About
the Focke-Wulf FW-190
The
original full size Focke-Wulf FW-190 was developed in Germany 1937.
German politics and chain of command, being what it was at the time, left no
in-line engine available to the Focke-Wulf Company with which to produce a
fighter. The Messerschmitt 109 had a monopoly on the production of all the high
performance Daimler-Benz in-line engines. The designer, Kurt Tank,
originally designed two versions of the FW-190. The first version
incorporated an inline, water-cooled Daimler-Benz DB 601 engine. The second
design, which was developed into three FW-190 prototype aircraft, utilized the
more readily available BMW 139 fourteen cylinder, air cooled 1600 hp radial
engine. This engine was idealy suited for an airplane that was designed to
perform the mission of a true fighter/bomber. The new BMW engine offered
great promise over a liquid cooled inline engine. The air cooled radial
would not be as susceptable to damage caused by ground fire given the lack of
an easily damaged radiator and necessary piping.
Construction
of three prototypes was authorized by the German Air Ministry. On June 1, 1939
the first prototype took to the air. The aircraft utilized an oversized
spinner with inadequate cooling ducts. The first test pilot reported the
cockpit area near the rudder pedals was extremely "hot". Despite engine
overheating, the aircraft proved to have tremendous flight attributes. It
was incredibly fast for its time.
By
the time the fifth prototype emerged, the streamline oversized spinner had been
replaced by a more conventional spinner, the fuselage had been lengthened to
increase the nose moment and the wing cord had been increased to enhance the
FW-190's turning radius.
Now
the FW-190 had taken on the appearance of an extremely aerodynamic aircraft
which successfully incorporated a large radial engine with a slender fuselage.
In sum, the FW-190 was an all metal monoplane with wide-based retractable
landing gear which made it a pleasure, (compared to the ME-109), to land and
take-off. The large transparent, bubble cockpit provide the pilot with a
superior field of vision. But the smaller front windscreen often required
the pilot to occassionally lower the aircraft's nose for better forward
visability!
The
original production FW-190's armament consisted four 7.29mm MG17 machine guns,
(two of which were mounted in a fixed firing synchronized configuration on the
upper fuselage), and two 20mm MG FF synchronized cannon.
Many
consider the Focke-Wulf FW 190 to be the best German fighter of World War
II. More than 20,000 FW 190's were produced. But enough
history! Other peoples Web sites have been designed to cover the FW 190's
history. This site deals with the building of a 1/2 scale replica!
(To
be Continued!)
About
the author: Simply stated he is a football player, turned lawyer, turned actor,
but always a pilot...enjoying every minute of it!