The Fieseler F 3 ''Wespe'' ("

Wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder ...

") was a German aircraft designed by

Alexander Lippisch Alexander Martin Lippisch (2 November 1894 – 11 February 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 in aircra ...

as the Delta IV and built by

Fieseler The Gerhard Fieseler Werke (GFW) in Kassel was a German aircraft manufacturer of the 1930s and 1940s. The company is remembered mostly for its military aircraft built for the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. History Gerhard Fieseler, the ...

. Lippisch later redesignated its variants as the Delta IVa and b, with the c variant being built as the DFS 39. Little history of the aircraft remains due in part to destruction of records and documents during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Design and development

The aircraft was of canard layout, having a broad and lightly tapered delta wing with small foreplanes immediately in front of the leading edge. Twin endplate fins were attached to the wing tips. Power was provided by two

radial engines The radial engine is a reciprocating type internal combustion engine configuration in which the cylinders "radiate" outward from a central crankcase like the spokes of a wheel. It resembles a stylized star when viewed from the front, and is cal ...

push-pull configuration An aircraft constructed with a push-pull configuration has a combination of forward-mounted Tractor configuration, tractor (pull) Propeller (aircraft), propellers, and backward-mounted (pusher configuration, pusher) propellers. Historical The e ...

. The seven cylinder

Pobjoy R The Pobjoy R is a British seven-cylinder air-cooled radial aircraft engine designed and built by Pobjoy Airmotors. Introduced in 1926, it was a popular engine for ultralight and small aircraft in the 1930s. A notable feature of the Pobjoy R was ...

engines each provided 75-85

horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are t ...

. A two-bladed propeller manufactured by Gustav Schwarz can be seen in some of the few remaining photos. The design featured 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, on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which a pilot controls the vehicle. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls th ...

s. After determining the aircraft to be generally uncontrollable, the project was transitioned to the

Rhön-Rossitten Gesellschaft The Rhön-Rossitten Gesellschaft (RRG) or Rhön-Rossitten Society was a German gliding organization, the first one in the world that was officially recognised. The Rhön-Rossitten Gesellschaft was mainly responsible for establishing gliding as a spo ...

(RRG). The design was further evolved into the Lippisch Delta IVc.

Design and development

References

Further reading