14. The Hovering Hummingbird
Germany also built a light helicopter, the single-seat Flettner Fl 282 Kolibri (“Hummingbird”), which first flew in 1941 and entered production in 1942. The Kolibri’s fuselage was made of steel tubes, over which fabric was stretched, and it came with a fixed 3-wheel tricycle undercarriage. The newer Fl 282 was a more reliable machine than the pioneering Fa 223, requiring maintenance only once every 400 operational hours, compared to the Fa 223’s need for an overhaul every 25 hours.
The German navy also built small, portable helicopters, to be carried aboard ship and flown for short-range reconnaissance. After the war, captured German helicopters were shipped to the US for testing. The Flettner’s rotor design formed the basis for what became the world’s first gas turbine helicopter in 1951, in a version of the American K-225 helicopter.
