Luftwaffe museums in Germany - 8

[Richard T Eger]

The Förderverein Bücker-Museum Rangsdorf e.V. website, while ostensibly about the museum, also contains a good overview of Bücker-Flugzeugen and the aircraft it produced. There are quite a number of aircraft photos, detail photos, and plans. The address of the site is:

http://www.bueckerverein.de/index.htm

Sections of Luftwaffe interest on the site are:

Neues - Site updates

Museum: Bücker-Luftfahrt- und Europäisches Eissegel-Museum.

Quoting from the site and tanslating with the help of Altavista:

"The promotion association of Bücker-Museum Rangsdorf e.V. loads all aviation friends, who are interested in the history of the former aircraft production and the Rangsdorfer of airfield.

They find information with us beside extensive text and pictorial material to the Bücker-Flugzeugen manufactured in Rangsdorf also for the use of the area as sport and traffic airfield. Further pictures and exhibits are from the time during the use of the Bücker area by the Soviet army to see (e.g. pictures, models, radios u.a.m)."

Further information is given regarding the opening of the museum on 31 March 2001, including 4 color photos. Visiting hours, directions, map, and cost information is provided.

Geschichte - History

Rund gangdurch die Geschichte - Short histories with photos:

Über unseren verein - About our association

Reichssportflughafen - Reichs sport airport

Rühmann und andere - Rühmann and others

Bückers Flugzeug

Zukunft Bückerwerk - Future of the Bückerwerk

Rangsdorf - Moskau - History of commercial service from Rangsdorf in the 1939-1940 period.

Kriegsproduktion - War production, noting use of airfield and the manufacture of trainers and support of other aircraft and missile manufacturing.

1945 - 1994 - Postwar activities, including repair center for Soviet Air Force helicopters.

Carl Clemens Bücker - Biography by year

Bückers Flugzeuge - Brief histories, 3-view plans, and technical data for the following Bücker aircraft:

Bü 131 "Jungmann"
Bü 133 "Jungmeister"
Bü 134 (Prototyp)
Bü 180 "Student"
Bü 181 "Bestmann"
Bü 182 "Kornett"

Bücker "on tour" - Color photos of Bücker and other aircraft at airshows. In addition, there is a photo of an Me 108 together with an Me 109.

Das Bücker-Werk - Map showing buildings and when they were built.

Fotogalerie - Photo gallery

Fotogalerie Bückers Flugzeuge - Photo gallery of Bücker aircraft, mainly from WW II era

Bü 131 "Jungmann" - 32 b&w photos
Bü 133 "Jungmeister" - 17 b&w photos
Bü 134 (Prototyp) - 5 b&w photos
Bü 180 "Student" - 4 b&w photos
Bü 181 "Bestmann" - 5 b&w photos
Bü 182 "Kornett" - 1 b&w photo

Fotogalerie Bücker-Persönlichkeiten - Photo gallery of Bücker personalities - 32 b&w & 1 color photo - no ID's

Fotogalerie Bückerplatz in Ehrenbreitstein - 4 b&w photos at Bückerplatz street.

Fotogalerie Bücker-Veteranen - Photo gallery of Bücker veterans - 31 color photos of reunion of Bücker workers at museum on 7 Sept. 2002, with accompanying story.

Fotogalerie "Bücker in Japan" - 37 b&w photos of Bü 131 and Bü 133 during sales trip to Japan.

Historische Dokumente - 8 historical documents

Modellbau - model construction

Scale-Doku

Nützliches & Wissenswertes - Useful & worth knowing

--Detailfotos - Detail photos:

Bü 131 "Jungmann" - 19 b&w & 36 color photos, including museum shots
Bü 133 "Jungmeister" - 2 b&w & 17 color photos, including museum shots
Bü 134 (Prototyp) - 4 b&w photos
Bü 180 "Student" - 1 b&w photo
Bü 181 "Bestmann" - 1 b&w, & 7 color museum photos

--Farbangaben - Color data - Color profiles with additional info:

Bü 131 "Jungmann" - 1 profile, 4 additional aircraft
Bü 133 "Jungmeister" - 1 profile, 2 additional aircraft
Bü 134 (Prototyp) - 1 profile
Bü 180 "Student" - 2 profiles
Bü 181 "Bestmann" - 2 profiles, 1 additional aircaft
Bü 182 "Kornett" - 1 profile

Service - Downloadable scale plans for:

Bü 131 "Jungmann"
Bü 133 "Jungmeister"
Bü 134 (Prototyp)
Bü 181 "Bestmann"

The detailed photos accessible under Detailfotos can also be accessed here.

