Hansa-Brandenburg W.20

W.20
Role	Submarine-launched reconnaissance flying boat
National origin	Germany
Manufacturer	Hansa-Brandenburg
Number built	3

The Hansa-Brandenburg W.20 was a German submarine-launched reconnaissance flying boat of the World War I era, designed and built by Hansa-Brandenburg.^[1]

Design and development

Due to the need to be stored and launched from a submarine aircraft carrier, the W.20 was a small single-seat biplane flying boat that was designed to be assembled and dismantled quickly.^[1] It had a slender hull on which was mounted a biplane wing and a conventional braced tailplane.^[1] It was powered by a seven-cylinder, 80 PS Oberursel U.0 rotary engine — basically a German-made near-clone of the Gnome Lambda pre-war French rotary — mounted on struts between the wings driving a pusher propeller.^[1] The pilot had an open cockpit just forward of the lower wing.^[1] Because of the slender hull stabilising floats were fitted below and at the end of the lower wings.^[1] The submarine intended to carry the W.20 was not built and only three W.20s were built.^[1]

Specifications (3rd built)

Data from ^[1]

General characteristics

Crew: One
Length: 5.93 m (19 ft 5.5 in)
Wingspan: 6.80 m (22 ft 3.75 in)
Wing area: 15.82 m² (170.29 sq ft)
Empty weight: 396 kg (873 lb)
Gross weight: 568 kg (1,252 lb)
Powerplant: 1 × Oberursel U.0 7-cylinder rotary piston engine , 60 kW (80 hp)

Performance

Maximum speed: 117 km/h (73 mph, 63 kn)
Endurance: 1 hours 15 minutes

References

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft Orbis 1985, pp. 2098–2099

Bibliography

Clouts, Walter; Gregoire, Daniel; Layman, R. D. & Scurrell, Charles E. (1991). "Question 42/89". Warship International. XXVIII (1): 84–86. ISSN 0043-0374.
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982–1985). Orbis Publishing.
Owers, Colin A. (2015). Hansa-Brandenburg Aircraft of WWI: Volume 2–Biplane Seaplanes. Great War Aviation Centennial Series. Vol. 18. n.p.: Aeronaut Books. ISBN 978-1-935881-32-2.
Passingham, Malcolm (February 2000). "Les hydravions embarqués sur sous-marins" [Submarine-carried Seaplanes]. Avions: Toute l'aéronautique et son histoire (in French) (83): 7–17. ISSN 1243-8650.
Treadwell, Terry C. (1999). Strike From Beneath the Sea: A History of Aircraft-carrying Submarines. Stroud, UK: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0-7524-1704-5.

[orbis-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft Orbis 1985, pp. 2098–2099

[1]