Date:	Wednesday 3 October 1945
Time:	day
Type:	Focke-Achgelis Fa 223E-1 Drache
Owner/operator:	AFEE RAF
Registration:	VM479
MSN:	V14/22300014
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 4
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	RAF Beaulieu, Hampshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Test
Departure airport:	RAF Beaulieu, Hampshire
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Drache (Dragon) DM+SR/AM223/VM479: Captured ex-Luftwaffe experimental helicopter. Written off 3 October 1945 when crashed from low altitude when a driveshaft failed due to a failure to correctly tension the steel cables which secured the engine. V-14 prototype. Geschwaderkennung DM+SR. Delivered to Transportstaffel 40 (TS/40), Mühldorf, Bavaria, Germany 16 April 1945. Surrendered at Ainring, Germany 9 May 1945 (Day after VE Day).

Ferried to Munich-Riem 11 May 1945, Riem to Leipheim and on to the US ATIU at Nellingen, near Stuttgart 13 May 1945, then Nellingen to Villacoublay-Velizy 15 June 1945. Flown to Querqueville (A-23), Cherbourg, France 16 June 1945. The flight was code-named "Operation Seahorse". Not loaded on a ship for the USA, and returned to Villacoublay 20 June 1945. Transferred to British charge 29 June 1945. Assigned as AM233 in the "Air Ministry" series of serials for captured enemy aircraft. Flown Villacoublay to Le Havre/Octeville 4 September 1945, continuing to Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment, Beaulieu, Hampshire via Abbeville, France and Lympne, Kent 6 September 1945. Re-serialled 28 September 1945 as VM479.

Crashed in hovering tests at AFEE Beaulieu 3 October 1945 (Local newspaper report in 2005 states "Wreckage buried on site"). Pilot Gerstenhauer and the other three on board survived.

1. Flugzeug Classic Special 8, p63/64
2. Fa 223...Henrich Focke's Singular Kite", Part Two. Air International, June 1984, Vol. 26 No. 6. Bromley, UK:Pilot Press. pp. 291–296. ISSN 0306-5634.
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Achgelis_Fa_223
4. https://images.app.goo.gl/Amq3F2ieF1WQsHDA8
5. http://www.hampshireairfields.co.uk/hancrash.html
6. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VM
7. http://silverhawkauthor.com/german-warplanes-flown-by-the-luftwaffe-19391945-fieseler-to-focke-achgelis_489.html
8. http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/Captured_Axis_Aircraft.html

Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Drache, one of two captured by US Army forces. Not clear if this is the one that became VM479

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
05-Sep-2011 08:36	Uli Elch	Updated [Aircraft type, Cn, Operator, Location, Source, Damage, Narrative]
05-Sep-2011 08:37	Uli Elch	Updated [Departure airport]
06-Mar-2012 08:52	TB	Updated [Date, Time, Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Location, Country, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Damage, Narrative, Plane category, ]
06-Mar-2012 09:59	TB	Updated [Source]
18-Oct-2019 22:00	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Location, Phase, Nature, Departure airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative]
18-Oct-2019 22:00	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
18-Oct-2019 22:04	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
18-Oct-2019 22:05	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Aircraft type]
21-Oct-2019 15:22	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
02-Nov-2019 16:33	Anon.	Updated [Operator, Operator]