of the project other than the private-initiative engine and the Dowty undercarriage.
 
1960s Regional Jet Politics were fiendishly complex (ditto now, China, India, Japan, Russia, Turkey...) and Governments' funding (and it was nearly all Govts' money) had bigger aims than to build bugsmashers.

FRG Govt committed in 1963 to buy 13 HFB-320 Hansajets to resurrect a civil aero pedigree, and hoped that its 1962 military funding of Do.31 V/STOL transport might have Cityjet potential. Weserflug+Focke Wulf combined in 1964 as VFW; ERNO 61-4 scheme became VFW-614, soon losing its Lycoming paper engine. Nascent FRG Aero industry was wholly financed on military account and is best described as para-statal.

In 1964 Fokker launched F-28 and assigned its wing to (Nationalised) Shorts.

On 17/5/65 UK and France agreed to develop AFVG, BAC to lead Dassault on airframe, SNECMA to lead BSEL on M-45G.
UK Govt. funded Study, 11/65-4/66 by BAC and by HSAL of a Big Twin for BEAC. France saw the same market prospect, (Nationalised) Sud Avn. scheming Galion and talking with their Concorde partner BAC, Breguet/Nord Avn. talking to HSAL. France and UK both wanted to bring FRG onboard AFVG and the Big Twin: FRG had the obligation to offset the foreign exchange drain of Visiting Forces, US (hence F-104G), UK (hence those odd 1957 choices of Gannet, Sea Hawk, Sycamore, Pembroke) and France (Noratlas, Magister, Alouette).

HSAL+Breguet/Nord plus VFW+HFB submitted HBN-100, BAC+Sud Avn, Galion. FRG provided Launch Aid for VFW-614 and assigned its nacelles to Short, its engine to be BSEL leading SNECMA on BS.127/M-45H, with DM50Mn. FRG Launch Aid "counting" towards £ offset.

The rest of 1966 and all of 1967/68 were diverted by AFVG/MRCA, Space (ELDO), and the Big Twin: all of this was politics - as seen by UK, it was all to do with trying to join the EEC. VFW-614 was assigned for production involving (the South Group, re-named) MBB and Belgian SABCA/Fairey; from 10/66 Rolls Royce owned the engine, but did not care for it after AFVG/M-45G was chopped 29/6/67. The 3 Nations confirmed A300, 25/7/67 with RB207. Only VFW-Fokker (formed 1969) now cared for VFW-614 (until Fokker divorced in 1980 and launched (to be) F-100/F-70).
 
And;
 

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Announced in the FliegerRevueX N° 50 for the next issue is an article about a proposal for
the VFW 614 as a maritime recce aircraft, with a artist impression showing the aircraft fitted
wirh a belly radom, an E/O-turret nder the nose antenna housing on the fin and missiles
(Harpoon ?) under the wing.
Maybe worth reading !
The German magazine "Flieger Revue" has recycled this article in their newest bookazine "FliegerRevue X Spezial - Flugzeuge die man kennen muss". But two new artist impressions in German Navy (Marine) and in US Coast Guard colours were added IIRC compared to the older article from 2014. Also, a new 3-view cutaway. :cool:
I might post a summary and some screenshots in a low resolution as an appetizer here in this topic as earliest as this following Sunday.:)
 
Hi folks, in April 2023 my father and I visited the German maritime aviation museum Aeronauticum Nordholz.
At that time there was a special exhibition about the development and service of the VFW 614.
I took some pictures, especially of the project VFW 614 MPA for the German Navy.
At the German Navy Airbase next door, the German maritime patrol aircrafts like the Breguet Br.1150 Atlantic were, the Lockheed P-3C are and soon the Boeing P-8 will be stationed.
 

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Years ago I found this somewhere online - the three-engined VFW 624. Does anyone have some information about it?
 

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From Interavia 1963,

I don't know if this Weserflug related to the VFW 614 or not ?.
 

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From Interavia 1963,
I don't know if this Weserflug related to the VFW 614 or not ?.
Yes, in the early 1960s the company "Weser-Flugzeugbau GmbH" merged with other aerospace companies into the company "Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW)". So the early designation ERNO 61-4 or WFB 614 was changed to VFW 614.
 

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