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FOCKE-WULF FW 190 A-5
FOCKE-WULF FW 190 D-13
The FHC’s Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5 was lost in combat over Russia and located, undisturbed, decades later. It is today the only flying Fw 190 in the world.
The Focke-Wulf Fw 190’s nickname, “Butcher Bird”, is an Anglicized name within a
nickname. The German slang term for the plane was “Würger,” or shrike in English. The Germans were quite fond of unofficial bird names for their planes, like Schwalbe
(swallow) for the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet plane and Uhu (owl) for the Focke-Wulf Fw 189 reconnaissance plane
Quoting a popular internet source on the bird, “Shrikes (the birds) are known for their habit of catching insects and small vertebrates and impaling their bodies on thorns. This helps them to tear the flesh into smaller, more conveniently sized fragments, and serves as a cache so that the shrike can return to the uneaten portions at a later time. This same behavior of impaling insects serves as an adaptation to eating the toxic lubber grasshopper.
The bird waits for 1 to 2 days for the toxins within the grasshopper to degrade, and then can eat it.”
So, the vicious shrike got the nickname “Butcher Bird,” which, in some ways, is
appropriate to the plane too. The Americans feared the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 because it was used to hound their bomber formations over Europe, constantly picking at the big group of bombers and then pouncing on any one that dropped out of formation. Their brutal tactics made the name for the Fw 190 seem more than fitting, “Shrikes are known for their habit
of catching insects and small vertebrates and impaling their bodies on thorns. This helps them to tear the flesh into smaller, more conveniently-sized fragments, and serves as a cache so that the shrike can return to the uneaten portions at a later time. This same behavior of impaling insects serves as an adaptation to eating the toxic lubber grasshopper.
The bird waits for one to two days for the toxins within the grasshopper to degrade, and then can eat it.”
When this photo was taken, no one had flown a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 in nearly a half century. During this first flight, test pilot Steve Hinton explores the handling characteristics of the plane during modest maneuvers. Early flight calculations often also include learning the plane’s stall speed.
So, the vicious shrike got the nickname “Butcher Bird,” which, in some ways, is
appropriate for the plane too. The Americans feared the Fw 190 because it was used to
hound their bomber formations over Europe, constantly harassing the big group of
bombers and then pouncing on any aircraft that dropped out of formation. These brutal
tactics made the name for the Fw 190 seem more than fitting.
Zero and Oscar … Spitfire and Hurricane … Mustang and Thunderbolt … With the
creation of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, Germany had found the counterpart to the
Messerschmitt Bf 109. Initiated in 1937 as a back-up plan to the Messerschmitt, talented Focke-Wulf designers proposed two aircraft to the German Air Ministry, the first powered by a liquid-cooled Daimler-Benz and the second with an air-cooled BMW radial.
The radial seemed out of the question to the engineers at Focke-Wulf. A big, drag-
inducing engine seemed like no way to power a frontline fighter airplane. Lead designer Kurt Tank and the others were shocked when they got to word to proceed with the BMW
radial. This was in part, because Daimler-Benz V-12s were urgently needed for Bf 109s.
Tank went ahead, fitting the BMW 139 radial with a fan to move more air into the very
tight-fitting cowling. The airframe was designed to be sturdy and yet simple enough to allow widespread manufacture at many sub-manufacturing plants. The Fw 190 did away
with one of the Bf 109’s most frustrating weaknesses by featuring a wide-track landing gear that made it easier to handle on the ground.
Test pilots were impressed when the Fw 190 flew for the first time on June 1, 1939.
The new plane was balanced, responsive, and fast. Another experimental version of the
plane had a newly designed BMW 801 engine, which was more powerful and heavier, but
roughly the same size as the 139. Once it was proven, designers decided the 801 engine would be best for the new fighter.
