Where was the Arado SC I secretly tested?

Short answer

The aircraft was the Arado SSD I, not an "SC I": it was evaluated at Lipetsk, where it was fitted with a wheeled landing gear to compete against the Heinkel HD 38. That base was where Germany was assembling a clandestine air force. The Heinkel was chosen, and the SSD I was relegated to LVS training duties in 1932.

Published: November 2, 2026 · Updated: November 2, 2026 · Edited by Above Ten Thousand · Editorial policy

Where was the Arado SC I secretly tested?

Arado SSD IPimboliDD (CC BY SA), vía commons

A seaplane fighter designed for the catapult

The Arado SSD I was a single-seat floatplane biplane, produced in 1929 and designed to be launched by catapult from ships at sea. The project came from Walter Rethel's drawing board as an entirely new design, unrelated to the other fighters he had drawn up for Arado in the late 1920s. The configuration was a conventional biplane with unequal, staggered wings, with the upper wing slightly gulled and joined to the top of the fuselage. Flotation was provided by a single large float under the fuselage and two auxiliary floats near the wingtips. Two prototypes were built, and the first made its maiden flight in 1929.

The evaluation at Lipetsk

For the comparative evaluation against the Heinkel HD 38, it was fitted with a simple wheeled landing gear, and that competition took place at Lipetsk. That was where Germany was assembling the clandestine air force meant to be equipped with the Arado SD I.