The engine was a conventional radial piston powered machine spinning a three-bladed propeller system. The engine of choice became a single BMW 801A 14-cylinder radial of 1,560 horsepower providing for a 272mph maximum speed, a 1,181 mile range and a 31,810 foot service ceiling. The later pre-series Bv 141s would make use of only a single tail system, hence its asymmetrical arrangement. Despite this appearance, the weight of the aircraft was spread out quite well when in flight, relating to the Bv 141s good handling characteristics.
In practice, Vogt's vision was solidified though not without some teething problems. Despite the unconventional arrangement, the Bv 141 handled quite well. The first of three Bv 141 prototypes was flown in 1938. Evaluation forced the strengthening of the airframe some and the tail section was redesigned to become the "Bv 141 B" preseries model (that is, the asymmetrical form). When test flown by Ernst Udet - then in charge of the Air Ministry's aircraft development - the Bv 141 was high on his list and he put in an order for 500 such planes to be used in the tactical reconnaissance role. Despite production now in full swing - some 20 examples having already been completed - the German Air Ministry decided sometime in early 1941 to discontinue the prospect of fielding the Bv 141 in an operational reconnaissance squadron (though some were delivered to Aufklarungsschule I at Grossenhain, Saxony for evaluation). This decision played out on multiple levels - each in their own way against the Bv 141- though no one issue was decidedly and directly attributed to the Bv 141 as an aircraft design.
It seemed that the Focke-Wulf Fw 189 design was filling the tactical reconnaissance role quite well, negating the need for the unique Bv 141 to be produced in any number. Additionally, an Allied bombing raid netted the destruction of a Focke-Wulf facility charged with producing the all-important Fw 200 Condor maritime bomber so some 80 percent of Blohm & Voss factory space was now relegated to handling Fw 200 production per the Air Ministry. Compared to the other high-end German aircraft firms, Blohm & Voss also held a small contingent of employees that numbered around 5,000 personnel. In contrast, Junkers employed some 147,000 workers while Heinkel another 50,000. Fate, it would seem, did not have a role for the interesting Bv 141 to play.
Vogt went on to pencil other asymmetrical designs later in the war and all fell short of achieving much notoriety for himself (at the time) or his employers. There were even highly-advanced asymmetrical designs sporting turbojet engines that were never enacted. Vogt also continued playing with other unconventional ideas including that of wingtip-joined fighters sharing fuel loads for even longer ranges (trials similar to this were also undertaken by the USAF after the war). Still another idea saw escort fighters joined at the wingtips of a "mother ship" - that is, a bomber - to which the fighters could attach/reattach at will and engage enemy fighters as necessary. Vogt also delved into nuclear-powered "Atomic Bombers" (yup, bombers complete with in-flight nuclear reactors!) for the United States in the post-war world thanks to "Operation Paperclip" - the post-war recruiting of Nazi scientists in the United States executed by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA). He later found work as a consultant to The Boeing Company and also toyed with the revolutionary idea of a "swiveling wing" concept in which a pilot could adjust the entire wing assembly position in-flight - an idea that finally resurfaced again with NASA in the 1970s, though this time with no input from Vogt himself.
Some 38 Bv 141 examples were known to have been produced though none survive today. Several were recovered by the Allies and researched to a an extent but beyond that, they fell to the scrapman's torch. Much of Vogt's fantastic work was forgotten or overlooked even when published for public consumption in the after-war years. In all, there were three V-series prototypes designated as V1, V2 and V3. The preseries models numbered five examples under the Bv 141 A-0 branding and became V4 through V8. These were followed by the revised Bv 141 B-0 preseries models from V9 through V18. There were eight Bv 141 B-1 series models thereafter.
There were plans by the German Air Ministry to deliver the Bv 141 to operational squadrons along the East Front but these fell to naught.
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