Focke-Wulf Fw.200 Condor. Part Three. Even more foreign Users

 

The Focke-Wulf Fw.200 Condor was a German four-engined monoplane designed and manufactured by Focke-Wulf which was initially conceived as an airliner. Luftwaffe and Lufthansa were its main users, however, there were many other non German users of the Fw.200:

• USSR: During World War 2, many Fw.200s were captured by the Soviets and push into service with the VVS (Soviet Air Force). The first machine depicted below was captured at Gumrak, Stalingrad, in January 1943. Repainted with Soviet markings, it was evaluated by the NII-VSS (Soviet Air Force's Scientific Test Institute) and it was displayed in Moscow for a brief period of time. Its fate is unknown.
  Many more were captured by the Soviets during the late period of the war. Some of these machines were reconverted Fw.200C bombers turned into airliners during 1944 to serve with Lufthansa in order to evacuate high-ranking officers and personalities from Germany. Due to the constant bombing of Germany, very few machines were reconverted.
  When the Soviet Army conquered Germany, at least three of those repurposed machines were captured and, eventually sent to serve with Aeroflot (Soviet airlines), at the Arctic Sea division. Those three planes were registered as H-400, H-401 and H-500, though it's believed that there could've been a fourth one. 
  Due to the harsh conditions of the Arctic Sea, these machines suffered many breakdowns and failures due to their temperature-sensitive Bramo engines. In fact, H-400 crash-landed on the Polar Circle in April 1946. The other machine, H-401, depicted below, served in the Polar reconnaissance role until 1950, when it was written off. Its fate is unknown, but it was most probably scrapped.
  However, H-500 was assigned to Polar Aviation in as late as 1948. It was under reparation at Factory No. 23 in Moscow and had its original Bramo engines replaced by Russian Shvetsov ASh-62 engines. It's not clear though if the engines were fitted at Factory No.23 or they were replaced in 1950 after a maintenance accident in which an oil cooler was destroyed. Anyway it received the unofficial denomination of Focke-Wulf Mk.200 and it was used to supply remote Arctic scientific outpost until April 1950 when it crash-landed and was damaged beyond reparation at Yakutsk airport, putting an end to the Fw.200 in the USSR.
• Spain: A single unarmed Fw.200C-4 served with the Spanish Air Force, at the Escuela Superior de Vuelo (Superior Air School) in Salamanca, Old Castile. This airplane, serialled T-4.2, based at Bordeaux-Merignac, landed in Seville on 1st January 1943 after having been attacked over Casablanca. It was interned and later bought by the Spanish Air Force.
  Four additional Fw.200s crash-landed in Spain during the war. They were bought by the Spanish authorities, but they were not pushed into service for political reasons and they were used as a source for spare parts. 
  The machine labeled as T-4.2 served until 1950 when it was grounded due to a lack of spare parts.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_200_Condor

2. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Fw_200 (translated)

3. https://www.luftfahrtmuseum-hannover.de/index.php/en/neuigkeiten-2/aircraft-of-the-month/629-modell-des-monats-januar-2022

4. Osprey Publishing - Combat Aircraft 115 - Fw 200 Condor Units of World War II

Airspeed AS.65 Consul, part six, various European Users

The Airspeed AS.65 Consul was a British twin-engined light airliner which was a direct conversion from the previous AS.10 Oxford. All of them were converted in the immediate post-war period. Many of them were sold to many airlines all around the globe, among them, the following ones:

• Switzerland: One machine, originally registered as G-AIDX, was eventually sold in 27th June 1955 to a Swiss private owner who registered with Swiss codes, HB-LAT. This aircraft was interned in Sabadell, Spain, accused of nylon smuggling. According to one of our sources, this happened in 1952, but it wasn't until 1955 when the aircraft passed on to Swiss owners. After that it was sold in an auction in Barcelona.
  There was another Consul which ended in Swiss hands. Originally registered as El-ADC, this one was bought by the Aerocentro Sportivo Ticinese SA in Lugano, on 12th February 1959. It was later sold to Spanish Iberia airlines on 6th June 1962.
• Spain: A total of 9 Consuls served with various Spanish airlines. The main operator was Iberia which, in 1947, was in the need for cheap twin-engine aircraft for crew training which eventually operated 7 of them from the late 1940s until the early 1960s. Initially some of them were used for local flights but eventually all of them ended up as ground crew trainers.
  Spantax, another Spanish charter airline, also operated the type as they bought three machines and operated them in local flights, specially between the Canary islands and Spanish Sahara.
• Sweden: There were various Swedish operators of the Consul. These were Aero Nord Sweden, Aeropropaganda, Nordisk Air Transport and Transair Sweden. A total of 15 machines served with those companies mainly during the 1950s. Most of them were used in charter flights in Sweden. One machine, registered SE-BTD, crashed near the city of Gävle, on 14th July 1951 when serving with Aeropropaganda AB.
  Unfortunately we couldn't find graphical evidence of the Consul serving with these Swedish companies so the profiles depicted below should be considered as speculative.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspeed_Consul

2.https://www.ab-ix.co.uk/pdfs/airspeed_oxford_&_consul.pdf

3. http://leandroaviacion.blogspot.com/2013/04/1952-bimotor-airspeed-as65-consul-hb.html (translated)

4. http://www.aviationcorner.net/gallery_en.asp?aircraft_type=Airspeed%20AS.65%20Consul&aircraft_type_id=1690 (translated)

5. https://www.iberia.com/es/fleet/historic-aircrafts/Airspeed_AS-65_Consul/