- Arado Ar 231
The Arado Ar 231 was a light-weight
seaplane developed duringWorld War II inGermany as a scout plane forsubmarine s. The need to be stored inside the submarine necessitated compromises in design that made this single-seat seaplane of little practical use.Design and development
Designed from the outset for use on a
U-boat "cruisers" Type XI B, the Ar 231 was a parasol-wing design light aircraft. The aircraft was powered by a 160 hp (120 kW)Hirth HM 501 engine, weighed around 1000 kg, and had a 10 m wingspan. The design led to a simple and compact aircraft that could be fitted into a storage cylinder only two meters in diameter. For ease of storage, the Ar 231's wings featured detachable sections that two operators could remove in less than six minutes. One unusual feature was an offset wing design, with the right wing attached to the fuselage lower than the left wing to allow the wings to be quickly folded up.Operational history
Testing soon revealed the Ar 231s to be fragile, underpowered, and difficult to fly even during calm weather, and as a result, development ended in favour of the
Focke Achgelis Fa 330 autogyro. Some of the testing was done on the auxiliary cruiser "Stier", two of the six prototypes being taken on one voyage.pecifications (Ar Ar 231 V1)
ee also
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related=
similar aircraft=
|lists=
*List of World War II military aircraft of Germany
*List of military aircraft of Germany
see also=References
External links
* [http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/2833/luftwaffe/seaplane/ar231/ar231.html Arado Ar 231]
* [http://avia.russian.ee/air/germany/arado_ar-231.php Arado Ar 231 (1941)]
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