Fieseler Fi 158

The Fieseler Fi 158 was a civilian research aircraft designed and built in Germany from 1938 as a manned version of the Fi 157 radio-controlled drone. It was a low-winged monoplane built largely of wood, with a retractable tailwheel undercarriage, twin fins and rudders, and a crew seated in tandem in an enclosed cabin. Power came from a Hirth HM 506A six-cylinder inverted air-cooled inline piston engine of 119 kW, giving a maximum speed of 350 km/h in the data quoted for the V1 prototype. Only limited flight testing was carried out before it was placed in the German Aviation Collection in Berlin as a permanent exhibit in 1939. The museum and almost all of the aircraft in it were destroyed in an RAF air raid on the night of 23 and 24 November 1943.