Aviation 10

around at the time. This was the  rst time

that so many organisations had been

involved in an international consortium to

build a single aircraft type and paved the

way for future ventures.

The engine installation was revolutionary,

with the units mounted on pylons above

the wing at the mid-wing point, giving

the aircraft a very unusual appearance.

Various reasons have been put forward for

this. The mid-wing position avoided the

structural weight penalties consistent with

rear-mounted engines and allowed for a

short, sturdy undercarriage. There was a

school of thought within VFW that suggested

the higher-placed engines would be less

vulnerable to ingestion, making it attractive

to countries with unprepared runways.

Additionally, the fact that the engines were

on top of the wings put the fuselage closer to

the ground, thus simplifying baggage loading

and enabling airstairs to be  tted, facilitating

quicker and easier turnarounds. An auxiliary

power unit (APU) was also  tted, to make the

aircraft more autonomous.

FLIGHT TESTING

The  rst of four prototypes was rolled out on

April 5, 1971, with D-BABA conducting the

maiden  ight taking place on July 14. The

aircraft’s initial air test was also the  rst  ight

for the engines, with no  ying test-bed trials

having taken place. Two prototypes were

despatched to Spain for continuous testing,

with the intention of rapidly accumulating 800

 ying hours, so that the design could be put

into production. Following this, work began

on the  rst ten airliners for which no orders

had been received.

Financial problems encountered by

Rolls-Royce in the early 1970s threatened

the supply of engines; however, the

performance guarantees had been agreed

and ful lled so there was little appetite for

considering an alternative. In general, taking

into account that it was a completely new

design, the engine performed well, but when

difficulties were encountered, Rolls-Royce’s

preoccupation with its  nancial problems

meant that remedial design work took longer

than usual.

Regular deliveries of the engines began

early in 1972, but greater difficulties were

on the horizon when, during a test  ight

on February 1, 1972, the  rst aircraft –

registration D-BABA – was lost. Fortunately,

the three crew were wearing parachutes,

an unusual occurrence in civil aircraft test

 ying. They baled out before the aeroplane

reached the ground, but tragically only two

of the three parachutes opened, and a

crewmember died.

ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION

The 614 had been designed with servo-

tab elevators, control and trim tabs on the

rudder, and spring and trim tabs on the

ailerons. The result of this was a very

complex mathematical model of vibration

characteristics, which had still not been

fully tested by the time of the  rst  ight. The

accident was attributed to an instance of

elevator  utter, brought about by the use of

servo-tabs. These basically assist in moving

the main  ying control surfaces more easily,

thus decreasing the pilot’s workload – in

a similar fashion to power steering when

 tted in a vehicle. Following the accident

investigation, the servo-tabs were replaced

by a hydraulic mechanism.

With the  ight controls modi ed, the

third prototype made its maiden  ight on

October 10, 1972. Further  ight tests took

place in the Libyan desert to prove how well

the VFW 614 could operate on unpaved

runways. The West German civil aviation

authority, the LBA, awarded type approval

on August 23, 1974.

However, the accident had severely

damaged sales prospects and by February

1975 only ten aircraft had been ordered.

VFW had anticipated sales for 30 aircraft

initially and had already placed  rm orders for

long-lead items. Pilots who  ew the aircraft

reported that it was simple to  y, responsive

and smooth, with a roomy  ight deck,

something not often found on regional aircraft.

In spring 1975, the  rst production VFW

614 was delivered to Cimber Air, a Danish

80 Aviation News incorporating Jets October 2018

The last example to come off the production line, D-ASDB, is kept in a hangar at Kemble, Gloucestershire,

by the Resource Group and is used for aviation technical training. Emma Harris/Resource Group

This VFW 614, D-BABF, was wearing a green TAT livery when

photographed in July 1976. Bob O’Brien Collection