Arado Ar 196 A-5

04/30/2014. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "This aircraft was produced by Fokker in the Netherlands and assigned to the German cruiser Prinz Eugen under the identifier T3+CH. After WW II, the aircraft came to the USA as a war prize, and was flight tested off the coast of Delaware. From 1949 it was stored in the open at NAS Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Under deteriorating general condition its identifier changed successively to TW+SH, T3+HK and GA+DX.

In 1989 the aircraft was transferred to the National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, Florida, being severely damaged in the process. In March 2013 the navies of the USA and Germany reached an agreement by which the aircraft was transported to Germany for restoration at the Aeronauticum in Nordholz. After completion of the restoration the aircraft will on display in Germany for a not yet specified period of time before being transferred back to the USA.

Introduced in 1939 as a successor to the Heinkel He 60 on the catapults of the principal German warships, the Ar 196 was first encountered in December 1939 when an example of this two-seat reconnaissance and coastal patrol seaplane was seen aboard the ill-fated Graf Spee.

In the spring of 1941, several floatplanes of this type were launched by the Bismarck in an attempt to drive away the RAF Catalina flying boats shadowing the battleship during its one and only sortie into the Atlantic, and subsequently it was encountered frequently over the Bay of Biscay where, operating from French bases, the Ar 196 was used to intercept RAF Coastal Command anti-submarine patrols, necessitating the use of Beaufighters as a countermeasure.

The Ar 196 was designed by the Arado Flugzeugwerke in 1937, and four prototypes were completed and flown in 1938. The first two prototypes, the Ar 196 V1 (registered D-IEHK) and Ar 196 V2 (D-IHQI), had twin long single-step all-metal floats attached to the fuselage and wings by a system of steel-tube struts, but the third and fourth prototypes, the Ar 196 V3 (D-ILRE) and Ar 196 V4 (D-OVMB), had a single central float with stabilizing floats outboard under the wings.

The prototypes were powered by the BMW 132Dc nine-cylinder radial rated at 880 hp and driving a two-blade controllable pitch airscrew, and the Ar 196 V1 was originally flown with twin exhaust pipes which extended beneath the port side of the forward fuselage. These were later reduced in length and divided to port and starboard, this arrangement being standardized on subsequent prototypes and the production model. The Ar 196 V1 was also the first prototype to test a three-blade variable-pitch VDM airscrew later adopted for the Ar 196 A series.

Apart from an increase in vertical fin area and redesign of the rudder, the Ar 196 V2 was identical to its predecessor, and the Ar 196 V4 was the first prototype to test the armament proposed for the production model, two 0.787 in (20 mm) MG FF cannon being installed in the inboard wing sections, a single 0.311 in (7.9 mm) MG 17 machine gun being mounted in the starboard side of the forward fuselage, and containers housing 110-lb (50 kg) bombs being attached to the undersurfaces of the wings, immediately outboard of the lateral bracing struts for the central float.

Evaluation of the prototypes resulted in the decision to standardize on the twin-float arrangement of the first two machines, and production was initiated late in 1938, the initial model, the Ar 196 A-1 having the more powerful BMW 132K rated at 960 hp for take off, 970 hp at 1,476 ft (450 m), and having a maximum cruising power of 750 hp at 4,921 ft (1,500 m).

The Ar 196 A-1 had a welded steel-tube fuselage structure, the forward part of which was covered by stressed metal skin and the aft part by fabric. The two-spar all-metal wing was metal-covered and braced to the floats at approximately one-third span. The tail assembly was an all-metal structure with metal-covered fixed surfaces and fabric covered movable surfaces, and the floats were provided with catapult points. Armament comprised one 0.311 in (7.9 mm) MG 17 machine gun in the forward fuselage, and normally a similar gun on a movable mounting was provided in the rear cockpit. Two 110-lb (50 kg) bombs could be attached to underwing racks.

The first production deliveries of the Ar 196 A-1 were made in August 1939, twenty-six having been completed by the end of the year, these being allocated to the principal German warships, such as the Scharnhorst, the Gneisenau, the Graf Spee, the Lützow, the Scheer and the Prinz Eugen, replacing the He 60 biplane. During 1940, the Ar 196 A-1 was succeeded by the Ar 196 A-3 intended primarily for coastal reconnaissance and patrol.

Apart from installation of later radio equipment, the Ar 196 A-3 differed from the initial production model in having the forward-firing MG 17 machine gun supplemented by two wing-mounted 0.787 in (20 mm) MG FF cannon firing outside the airscrew arc, and twin MG 17s were installed in the rear cockpit. A total of 104 floatplanes of this type was completed in 1940, followed by 94 in 1941, by which year the Ar 196 A was being encountered increasingly in the Mediterranean and the Adriatic where it was used for anti-submarine patrols and for attacking light marine craft. It was also used in the convoy escort role, and in the Channel was employed in hunting RAF Coastal Command's Whitleys which patrolled the routes taken by U-boats entering and leaving their pens along the French coast.

Under an agreement signed between Germany and the Vichy French government in July 1941, the SNCA plant at St.Nazaire undertook the production of the Ar 196 A, producing thirteen in 1942 and ten in 1943, and in the Netherlands Fokker began proproducing the Ar 196 A-5 in 1943, delivering eleven in that year and 58 in 1944. The Ar 196 A-5 was essentially similar to the A-3 apart from certain items of internal equipment. The Arado Flugzeugwerke had terminated production of the floatplane in 1943, delivering 83 aircraft in that year, and total production of the Ar 196 A from all sources and excluding prototypes was 493 machines."

The following data relate to the Ar 196 A-3.