Fieseler Fi 156C-3 Storch
As the Luftwaffe rearmed for war, the Reich Air Ministry issued a requirement for a light aircraft capable of acting as a scouting aircraft, artillery spotter, and air ambulance. Fieseler offered its Fi 156 design, which incorporated both slats and flaps. This gave the aircraft superb short-field landing performance, and its robust landing gear allowed operations from any remotely firm surface. The Luftwaffe were impressed, and ordered it into production in 1936. It quickly gained the nickname "Storch" (Stork) for its long landing gear.
The Storch proved to be everything and more the Luftwaffe wanted. Easy to produce and fly, Storchs were assigned to most Luftwaffe squadrons as hack aircraft, and many in specialized squadrons to assist the German Army. It had superb visibility (including below; the floor was glazed), could land in any condition, and even had a modicum of self-defense with a rear firing MG 42 light machinegun. General Erwin Rommel, a qualified pilot, used his Storch to keep track of his fast-moving Afrika Korps; his British adversary, Bernard Montgomery, would do the same with his 8th Army in a captured Fi 156. It was most famously used in the Gran Sasso raid to free Benito Mussolini, but Storchs could be found anywhere.
During the war, production was shifted from the Fieseler factory, first to Mraz in Czechoslovakia, and then to Morane-Saulnier in France. So capable was the Storch that both nations kept it in production after the war; the French used metal construction and designated it the MS-500 Criquet. 2900 were built and a few dozen survive.
This Fi 156C-3, the most prolific version of the Storch, was produced in 1940 and sold to the Swedish Air Force (Flygvapnet). It remained in service as an observation aircraft until 1948, when it was declared surplus and sold to a private collector. It ended up back "home" in Germany, where it flew as a warbird for some years before it was sold again to a private collector in California in 1973. During its last flight in Germany, it was flown by Erich Hartmann, top ace of World War II and any war. It was transported to the United States, where it was donated to the National Museum of the USAF; it was flown to the museum by Chuck Yeager.
When I saw it in May 2017, it was suspended from the ceiling above the B-24. It is displayed as 5F+YK, Erwin Rommel's personal aircraft during the North African Campaigns of 1941-42. Rommel would often fly ahead of his armored columns to check their progress, and himself was a qualified pilot. (Ironically, his longtime opponent Bernard Montgomery also flew in a Fi 156--a captured example.) It is painted in overall desert yellow, with North African service stripes and brown camouflage to break up its outline over the desert.
Not the most flattering angle for the Storch here, but it does show why the aircraft got its name.
Fieseler Fi 156C-3 Storch
As the Luftwaffe rearmed for war, the Reich Air Ministry issued a requirement for a light aircraft capable of acting as a scouting aircraft, artillery spotter, and air ambulance. Fieseler offered its Fi 156 design, which incorporated both slats and flaps. This gave the aircraft superb short-field landing performance, and its robust landing gear allowed operations from any remotely firm surface. The Luftwaffe were impressed, and ordered it into production in 1936. It quickly gained the nickname "Storch" (Stork) for its long landing gear.
The Storch proved to be everything and more the Luftwaffe wanted. Easy to produce and fly, Storchs were assigned to most Luftwaffe squadrons as hack aircraft, and many in specialized squadrons to assist the German Army. It had superb visibility (including below; the floor was glazed), could land in any condition, and even had a modicum of self-defense with a rear firing MG 42 light machinegun. General Erwin Rommel, a qualified pilot, used his Storch to keep track of his fast-moving Afrika Korps; his British adversary, Bernard Montgomery, would do the same with his 8th Army in a captured Fi 156. It was most famously used in the Gran Sasso raid to free Benito Mussolini, but Storchs could be found anywhere.
During the war, production was shifted from the Fieseler factory, first to Mraz in Czechoslovakia, and then to Morane-Saulnier in France. So capable was the Storch that both nations kept it in production after the war; the French used metal construction and designated it the MS-500 Criquet. 2900 were built and a few dozen survive.
This Fi 156C-3, the most prolific version of the Storch, was produced in 1940 and sold to the Swedish Air Force (Flygvapnet). It remained in service as an observation aircraft until 1948, when it was declared surplus and sold to a private collector. It ended up back "home" in Germany, where it flew as a warbird for some years before it was sold again to a private collector in California in 1973. During its last flight in Germany, it was flown by Erich Hartmann, top ace of World War II and any war. It was transported to the United States, where it was donated to the National Museum of the USAF; it was flown to the museum by Chuck Yeager.
When I saw it in May 2017, it was suspended from the ceiling above the B-24. It is displayed as 5F+YK, Erwin Rommel's personal aircraft during the North African Campaigns of 1941-42. Rommel would often fly ahead of his armored columns to check their progress, and himself was a qualified pilot. (Ironically, his longtime opponent Bernard Montgomery also flew in a Fi 156--a captured example.) It is painted in overall desert yellow, with North African service stripes and brown camouflage to break up its outline over the desert.
Not the most flattering angle for the Storch here, but it does show why the aircraft got its name.