The Gerhard Fieseler company built the “Storch” (“Stork”) starting in 1937. Technical ingenuity turned it, when required, into the slowest war plane in the world. The Fieseler “Storch” was employed as scout-, transport- and ambulance plane. It amazed fighter pilots of every nationality when it, directed against the wind, practically stood still in the air or disappeared into a forest aisle with a landing run of 15 m.

Up to the end of the war Fieseler built altogether 2874 Fi 156. Thereafter the unpretentious plane of versatile uses continued to be built way into the 1950s in France (as M.S. 500) and in Czechoslovakia (as K-65 Cap).