Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor

1. Lead

The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor was a German airliner that became a weapon of war. Designed in the mid-1930s as a long-range passenger aircraft for Lufthansa, it was one of the most advanced airliners of its day: in August 1938, an Fw 200 flew non-stop from Berlin to New York, a distance of more than 6,400 kilometres, in less than 25 hours, a feat that made headlines around the world.

When war came, the Luftwaffe took the Condor and turned it into a long-range maritime patrol bomber, and in 1940 and 1941 it became the scourge of the Atlantic: flying from bases in France and Norway, it hunted Allied convoys far out at sea, beyond the reach of land-based fighters, and it sank more than 80 Allied ships in its first year of operations.

Winston Churchill called it the “scourge of the Atlantic”, and for a time it was the most feared German aircraft over the sea. Only 276 were built, and the Condor’s success was short-lived — it was a civilian aircraft, lightly built and lightly armed, and it could not survive once the Allies found ways to fight it — but its story is one of the most remarkable in the history of military aviation: an airliner that became a bomber, and a bomber that terrorised an ocean.

The Condor’s story is the story of a civilian aircraft in a military war. It was never designed to be a bomber: its airframe was built for passengers, not for bombs, and its structure was too weak for the stresses of military service.

Its crews knew this, and they flew it with care, but the aircraft’s range — more than 3,500 kilometres in its military form — was something that no other German aircraft could match, and the Luftwaffe needed it. The Condor’s war was fought far from land, over the empty Atlantic, where its crews searched for convoys, reported their positions to the U-boats, and attacked the ships themselves.

It was a lonely war, and a dangerous one, and the Condor’s crews paid a high price for it: many of the aircraft were lost, not to enemy fighters, but to structural failure, to engine trouble, and to the sea itself.

2. Key Facts

Type	Four-engine long-range maritime patrol bomber (developed from an airliner)
Origin	Germany
Designer	Kurt Tank (Focke-Wulf)
Manufacturer	Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG
First flight	27 July 1937
In service	1938–1945 (military from 1940)
Produced	1937–1944; 276 built
Crew	5–7 (military)
Length	23.9 m
Wingspan	32.9 m
Height	6.3 m
Empty weight	About 17,000 kg
Maximum take-off weight	About 22,700 kg
Engine	Four BMW 132 or Bramo 323 radial engines, about 830–1,200 hp each
Top speed	About 360 km/h
Range	About 3,560 km (military); civil record flight over 6,400 km
Service ceiling	About 6,000 m
Armament	Up to five 7.92 mm MG 15 machine guns and one 20 mm MG FF cannon; up to about 2,100 kg of bombs
Notable feat	First non-stop Berlin–New York flight, August 1938

3. Background and Development

An airliner for Lufthansa

The Fw 200 was designed as an airliner. In the mid-1930s, Lufthansa wanted a long-range passenger aircraft that could fly from Berlin to South America and to the Far East, and it asked Focke-Wulf, under the designer Kurt Tank, to build it.

Tank’s design was a modern, all-metal, four-engine monoplane, with a capacity for 26 passengers, a range of more than 3,000 kilometres, and a top speed of about 360 km/h. The first prototype flew on 27 July 1937, and the aircraft entered service with Lufthansa in 1938.

It was a success: Lufthansa’s Condors flew to South America and to the Far East, and the aircraft’s reputation was made by the record flight of August 1938, when the Fw 200 Brandenburg, flown by Alfred Henke, flew non-stop from Berlin to Floyd Bennett Field in New York, a distance of more than 6,400 kilometres, in 24 hours and 36 minutes.

The flight was a propaganda triumph for Germany, and it showed the world what German aviation could do.

From airliner to bomber

When war came in September 1939, the Luftwaffe saw the Condor’s potential. No other German aircraft had the range to patrol the Atlantic, and the Condor, with its long range and its large fuselage, could be adapted to carry bombs, guns and a crew of five to seven.

The first military version, the Fw 200C-1, was a converted airliner, with a glazed nose, a bomb bay and defensive guns; the later Fw 200C-3, which became the main wartime version, had more powerful Bramo 323 engines, a stronger airframe and a heavier armament.

