Blohm & Voss (aircraft)
| Industry | Aircraft building company |
|---|---|
| Fate | Merged |
| Predecessor | Blohm & Voss |
| Successor | Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) |
| Founded | 1933 |
| Defunct | 1969 |
| Headquarters | Hamburg, Germany |
Hamburger Flugzeugbau (HFB) was an aircraft manufacturer, located primarily in the Finkenwerder quarter of Hamburg, Germany. Established in 1933 as an offshoot of Blohm & Voss shipbuilders, it later became an operating division within its parent company and was known by that name until it ceased operation at the end of World War II. In the postwar period it was revived as an independent company under its original name and subsequently joined several consortia before being merged to form MBB. It participates in the present day Airbus and European aerospace programs.
In 1933 the Blohm & Voss shipbuilding company in Hamburg was suffering a financial crisis from lack of work. Its owners, brothers Rudolf and Walther Blohm, decided to diversify into aircraft manufacture, believing that there would soon be a market for all-metal, long-range flying boats, especially with the German state airline Deutsche Luft Hansa. They also felt that their experience with all-metal marine construction would prove an advantage. It was at that time commonly believed that transatlantic air transport would soon take over the role filled by the luxury liners of that time. It was also thought that those planes would be seaplanes and flying boats as they could use the infrastructure and capacity of the seaports already in place, while land facilities at that time were unsuited to such large aeroplanes.
In June 1933 the Blohm brothers appointed their brother-in-law and fellow B&V director Dipl-Ing Max Andreae and experienced aviator Robert Schröck to the board. Schröck persuaded the designer Reinhold Mewes away from Heinkel and, with four other designers, on 1 July they began work. The Hamburger Flugzeugbau GmBH officially came into being on 4 July.
The company offices at first occupied the top floor of the B&V administrative headquarters in the Steinwerder quarter of Hamburg, with manufacturing carried out in the under-utilised shipbuilding works. Meanwhile an inland airfield and final assembly building for landplanes were begun a few miles away at Wenzendorf. It would be opened in 1935.
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