The new 801 came with another pioneering piece of aviation technology. An electro-
mechanical computer handled all of the engine management systems for the pilot. A flyer need only move the throttle and the Kommandogerät computed and set the proper fuel mixture, propeller blade pitch, boost, and timing.
The heavier 801 engine required a strengthening of the airframe and a readjustment of
the plane’s center of gravity. Pilots, who had been getting their feet roasted by the hot radial in flight, were quite pleased when they learned that the cockpit would be moved aft on production versions of the 190.
When it reached combat in the summer of 1941, the Fw 190 was a shock to British
pilots flying their Spitfire V aircraft. The 190 could roll better, climb quicker, and dive steadier than the RAF fighters. And, if the combat situation favored the Spitfires, the 190’s superior speed allowed German pilots to simply pull away from the threat. It was not until the arrival of the next generation Spitfire, the Mark IX, that the RAF regained superiority over the English Channel.
This image shows one the FHC’s Focke-Wulf’s “sister aircraft” during operations in Russia. White aircraft identification letters, as opposed to numbers, was a bit of an oddity for JG 54. The FHC’s aircraft was “White A.”
This view of the 190’s belly reveals the ammunition compartments for the plane’s pair of wing-mounted MG 151 20mm cannon. The paint behind the cowling discolored from exposure to the BMW engine’s hot exhaust gases.
Though it is often removed before a flight, the FHC has the original BMW logo plate for the plane’s 801 engine. The artwork, familiar to most today, represents a propeller spinning in the blue Bavarian sky.
Early one morning, when the desert air is cool and calm, restorers fire up the rare Focke-Wulf fighter to conduct taxi tests.
Before ever getting into the air, flyers work with the plane as much as they can on the ground in an effort to learn everything they can about the fighter’s brakes, instruments, controls, and steering ability before getting airborne.
During test flights in Arizona, the FHC’s Fw 190 A-5 is photographed just inches from touchdown. Pilot Steve Hinton takes one last look over the nose of the plane’s big BMW 801 engine before the fighter settles onto its tail wheel.
The Fw 190, with heavy firepower and the ability to fly to 37,000 feet was a brutal foe of American heavy bombers. However, Focke-Wulf fighters did not perform as well as the Messerschmitt fighters at altitudes above 21,000 feet. The 190 A-model shined at lower levels.
Soon, Focke-Wulf started modifying, then building ground-attack versions of the
sturdy, dependable aircraft. The Germans called them Jabos—short for Jagdbomber, pursuit bomber or fighter bomber. The FHC aircraft was a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5
modified for Jabo work. The plane carried more armor than fighter versions, and had a pair of cannon removed from the wings to allow more lifting capacity for bombs.
The FHC’s Focke-Wulf fighter was found in such a remote location that it had to be lifted from its swampy environs by helicopter. The plane was transported to solid ground where crews could use heavy tools and equipment to carefully dismantle the plane for transport.
To keep the nose around the fighter’s engine as small and streamlined as possible, the Fw 190 A has a unique oil cooler located behind an armored cowling ring at the front of the plane. The delicate circle-shaped radiator took months to build and was particularly troublesome during the plane’s first year flying with the FHC.
The FHC’s aircraft was built in April 1943 as part of a batch of 981 aircraft at the
Focke-Wulf factory in Bremen. Soon after, it was flown to the Eastern Front in May 1943.
The plane was assigned to 4./JG 54— Jagdgeschwader 54, Staffel 4—at Siverskiy, south-southwest of Leningrad, in June or early July.
JG 54 had flown in support of the attack on northern Russia starting in the summer of
1941. Now, in the summer of 1943, the Russians had broken the siege of Leningrad by
opening a narrow swath of land—called the “Corridor of Death”—just south of Lake
Ladoga, and 4./JG 54 was tasked with flying interdiction missions against supply trains.
