The Focke-Wulf Fw 57 was designed by Dipl. Ing. Bansemir and was the first Focke-WuIf aircraft of all-metal construction. The Fw 57 was designed to meet the requirements of an RLM specification for a Schnellbomber issued in 1935. The Fw 57 V1, a three-seater, was intended to use the new Daimler Benz DB 600 liquid-cooled engines, but the first prototype was powered by 680h.p. Junkers Jumo 210G engines and proved to be seriously underpowered.
All-metal construction was a completely new field for Focke-Wulf and, owing to inexperience, the aircraft proved to be seriously overweight. In fact, the wing structure alone was five times heavier than had been originally calculated by Bansemir. Empty weight was 6765 kg and loaded weight was 8307 kg.
Proposed armament comprised two fixed forward-firing 20-mm. cannons and a 7.9-mm. MG 15 machine gun in a manually-operated dorsal turret.Only limited flight testing had been completed when the first prototype was destroyed summer 1936. So poor were the flying characteristics and performance displayed by this machine that the Fw 57 V2 and V3 joined the test program only for a short time. The whole project was cancelled late autumn 1936 and the prototypes were scrapped.
Type Heavy fighter Crew: 3
Engine 2 Junkers Jumo 210G
Dimensions Span 25.00 m length 16.40 m height 4.10 m wingarea 73.57 m2 aspect ratio 8.49
Weights Empty without defensive armament 6805 kg , normal loaded 8310 kg , fuel 990 kg, oil 15 kg, crew 250 kg
Performance (estimated with DB 600 engines) Max speed 404 km/h at 3000 m, 365 km/h at sea level, max cruising speed 373 km/h at 3000 m, 319 km/h at sea
level range 1750 km, endurance 5 h max ceiling 9100 m,  landing speed 110 km/h (estimated with DB 600 engines)
Armament Proposed armament comprised two fixed forward-firing 20-mm. cannons and a 7.9-mm. MG 15 machine gun in a manually-operated dorsal turret
Type Werk.Nr Registration History
V1 First flight in 1936, crashed during landing summer 1936
V2
V3