Focke-Wulf Fw 61
1936 helicopter model by Focke-Achgelis; first functional practical helicopter
The Focke-Wulf Fw 61 was the first successful, practical, and fully controllable helicopter, first flown in 1936. It was also known as the Fa 61, as Focke began a new company—Focke-Achgelis—in 1937.
Design and development
Professor Henrich Focke, through his development of the Fw 186, and through the efforts of producing the C.19 and C.30 autogyros under licence, came to the conclusion that the limitations of autogyros could be eliminated only by an aircraft with a powered rotor, the helicopter. He and engineer Gerd Achgelis started the design for this helicopter in 1932. A free-flying model, built in 1934 and propelled by a small two-stroke engine, brought the promise of success. Today, the model can be seen in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
On 9 February 1935, Focke received an order for the building of a prototype, which was designated the Fw 61; Focke referred to it as the F 61. Roluf Lucht of the technical office of the RLM extended the order for a second aircraft on 19 December 1935. The airframe was based on that of a well-tried training aircraft, the Focke-Wulf Fw 44 Stieglitz.
Using rotor technology licensed from the Cierva Autogiro Company, a single radial engine drove twin rotors, set on tubular steel outriggers to the left and right of the fuselage.
The public source identifies “Focke-Wulf Fw 61” as 1936 helicopter model by Focke-Achgelis; first functional practical helicopter. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Focke-Wulf, helicopter and model.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1435037. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1936, 1937, 1932 and 1934.
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This entry incorporates text from “Focke-Wulf Fw 61” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.