The slightly less well known

[Angry Turnip]

Vickers Vespa

The Vickers Vespa was a British army cooperation biplane designed and built in the 1920s.

The Vespa was designed by Vickers as a private venture,the first prototype, the Vespa I being flown in September 1925.It was a single-engine biplane with a slim fuselage suspended between closely spaced and highly staggered two-bay wooden wings, was delivered for evaluation by the RAF, but crash landed owing to engine trouble on 24 June 1926 and was badly damaged. It was then rebuilt with steel, fabric-covered wings as the Vespa II, but this was unsuccessful in getting orders from the RAF.

It attracted attention from Bolivia, which ordered six Vespa IIIs, an improved all metal version, in 1928,[3] and the Irish Air Corps, which ordered four Vespa IVs in 1929 and a further four Vespa Vs in 1930.Six Vespa IIIs were delivered to Bolivia in 1928, where they were used as operational conversion aircraft, although they did see limited use in the Chaco War as reconnaissance and long-range bombers, these aircraft operating at low altitude rather than the high altitude that Bolivia's Vespas were optimised for.They remained in service until late 1935.
The eight Irish Vespas remained in service for several years, operating from Baldonnel,with the last being written off on 12 June 1940.

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[Angry Turnip]

Vickers Windsor

The Vickers Windsor was a World WarII British four-engine heavy bomber, designed by Barnes Wallis and Rex Pierson at the Vickers-Armstrongs factory.

Vickers were working on a Wellington with a pressurised cabin for high altitude work The proposed design changed the twin-engined Warwick wing for an elliptical wing with four Merlin engines. The aircraft was expected to manage 43,000 ft (13,000 m) having delivered 8,000 lb (3,600 kg) of bombs.In mid-1942, the Wellington replacement and B.5/41 were merged as a result of a new specification, B.3/42 for a Lancaster replacement but without high altitude performance. Vickers could take the work already done along and fit the four-engine wing to a new design of fuselage and a contract was raised for what would become the Windsor. The wings of the first prototypes were built to the earlier specification and so had lower weight limits imposed.

Features of the Windsor included its pressurised crew compartment. To spread the load across the elliptical planform high aspect ratio wings, the undercarriage was of four mainwheel oleo struts - one in each engine nacelle - with a single balloon-tyred wheel on each. The defensive guns were mounted in barbettes at the rear of each outboard nacelle, which were to be remotely operated by a gunner in a pressurised compartment in the extreme tail. The Windsor used Wallis's geodetic body and wing structure that Vickers had previously used in the Wellesley, Wellington and Warwick.

Only three examples (the original plus successive prototypes known as Type 457 and Type 461) were built. This was due to upgrades in the Lancaster bomber, making it suitable for the very role the Windsor had been designed for.The first prototype flew on 23 October 1943, the second on 15 February 1944, and the third on 11 July 1944. All three were built at Vickers' secret dispersed Foxwarren Experimental Department between Brooklands and nearby Cobham. The two latter prototypes were tested until the end of the Second World War, when further development and production were cancelled.

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[Angry Turnip]

Vickers Vulcan

The Vickers Vulcan was a British single-engine biplane airliner of the early 1920s.

The Vickers Vulcan was designed by Rex Pierson of Vickers. It first flew in April 1922, at Brooklands Aerodrome in Surrey, UK. Only eight aircraft were completed as it did not attract many orders.
It was based on a civil version of the Vimy bomber, but featured several modifications, including a much larger, taller fuselage and one, instead of two, Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engines, the intention being low operating costs. The shape of its fuselage, earned it the nickname "Flying Pig". The first delivery took place in August 1922, to Instone Air Line Ltd. Other operators included Imperial Airways and Qantas (however, the latter returned the aircraft as the performance was unsuitable for the company's needs). The last Vulcan flying was a Type 74 with Imperial Airways. It crashed in July 1928.

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[Angry Turnip]

Vickers Viastra

The Vickers Viastra was an all-metal 12-seat passenger high-wing monoplane, with variants powered by one, two or three engines.

Vickers built several variants, largely similar apart from the engines:They were high-wing monoplanes, the wings had a constant chord, square tips and a thick section. The wings, like the rest of the aircraft were covered with the corrugated skin and carried balanced ailerons and outboard slots. There was a biplane tail unit with a pair of narrow chord planes, the lower attached to the fuselage underside and the upper mounted clear above. The outboard vertical tail surfaces were again very narrow and served as the main rudders; the single-engined and tri-motor variants also had a small triangular central fin, carrying an auxiliary rudder and supporting the upper horizontal plane. With one exception, the twin-engined Viastras had the central fin and rudder replaced by tubular bracing.