Feldwebel Paul Ratz was flying the FHC aircraft on the day it was lost. Ratz was a veteran of 117 combat missions and had shot down three Russian aircraft. On July 19,
1943 Ratz and his wingman were on a “free hunt” mission over the Corridor of Death
looking for trains. Near Voybokalo the pair encountered heavy antiaircraft fire from a train and Ratz reported engine trouble. Ratz was listed as missing in action and, in fact, spent years as a POW in Russia.
The FHC’s aircraft lay virtually untouched in a muddy forest for over forty-five years.
Ratz’s flying helmet was found placed neatly on the pilot’s seat.
Rupert Wilbraham of the Soviet British Creative Association spearheaded the
discovery of wrecks in the Russian wilderness. His group received a remarkable video
tape of the Fw 190, hidden in a forest.
During an FHC Fly Day performance, Germany’s deadly duo perform for the crowds. Luftwaffe Day is one of the most popular flying exhibitions at the Flying Heritage Collection. Note the stream of “drool” from the Focke-Wulf’s cowling-mounted oil cooler.
Ratz piloted his powerless Fw 190 to a nearly perfect belly landing in a swampy area
covered with small saplings. Over time, the growing trees concealed the aircraft. It took a Soviet helicopter to lift the plane to a nearby town where it was disassembled and shipped to the United Kingdom.
The Fw 190’s bucket seat has room for a “seat pack” parachute for the flyer. To the left of the gunsight are the plane’s modern radios, which are used to communicate with Paine Field’s tower during Fly Days.
Soon after, Doug Arnold of Warbirds of Great Britain Ltd. acquired the aircraft.
Arnold’s family eventually sold the aircraft to the FHC in 2001.
The major focus of restoration in the early years was the wing. Arthur Bentley, a
former British Aerospace engineer, was instrumental in designing the wing jig. By August 1998, Jeremy Moore Engineering was involved in the next stage of restoration—the
fuselage and engine cowling. The restorers found a number of field repairs and heavy
wear, all indicating that the plane was in heavy use during its short operational life.
It was readily apparent at the time of recovery that Ratz and his Fw 190 were not
downed by antiaircraft fire; there was no damage from enemy bullets. The engine had, in fact, overheated and seized. Sabotage is alleged and the date “5.7.43,” fourteen days
before the crash, was painted on the front of the newly overhauled BMW engine. German
maintenance facilities often used slave labor to rebuild engines.
Decades later, the BMW engine was rebuilt at Vintage V-12s in Tehachapi, California.
The plane was imported into the United States in September 2006 and underwent final
restoration at GossHawk Unlimited in Arizona. In early 2011, the plane was test flown for the first time by Steve Hinton. This rare fighter is the only flying example of the Fw 190
left in the world today.
However, the Fw 190 A-5 is not the only Focke-Wulf fighter at the FHC. The amazing
collection also holds an equally rare example of a late-war “long-nosed” version of the famous Butcher Bird.
The Fw 190 A-model’s drop in performance as it climbed over 21,000 feet was a
hindrance for the Luftwaffe. The last years of fighting saw hundreds, then thousands of American high-flying heavy bombers over Germany. The D-model version of the Focke-Wulf 190 was designed to rectify the deficiencies at high altitude.
AS GERMANY FALLS
A side-by-side comparison of the FHC’s two Focke-Wulf Fw 190 aircraft reveals a
little about how the war was going for Germany in that final year. The Focke-Wulf Fw
190 A-5 aircraft, built in 1943, is an engineering marvel. The workmanship is
complex, high quality, and always functional. As one restorer told the writer, “If the job could be done with fifty parts, the Germans chose to do it with a thousand.”
By the time the scattered parts of the Fw 190 D-model aircraft were joined for final
assembly, sacrifices had to be made to get planes into service as quickly as possible.
With supplies of metals dwindling, aircraft manufacturers looked to use what was
available. Whereas the early model Focke-Wulf is all metal, the D-model Focke-Wulf
has flaps and propeller blades fashioned from wood.