Presse - Various articles.

Service - Various downloadable files.

Impressum - Information on museum, those responsible for the website, and thank you's.

Regards,
Richard

[Richard T Eger]

At first, the Aircraft Engine Historical Society website didn't strike a chord with me, as it looked to contain information only on American and British engines, hardly the stuff of Luftwaffe interest. However, looks can be deceiving and one really needs to explore this site thoroughly. It has a very helpful search engine and one of the site's most noteworthy features is exploration of the Sarah Clark collection at NARA II. There are a fair number of color photos of German engines in museums. Another unique feature is a very extensive guide to scanning of historical documents. The site address is:

http://www.enginehistory.org/

Search Engine

Working down the main page, one comes directly to the search engine. It is here that one of the hidden assets of this site jumps to life. If you type in Jumo 004, it will look for any Jumo engine. Photographs available of Jumo engines in various museum collections can than be viewed through the internal links. If there is a book or review reference, this will also have an internal link for viewing.

One weakness is that some engine and engine location identification information is not given. Also, on one page, the thumbnail size references are so small that the photos are hard to make out. However, the enlargements are of excellent size and quality.

Book Reviews

Working down the main page, you come to the site index on the left. As I said, much of the site is devoted to American and British engines and thus, so far, every index listing above book reviews has nothing covering German engines. One book reviewed is "The Bombing of Rolls-Royce at Derby in two World Wars". Within this is some discussion of the BMW 801 and Do 217. Beyond this review, the books reviewed have a decided anglo/American slant.

Author's Page

Scanning Archival Material, by Daniel D. Whitney

A wonderful hidden gem of a treatise on this subject in pdf format well worth printing out, Whitney covers the following aspects:

How Scanners Work
Using Scanned Document Files
Exploiting the Advantages of Scanning
File Compression
Adobe Acrobat Format (pdf)
Transparencies
So How Should I Scan and Process Documents?
Issues and Integrity
Summary
Additional reading

The 6 pages of text are followed by a page showing how a poor original document scanned in full color at 4,729 KB, can actually be improved upon by proper color channel selection, reducing document size to 35 to 36 KB.

This page is followed with a table entitled "Alternative Raster File Formats, Benefits and Applications", giving the pro's and con's of bmp, tiff, gif, and jpeg formats.

References

Index of Selected Engine Information in the Sarah Clark Files at the National Archives II, by Kimble D. McCutcheon

Quoting from the site:

"The Sarah Clark Files contain a wealth of information on Air Force aircraft, engines, and equipment from 1916 to 1951. This is a copy of engine topics in the finding aid."

While the emphasis is probably on U.S. built engines, McCutcheon goes to considerable trouble to explain what the Sarah Clark collection is and how to search within it. I have been through the same indexes he has and their is a wealth of information in the Sarah Clark collection on German engines and aircraft, so becoming a bit familiar with its in's and out's is time well spent.

As McCutcheon describes the index, its arrangement is a bit arcane, which is being generous. In general, the index is arranged in chronological packets of time. Each packet will start out at the lowest decimal filing system number, then work up in ascending numerical sequence. Once done, the next packet and so on will run through the sequence, repeating over and over. For the 1939-45 time frame, you will have numerous seemingly overlapping packets time-wise. See McCutcheon's binder listings to see what I mean by this. Thus, if you want to hunt up information on BMW engines, you'll need to slog your way through a large chunk of the index. Nor can you really count on just looking for one decimal filing system number, like the 452.7 noted in McCutcheon's illustration. You might find related information under a variety of numbers. So, to do a thorough job of it, plan to spend about half a day jotting notes from these records. As can be seen, the RD numbers are the connection needed to get to the actual storage boxes.

Of especial value on the site is that McCutcheon has copied in pdf format all the 452 series engine reference index pages, which include foreign engines. Each page is downloadable to your computer. So, if engines are your thing, you can download all these pages to your computer and make your selections before you get to NARA II.

Galleries

Engine Images from the National Air and Space Museum

While no German engines are noted in the photos here, 2 color photos show storage racks of engines.

