Editing Blohm+Voss (section)

===Hamburger Flugzeugbau===
[[File:Blohm & Voss Ha 139 floatplane being lifted by a crane c1937.jpg|thumb|262px|Ha 139]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-667-7142-24, Flugzeug Blohm - Voß BV 238 V1.jpg|thumb|262px|BV 238, largest Axis aircraft design to fly]]

{{Main|Hamburger Flugzeugbau}}
In 1933 Blohm & Voss was suffering a financial crisis from lack of work. Its owners, brothers [[Rudolf Blohm|Rudolf]] and [[Walther Blohm|Walther]] Blohm, decided to diversify into aircraft manufacture, believing that there would soon be a market for all-metal, long-range [[flying boat]]s, especially with the German state airline [[Deutsche Luft Hansa]]. They also felt that their experience with all-metal marine construction would prove an advantage. They formed the Hamburger Flugzeugbau that summer.<ref name="amtmann1998">Amtmann (1998)</ref><ref name="Pohlmann"/>

Most of the aircraft built by HFB/B&V would in fact be other companies' designs and major subassemblies, contracted under license, including tens of thousands of aircraft each for [[Dornier Flugzeugwerke|Dornier]], [[Heinkel]], [[Junkers]] and [[Messerschmitt]].<ref name="Pohlmann"/> Alongside its volume manufacturing the company also maintained its own design office and workshops which continued to develop and build new types throughout the company's life. The first planes it produced were designated with the [[RLM aircraft designation system#Name changes and new constructors|official RLM company code]] "Ha".

The aircraft produced by Hamburger Flugzeugbau were still commonly associated with Blohm & Voss and this was causing confusion, so in September 1937 Hamburger Flugzeugbau was renamed ''Abteilung Flugzeugbau der Schiffswerft Blohm & Voss'' and the RLM changed its company code to "BV".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/ikrg/buch/b_v/kap202.htm|title=Kapitel 2.2.: B + V Geschichte v. 1933 – 1938|website=www.nadir.org}}</ref>

Its most significant designs were [[flying boat]]s, mainly used by the Luftwaffe for maritime patrol and reconnaissance. Most numerous was the [[Blohm & Voss BV 138|BV 138]] ''Seedrache'' (initiated as the Ha 138), a [[Twin-boom aircraft|twin-boom]] [[trimotor]], while the [[Blohm & Voss BV 222|BV 222]] ''Wiking'' was much larger. Largest of all was the [[Blohm & Voss BV 238|BV 238]] prototype, the largest aircraft built by any of the [[Axis Powers of World War II|Axis forces]]. Other notable types include the asymmetric [[Blohm & Voss BV 141|BV 141]], which was built in moderate numbers but did not enter production.

At the end of the war, aircraft production was shut down. [[Hamburger Flugzeugbau]] GmBH (HFB) re-emerged in 1956, still under the ownership of Walther Blohm but no longer connected to B+V. It reopened the [[Airbus Hamburg-Finkenwerder|former B+V aircraft factory at Finkenwerder]] and subsequently underwent various further changes of ownership and company name,<ref>Pohlmann (1979), 1982 edition, Page 242.</ref> eventually becoming part of [[Airbus]].