The Fieseler F 3 ''Wespe'' (" Wasp") was a German aircraft developed in the early 1930s by

Gerhard Fieseler Gerhard Fieseler (15 April 1896 – 1 September 1987) was a German World War I flying ace, aerobatics champion, and aircraft designer and manufacturer. From birth to the 1918 armistice Born in Glesch (near Cologne), Fieseler joined the Air S ...

. Little history of the aircraft remains due in part to destruction of records and documents during World War II.

Design and development

The aircraft configuration, either inspired by or copied from

Alexander Lippisch Alexander Martin Lippisch (November 2, 1894 – February 11, 1976) was a German aeronautical engineer, a pioneer of aerodynamics who made important contributions to the understanding of tailless aircraft, delta wings and the ground effect, and a ...

, featured a

flying wing A flying wing is a tailless fixed-wing aircraft that has no definite fuselage, with its crew, payload, fuel, and equipment housed inside the main wing structure. A flying wing may have various small protuberances such as pods, nacelles, blis ...

design with winglets and two radial engines. The seven cylinder Pobjoy R engines were installed in a push-pull configuration and provided 75-85 horsepower each. A two bladed propeller manufactured by Gustav Schwarz can be seen in some of the few remaining photos. The design featured a

canard Canard is French for duck, a type of aquatic bird. Canard may also refer to: Aviation *Canard (aeronautics), a small wing in front of an aircraft's main wing * Aviafiber Canard 2FL, a single seat recreational aircraft of canard design * Blé ...

and folding wings. Different versions of the aircraft had either a fully enclosed "greenhouse" style canopy or two open

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

s. After determining the aircraft to be generally uncontrollable, the project was transitioned to the Rhön-Rossitten Gesellschaft (RRG). The design was further evolved into the

Lippisch Delta IV Alexander Lippisch's Delta IV was a continuation of his work on delta wing designs pioneered in his Delta I, Delta II and Delta III aircraft. Design and development The project began with an order from Gerhard Fieseler for a design that his co ...

Design and development

References

Further reading