Focke - Achgelis Fa 223 The Focke - Achgelis Fa 223 Drache ( " Dragon " in English ) was a helicopter developed by Germany during World War II . A single 750 kilowatt ( 1 , 000 horsepower ) Bramo 323 radial engine powered two three - bladed 11 . 9 metre ( 39 feet ) rotors mounted on twin booms on either side of the 12 . 2 metre ( 40 ft ) long cylindrical fuselage . Although the Fa 223 is noted for being the first helicopter to attain production status , production of the helicopter was hampered by Allied bombing of the factory and only 20 were built . The Fa 223 could cruise at with a top speed of , and climb to an altitude of . The " Drache " could transport cargo loads of over at cruising speeds of and altitudes approaching . Development . Henrich Focke had been removed by the Nazi regime from the company he had co - founded in 1936 . Though the ostensible reason was that he was " politically unreliable " , the RLM ' s decision to phase Focke - Wulf into the production program of the almost ready Bf - 109 necessitated an influx of capital to fund the immediate expansion of the company ' s production capabilities . Focke Wulf was reorganized into a limited company ( G . m . b . H . ) in June 1936 . After Focke - Wulf formally signed a contract to produce the Bf - 109C in November 1937 , the American company International Telephone & Telegraph ( ITT ) , through its German subsidiary C . Lorenz , bought a 28 percent share into Focke - Wulf in 1938 , making it the controlling interest . However , the Air Ministry was so impressed by the Focke - Wulf Fw 61 helicopter that it suggested Focke establish a new company dedicated to helicopter development and issued him with a requirement for an improved design capable of carrying a payload . Focke established the Focke - Achgelis company in 1937 in partnership with pilot Gerd Achgelis , and began development work at Delmenhorst in 1938 . They first produced an enlarged , six - occupant version of the Fw 61 , designated Fa 226 " Hornisse " ( " Hornet " ) , while contracting out development of the engine , transmission , and rotor hub to BMW ' s Berlin works . The Fa 226 was the world ' s first transport helicopter and was ordered by Lufthansa in 1938 . The Fa 226 attracted the attention of the Air Ministry , who redesignated it Fa 223 in 1939 before the first prototype flew . The Navy was also interested in the Hornisse and briefly considered it as a replacement for their " Schnellboote " . In September 1939 the first prototype , the V1 , left the Delmenhorst factory . Now nicknamed " Drache " ( " Dragon " ) it had a twin - rotor layout similar to the Fw 61 , but had a fully enclosed cabin and load bay , with the single Bramo engine mounted in the middle of the tubular - steel body . Initial hovering tests showed problems and the V1 was not to fly until 1940 . The engine initially specified , a BMW Bramo 323 D proved too fragile when run at high speed for any length of time , and was replaced with a more robust 1 , 000 hp Bramo 323Q3 in the later prototypes to improve reliability and lifting capability . The biggest problem , however , was the severe vibration caused by unbalanced driveshafts when the rotors moved out of phase , and this could only be fixed by greater attention to detail on the part of BMW . First flight . The V1 ' s first untethered flight was on 3 August 1940 , after over 100 hours of ground and tethered testing . In October it was flown to the test centre at Rechlin to be demonstrated , and while there set a top speed of , a climb rate of per minute , and a maximum altitude of , performance far greater than had been demonstrated by any other helicopter in the world . Despite this , the " Drache " was nowhere near ready for military service , and Focke - Achgelis were told to accelerate their development programme . An initial production order for 100 machines was promised . Following the helicopter ' s demonstration at Rechlin , the Ministry issued specifications for five variants : On 5 February 1941 , the V1 was lost in an accident following engine failure at an altitude too low for an auto - rotative landing . The second prototype ( V2 ) was completed shortly after , featuring a fully glazed cockpit and a machine gun operated by the observer . It was , however , soon destroyed in an Allied air raid . V3 prototype . By the time the V3 prototype appeared the Air Ministry had abandoned the idea of different variants and settled on a single multipurpose aircraft , to be designated Fa 223E , which could combine all the roles ; the V3 reflected this new thinking and set the design features for all the models that followed and it incorporated dual controls and an electric winch . Like its predecessors , the V3 ' s body consisted of welded steel tubing covered with treated fabric to save weight and make repairs easier . Its interior was divided into four sections — the cockpit , where pilot and observer sat side by side , with the pilot on the left ; the load compartment ; the engine compartment ; and the tail section . The engine and gearbox were centrally mounted and held in place by a series of tensioned steel cables , with the gearbox in front of the engine . Two steel tube outriggers extended out from the sides of the fuselage to carry the twin rotors , of three - bladed configuration and wooden construction with a steel spar , which were mounted 12 . 