Largest flying-boat to achieve production status during World War II, the six-engine Blohm und Voss Bv 222 Viking was designed in 1936 to provide Deutsche Lufthansa with a 24- passenger airliner for the North and South Atlantic routes, but it was not until 7 September 1940 that the first prototype Bv 222 VI was first flown by Flugkapitan Helmut Wasa Rodig. Flying characteristics were pronounced good and the first operation for the Luftwaffe was flown by a civilian crew between Hamburg and Kirkenes, Norway, on 10 July 1941. Usually escorted by a pair of Messerchmitt Bf 110 fighters the Bv 222 VI, with six Bramo Fafnir radials, then started flying regular supply missions across the Mediterranean for German forces in North Africa. Several narrow escapes from Allied fighters emphasized the need for some defensive armament and the second and subsequent prototypes included a number of gun positions, while the Bv 222 VI was fitted with seven single 7.92mm and 13mm machine-guns, and under each wing a gondola mounting a pair of the latter. The Bv 222 V3 featured gun turrets on top of the wing between the outboard engines, each with a 20mm cannon. By March 1943 a total of seven transport prototypes had been completed, all with armament variations; all served with Lufttransportstaffel See 222 (LTS See 222) in the Mediterranean, three being lost (two shot down by fighters and one sunk after striking a buoy while landing at Athens). The remaining aircraft, the Bv 222 V2, Bv 222 V3, Bv 222 V4 and Bv 222 V5, were converted for maritime reconnaissance and served with Fliegerfuhrer Atlantik, some with FuG 200 search radar; the Bv 222 V3 and Bv 222 V5 were destroyed at their moorings at Biscarosse by Allied fighters in June 1943, and another aircraft was shot down by an Avro Lancaster over the Bay of Biscay in the following October. The Bv 222 V7 was the prototype of the production version, the Bv 222C, of which five examples were completed with six 746kW Junkers Jumo 205D or 207C diesel inlines and a total armament of three 20mm and five 13mm guns. Of these one was shot down by a British night-fighter near Biscarosse and another was hit by strafing Mustangs at Travemunde; the Bv 222 V2 was destroyed during the Allied reoccupation of Norway; two others were sunk by their crews at the end of the war, two were flown to the USA and one was ferried to the UK after the end of hostilities.

3-View

A three-view drawing (1322 x 710)