The fuselage had a square cross-section, parallel in the passenger cabin area and narrowing towards the tail. The passenger compartment had six windows on each side and the crew had an enclosed cabin forward of the wings. Each wing was braced to the lower fuselage with a parallel pair of struts.The two and three-engined Viastras had their outer engines mounted just below the wings. The outer engines were enclosed by a narrow chord Townend ring, but the central engines of the tri-motored and single-engined Viastras were uncowled.

The first Viastra, was powered by three 270 hp Armstrong Siddeley Lynx Major 7-cylinder radial engines first flew on 1 October 1930. It was followed by a pair of Viastra IIs that flew on the Perth-Adelaide route with West Australian Airways from March 1931. They were both configured as twelve seaters and initially powered by a pair of 525 hp Bristol Jupiter XIF radials, although on occasions they flew with one or two Jupiter VIs because the higher rated XIFs proved unreliable. The Australian operation showed that the twin-engined Viastra II was a underpowered in that it could not sustain altitude on only one engine. Vickers confirmed this by replacing the Lynx engines of G-AAUB with Jupiter VIFMs. In this guise it was known as the Viastra VIII.

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[Angry Turnip]

Westland Widgeon (fixed wing)

The Westland Widgeon was a British light aircraft of the 1920s.

The Widgeon first flew at Westland's Yeovil factory on 22 September 1924.Its fuselage, which was very similar to that of the Westland Woodpigeon, was of mixed steel tube and wooden construction, while the wooden parasol wing, which was tapered in both chord and thickness, folded for easy storage. It was powered by a single 1,090 cc Blackburne Thrush three cylinder radial engine, which produced just 35 hp.The Widgeon, which due to the use of the Thrush engine was badly underpowered, crashed during the first day of trials. Despite this, it was clear that the Widgeon had promise and was superior to the Woodpigeon, and the damaged prototype was rebuilt with a more powerful 60 hp Armstrong Siddeley Genet engine as the Widgeon II. Despite its much greater weight, the new engine transformed the Widgeon, the rebuilt aircraft being almost 40 mph faster.

Westland entered the Widgeon into production for the private owner. It was redesigned with a simpler, constant chord, wing replacing the tapered wing of the Widgeon I and II to ease production. The resulting Widgeon III could be powered either a radial engine like the Genet or an inline engine such as the Cirrus. The first Widgeon III flew in March 1927, with production starting later that year.The design was further refined with a duralumin tube fuselage and a new undercarriage to produce the Widgeon IIIA.
The Widgeon proved expensive compared to its competitors and a total of only 26 of all types, including the prototype, were built and sold before production was stopped in 1930.

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[Angry Turnip]

Westland Widgeon (helicopter)

The Westland Widgeon was a helicopter developed as a private venture improvement on the Westland WS-51 Dragonfly.

Westland Aircraft decided to make a private venture improvement on the Westland WS-51 Dragonfly, which was a licensed Sikorsky design, helicopter by increasing the cabin capacity and replacing the Dragonfly's rotor head, blades and gearbox with the units used in the Westland Whirlwind. Three Dragonfly Series 1As were converted to WS-51 Series 2 Widgeons, and the first one flew on 23 August 1955.There was a plan to take up to 24 existing Fleet Air Arm Dragonflies to Dragonfly HC.7 standard but this was abandoned and it contributed to the decision to stop progress after completing 12 new builds and 3 conversions.

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[Angry Turnip]

Wight Twin

The Wight Twin was a British large twin-engined aircraft of the First World War.

In summer 1914, just before the outbreak of the First World War, the French government ordered a single example of a twin-engined bomber from the Samuel White shipyard in Cowes.The result, designed by Howard T. Wright, chief designer of Wight Aircraft It was a very large twin boom biplane with five-bay folding wings, powered by two 200 hp Salmson water-cooled radial engines fitted in the front of the fuselage booms. The crew of three was housed in a small central nacelle between the twin booms and situated on the lower wing.
The Twin Landplane was completed in July 1915, and was found to have reasonable flying characteristics during tests in August 1915, however, a French test pilot crashed the Twin Landplane during acceptance testing, and the contract for the aircraft was cancelled.