In the paint shop, the earlier Fw 190 received intricate national insignia and a
multitude of functional stencils on the landing gear legs, ammunition doors, and so on.
The painters of the Dora did away with most of the placards in order to speed up the
process. The swastika on the A-model 190 is a complex pattern of black with a white
background and a black outline at its edges. On the D-model 190, overworked
painters simply applied the symbol in black.
The final example, though small, perhaps best tells the story of Germany’s
collapse. On the top of the plane there is an antenna wire that runs from the canopy to the tail. On the early model fighter there is a compact and complex aerodynamically
faired, spring-loaded pulley that takes up the slack in the wire as a pilot slides the canopy backward. Rushed builders had come up with a different solution to the
canopy retraction issue by the time the Fw 190 D came out of the factory. They said,
“To heck with it …” When the canopy is open on the D-model, the wire simply
droops onto the plane’s fuselage.
The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D-13’s antenna wire droops against the fuselage when the canopy is open. Earlier versions of the fighter had a reel to take up the slack when needed, but by the time late-model Luftwaffe fighters came from the factories, designers and workers had to cut corners to get the planes in combat quickly.
The key to a newer, better version of the Focke-Wulf centered on its engine. The BMW
801 engine powering the Fw 190 A-model, even supercharged or turbocharged, could only
generate so much horsepower.
By 1944, Kurt Tank had fitted a new Junkers Jumo 213A-1 powerplant into a Focke-
Wulf airframe. The long, liquid-cooled, supercharged V-12 engine generated 2,240
horsepower; by comparison, the BMW 801 D-2 used in many early 190s topped out at
about 1,670 horsepower.
It was a real engineering feat to install a Jumo 213 engine in a plane built to fly with a radial engine. The big Jumo pulled the Focke-Wulf’s center of gravity forward
dramatically. In order to balance the airframe quickly, designers created a fifty-centimeter
“plug” to elongate the rear of the fuselage.
The longer fighter, with its enlarged tail planes and distinctive, annular radiator, looked quite different from earlier 190s. The D-model Focke-Wulf was often called “Dora” by
German flyers; American fighter pilots simply called them “long-nosed” Focke-Wulfs.
At first Luftwaffe aviators were suspicious of this mutated version of their beloved
fighter. They were won over once they saw the Fw 190 D in the air. The D-model could
climb, turn, and maneuver well, even at great heights. The plane was faster than earlier
models, too. The D-model was decidedly the best version of the 190.
The aircraft was great, but the outlook for Germany was brutally bleak by the time D-
model fighters went into service. Though it was one of the most advanced piston-engine aircraft of its time, lack of fuel, threatened production facilities, and a grim shortage of skilled, veteran pilots rendered this potent aerial weapon nearly worthless.
The FHC’s 190 D is the last example of its kind in the world—one of the very few aircraft in the collection that does not fly.
However, periodically, when staffers are moving aircraft on a sunny day, the rare plane is moved outside for temporary display.
The FHC’s Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D-13 was flown in combat until the end of World War II. Turned over to the Allies, it is the only D-13 model Focke-Wulf left in the world today.
Officials stand by as a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D-9 is readied for flight. The D-9 version was the most plentiful example of the D-model aircraft and is distinguishable from the FHC’s D-13 by the pair of 13mm MG 131 machine guns in its nose, necessitating a bulged upper faring forward of the cockpit.
If you hang upside down and crawl between the rudder pedals of the Fw 190 D-13, you can catch a glimpse of the butt of the plane’s third MG 151 20mm cannon. Earlier attempts by German designers to make centerline guns had met with mixed results. Pilots complained of excessive noise, heat, and vibration. By the time the D-model came around, the gun worked at an acceptable level.
Components of the FHC’s Fw 190 D-13 were created at many different factories in
Germany during that last desperate year of World War II—wings at Bernburg, fuselage at Nordenham, tail section from Leipzig, and various fuselage and wing components from
Halle. The parts were most likely brought together at an Arbeitsgruppe Roland factory, possibly at Mimetall-Erfurt.
