Arado Ar 196

Ar 196
File:Ar196.jpg
Role	Reconnaissance
Manufacturer	Arado
Designer	Walter Blume
First flight	May 1937
Introduction	November, 1938
Primary users	Kriegsmarine Bulgarian Air Force Finnish Air Force Romanian Air Force
Produced	1938-44
Number built	541

The Ar 196 was a shipboard reconnaissance low-wing monoplane aircraft built by the German firm Arado starting in 1936. The next year it was selected as winner of a design contest and became the standard aircraft of the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) throughout World War II.

Design and development

In 1933, the Kriegsmarine looked for a standardized shipboard reconnaissance aircraft. After a brief selection period the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (German Air Ministry, RLM) decided on the Heinkel He 60 biplane. This was one of a line of developments of a basic biplane airframe that appeared as a number of floatplanes, trainers, and fighters. Deliveries started in a matter of months.

By 1935 it was found that the He 60's performance was lacking and the RLM asked Heinkel to design its replacement. The result was the He 114. The first prototype was powered by the Daimler-Benz DB 600 inline engine but it was clear that supplies of this engine would be limited and the production versions turned to the BMW 132 radial engine instead.

The plane proved to have only slightly better performance than the He 60, and its sea-handling was poor. Rushed modifications resulted in a series of nine prototypes in an attempt to solve some of the problems, but they didn't help much. The Navy gave up, and the planes were eventually sold off to Romania, Spain and Sweden.

In October 1936, the RLM asked for a He 114 replacement. The only stipulations were that it would use the BMW 132, and they wanted prototypes in both twin-float and single-float configurations. Designs were received from Dornier, Gotha, Arado and Focke-Wulf. Heinkel declined to tender, contending that the He 114 could still be made to work.

With the exception of the Arado low-wing monoplane design all were conventional biplanes. That gave the Arado better performance than any of the others and the RLM ordered four prototypes. The RLM was also rather conservative by nature, so they also ordered two of the Focke-Wulf Fw 62 design as a backup. It quickly became clear that the Arado would work effectively, and only four prototypes of the Fw 62 were built.

The Ar 196 prototypes were all delivered in summer 1937, V1 (which flew in May) and V2 with twin floats as A models, and V3 and V4 on a single float as B models. Both versions demonstrated excellent water handling and there seemed to be little to decide one over the other. Since there was a possibility of the smaller outrigger floats on the B models "digging in", the twin-float A model was ordered into production. A single additional prototype, V5, was produced in November 1938 to test final changes.

10 A-0s were delivered in November and December 1938, with a single 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 15 machine gun in the rear seat for defense. Five similarly equipped B-0s were also delivered to land-based squadrons. This was followed by 20 A-1 production models starting in June 1939, enough to equip the surface fleet.

File:Finnish Arado Ar 196 A-5.jpg

A Finnish Arado Ar 196 takes off in Vyborg, June 1944. Note the four 100kg bombs unique to Finnish 196s.

Starting in November production switched to the heavier land-based A-2 model. It added shackles for two 50 kg (110 lb) bombs, two 20 mm MG FF cannons in the wings, and a 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17 machine gun in the cowling. The A-4 replaced it in December 1940, strengthening the airframe, adding another radio, and switching props to a VDM model. The apparently mis-numbered A-3 replaced the A-4, with additional strengthening of the airframe. The final production version was the A-5 from 1943, which changed radios and cockpit instruments, switched the rear gun to the much-improved MG 81Z with 2000 rounds of ammunition, retrofitted the existing cannon to the MG FF/M with extended 90 round magazines, added armour protection for the pilot and observer, upgraded engine to the BMW 132W and strengthened the airframe. Some A-5 models, specifically in Finnish service, also were fitted with extra bomb shackles to hold up to four 100 kg bombs. In all versions, 541 Ar 196s (526 production models) were built before production ended in August 1944, about 100 of these from SNCA and Fokker plants.

The Ar 196C was a proposed aerodynamically-refined version. The Ar 196C project was cancelled in 1941.

Operational history

A Ar 196 on board the German cruiser Admiral Hipper

The plane was loved by its pilots, who found it handled well both in the air and on the water. With the loss of the German surface fleet the A-1s were added to coastal squadrons and continued to fly reconnaissance missions and submarine hunts into late 1944. Two notable operations were the capture of HMS Seal, and the repeated interception of RAF Armstrong-Whitworth Whitley bombers. Although it was no match for a fighter, it was considerably better than its Allied counterparts, and generally considered the best of its class. Owing to its good handling on water, the Finnish Air Force utilised Arado Ar 196 A-3s and later A-5s mainly on transportation and reconnaissance duties, though they did see active combat at various points throughout the war. The Bulgarian Air Force used their 196s to some success but ultimately lost most of its twelve A-3s to the hands of allied bombing late in the war and was forced to ground the rest due to fuel shortages.