The conversion was never entirely successful: the Condor’s airframe was built for passengers, not for bombs, and it was too weak for the stresses of military service. The aircraft’s fuselage could break in flight, particularly when the aircraft was heavily loaded, and several Condors were lost in this way. But the Luftwaffe had no alternative, and the Condor went to war.

The Atlantic gap

The Condor’s war was fought in the Atlantic Gap — the stretch of ocean, south of Greenland and west of Ireland, that was beyond the reach of land-based aircraft. In 1940 and 1941, Allied convoys crossed the Atlantic in this gap, with no air cover, and they were vulnerable to the U-boats and to the Condor.

The Condor’s job was to find the convoys, to report their positions to the U-boats, and to attack the ships itself. It was a job for which the Condor was well suited: its range allowed it to reach the convoys, its speed allowed it to catch them, and its bombs could sink a merchant ship.

The Condor’s success in 1940 and 1941 was the reason Churchill called it the “scourge of the Atlantic”, and it was the reason the Allies devoted so much effort to defeating it.

4. Design

Airframe and engines

The Fw 200 was a large, four-engine, all-metal monoplane, with a low wing, a conventional tail and a retractable undercarriage. Its wingspan of 32.9 metres and its length of 23.9 metres made it one of the largest German aircraft of the war, and its four engines — BMW 132s in the early aircraft, Bramo 323s of about 1,200 horsepower each in the Fw 200C-3 — gave it a top speed of about 360 km/h and a range of about 3,560 km in its military form.

The airframe was built to civilian standards, not to military ones: it was light, it was not armoured, and it was not designed to carry bombs or to survive battle damage. The military versions were strengthened, with a reinforced fuselage and a bomb bay, but the strengthening was never enough, and the Condor remained a fragile aircraft in military service.

Crew, armament and equipment

The Condor’s military crew was five to seven men: the pilot, the co-pilot, the navigator, the radio operator, and the gunners. The armament was light: up to five 7.92 mm MG 15 machine guns, in the nose, the dorsal and the ventral positions, and a 20 mm MG FF cannon in the nose of some versions.

The bomb load, up to about 2,100 kg, was carried in a bomb bay and on external racks, and it was enough to sink a merchant ship if the bombs hit. The Condor also carried a radio, a navigation system and, in the later versions, a radar for finding ships.

The aircraft’s equipment was adequate for its job, but it was not enough to defend the aircraft against a fighter, and the Condor’s crews knew that if they met an Allied fighter, they had little chance of survival.

Strengths and limits

The Condor’s strength was its range. No other German aircraft could reach as far into the Atlantic, and no other German aircraft could stay on patrol for as long. Its weakness was everything else: it was slow, it was lightly armed, it was fragile, and it was vulnerable to fighters and to anti-aircraft fire.

The Condor’s crews accepted these faults because the aircraft could do a job that no other aircraft could do, and because, in 1940 and 1941, there were no Allied fighters over the Atlantic to threaten it. When the Allies closed the Atlantic Gap, with escort carriers and long-range patrol aircraft, the Condor’s war was over, and the aircraft that had been the scourge of the Atlantic became a transport and a reconnaissance aircraft, and then a memory.

5. Variants

Variant	Years	Key features	Production
Fw 200A	1938–1939	Airliner; Lufthansa service; 26 passengers	About 10
Fw 200B	1939	Airliner; improved engines	About 10
Fw 200C-1	1940	First military version; converted airliner	About 10
Fw 200C-2	1940	Military version; improved armament	About 10
Fw 200C-3	1941–1942	Main wartime version; Bramo 323 engines	About 100
Fw 200C-4	1942–1943	Improved C-3; better radar and armament	About 100
Fw 200C-6	1943	Missile carrier; Henschel Hs 293	Small numbers
Fw 200C-8	1943–1944	Last version; Hs 293 carrier	Small numbers
Fw 200S-1	1938	Record aircraft; Berlin–New York flight	1

The Fw 200C-3 was the Condor that fought the Battle of the Atlantic. It had Bramo 323 engines of about 1,200 horsepower each, a stronger airframe than the converted airliners, and a heavier armament, with a 20 mm cannon in the nose and machine guns in the dorsal and ventral positions.

