page_title: Richard Vogt (aircraft designer)
section_title: Blohm & Voss
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Vogt (aircraft designer) / Career / Blohm & Voss
caption_attribution_description: A German Blohm &amp; Voss Bv 138 reconnaissance flying-boat, 1937. The Blohm + Voss BV 138 was a World War II German flying boat that functioned as the Luftwaffe's main long-range maritime reconnaissance.
context_page_description: Richard Vogt was a military German aircraft designer who was known for his original airframes, including the asymmetrical BV 141 during World War II. After the war, he moved to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip, where he worked on American military aircraft design.
context_section_description: In 1933 he was offered the position of Chief Designer at Hamburger Flugzeugbau, an aircraft manufacturer recently set up by Blohm & Voss shipbuilders. During his flight back from Japan he worked on the idea of a tubular steel main wing spar which could also double as an armoured fuel tank. Almost all of his subsequent designs would feature such a combined hollow steel spar and fuel tank.
  Vogt's next major innovation was an asymmetric aircraft layout in which the thrust line was offset to one side, allowing the pilot a clear view on the other side. It appeared in the Ha 141 reconnaissance aircraft, of which about twenty were built.
  Shortly before World War II broke out, Hamburger Flugzeugbau was reformed as the aircraft division of Blohm & Voss and changed its name accordingly. The designation of Vogt's aircraft changed from Ha to BV, with many of the types then under development changing their designations, for example the Ha 141 became the BV 141.
  Other important, more conventional designs included a series of ever-larger flying boats. The BV 238 was the largest and heaviest aircraft manufactured until the end of the war by any Axis power. Vogt also developed a series of gliding munitions, but the advanced control systems caused problems and although quite large quantities were manufactured, none ever saw operational service.
  His design style was noted by the British journal Aeroplane in the caption to a cartoon:
  Richard Vogt, that original man,
  
  Turns out aeroplanes uglier than
  
  Most any other designer can.
  
  Here is shown on Baltic Sea
  
  A typical Vogt monstrosity—
  
  The One-Three-Eight by B. & V.
  Vogt's final innovation was a tailless "pfeilflieger" (swept wing) design, well suited to the new jet engines then under development. A series of designs culminated in the P 215 all-weather fighter, which received an order for three prototypes just weeks before the war ended.
caption: The BV 138 Seedrache (English: Sea Dragon) three-engined patrol flying boat was produced in greater numbers than any other B&V type.
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