Focke-Wulf
6 types · 14 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG (German pronunciation: [ˌfɔkəˈvʊlf]) was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during World War II. The company was founded in Bremen on 24 October 1923 as Bremer Flugzeugbau AG by Prof. Dr Ludwig Roselius became chairman in 1925 and handed over to his brother Friedrich in early 1933. In 1938 Roselius' HAG combine increased its shareholding to 46% and C. Lorenz AG secured 28%. In August 1933 Hans Holle and Rudolf Schubert were given power of attorney over the Berlin branch of Focke-Wulf. Then in October 1933, Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau A.G. Albatros Berlin was officially registered with the Department of Trade.
Aircraft Types
Focke-Wulf Fw 190
The Fw 190 was Germany's second great fighter of the Second World War: a radial-engined, single-seat design by Kurt Tank's team at Focke-Wulf that first flew in June 1939 and entered Luftwaffe service in 1941. It outclassed the RAF's Spitfire V on arrival and went on to serve as a day fighter, fighter-bomber and ground-attack aircraft on every front, in radial-engined A, F and G versions and the liquid-cooled, long-nose D series. Some 19,500 were built. A small number survive in museums today, and a handful fly, most of them modern reproductions.
Focke-Wulf Fw 190D Dora
The Focke-Wulf Fw 190D, nicknamed the Dora, was the long-nose, high-altitude development of the Fw 190 fighter, created by replacing the radial engine with a liquid-cooled Junkers Jumo 213. German pilots rated it the finest piston-engined fighter in Luftwaffe service and more than a match for the P-51D, but it entered service only in the autumn of 1944, and between 650 and 700 were completed. Four D-model aircraft survive, all of them in the United States.
Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor
The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor was a German four-engined aircraft that began as a Deutsche Luft Hansa airliner and became the Luftwaffe's long-range maritime patrol bomber. First flown on 27 July 1937, it made the first nonstop heavier-than-air flight from Berlin to New York in August 1938. Converted for war, it hunted Allied convoys across the Atlantic in 1940–41 before Allied fighters and escort carriers ended its ascendancy; by late 1943 it served mainly as a transport. Focke-Wulf built 276 between 1937 and 1944. A single complete aircraft, reconstructed from fjord-salvaged wreckage, is displayed at Berlin Tempelhof.
Focke-Wulf Fw 58 Weihe
The Focke-Wulf Fw 58 Weihe was a German twin-engine multi-role aircraft, first flown in the summer of 1935 and in Luftwaffe service from 1937 as an advanced crew trainer, particularly for navigation, and as a light transport, communications aircraft and air ambulance. Around 1,350 were built, most of them the unarmed Fw 58C with its faired-in nose, and twenty-five B-2s were built under licence in Brazil; the type served through the Second World War in second-line roles and was exported to several countries in Europe and beyond.
Focke-Wulf Ta 152
The Focke-Wulf Ta 152 was a German high-altitude fighter of the Second World War, developed under Kurt Tank from the Fw 190 to intercept Allied bombers far above the altitudes earlier fighters could reach. Powered by a supercharged Junkers Jumo 213 with methanol-water boost, in long-wing H and shorter-wing C versions, it was rushed into production late in 1944 after only a few dozen hours of testing. Engine trouble and shortages kept most of the few dozen completed aircraft on the ground, and its brief service with JG 301 ended with the H models grounded in April 1945. A single example survives, in the National Air and Space Museum.
Focke-Wulf Ta 400
The Focke-Wulf Ta 400 was a six-engined heavy bomber designed in Germany in 1943 for the Amerikabomber programme, the Reich Air Ministry's attempt to field a bomber able to strike the United States from Europe and return. Designed under Kurt Tank as both a bomber and a long-range reconnaissance aircraft, it combined six BMW 801 radial engines — later supplemented on paper by two jet engines — with a pressurized crew compartment and heavy defensive armament, and its design work was spread across German, French and Italian firms. The Air Ministry cancelled the programme in October 1943, judging it a poor use of materials and labour; no prototype was ever completed, and everything published about its performance rests on the designers' own estimates.