{"id":18296323,"date":"2026-08-30T23:24:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T21:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/focke-achgelis-fa-223-drache-first-helicopter-channel\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T23:25:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T21:25:19","slug":"focke-achgelis-fa-223-drache-first-helicopter-channel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/focke-achgelis-fa-223-drache-first-helicopter-channel\/","title":{"rendered":"Fa 223: The WWII Helicopter That Crossed the Channel"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When people picture the first practical helicopters, they usually think of Igor Sikorsky and wartime America. But years before Sikorsky&rsquo;s machines matured, Nazi Germany built a genuinely usable transport helicopter &mdash; and in September 1945, one of them became the first helicopter in history to fly across the English Channel.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Drache (&ldquo;Dragon&rdquo;) is one of aviation&rsquo;s great overlooked pioneers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px;margin:24px 0;border-radius:6px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts<\/p><table style=\"width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;font-size:15px\"><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Aircraft<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0\">Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Drache (&ldquo;Dragon&rdquo;)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Designer<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0\">Heinrich Focke<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Layout<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0\">Two side-by-side rotors on outriggers, one central engine<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Engine<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0\">One BMW Bramo 323 radial (~1,000 hp)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>First flight<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0\">1940<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Performance<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0\">182 km\/h and 7,100 m in altitude trials<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Built<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0\">Fewer than about 20 completed<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:4px 12px 4px 0;color:#555;white-space:nowrap\"><strong>Milestone<\/strong><\/td><td style=\"padding:4px 0\">First helicopter to cross the English Channel, 1945<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Two rotors, one engine<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Heinrich Focke had co-founded Focke-Wulf, but after being pushed out he set up a new company with the aerobatic pilot Gerd Achgelis to pursue rotary flight. The Fa 223 that emerged used a configuration that looks strange today: two large three-bladed rotors mounted on outriggers on either side of the fuselage, turning in opposite directions, both driven by a single BMW radial engine buried in the middle. It is one engine and two rotors &mdash; not, as it appears, a twin.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=2127638220  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:R3xq.d001\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/fa-223-museum.jpg\" alt=\"Fa 223 at the helicopter museum, B\u00fcckeburg\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A Fa 223 Drache preserved at the Hubschraubermuseum in B\u00fcckeburg. Its twin side-by-side rotors were driven by a single central engine. Photo: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Its performance was remarkable for the early 1940s. In trials it reached 182 km\/h and climbed to over 7,000 metres, and it could lift more than a tonne of cargo &mdash; enough to sling a small vehicle beneath it. Even Adolf Hitler, shown the machine, immediately grasped its potential.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;That could be very useful for mountain warfare.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Adolf Hitler<\/strong> &mdash; On first seeing the Fa 223 (via Smithsonian Magazine)<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/O6o2giHtQhE\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Bombed out of production<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Dragon never got the chance to prove itself in numbers. Allied bombing repeatedly flattened the factories building it, and fewer than twenty were ever completed. The handful that flew were used for mountain transport and rescue work, hauling loads to places no fixed-wing aircraft could reach.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=830082867  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:R3xq.d001\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/08\/fa-223-model.png\" alt=\"Fa 223 Drache model\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The Fa 223&rsquo;s side-by-side rotor layout, shown here in model form. Few original aircraft survived the war. Image: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Across the Channel<\/h2>\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the war, the British wanted to evaluate the technology. In September 1945 a surviving Fa 223, flown by German pilot Hans-Helmut Gerstenhauer, was flown from Cherbourg across the sea to England &mdash; the first time any helicopter had crossed the English Channel. Gerstenhauer recorded the moment in his diary.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s it &mdash; that&rsquo;s how the Focke became the first helicopter to fly across the Channel between the continent of Europe and England.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Hans-Helmut Gerstenhauer<\/strong> &mdash; Pilot, diary entry (via Smithsonian Magazine)<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The story did not end happily for that particular aircraft: it crashed in England weeks later after a drive-shaft failed. But the Dragon&rsquo;s ideas lived on &mdash; in postwar French and Czech helicopters built from its design, and in the simple, proven fact that a rotary-wing aircraft could do useful work. Germany had built a real helicopter before almost anyone else, and then bombed and lost most of the evidence.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VeJSI-gw8xI\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hLBOolI6O3k\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Sources: Smithsonian Magazine; National Air and Space Museum; Wikipedia.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/mil-v-12-mi-12-largest-helicopter-ever-built-record\/\">Mil V-12: The Largest Helicopter Ever Built<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/kamov-ka-50-ka-52-coaxial-rotor-ejection-seat\/\">The Attack Helicopter With an Ejection Seat<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When people picture the first practical helicopters, they usually think of Igor Sikorsky and wartime America. But years before Sikorsky&rsquo;s machines matured, Nazi Germany built a genuinely usable transport helicopter &mdash; and in September 1945, one of them became the first helicopter in history to fly across the English Channel. The Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Drache [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":18296039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18296323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fa 223 Drache: WWII Helicopter Crosses the Channel | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nazi Germany&#039;s Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Drache was one of the first usable helicopters - and in 1945 became the first helicopter ever to cross the English Channel.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/focke-achgelis-fa-223-drache-first-helicopter-channel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fa 223 Drache: WWII Helicopter Crosses the Channel | MiGFlug\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nazi Germany&#039;s Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Drache was one of the first usable helicopters - 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