Images from museums in the former Eastern Bloc, by Tom Speer

--Aviation Museum, Krakow

Junkers Jumo 205 - 1 color photo
(A number of other engines are not identified)

Images from Deutsches Museum Flugwerft Schleißheim, by Terry Burks

Argus As 17a - 1 color photo, 1 plaque
Argus Model 4 - 1 color photo, 1 plaque
BMW M2 B15 - 1 color photo, 1 plaque
BMW 132a - 1 color photo, 1 plaque
BMW 803 - 1 color photo, 1 plaque
Daimler D IV a - 1 color photo, 1 plaque
DB 610 - 1 color photo, 1 plaque
Haacke HFM 3 - 1 color photo, 1 plaque
Junkers L5 - 1 color photo, 1 plaque
Jumo 211 F - 1 color photo, 1 plaque
Porsche PFM 3200 - 1 color photo, 1 plaque

Image Gallery: Fenland & West Norfolk Aviation Museum, by Gary and Janet Brossett

Junkers Jumo 211 wreck - 1 color photo

Image Gallery: EAA Museum in Oshkosh, WI, by Jim Buckel

Heinkel-Hirth He S 011 - 3 color photos

Links - Links to about 20 museum and engine sites.

Engines in Museums - tabular listings

San Diego Aerospace Museum

Junkers Jumo 004B-1
Walter 109-500A

The Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum

Hirth HM-504A-2

National Air and Space Museum

Air Technical Arsenal TSU-11 (Hitachi Hatsukaze Ha 11 Model 11 and Jet)
Opel (Argus) Type III
Argus As III
Argus As III DZ
Argus AS 10 R
Austro Daimler V-12
BMW Model IIIA
BMW 003
BMW 003A
BMW 801 (2)
BMW 801C
Turboshaft, BMW Model 6002
Benz BZ 4S
Daimler-Motoren (Mercedes) DIII Avu
Daimler-Benz DB 601-1E
Daimler-Benz DB 603 A (2)
Daimler-Benz DB 603 A-2
Daimler-Benz DB 605
Engine, Junkers 388L-1 (2)
Engine, Me 410A-3/U1 (2)
Hirth 500-B1
Hitachi Hatsukaze 11, Ha 11 Model 11 (Hirth) (2)
Heinkel-Hirth RR2
Heinkel He S 011 (2)
Jumo 004 (6)
Jumo 004 B4 (5)
Junkers Jumo 207 D-V2
Junkers Jumo 210 D
Junkers Jumo 211
Junkers Jumo 211-9 (2)
Junkers Jumo 213
Junkers Jumo 213A-1
Turbojet, Ne-20 (2)
Mock-up (wood) Engine, Turbojet, Air Technical Arsenal TR-30
Turbojet, Air Technical Arsenal TR-30

Regards,
Richard

[Richard T Eger]

From 12 O'Clock High!:

me_109
pics
Tue Dec 10 14:54:09 2002
217.68.165.74

http://mitglied.lycos.de/planewrecks/

(The above is the address of the Plane Wrecks website.

Regards,
Richard)

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Lynn
That is most likely an Ha40, not a DB601...
Tue Dec 10 15:28:11 2002
209.97.5.125

given the tropical location of the wrecks in these photos. Plus, that "He100" is likely the carcass of a Ki-61 as well...

Lynn

[Richard T Eger]

There are 2 color photos of the DB 601 that Lynn thinks is an Ha 40 and one of the He 100 that he thinks is likely a Ki-61. However, if the reader goes to the others section, there is a color photo, rather dark, of a Kettenkrad, with a Bf 109, yellow 4, in the background.

Regards,
Richard

[Richard T Eger]

I asked Mikael Olrog for some help in identifying just where this Kettenkrad and Bf 109 were located. Mikael wrote back the following on 08 Feb. 2003:

"Hi Richard,

You've managed to locate the HA-1109-K1L on display at the Luftwaffen museum Gatow. http://www.preservedaxisaircraft.com/Luftwaffe/messerschmitt/images/HA1112gatow.jpg

It's been rebuilt into a G-2 configuration.

I wouldn't mind a Kettenkrad! They must be fun to drive.

/Mikael"

Thanks Mikael.

Regards,
Richard

[Richard T Eger]

Colonel Blade's Ju 88 - Archiv website is devoted to the Ju 88 family of aircraft. The address of this German language site is:

http://www.ju88-archiv.de/ju88/main.htm

Sections of interest are:

Privat (Personal) - Color photo of a display model of a Ju 88 apparently of WW II origin.

