Short HistoryThe Focke Wulf Ta-800 Adler was designed in the late fifties by Kurt Tank as a complement to the Ta-600 and Ju-590 jet airliners then in service with Lufthansa. After the armistice between Germany and the United States in 1956 the demand for fast intercontinental air travel grew fast. The first Ta-800 Adler flew for the first time on march 7th 1962 and trials proceeded according to expectations. The first scheduled flight between Berlin and New York took place on November 1969. It was equipped with Junkers Jumo 067 afterburning engines.
The Ta-800 was operated on flights across the Atlantic and on the Berlin - Tokyo route. Later there were also flights to Moscow and Buenes Aires. The Luftwaffe used 5 as VIP transports. In total 58 Ta-800s were built. The type is still in service today. The aircraft of the Lufthansa were named after Luftwaffe aces of World War II. The aircraft depicted in the photos is the Ta-800 A-3 "Bär". It was commissioned with the Lufthansa in June 1973 and flew mainly on the route to Tokyo. The "Bär" was lost over Siberia in a terrorist attack by Russian guerillas using stolen German anti aircraft missiles on the 23rd of October 1984, killing all 106 passengers and crew. |
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Models |
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Ta-800 A-0 |
Pre-production model, 5 built |
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Ta-800 A-1 |
First production model, airliner 13 built |
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Ta-800 A-2 |
A-1 with more powerful engines, 2 built |
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Ta-800 A-3 |
Longer range airliner, 22 built |
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Ta-800 B-0 |
Prototype of a bomber version, 1 built. Dropped in favor of the Heinkel He-643 |
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Ta-800 C-1 |
Luftwaffe fast transport, 3 built |
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Ta-800 C-2 |
Luftwaffe VIP transport, 2 built |
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Ta-800 D |
Projected Mach 3,5 transport with BMW 074 engines. Not built |
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Ta-800 E |
Export version for Japan Air Lines, similar to the A-3, 10 built |
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Ta-810 |
Project for a fast bomber with a redesigned fuselage. |
The modelThe model is a pretty standard Airfix Concorde kit in 1/144.
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Last updated: 14/03/2009