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.
Why It Mattered
When the Fw 190 reached Luftwaffe units in 1941, Germany gained a second first-line fighter beside the Messerschmitt Bf 109, and for about a year it was the aircraft the Royal Air Force had to measure itself against. Its impact is clearest in the response it forced: the RAF had no fighter to equal it until the improved Spitfire Mk IX appeared late in 1942. The type mattered beyond that first shock because the airframe proved adaptable, working as a day fighter, a fighter-bomber and a low-level ground-attack aircraft. Built in numbers approaching 19,500, it became one of the defining German aircraft of the Second World War.
Design Notes
The Fw 190 began as an insurance policy: in 1937 the German Air Ministry asked Focke-Wulf for a single-engined fighter to supplement the Messerschmitt Bf 109, and the design team led by Kurt Tank proposed two versions differing in engine. Because every available Daimler-Benz DB 601 was earmarked for Messerschmitt production, the ministry chose the version built around a BMW air-cooled radial, which made the Fw 190 the only German fighter of the war designed around a radial engine. Tank's team gave it a wide-track, inward-retracting undercarriage, which produced better ground handling than the Bf 109's narrow gear. Unusually, its landing gear and flaps were operated electrically rather than hydraulically. The BMW 801 was managed by a Kommandogerät, an engine management device that set mixture, boost and propeller pitch together, sparing the pilot constant adjustments in combat. Late in the war the formula reversed, and the long-nose D series exchanged the radial for a liquid-cooled Junkers Jumo 213 to recover high-altitude performance.
Operational History
The prototype first flew on 1 June 1939, in the hands of test pilot Hans Sander, although overheating of the tightly cowled engine nearly ended the programme before it began. The A-1 entered service with JG 26 in France in August 1941, and in combat that autumn the Spitfire proved inferior to it by almost any measure except turning radius. The balance shifted only late in 1942, when the Spitfire Mk IX arrived; by then a German pilot who had landed his A-3 at RAF Pembrey by mistake had already given British test pilots an intact example to study. Through 1943 the type carried much of the home-defence battle against American daylight bombing, inflicting heavy losses on unescorted formations, but as long-range escort fighters appeared in strength the Fw 190 grew more vulnerable. In the east, armoured F-series aircraft took over much of the ground-attack work, their air-cooled engines and wide-track undercarriages ideally suited to the harsh conditions of that theatre. Variants multiplied: from mid-1943 some aircraft flew as improvised night fighters, and in the Mistel weapon an Fw 190 rode on top of an unmanned, explosive-packed bomber, guiding it towards the target before separating. The D series began reaching units in October 1944, and many German pilots considered the D-9 the finest piston-engined fighter in Luftwaffe service, but it arrived too late to compensate for fuel shortages and the loss of experienced pilots. Production and service continued until the end of the European war in May 1945.
Afterlife
Captured Fw 190s were prized as test material: aircraft gathered in Germany in 1945 were shipped to the United States, where a D-9 was flight tested by the Air Materiel Command at Wright Field. A few captured D-9s were even put into Soviet service with the Baltic Fleet, where they apparently served until 1947 or 1948, and a small number flew on with the Turkish Air Force until about 1948. Most survivors today are museum pieces: the Smithsonian preserves an F-8, transferred to it in 1949, alongside its D-9, while the RAF Museum holds an A-8 that is a unique survivor of a Mistel combination. The Smithsonian counts at least eleven Fw 190s in museums worldwide, and several more originals are under restoration to fly. Only one original aircraft is reported to be airworthy with a period BMW 801 engine; the Fw 190s most often seen flying today are new-build reproductions made by the German firm Flug Werk.