At the same time, the British Admiralty required a long range aircraft capable of carrying the 18 inch torpedoes necessary to sink large warships. An order was placed with Samuel White's for a large torpedo carrying aircraft. The resulting Twin Seaplane was based closely on the Twin Landplane, with the central nacelle removed and cockpits for the crew of two fitted in the two fuselages behind the wings. The first prototype, which was delayed by the unavailability of the engines, was completed in 1916, but proved during testing to be unable to carry both a torpedo and a full fuel load. Two modified aircraft followed, with longer float struts and new tail surfaces. These two aircraft also proved underpowered, and the type was abandoned, with the last Twin Seaplane written off in 1917.

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[Angry Turnip]

Wight Converted Seaplane

The Wight Converted Seaplane was a British twin-float patrol seaplane.

The aircraft was developed from the unsuccessful Wight Bomber for use as an anti-submarine patrol aircraft. The aircraft was a three-bay biplane with unswept, unequal span, unstaggered wings.
It had twin floats under the fuselage, with additional floats at the tail and wings tips. Initial production aircraft were powered by a 322 hp Rolls-Royce Eagle IV engine mounted in the nose driving a four-bladed propeller, with later production machines powered by 265 hp Sunbeam Maori engines owing to shortages of Eagles.Fifty were ordered for the RNAS, but only 37 were completed.

The Converted Seaplane entered service with the RNAS in 1917. On 18 August 1917, a Wight Converted Seaplane flying from Cherbourg sank a German U-boat using a 100 lb bomb, the first submarine to be sunk in the English Channel by direct air action. Seven remained in service with the RAF at the end of the World War I.

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[Angry Turnip]

Wight Quadruplane.

The Wight Quadruplane, also referred to as the Wight Type 4, was a British quadruplane fighter aircraft.

It was a prototype designed by design chief Howard T. Wright in 1916. Inspired by the Sopwith Triplane, it had an unusual arrangement in which the fuselage was placed between the middle two wings with upper and lower wings attached by heavy struts. Another unusual feature was that its wingspan was less than the overall aircraft length. The wings were cambered on the leading and trailing edges with a flat middle section.Power was provided by a 110 hp  Clerget 9Z nine-cylinder air cooled rotary engine and it was to be armed with two 0.303 in Vickers machine guns.

The original version had two struts of long chord length supporting the upper wing. Four similar interplane struts were used between the upper three wings, all of which had ailerons. The bottom wing had a shorter span with pairs of struts and cut outs for the landing gear wheels. Because the axle was the same height as the lower wing, the tailskid was very tall to prevent that wings trailing edge from contacting the ground.When tested in mid 1916 the aircraft had difficulty taking off due to shallow wing incidence and displayed dangerous tendencies because of a lack of yaw control and a major redesign was required.

In February 1917 the second version was ready for testing.The single thick struts were replaced with wire braced struts and the landing gear was lengthened. The new wings were of varying chord and the overall diameter of the fuselage was increased and a larger dorsal fin and rudder were installed. After several disappointing test flights, the machine was returned to the aircraft production facilities in Cowes for another rework. The final version had new wings of decreasing span from top to bottom and ailerons only on the upper two wings.In July 1917, flight testing again revealed poor handling and an unsatisfactory lack of control. In February 1918 the Quadruplane crashed into a cemetery and was written off.

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[Angry Turnip]

Time to move on now, to Germany.


AEG B.II

The AEG B.II was a two-seat biplane reconnaissance aircraft produced in small numbers from 1914. It was a slightly smaller version of the B.I and proved more successful. They were used in limited numbers throughout 1914 to 1915, but were quickly replaced, as they were often derided for lack of speed and armament.
The aircraft were powered by a single 120 hp Mercedes D.II 6-cyl. water-cooled in-line piston engine, which allowed a max speed of just 68mph.

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[Angry Turnip]

AEG C.VIII

The AEG C.VIII was a prototype two-seat reconnaissance aircraft of World War I.Just two examples were built, based on the successful C.IV design, one of biplane configuration, the other a triplane (the latter sometimes referred to as the C.VIII.Dr). Neither version offered enough of an improvement on the C.IV to make mass production worthwhile.
The aircraft were powered by a 160 hp Mercedes D.III 6-cylinder water-cooled in-line piston engine, which gave a max speed of 110mph.