The C-4, which followed it, had a better radar and a better armament, and it was the version that served in 1942 and 1943, when the Condor’s war was already being lost. The C-6 and C-8 were adapted to carry the Henschel Hs 293 guided missile, a radio-controlled bomb that could be guided onto a ship from the air, and they were among the first aircraft to carry a guided weapon into combat.

The Fw 200’s production ended in 1944, when the Luftwaffe’s priorities had changed and the Condor’s role had been taken over by other aircraft.

The record aircraft

The Fw 200S-1, the Brandenburg, deserves a note of its own, because it was the aircraft that made the Condor famous. In August 1938, flown by Alfred Henke, it flew non-stop from Berlin to New York in 24 hours and 36 minutes, a distance of more than 6,400 kilometres, and it returned to Berlin a few days later, flying non-stop from New York to Berlin in less than 20 hours. The flights were a propaganda triumph for Germany, and they showed the world that German aviation could build an aircraft that could cross the Atlantic. The Brandenburg was later used as a transport, and it was destroyed in the war, but its record flights remain the Condor’s most famous achievement.

A small production run

The Fw 200 was built in small numbers, and its production shows how unusual it was. Focke-Wulf built only 276 Condors between 1937 and 1944, at its plant in Bremen, and most of them were military versions, built after the war began.

The civil airliners, which were built before the war, numbered only about twenty, and they were the aircraft that made the Condor famous, with the record flights of 1938. The military versions, above all the C-3 and the C-4, were built in about 200 examples, and they were the aircraft that fought the Battle of the Atlantic.

The Fw 200’s production ended in 1944, when the Luftwaffe’s priorities had changed and the Condor’s role had been taken over by other aircraft, and the aircraft was never built again.

6. Operational History

The scourge of the Atlantic, 1940–1941

The Condor’s war began in the summer of 1940, when the Luftwaffe’s long-range bomber wing, Kampfgeschwader 40, was formed and equipped with the Fw 200. Flying from Bordeaux in France, the Condors patrolled the Atlantic, searching for Allied convoys, and they found them: in the second half of 1940, the Condors sank more than 80 Allied ships, and they reported the positions of many more to the U-boats, which sank them.

The Condor’s attacks were flown at low level, with the aircraft approaching the convoy from out of the sun, dropping its bombs and then escaping at low level, where the ships’ anti-aircraft guns could not follow it. The attacks were devastating: a single Condor could sink a merchant ship, and a formation of Condors could destroy a convoy.

The British, who had no fighters that could reach the convoys, were helpless, and Churchill’s description of the Condor as the “scourge of the Atlantic” was an admission of how serious the threat was.

The Allies fight back, 1941–1943

Catapult fighters and escort carriers

The Allies’ answer to the Condor was, first, the catapult fighter: a Hurricane mounted on a catapult on a merchant ship, which could be launched to intercept a Condor, and then ditched in the sea, with the pilot being picked up by the convoy. The catapult fighters, known as CAM ships, shot down several Condors, and they forced the Condor’s crews to be more cautious.

The second answer was the escort carrier: a small aircraft carrier, built on a merchant ship’s hull, that could carry a handful of fighters and protect a convoy. The first escort carriers entered service in 1941, and by 1943 they were escorting convoys across the Atlantic, closing the Atlantic Gap. The Condor, which had once operated with impunity, was now met by fighters, and its losses rose sharply.

The end of the Atlantic war

By 1943, the Condor’s war in the Atlantic was over. The escort carriers and the long-range patrol aircraft had closed the Gap, the U-boats were being defeated, and the Condor’s losses were unsustainable. Kampfgeschwader 40 was withdrawn from the Atlantic, and its aircraft were used as transports and as reconnaissance aircraft, and as carriers for the Hs 293 guided missile. The Condor’s last operations in the Atlantic were flown in 1943 and 1944, and they were a shadow of the operations of 1940 and 1941: the aircraft that had once sunk more than 80 ships in six months could now barely reach the convoys, and when it did, it was met by fighters.

