Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Drache

Fa 223 took off on its first extended flight on 3 August 1940.

The development of a large helicopter for civilian and military use was personally promoted by Ernst Udet. From the smaller Fw 61 thus emerged the Fa 266, which became the Fw 223 for military use after the outbreak of war. This helicopter had laterally arranged rotors, to create a stable structure, a boom was mounted on either side of the fuselage to allow the use of large rotors. This type was to be used for submarine pursuit, reconnaissance, rescue operations, transport and training.

Shortly after the Fa 223 reached readiness for series production, the production facilities in Bremen were damaged by bombing so much that production had to be moved to Laupheim (near Stuttgart) and later to Ochsenhausen, which explains the fact that by the end of the war only 11 units had been produced (and that without experimental machines), yet an order was placed for 100 machines in 1941, and even for 400 production helicopters in the autumn of 1944. One of the versions for the Kriegsmarine was to be equipped with machine guns and two 250 kg bombs for anti-submarine warfare.

Even so, the Fa 223 played a pioneering role by fulfilling tasks that were to become the domain of the wreckers after 1945. The Fa 223 was equipped with a winch for disembarking downed pilots and proved itself in deployment at Lufttransportstaffel 40. It was also used in the mountains. Senior Wehrmacht and SS officers were transported by one Fa 223 to receive orders and decorations at Hitler's Berghof in Berchtesgaden. At the end of the war only 3 examples were flown, one Fa 223 captured by the US Army was the first helicopter to fly across the English Channel.

After 1945, two Fa 223s were produced in Czechoslovakia with captured German design kits, but these were only used on a limited basis. After the war it was also used in France.

The machine Fa 223 V11 (DM + SO) was flown on 5.2.1943. In March of the same year, it was tested by a device for injecting methanol and water into the engine for short-term power increase (MW). Although the machine climbed faster during takeoff, no further attempts with the MW system took place.

Fa 223 V16 (DM+ST) poprvé vzlétl v březnu 1944, přičemž byl opatřen výškovým motorem Bramo 323 Y-1.

Fa 223 V14 v původní německé kamufláži, avšak s výsostnými znaky nového uživatele - RAF.

Vrtulník Fa 223 zkoušený krátce po druhé světové válce americkým letectvem nesl tmavě zelené zbarvení na všech plochách, které bylo doplněno výsostnými znaky USAAF.

Druhý československý VR-3.2 (imatrikulace OK-BZX) provozovalo Bezpečnostní letectvo. Příď měl nastříkanou červenou barvou, na SOP je vidět trojúhelníkový výsostný znak charakteristický pro letadla policejních sil.

Jeden ze dvou československých vrtulníků typu Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Drache v průběhu zkoušek ve Vědeckém leteckém ústavu v Praze-Letňanech v roce 1948. U československého letectva nosil typové označení VR-3 (někdy uváděné jako VR-1).

According to a helicopter.cz is the designation VR-1 erroneous. Created allegedly by simplifying the enrollment of the first machines of the VR-3.1 on the VR-1. Are aware of the three machines and the COR-3.1, VR-3.2 and the COR-3.3, of which the COR-3.3 was created by the assembly of the two previous, and is also later referred to again as the COR-3.1. This machine with the designation V-26 also, inter alia, crashed 5.3.1952 at the airport in Přelouči, where his career (and the career of this type overall in Czechoslovakia) apparently this accident is over.
Article First helicopters in the ATM 4/2008 indicates the sign of the COR-1.1, VR-1.2 and VR-3.1, which should arise accidentally.¹⁾
Both sources agree on the number of machines and their creation.

Source:
http://www.vrtulnik.cz/fa-223.htm
http://www.vrtulnik.cz/ww2/protektorat-prelouc.htm
ATM 4/2008

¹⁾it Is true that this designation would be more logical if the first two pieces were essentially the first czechoslovak helicopters and labelling 3.1 could arise also that the VR-2 was already taken future HC-2 and so was the "new" machine designated as the third "type" in the order. But this is only my thought construction for this variant of the marking. Server vrtulnk.cz is supposedly in his assertions based on the records of the flight books Avie. So it's hard to say..