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[Angry Turnip]

AEG G.II


The AEG G.II was a German biplane bomber aircraft of WW I developed from the AEG G.I, but with more powerful engines. The G.II was typically armed with three 7.92 mm (.312 in) machine guns and 200 kg (440 lb) of bombs. The bomber suffered stability problems,only 20 were completed, and many G.IIs were fitted with additional vertical tail surfaces on each side of the fin and rudder to improve flight handling.
The aircraft were powered by two 150hp Benz Bz.III 6-cyl. water-cooled in-line piston engines, which gave a max speed of around 85mph.

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[Angry Turnip]

AEG J.I


The AEG J.I was a German biplane ground attack aircraft of 1917.

The AEG J.I was a two-seat single-engined tractor biplane with a conventional landing gear and a tail skid. The aircraft was constructed using fabric covered steel tubes. The open tandem cockpit for the pilot and gunner had armour protection . The gunner had three weapons, two 7.92 mm (.312 in) LMG 08/15 machine guns were fitted to the floor of the cockpit for ground targets. One 7.92 mm (.312 in) Parabellum MG14 machine gun was on a rotable mounting.

An improved version of the J.I was developed as the AEG J.II, which had aerodynamically balanced ailerons, extended rear fuselage with a larger fin to improve directional stability and a re-located aileron link strut. After the war, several J.IIs served the first regular daily passenger aeroplane service in the world, between Berlin and Weimar, flown by Deutsche Luft-Reederei. This route began on 5 February 1919. Early commercial J.II's retained open cockpits, but modified versions with enclosed cabins for the two passengers quickly replaced them.

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[Angry Turnip]

AEG R.I

The AEG R.I was a four-engined biplane bomber aircraft of World War I.

The R.I was unusual for a multi-engined aircraft, the R.I carried all its engines within the fuselage and directed power to its propellers via a system of drive shafts.It was powered by four Mercedes D.IVa 6 cyl. water-cooled in-line piston engines, of 260 hp each.
A single prototype was completed and flew in 1916.The initial flights were quite successful, the aircraft being considered very manoeuvrable, but on 3 September 1918, a newly assembled propeller, disintegrated mid flight. The vibrations resulting from that failure caused the complex gearboxes and shafts connecting all four engines to both propellers to tear loose, which then cut a center section strut, resulting in the breakup of the aircraft, killing all seven crew on board. Of the seven further AEG R.1 aircraft planned or under production when the war ended, (R.21, R.22, R.59, R.60, R.61, R.62, R.63 and R.64), only R.21 was finished and R.22 partially complete.

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[Angry Turnip]

Albatros C.I

The Albatros C.I, was the first of the successful C-series of two-seat general-purpose biplanes built by Albatros Flugzeugwerke during World War I.

It was based on the unarmed Albatros B.II, the C.I reversed the pilot and observer seating, the observer occupied the rear cockpit which was fitted with a ring-mounted 7.92 mm MG14 machine gun.The C.I first appeared in early 1915, and its good handling and powerful 150 hp Benz Bz.III engine gave it an advantage over most Allied aircraft. During development, successively more powerful engines were fitted, culminating in the 180 hp Argus As III which allowed the final version of the C.Ia to achieve 87 mph at sea level. A dual-control variant, designated the C.Ib, was built as a trainer aircraft. Improvements to the C.I resulted in the Albatros C.III which became the most prolific of the Albatros C-types.

The C.I was operated mainly in a reconnaissance and observation role, it also had some success as an early fighter aircraft -  Germany's most famous World War I aviator, Manfred von Richthofen, also began his career as an observer in the C.I on the Eastern Front.

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[Angry Turnip]

Albatros D.I

The Albatros D.I was a German fighter aircraft used during World War I.

The D.I was designed by Robert Thelen, R. Schubert and Gnädig. It was ordered in June 1916 and introduced into squadron service that August.The D.I had a semi-monocoque plywood fuselage,which was lighter and stronger than the fabric-skinned box-type fuselage then in common use, its panelled-plywood skinning, done with mostly four-sided panels of thin plywood over the entire minimal fuselage structure, was less labour-intensive.The Albatros D.I was powered by either a 150 hp Benz Bz.III or a 160 hp Mercedes D.III six-cylinder water cooled inline engine. The additional power of the Mercedes (Daimler) engine enabled twin fixed Spandau machine-guns to be fitted without a loss in performance.

A total of 50 pre-series and series D.I aircraft were in service by November 1916,further production of D.Is was not undertaken, however; instead, a reduction in the gap between the upper and lower wing in order to improve the pilot's forward and upward vision resulted in the otherwise identical Albatros D.II, which became Albatros' first major production fighter.

