Arado Ar 196 'Eyes of the Kreigsmarine!'

Arado Ar 196 

An A-3 model conducting a maritime patrol mission

The Arado Ar 196 was the principle reconnaissance seaplane used by the Kriegsmarineduring Second World War. A single engined aircraft with a low wing monoplane. It's two crew sat tandem with the pilot in front and the observer controlling the radio equipment and manning the rear facing machine gun. For its time in the late 1930s, the Arado Ar 196 was an advanced modern aircraft. The radial 9 cylinders BMW 132 engine was capable of producing 970HP under full power. The airframe structure of the Arado was optimized for operations from Germans vessels and cruisers. It could be catapulted directly from vessels with its fuselage-wing hinges backwards folding wings system.

Despite being designed in the lead up to the Second World War, the Arado 196 was a mainstay of several airforces including the Bulgarian, Finnish and Romanian Air Forces. Beginning production after completing the prototype stage in December 1938, the first ten A-0 models lacked any serious armament with only a single light machine gun in control of the observer for production. This was followed by a larger order of 20 A-1s to equip the surface fleet..

By June 1939 production had moved on to the A-2 variant which was capable of carrying two 50kg (110lb) bombs underneath it's wings and had a single 7.92mm MG mounted in the cowling along with dual 20mm MG- FF cannon. The A-3 was the main production variant, significant orders were placed by Bulgaria and Finland. A misnumbering led to the A-4 preceding the A-3 which also had a strengthened fuselage following incidents of the engine block shearing off the nose which was a result of a lack of reinforcement for the heavy BMW 132 engine. 

The A-5 saw limited production beginning in 1943 and saw no
 export orders, though Finnish A-3s were upgraded to the A-5 specification. The Bulgarian Air Force, by this point suffering heavy losses with aerial bombardment from allied raids did not have much need for reconnaissance floatplanes and instead poured the remainder of their limited resources into fighter aircraft.

By the end of the war many Arado Ar 196s survived, principally with the German and Finnish Air Forces - though in the years that followed many fell into disrepair or were scrapped. Currently three out of a total production run of 526 aircraft remain, one A-3 Bulgarian model and two A-5s that served with the Kreigsmarine on the Battlecruiser "Prinz Eugen"
Some Arados were captured - two known examples were taken by Norway and Greece respectively and were actually operated against the Germans!

Specifications (for A-5 Variant)

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: 2,335 kg (5,148 lb)
  • Max. takeoff weight: 3,747 kg (8,481 lb)
  • Powerplant: 1 × BMW 132K 9-cylinder radial engine, 960 PS (706 kW, 947 hp)

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 311 km/h (193 mph)
  • Range: 1,080 km (670 mi)
  • Service ceiling: 7,010 m (23,000 ft)
  • Rate of climb: 300 m/min (980 ft/min)
  • Wing loading: 98.2 kg/m² (20.1 lb/ft²)
  • Power/mass: 167 W/kg (0.101 hp/lb)

Armament

  • 1 × 7.92 mm MG 81Z defensive machine gun (2000 rounds)
  • 1 × 7.92 mm MG 17 machine gun (500 rounds)
  • 2 × 20 mm MG FF/M cannon (180 rounds)
  • 2 × 50 kg (110 lb) bombs

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