Neues (New) - Site updates

Geschichte (History) - Early history of development of the Ju 88 with 12 b & w photos.

Versionen (Versions) - Fairly complete coverage of the various versions up through the Ju 488 with capsule descriptions, b & w photos, and color profiles. Includes an interesting development progression chart.

Geschwader (Squadron) - Listing by squadron identification, Kennzeichen, and Ju 88 versions flown.

Museum - Listing of known existing Ju 88 family aircraft from wrecks to museums. A number of these include photographs. Countries where Ju 88 family aircraft are currently located are:

Germany
Norway
Belgium
USA
USA - NASM Garber restoration facility
Great Britain
Piräus
Euböa
East coast of the Peloponnes
Crete
Russia
Finnland
Le Frioul bei Marseille
Nordskyn peninsula at the north cape

Quellen (Sources) - Descriptions with color cover photos of 15 books.

Forum - Presumably a discussion forum, but I could not open this page.

Links - 7 Luftwaffe history related links.

Regards,
Richard

[Richard T Eger]

From 12 O'Clock High!:

Norbert Neuser
Burlars at the Rechlin Museum
Mon Jan 6 10:53:48 2003
172.166.224.83

Ladies and Gentlemen,

this is an alert-posting, refering to a burglars attack on "Ausstellungshalle des Luftfahrttechnischen Museum
Rechlin" in Germany, that happened 20th/21th Dec. 2002.

A lot of Luftwaffe material was seized by unknown criminals, spoiling many years of hard work and struggles for that important private museum.

Therefore, Your kind help is most appreciated, for to make sure, that none of those stolen parts is going to be sold unlawful outside of Germany.

Please be alerted by any suspect deals at e-bay and other web-markets in Europe or outside.

A list of the stolen parts is published on the German "Luftwaffe Bullet Board". If anybody doesn't have the link, I will take care to lead.

Thanks for Your kind attention and Your abilities to assist

Norbert

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Norbert Neuser
This: http://www.luftarchiv.de/forum/read.php?f=1&i=2551&t=2
Mon Jan 6 11:04:32 2003
172.166.224.83

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

John Vasco
Re: Burlars at the Rechlin Museum
Mon Jan 6 17:30:35 2003
195.92.67.69

Norbert,

If you can send a general alert to all museums on the web, that would help a great deal. I'm sure there must be something on the Internet Servers that responds to something like 'Luftwaffe/Air Museums'.

In the meantime I'll alert the people I know at Hawkinge Museum and Shoreham Museum (Kent) in case they are suddenly approached by anyone selling Luftwaffe artifacts.


Hope this helps, and let's hope everything is recovered. What has happened is totally despicable.



John Vasco

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

West
What was taken
Mon Jan 6 18:49:30 2003
64.7.163.73

I am unable to access the file at the address given. Would you mind giving a list of items stolen?

West

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

falcon
official pdf-document
Tue Jan 7 05:40:09 2003
62.226.126.188

here can you get the official statement from the museum:
http://www.luftfahrttechnisches-museum-rechlin.de/Pressemitteilung_01_03.pdf

greetings
falcon

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Norbert Neuser
Burglars...thanks to all, paying attention (n/t)
Thu Jan 9 11:37:01 2003
172.167.231.50

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Bobbie
Burglary at Museum
Sat Jan 11 05:26:56 2003
205.188.209.9

Hi Norbert:

I am so sorry to hear what happened. Some people have absolutely no respect! Can you publish a list of what was stolen in English on this web forum? I checked out the site you had but my German is limited. Besides they would most likely be more successful with someone outside of Germany as a buyer.

Thanks!
Bobbie

[Richard T Eger]

I went to the Rechlin Museum website at:

http://www.luftfahrttechnisches-museum-rechlin.de/

I clicked on "News" and worked my way to an English description of the burglary at:

http://www.luftfahrttechnisches-museum-rechlin.de/News/Einbruch/Einbruch_engl/einbruch_engl.html

I am reproducing it here:

"Burglary at the Museum


Burglary! - Heavy losses for aviation museum at Rechlin

Impudent thieves get away with lots of WW II Luftwaffe aircraft parts

During the night of December 20./21. 2002, thieves broke into one of the exhibition halls of the „Luftfahrttechnisches Museum Rechlin“ (technical-historical aviation museum). The exhibits in this hall are related to the history of the German Air Force Test Center (Erprobungsstelle)