5 m ( 41 ft 0 in ) apart , far enough that they did not overlap . Production . Serial production of the Fa 223 began at the Focke - Achgelis factory in Delmenhorst in 1942 . The site was struck in June that year by an Allied air raid and destroyed along with the two surviving prototypes and the first 7 pre - production machines undergoing final assembly . Attempts were made to restore production but were abandoned in 1943 , and a new plant was set up at Laupheim , near Ulm . The first " Drache " to emerge from the new factory , the V11 , was flown by pilot Karl Bode for a series of information films made for the Air Ministry to demonstrate the Fa 223 ' s abilities . Loads which included a complete Fieseler Storch aircraft and the fuselage of a Bf 109 were shown being lowered with great precision on to vehicles using the " Drache ' s " winch and special quick - release electrical cargo hook . When Otto Skorzeny was planning his raid to abduct captured Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from the Albert Rifugio hotel on the Gran Sasso in September 1943 , his original choice of aircraft was a Fa 223 . The Fa 223 would be able to land directly in front of the hotel . However , the chosen aircraft broke down while en route , and Skorzeny instead was forced to use a Fieseler Fi - 156 . In the spring of 1944 , a Dornier Do 217 crashed high up on the Vehner moor in Lower Saxony , between Osnabrück and Oldenburg , and it was decided to send the V11 to recover the wreckage . Unfortunately the V11 ended up crashing nearby before it could attempt to lift the Do 217 ' s remains . It was then decided to attempt to recover both using the V14 . Flown by Karl Bode and Luftwaffe helicopter pilot Helmut Gerstenhauer , the operation was begun on 11 May 1944 . A small team of Focke - Achgelis men and a Luftwaffe recovery company had already dismantled the V11 , and the V14 made 10 flights carrying loads beneath it in a cargo net and setting them down where they could be loaded on to road vehicles . All the major parts of the V11 and the Do 217 were retrieved and much useful experience was gained . Following this , the Air Ministry decided to evaluate the helicopter ' s potential as a transport in mountainous regions , and the V16 was assigned to the Mountain Warfare School at Mittenwald , near Innsbruck , with the V14 as a backup . The objective of the tests was to see how the " Drache " would perform as a general - purpose all - weather transport , and numerous landings were made at altitudes of over above sea level , plus experimental transportation of artillery guns to mountain troops . When the trials ended in October 1944 , a total of 83 flights had been made , with a total flying time of 20 hours . Only 7 machines had been constructed at Laupheim before an air raid halted production in July 1944 , and wiped out the factory . At the time of the raid , the V18 prototype was ready for delivery , 13 " Drachen " were in assembly , and there were enough components for a further 19 . Following the raid the Air Ministry decided that it was useless to pursue the project any further and following the mountain trials Focke was assigned to Messerschmitt ' s staff . Only weeks later , Focke received new orders , this time to return to the Focke - Achgelis company and to move the entire operation to Tempelhof Airport in Berlin where flight testing was to be resumed , and a production line established to produce 400 helicopters per month . Operational service . The V12 , after completing a long cross - country flight from Germany , was flown to Mont Blanc to perform a rescue of 17 people trapped on the mountain . Unfortunately , a mechanical link failure resulted in a rotor disintegrating , and , although the machine touched down on its wheels , it was hurled against an embankment and the crew was killed . Danzig flight . The company had managed to keep hold of 2 of the 5 surviving " Drachen " and managed to produce a new example at Tempelhof in February 1945 . Almost immediately it was ordered on a " special order from the Führer " to fly to Danzig on 25 February . Flown by Gerstenhauer and two copilots , the " Drache " took off from Tempelhof the next day . It first headed northeast in the direction of Würzburg . Gerstenhauer lost his bearings in the bad weather and had to land at Crailsheim . Once the weather lessened , they set off again and landed at Würzburg to refuel , reaching Meiningen where it stopped overnight . The next day it set off northeast the next day and flew to Werder , a distance of . On the third day the " Drache " continued towards Stettin - Altdamm , but the bad weather again forced them to land , this time at Prenzlau . They attempted to resume the flight the next day , but the weather remained bad and they had to stop at Stolp , west of Danzig , for the night . By 5 March the war situation had become very bad , and Gerstenhauer decided they had to leave Stolp before the Russians arrived . They took off and flew directly to Danzig right over the advancing Soviet army , reaching Danzig only to find that the city was already falling . They landed outside the city to wait for further orders , which when they came directed them to return to Werder . They did this via a lengthy flight along the Baltic coast via Garz , not reaching Werder until 11 March . The entire flight had covered a record with a flight time of 16 hours 25 minutes . TS / 40 . In January 1945 , the Air Ministry assigned the other 3 " Drachen " to Transportstaffel 40 ( TS / 40 ) at Mühldorf , Bavaria , the Luftwaffe ' s only operational helicopter squadron , equipped with at least five Flettner Fl 282 s as well as the " Drachen " . TS / 40 relocated to various sites before ending up at Ainring in Austria , where one of the " Drachen " was destroyed by its pilot to prevent it being captured and the other two were seized by US forces . Cross - Channel flight . The US intended to ferry captured aircraft back to the USA aboard a ship , but only had room for one of the captured " Drachen " . The RAF objected to plans to destroy the other , the V14 , so Gerstenhauer , with two observers , flew it across the English Channel from Cherbourg to RAF Beaulieu on 6 September 1945 , the first crossing of the Channel by a helicopter . The V14 later made two test flights at RAF Beaulieu before being destroyed on 3 October , when a driveshaft failed . The accident was thought to be due to a failure to correctly tension the steel cables which secured the engine , despite warnings from Gerstenhauer . Variants . A hybrid Fa 223 was proposed by Focke with two bodies joined inline to form a four - rotor heavy lift helicopter . An unfinished central joining section was found by Allied troops at Ochsenhausen .