Arado in Allied hands

The first Arado Ar 196 to fall into allied hands was an example belonging to the German cruiser Admiral Hipper captured in Lyngstad, Eide, by a Norwegian Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.11 seaplane of the Trøndelag naval district on 8 April 1940, at the dawn of the Norwegian Campaign. After being towed to Kristiansund by the torpedo boat HNoMS Sild, it was used against its former owners, flying with Norwegian markings. At 03:30 on 18 April, the Arado was evacuated to the UK by a Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service pilot. The plane was shortly thereafter crashed by a British pilot while on transit to the Helensburgh naval air base for testing. At the end of the war at least one Arado Ar 196 was left at a Norwegian airfield and kept in use as a liaison aircraft by the Royal Norwegian Air Force for a year on the West coast.

Δ11, an Arado 196 repainted in Greek colours

Another Arado was captured by the Hellenic Navy during the German invasion of Greece when in early April 1941 a Bordfliegergruppe Arado 196 had been forced to land alongside the coastal town of Peraia due to a ruptured fuel line. The Arado was captured, evaluated and ultimately painted with Hellenic markings of the Πολεμική Αεροπορία (Royal Hellenic Air Force) and flown against the Luftwaffe due to its relative modernity compared to types that Greece was operating at the time. During the German withdrawal in October 1944, D1+FH (an A-5), having been damaged in February of the same year during combat, was left in its mooring in Skaramagas awaiting repairs, and was subsequently captured by advancing allied forces.

Former military operators

Arado AR196 naval reconnaissance floatplane in the collection of the Bulgarian Air Force Museum at the airport in Plovdiv. The aircraft is the pride of the director, who is seen in the foreground. Previously, this seaplane was at the Marinemuseum in Varna, but was returned to the Air Force Museum for lack of space

Bulgaria

• Bulgarian Air Force

Finland

• Finnish Air Force

Germany

• Luftwaffe

Greece - (captured)

• Royal Hellenic Air Force

Norway - (captured)

• Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service
• Royal Norwegian Air Force
• Soviet Air Force

Aircraft on display

Ar 196 A-3

Aircraft operated by Bulgarian Air Force is displayed at the Museum of Aviation and the Air Force, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Ar 196 A-5, Werknummer of 623 167

Aircraft formerly equipped the German cruiser Prinz Eugen is in storage at the Paul Garber Facility of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, and awaiting restoration, as stated at the aircraft's online page.

The Aircraft Historical Museum, Sola, Norway, has a fuselage frame that was raised from the wreck of the German cruiser Blücher. Another aircraft is known to lie in the Jonsvatnet, a lake near Trondheim in Norway. A number of wartime German aircraft have been recovered from the lake, but the Ar 196 remains undisturbed as its crew were killed when it crashed there in 1940 and it has the status of a War Grave.

Specifications (Ar 196 A-5)

An Arado Ar 196, bearing the squadron markings of the reconnaissance unit assigned to the battleship Bismarck.

Data from

General characteristics

• Crew: Two (pilot and observer)
• Length: 11.0 m (36 ft 1 in)
• Wingspan: 12.4 m (40 ft 0 in)
• Height: 4.45 m (14 ft 7 in)
• Wing area: 28.4 m² (306 ft²)
• Empty weight: 2,990 kg (6,592 lb)
• Max. takeoff weight: 3,720 kg (8,200 lb)
• Powerplant: 1 × BMW 132W 9-cylinder radial engine, 1164 PS (782 kW, 1050hp)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 332km/h (206 mph)
• Range: 1,080 km (670 mi)
• Service ceiling: 7,010 m (23,000 ft)
• Rate of climb: 360 m/min (1181 ft/min)
• Wing loading: 98.2 kg/m² (20.1 lb/ft²)
• Power/mass: 0.235 kW/kg (0.143 hp/lb)

Armament

• Guns:
  
• 1 × 7.92 mm (0.312 in) MG 81Z machine gun
• 1 × 7.92 mm (0.312 in) MG 17 machine gun
• 2 × 20 mm MG FF/M cannon
• Bombs: 2 × 50 kg (110 lb) or 4 x 100kg (220lb) bombs

See also

• Aichi E13A
• OS2U Kingfisher
• Northrop N-3PB
• DFS 193 - DFS 194 - Ar 195 - Ar 196 - Ar 197 - Ar 198 - Ar 199
• List of Interwar military aircraft
• List of aircraft of World War II
• List of World War II military aircraft of Germany
• List of military aircraft of Germany

References

Bibliography

• Dabrowski, Hans-Peter and Koos, Volker. Arado Ar 196, Germany's Multi-Purpose Seaplane. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military History, 1993. ISBN 0-88740-481-2.
• Ledwoch, Janusz. Arado 196 (Militaria 53) (in Polish). Warszawa, Poland: Wydawnictwo Militaria, 1997. ISBN 83-86209-87-9.
• Sivertsen, Svein Carl (ed.) (1999) (in Norwegian). Jageren Sleipner i Romsdalsfjord sjøforsvarsdistrikt april 1940. Hundvåg: Sjømilitære Samfund ved Norsk Tidsskrift for Sjøvesen. 

External links

• Arado Ar 196 - Info from German-navy.de
• Arado 196 - Info from the Smithsonian