Volksflugzeug

The capacity to mass-produce such items flattered a totalitarian state which sought to present itself as a leader in technical progress as well as the forerunner of a more egalitarian world led by the Führer.

The “People’s Products” had a double function, on one hand they were key elements of the official propaganda, which promised an affluent and comfortable future society to citizens, mainly in order to make the actual economic hardships dictated by the German re-armament acceptable to the population.

[12] The vision behind the Volksflugzeug project was to manufacture a small plane in large quantities that would be affordable for the average citizen of Nazi Germany.

[13] Some of the designs of the Volksflugzeug airplane were developed into viable small aircraft, but not as part of the wider Nazi scheme, such as the Messerschmitt M 33, a very little plane that would have been produced in a 'build-it-yourself' kit.

[14] Other craft, such as the Lehmann Falter, another very little airplane roughly based on the Mignet Pou du Ciel (German: Himmelslaus), were seeking to improve or develop existing designs of very small planes, but remained projects as well.

[16] The Technical Department of the Nazi Ministry of Aviation, the Technisches Amt (LC, but more often referred to as the C-amt) in charge of all research and development, led by Ernst Udet after June 1936, withdrew its favor from smaller aircraft building companies.

The Bü 182 Kornett, the last plane designed by Anderson, of which only three were built, also found no support in the Air Ministry of the Reich, even though it combined technical progress and low-cost.

The Bü 182 Kornett was a highly innovative model, fitted with a low-priced high-performance engine, that would have made a good trainer for the Luftwaffe.

[18] The 1930s saw the development of certain light-weight and low-power aviation engines that were intended for small craft and that made Volksflugzeug-type planes feasible both from the low cost as well as from a technical perspective.

The Etrich Sport-Taube at the National Technical Museum (Prague) .
The Zündapp 9-092, one of the light engines used in 'Volksflugzeug' planes