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[Angry Turnip]

Albatros L 65

The Albatros L 65 was a German two-seat reconnaissance fighter biplane first flown in 1925.

Under the Treaty of Versailles, military aircraft production was restricted in Germany, so Albatros Flugzeugwerke established a subsidiary to build the L 65 in Lithuania.
The L 65 had a single-bay, staggered biplane configuration and was built from wood with a plywood skin. The wings were braced by I-struts of broad aerofoil cross-section. Two prototypes were built, the first powered by a 450 hp water-cooled 12-cylinder Napier Lion engine; the second had its first flight in 1926 and had a 565 hp version of the Lion. The second prototype underwent evaluation by the Reichswehr to equip the clandestine training school at Lipetsk, but it lost out to another type and no further aircraft were produced.

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[Angry Turnip]

Albatros L 72

The Albatros L 72 was a German transport aircraft of the 1920s.

The L 72 was a single-engine biplane of conventional configuration with unstaggered wings of equal span. It was the first German commercial aircraft to incorporate leading edge slots and trailing-edge flaps. The upper and lower wings were interchangeable. They were of all metal construction with fabric covering. The thickened centre section of the upper wing contained the fuel tanks.

The fuselage was built of welded steel tubing with wire bracing and fabric covered. To the rear of the pilot's cockpit was a cabin containing a conveyor-like device which could accept up to sixteen parcels of newspapers weighing 10 kg. These could then be dropped, either by an attendant travelling in the cabin or by the pilot, an indicator in the cockpit indicating how many parcels had been dropped.
A novel feature of the tail was the rudder and fin which were both pivoted in such a way that when the rudder was turned the fin also turned around a vertical axis thus providing a more powerful rudder control for a smaller angular movement.

The aircraft first flew in 1926, and was powered by a single 220hp BMW IV engine; only four aircraft were completed.

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[Angry Turnip]

Albatros L102

The Albatros L102  / Albatros Al 102 , was a German trainer aircraft of the 1930s.

It was a parasol-wing monoplane, seating the student pilot and instructor in separate, open cockpits. A biplane floatplane version was also built as the Al 102W, with strut-braced lower wings.
The aircraft first flew in Sept 1938 and was powered by a 237 hp Argus As 10C inverted V-8, air-cooled piston engine, just ten aircraft were completed in total.

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[Angry Turnip]

Arado L II

The Arado L II was a 1920s German two-seat, high-wing touring monoplane.

The aircraft first flew in late 1929 and was powered by an 80hp Argus As 8R engine, which gave a max speed of around 100 mph.Just five machines were built.
In 1930, a Revised version, the L IIa first flew, and four examples took part in the Challenge International de Tourisme 1930, starting from Berlin-Tempelhof airport, but none were placed in the top four, and one crashed early in the race. Two examples competed in the Deutschlandflug in 1931.

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[Angry Turnip]

Arado Ar 64

The Arado Ar 64 was a single-seat biplane fighter, developed in the late 1920s.

The Ar 64 was a development of the earlier Arado SD II / SD III, based upon the Reich War Ministry requirement for a successor to the Fokker D.XIII fighter. The AR 64D and 64E would the first fighters built in quantity by Germany since the end of World War I. The two differed, as the 64D had a revised undercarriage and a four-blade propeller, and the 64E had a two-blade propeller attached to a direct-drive version of the license built 530hp Jupiter VI radial engine. In the summer of 1932, 20 aircraft of both types were ordered and 19 of them were assigned to the Jagdfliegerschule at Schleissheim.In total 24 machines were completed.

The aircraft first flew in the Spring of 1930, it had a max speed of around 160 mph, and was armed with two 7.92 mm (0.312 in) MG 17 machine guns.

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[Angry Turnip]

Arado Ar 76

The Arado Ar 76 was a German aircraft of the 1930s.

The Ar 76 was a parasol-wing monoplane with fixed, tailwheel undercarriage. The wings were constructed of fabric-covered wood, and the fuselage was fabric-covered steel tube.It was designed as a light fighter with a secondary role as an advanced trainer, it first flew in April 1934, powered by a 210 hp Argus As 10C inverted V-8 air-cooled piston engine.
The aircraft could be armed with two 7.92 mm (0.312 in) MG 17 machine guns with 250 rounds per gun plus two 10 kg (22 lb) SC 10 bombs. Around 180 production Ar 76A aircraft were used by fighter pilot schools from 1936.