Rechlin, furthermore there are aircraft parts and equipment from the 1920 – 1945 period along with some post-war items. The burglars took some 150 valuable objects out of some 20 glass cabinets. Most of these

objects were loans from private collectors and supporters of the museum. Beyond the stolen objects there were two complete instrument panels from a Messerschmitt Bf 109 G including the Revi 12 C gunsight and
from a Heinkel He 162 A, extremely rare cockpit equipment from a Dornier Do 335 A, irreplaceable personal flight suits, boots, heated trousers, gloves, flight maps, decorations from former Rechlin test pilots and engineers. Furthermore the thieves got away with lots of instruments, injection pumps, oil and fuel pumps, generators, magnetos, gearboxes, electrical motors, compasses, chronometers, switches, filters, sparking plugs etc.

A detailed list of these objects can be found on the museum’s website

The museum keeps detailed data about each object, its nameplate, serial number etc. All items have been photographed before being exhibited. Police investigations are on course. This burglary means a heavy set-back for the relatively young museum in north eastern Germany. In 1993, the “Foerderverein Luftfahrttechnisches Museum” was registered in order to prepare a museum on the historical site. Here the biggest ever test center of the Luftwaffe was located from 1918 to 1945. The remaining area could be purchased from the German Government by the “Foerderverein” with donations from former Rechlin engineers and pilots.

The museum was open to the public in 1998 in the ancient main gate building of the Erprobungsstelle and other adjacent original buildings. The number of visitors grew from year to year to some 16.000 in 2002. They can see separate exhibitions showing aviation and test center history until 1945, local history and post-war period (Russian airforce at Rechlin as well as VEB Schiffswerft Rechlin). The museum is operated exclusively by honorary work of the members and without any public or government support.

Now it is doubtful, if and how the loss of the majority of objects can be balanced. Any support from the collector’s, researcher’s and historian’s community will be most appreciated. Everybody is asked to contact the museum in case any parts, instruments or equipment as listed above is offered to him or if he knows about such offers or the present location of the parts. Please contact phone ++49 3 98 23 2 0424 or mail to chr.regel@luftfahrttechnisches-museum-rechlin.de for

further information or requests.

Responsible:
Christoph Regel
Departmentleader Aviationhistory"

The detailed list of stolen items can be found at:

http://www.luftfahrttechnisches-museum-rechlin.de/News/Einbruch/Einbruch_engl/Ubersicht/

This is a very sad event. I'm sure that the museum would be quite appeciative in any assistance received in recovering the stolen artifacts.

Regards,
Richard

[Richard T Eger]

For information on the Fw 200 at the Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin, as well as info on the museum, the reader is referred to the "Refrences & Reference Materials" forum, "Books on Fw 200" topic. The website address for the museum is:

http://www.dtmb.de/index.html

An English language version is available at:

http://www.dtmb.de/index_en.html

Regards,
Richard

[Richard T Eger]

From 12 O'Clock High!:

Andy
Any info on FW 190 D9 rec. in Lake Schwerin?
Fri Jan 31 17:17:02 2003
62.64.232.145

Does anyone have knowledge of a fw 190 d9 recovered in good condition from Lake Schwerin ?? I believe the recovery may have taken place 1989 or 1990...thanks in advance!

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Chris
on restoration
Sun Feb 2 16:32:19 2003
195.93.66.10

The Fw190D9 is on restoration in the german air-force museum in Berlin. The Museum hopes to complete the aircraft in 2004 .

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Andy
Thanks Chris! n/t (nm)
Wed Feb 5 13:47:35 2003
62.64.162.241

[Richard T Eger]

From 12 O'Clock High!:

Norbert Neuser
Yet another link worth a visit
Mon Feb 10 15:50:42 2003
172.145.202.99

Hi, laddies, gents, folks – dear board:

My friend Friedhelm Wagner, inventor of the "Museum fuer Flugzeugtechnik und Geschichte" is now online at

http://flugzeugtechnikmuseum.bei.t-online.de/

This homepage I also feel free to recommend as well as a personally visit at this museum, which is maintained by only private meanings. For outside Europe located visitors there is to say: Sorry for not having the possibility to rush in an easy short way!

Best regards (with My own sense of humour)

;o))

Norbert

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Gianmaria
Very good indeed! Thanks Norbert!!(NM) (nm)
Mon Feb 10 17:43:06 2003
192.92.126.137