Focke-Wulf FW 800 — The People’s Jetliner of the Greater German Reich (1949–1968)

Excerpt from the 1964 Reichs-Luftfahrtchronik, Volume VIII

When the Messerschmitt Me 262 entered combat in the final phase of the British War, it became unmistakably clear to the Luftwaffe High Command that the jet engine would define the future of aviation. Following the successful Seelöwe landings and the capitulation of Britain in February 1941, the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM) wasted no time assimilating the most valuable elements of the British aircraft industry. Engineers from de Havilland, Bristol, and Rolls-Royce were “invited” to work alongside teams at Junkers and Focke-Wulf under conditions of strict secrecy.

Birth of Germany’s First Passenger Jet

By 1946, the Reich had consolidated European air routes under Deutsche Lufthansa Reichsbetriebe, headquartered in Berlin. A requirement was issued for a jet-powered civil aircraft capable of linking Berlin with Paris, Rome, Oslo, and Madrid in under three hours.

Focke-Wulf responded with the FW 800, a low-wing, twin-jet airliner powered by two Jumo 008 axial turbojets—derived from the Me 262’s Jumo 004, but enlarged and refined with British centrifugal compressor technology gleaned from captured workshops in Derby and Hatfield.

• First flight: 14 March 1948 (Bremen-Neustadt)

• Passenger capacity: 60–68 persons

• Range: 1,900–2,200 km

• Cruising speed: 725 km/h

• Crew: 4–5

By mid-1949, Lufthansa introduced the FW 800 on the Berlin–London, Berlin–Paris, and Berlin–Rome routes. Contemporary propaganda celebrated it as “Der Düsenpfeil des Reiches” — the Reich’s jet arrow.

Production and Expansion

Between 1949 and 1961, a total of 612 FW 800s were produced by Focke-Wulf and Dornier’s branch in Munich. Of these:

• 302 aircraft entered service with Lufthansa

• 49 airframes were built for the Luftwaffe as VIP and courier transports

• 261 aircraft were sold to allied European states within the Reich’s sphere, including France, Denmark, Spain, Croatia, and Norway

Südflug and the Tourism Wave

In 1958, the Stuttgart-based private airline Südflug GmbH was founded to transport German workers and families to the newly developed Reich holiday complexes along the Italian Riviera, Costa del Sol, and Greek Aegean. Initially equipped with FW 200 “Condor” and Junkers Ju 290, the company upgraded its fleet in 1961 when Lufthansa sold 11 surplus FW 800s.

Painted in the airline’s iconic white-yellow livery with a red bird emblem, Südflug’s FW 800s became a familiar sight at Naples, Palma, Rhodos, and Athens. Newspaper adverts promoted “Fliegen für jedermann – Urlaub im Süden für 299 Reichsmark!”

However, with rising competition from Junkers’ larger Ju 707 and the introduction of the four-engine Focke-Wulf FW 820, Südflug filed for bankruptcy in late 1968. Its remaining jetliners were scrapped at Tempelhof or sold to Portugal and Slovakia.

End of Service and Legacy

By the early 1960s, the FW 800 was technologically outdated. The jet’s limited range and noisy, fuel-hungry engines meant it was gradually replaced by the Ju 707, Ju 728, and FW 820 on most routes.

Still, historians agree:
The FW 800 was the aircraft that introduced the citizens of the Reich to modern jet travel.
It connected Berlin to the Atlantic, Rome to Oslo, and filled the skies over a Europe unified—under the swastika.

Today, only three examples survive:

• One preserved at the Deutsches Luftfahrtmuseum (Berlin)

• One converted into a bar at Munich-Riem airport

• A derelict hulk in Zaragoza, abandoned after a forced landing in 1957

The model shows the 9th FW-800 (D-ASME) in July 1963.