Transport and the last years, 1943–1945

In its last years, the Condor served as a transport, carrying supplies and personnel for the Luftwaffe, and as a reconnaissance aircraft, patrolling the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. It also served as a VIP transport, carrying senior officers, and as a carrier for the Hs 293 missile, which it used against Allied shipping in the Mediterranean. The Condor’s last operations were flown in 1944 and 1945, and its last aircraft were destroyed or abandoned when Germany surrendered in May 1945. The Condor’s war had lasted five years, and it had begun as an airliner, become a bomber, and ended as a transport.

7. Performance and Specifications

Specification	Fw 200C-3
Engine	Four Bramo 323R, about 1,200 hp each
Top speed	About 360 km/h
Cruising speed	About 335 km/h
Range	About 3,560 km
Service ceiling	About 6,000 m
Bomb load	Up to about 2,100 kg
Defensive guns	Up to five 7.92 mm MG 15 and one 20 mm MG FF
Crew	5–7
Number built	276 (all versions)

Range above all

The Condor’s performance was built around range. Its range of about 3,560 km was far greater than that of any other German bomber, and it was the reason the Condor could reach the Atlantic convoys. Its top speed of about 360 km/h was slow for a bomber, and its ceiling of about 6,000 metres was low, but neither mattered in the Atlantic, where the Condor’s enemies were ships, not fighters.

The Condor’s bomb load, up to about 2,100 kg, was enough to sink a merchant ship, and its endurance — it could stay in the air for more than ten hours — was enough to search a large area of ocean. The Condor was not a great bomber, but it was a great patrol aircraft, and in the Atlantic, that was what mattered.

Against its contemporaries

Compared with the British Short Sunderland, the flying boat that patrolled the Atlantic for the RAF, the Condor was faster and had a longer range, but the Sunderland was tougher and more heavily armed, and it could land on the water.

Compared with the American Consolidated B-24 Liberator, which became the Allies’ principal long-range patrol aircraft, the Condor was slower and less heavily armed, and it could not survive in the face of fighters. Compared with the German Junkers Ju 88, the Condor was slower and more fragile, but it had a much longer range.

The Condor’s place was as a long-range patrol aircraft, and in that role it had no German equal, and few Allied equals, in 1940 and 1941.

8. Operators

Germany and the Luftwaffe

The Condor was used above all by Germany, by the Luftwaffe’s long-range bomber wing, Kampfgeschwader 40, which operated it from 1940 to 1945. The wing’s aircraft flew from Bordeaux in France, from Norway and from the Mediterranean, and they were the Luftwaffe’s principal maritime patrol aircraft.

The Condor was also used by Lufthansa, which operated it as an airliner before the war and as a transport during the war, and by the Luftwaffe’s transport units, which used it to carry supplies and personnel. Kampfgeschwader 40 was formed in 1940 specifically to operate the Condor, and it was the only Luftwaffe unit to fly the type in large numbers.

The wing’s crews were among the most experienced in the Luftwaffe, and they flew long missions over the Atlantic that could last more than ten hours, searching for convoys in weather that often made navigation difficult.

Lufthansa, Denmark, Brazil and Japan

Before the war, the Condor was operated by Lufthansa, by the Danish airline DDL, and by the Brazilian airline Syndicato Condor, which flew it on routes in South America. Japan bought one Condor for evaluation, and used it as a transport.

The Condor’s civilian operators show how advanced the aircraft was: it was one of the few airliners of the 1930s that could fly long distances, and it was operated by airlines on three continents. After the war, the Condor’s civilian service ended, and the aircraft was never built again. Lufthansa’s Condors flew the airline’s longest routes, including the service to South America, where the aircraft’s range was essential.

The Danish and Brazilian aircraft showed that the Condor was not only a German aircraft: it was an international airliner, flown by airlines on three continents before the war made it a weapon. The Japanese aircraft, which was bought for evaluation, was used as a transport, and it was destroyed in the war.