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[Angry Turnip]

Arado Ar 95

The Arado 95 was a single-engine reconnaissance and patrol biplane.

The Arado 95 was designed in 1935 as a two-seat seaplane, for coastal patrol, reconnaissance and light attack roles. The first prototype, an all-metal biplane powered by an 880hp BMW 132 radial engine, flew in 1936, while a second prototype was powered by a Junkers Jumo 210 liquid-cooled engine. The two prototypes were evaluated against the similar Focke-Wulf Fw 62. The BMW-powered version was considered worthy of development, and a batch of six was sent for further evaluation with the Legion Condor during the Spanish Civil War.

The aircraft was not ordered by the German armed forces,but it was offered for export in two versions, the Ar 95W floatplane and Ar 95L landplane, with a fixed, spatted undercarriage. Six Ar 95Ls were ordered by the Chilean Air Force, these were delivered before the start of World War II.Turkey placed an order for Ar 95Ws, but these were taken over by Germany at the outbreak of war.
The requisitioned Ar 95s were designated by the Luftwaffe as the Ar 95A, and were used for coastal reconnaissance operations in the Baltic Sea, operating off the coast of Latvia and Estonia in 1941, and in the Gulf of Finland, operating until late 1944.

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[Angry Turnip]

Arado Ar 199

The Arado Ar 199 was a floatplane aircraft, designed in 1938.

It was a low-wing monoplane,to be launched from a catapult and operated over water. The enclosed cockpit had two side-by-side seats for instructor and student, and a third, rear seat, for a trainee-navigator or radio operator.The aircraft first flew in 1939 and were powered by a 449hp Argus As 410C inverted V-12 air-cooled piston engine,which gave a potential max speed of 160mph.

Two of the 5 prototypes, served as trainers and were used for air-sea rescue operations from Northern Norway.

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[Angry Turnip]

Arado Ar 232

The Arado Ar 232 Tausendfüßler (German: "Millipede"), was a large two / four engine cargo aircraft.

It featured a box-like fuselage beneath a high wing; a rear loading ramp; a high-mounted twin tail for easy access to the hold; and various features for operating from rough fields. Although the Luftwaffe was interested in replacing or supplementing its fleet of outdated Junkers Ju 52/3m transports, it had a large selection of types in production at the time, and did not purchase large numbers of the Ar 232.(approx 20 were completed)

Designs of the era used a side-mounted door for access, but the Ar 232 used hydraulically powered doors on the rear of the bay with a ramp to allow cargo to be rolled into the hold. The twin tail configuration tail surfaces were mounted on the end of a long boom to keep the area behind the doors clear so trucks could drive right up to the ramp. The high-set tail on its "pod-and-boom" configuration fuselage allowed the Ar 232 to be loaded and unloaded faster than other designs.For short-field operations, the Ar 232 incorporated Arado's own "travelling flap" design for the entire rear surface of the wing. Even loaded to 16,000 kg (35,270 lb), it could take-off in 200 m (656 ft). This distance could be further reduced by using the Starthilfe liquid fuelled rocket assist (RATO) jettisonable propulsion units for take-off.

The most noticeable feature of the Ar 232 was the landing gear. Normal operations from prepared runways used a tricycle gear , but the sideways-retracting main gear's lever-action lower oleo-strut suspended arm – carrying the main gear's wheel/tire unit at the bottoms of the maingears' struts could "break", or kneel, after landing to place the fuselage closer to the ground and thereby reduce the ramp angle. An additional set of eleven smaller, non-retractable twinned wheels per side, mounted along the ventral centreline of the fuselage, supported the aircraft once the main landing gear's lever-action lower arm had "knelt", or could be used for additional support when landing on soft or rough airfields. The aircraft was intended to be capable of taxiing at low speeds on its row of small wheels. The appearance of the row of these wheels led to the nickname "millipede". In flight, the main legs fully retracted inwards into the wings, while the fixed support wheels remained exposed and the nose wheel only semi-retracted.

The aircraft first flew in June 1941 and entered service in 1943,production aircraft were powered by four 1200hp BMW Bramo 323R-2 Fafnir 9-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines,although the early prototypes had two 1,600 hp BMW 801A/B engines.
Two four-engined prototypes were ordered, the V3 and V4, and V3 first flew in May 1942. A further 10 were then ordered as the Ar 232B-0, and were used widely in an operational role. However, this was the only order for the design. Many of those produced were used by Arado to transport aircraft parts between its factories, and did not see front-line service.

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