SI 2009–12423
Germany’s Fieseler Fi 156 Storch had an impact on military aviation far in excess of its diminutive size. Besides providing the German military with a rugged and capable liaison aircraft, it led to a complete reevaluation of the liaison and forward observation missions in other armies. Designed in 1935 as a general utility plane, its dramatic short-field performance quickly caught the attention of an international audience. Military planners were eager for an aircraft that could keep pace with new theories of maneuver warfare and replace the tethered observation balloons that had been the standard observation platform since World War I.
With a nearly 900-lb payload, and takeoff and landing distances over a 50-foot obstacle of less than 400 feet, the Storch outperformed other STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) aircraft. The Storch served on all German fronts and is perhaps best known for the mountaintop rescue of Benito Mussolini and for serving as Rommel’s eyes in the Western Desert. It was also a harbinger of defeat, being the last aircraft to fly into Berlin before its fall and the last aircraft lost in aerial combat in the European theater.
The Luftwaffe acquired nearly 3,000 Fi 156s, with about a quarter built at the Morane-Saulnier factory near Paris. After liberation, the factory continued to produce aircraft for the French military under the M.S.500 designation. This example was a wartime gift of the French government to Gen. Carl Spaatz. Though the M.S.500 saw much less employment in World War II than their German counterparts, they were used extensively in French counterinsurgency operations against the Viet Minh in Indochina during the 1950s.
With accommodation for three, the cabin of the Storch was roomy compared to the two-place American L–4 and L–5 aircraft typically used in the liaison mission. The key to the Storch’s excellent low-speed handling characteristics, which allowed it to fly as slow as 31 mph, were its fixed leading-edge Handley Page slots and trailing-edge Fowler flaps. At flap settings of more than 20 degrees, the ailerons augmented them by collectively moving downward as well.
IN FRENCH HANDS, THE GERMAN FI 156 BECAME THE M.S.500.
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