9. Legacy and Influence

The scourge of the Atlantic

The Condor’s most important legacy is the Battle of the Atlantic. It was the aircraft that showed the Allies that their convoys were vulnerable, and it was the reason the Allies devoted so much effort to closing the Atlantic Gap, with escort carriers and long-range patrol aircraft. The Condor’s success in 1940 and 1941 was a warning: it showed that a long-range aircraft could terrorise an ocean, and that the defence of a convoy required air cover. The lessons of the Condor’s war were learned by the Allies, and they were applied in the rest of the Battle of the Atlantic, and in the maritime patrol operations that followed the war.

The airliner at war

The Condor’s second legacy is the airliner at war. It showed that a civilian aircraft could be converted into a military aircraft, and that a civilian design could be useful in war — but it also showed the limits of such a conversion: the Condor’s fragility, its light armament and its vulnerability to fighters were the price of its civilian origins.

The Condor remains the most famous example of an airliner that became a bomber, and its story is a reminder that a military aircraft needs to be designed as a military aircraft, not adapted from a civilian one. The Condor’s story has been told in books and films about the Battle of the Atlantic, and the aircraft is remembered as the symbol of the air war over the sea.

Its record flights, its service with Lufthansa and its war as the scourge of the Atlantic make it one of the most remarkable aircraft of the period, even though only 276 were built.

10. Surviving Examples

The sole survivor

Only one substantially complete Fw 200 survives, and it is in Germany. The aircraft, a Fw 200C-3, was shot down over the Trondheim fjord in Norway in 1942, and it lay on the seabed until 1999, when it was raised by a Norwegian salvage team. The wreck was brought to Germany, where it was restored by Airbus in Hamburg, in a project that took more than twenty years, and it is now displayed at the German Museum of Technology in Berlin. The restoration was one of the most ambitious aircraft restoration projects ever undertaken, and it has preserved the only Condor that visitors can see in its original form.

Parts and memory

Other Condor parts survive in museums and in private collections, including components recovered from the sea and from crash sites in Norway and France. The Condor is remembered through its record flights, through Churchill’s description of it as the “scourge of the Atlantic”, and through the restored aircraft in Berlin.

For most visitors, the easiest way to see a Condor is in Berlin, where the surviving C-3 stands as a reminder of the airliner that became a bomber and terrorised an ocean. The parts that survive include engines, propellers and sections of fuselage, and they are held by museums in Norway, Germany and Britain.

The recovery of the Trondheim aircraft in 1999 was a major event in aviation archaeology, and the restoration that followed it was followed by enthusiasts around the world. The restored aircraft is now the centrepiece of the Berlin museum’s Second World War collection.

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor?
The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor was a German four-engine aircraft, designed as a long-range airliner and used in the war as a maritime patrol bomber. 276 were built.

Why was it called the “scourge of the Atlantic”?
Winston Churchill called the Condor the “scourge of the Atlantic” because, in 1940 and 1941, it sank more than 80 Allied ships and reported many more convoys to the U-boats.

How did the Condor fly from Berlin to New York?
In August 1938, an Fw 200 flew non-stop from Berlin to New York, a distance of more than 6,400 kilometres, in 24 hours and 36 minutes, the first non-stop flight between the two cities.

How many ships did the Condor sink?
The Condor is credited with sinking more than 80 Allied ships in 1940 and 1941, and with reporting many more convoys to the U-boats.

Why did the Condor fail after 1941?
The Allies closed the Atlantic Gap with escort carriers and long-range patrol aircraft, and the Condor, which was slow, lightly armed and fragile, could not survive against fighters.

Where can I see a Condor today?
The sole substantially complete Fw 200, a C-3 recovered from the Trondheim fjord in 1999 and restored by Airbus, is at the German Museum of Technology in Berlin.

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Sources

1. Wikipedia, “Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor” — first flight, production of 276, specifications, variants and operational history.
2. Jerry Scutts, Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor (Airlife, 2002) — development, the Atlantic war and the record flights.
3. Alfred Price, The Battle of the Atlantic (Ian Allan, 1998) — the Condor’s role in 1940–41 and the Allied response.
4. Heinz J. Nowarra, Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor (Jane’s, 1980) — production and specifications.
5. Winston Churchill, The Second World War, Vol. III (Cassell, 1950) — the “scourge of the Atlantic”.
6. The German Museum of Technology, Berlin, “Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor” — the surviving aircraft and its restoration.