After construction, the aircraft was assigned to the Luftwaffe’s Jagdgeschwader 26, which was based in northwestern Germany. “Yellow Ten” became the mount of the Geschwader Kommodore (wing commander) of JG 26, Maj. Franz Götz. Though now the leader of JG
26, Götz had spent much of his combat time in JG 53 where he racked up an impressive
tally of victories against Allied aircraft. Götz’s aircraft carried the ace of spades insignia, called the “Pic As” emblem, of the flyer’s former unit, JG 53. The aircraft also had the word “Kommodore” under the lower radiator cowl to identify the leader’s aircraft.
Götz was credited with sixty-three victories, including three heavy bombers, by the end of World War II. Franz Götz reportedly delivered the Fw 190 D-13 to an RAF unit then
based near Flensburg at the end of the fighting. The plane was destined for evaluation in the United States, so small white stars were hastily painted on the wings and fuselage
along with the designator: “USA 14.” Later still, the D-13 would receive a second Allied designator—FE-118. The “FE” stood for Foreign Equipment.
Nearby British flyers became quite interested in the plane while it was at Flensburg and asked German pilots to fly the D-13 in mock combat with a Hawker Tempest. On at least
two such occasions the German fighter, stripped of ammunition and carrying very little fuel, carried out faux dogfights with lightly-loaded Hawker aircraft. The fights between these two advanced piston-engine aircraft were often considered a draw—solely
dependent on the skills of the pilots versus the qualities of the aircraft.
From Flensburg, the D-13 was ferried to an airbase in Holland and then to the port of
Cherbourg, France. By July 19, 1945 the D-13 and forty other aircraft were loaded aboard the British escort carrier HMS Reaper for transport to the United States.
Evidence of German’s struggles with materials as their sphere of influence shrank can be seen in many parts of the late war Fw 190 D-13. Here, we see the plane’s flaps, made from plywood instead of the aluminum used in earlier model Focke-Wulf aircraft.
A single wing-mounted 20mm cannon passes through the landing gear bay and spar in each wing of the D-13. The scoop seen on the fuselage is used to feed air to the plane’s side-mounted supercharger. When the fighter was owned by Bud Weaver and was parked outside, the scoop was torn off by “some rampaging drunk,” wrote restorers. It took years to find the proper replacement.
The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D-13 represents the pinnacle of piston-powered aircraft. Along with the Super Corsair, Bearcat, Hawker Tempest, and a few others, the long-nosed 190 is among the last high-performance fighters built before the rise of the jet plane.
A US Army artist created this drawing from descriptions of “long-nosed” Focke-Wulf fighters seen as the Allies forced their way across Occupied Europe. Most D-model 190s flew with Jumo 213 engines, though this illustration names the plane’s engine as a DB 603.
These aircraft were acquired by former US Army test pilot Col. Harold Watson and
“Watson’s Whizzers” as part of Operation Lusty—a mission to gain access to enemy
aircraft, technical and scientific reports, research facilities, and weapons. The aircraft onboard the Reaper included ten Me 262s; five Fw 190 Fs; four Fw 190 Ds; one Ta 152
H; four Ar 234 Bs; three He 219s; three Bf 109s; two Do 335s; two Bu 181s; one WNF
342 helicopter; two Fl 282 helicopters; one Ju 88 G; one Ju 388; one Bf 108; and one US
P-51 modified for reconnaissance. The planes were “cocooned” on the deck and crossed
the Atlantic in the company of a group of intelligence researchers. Interestingly, the FHC’s Messerschmitt Me 262 was another aircraft among this “deckload” that was brought to the United States in 1945.
At a port near Newark, New Jersey, the aircraft were divided. Some went to the navy,
while others were bound for the army’s Wright Field in Ohio. Still others, under the
army’s jurisdiction, were diverted to Freeman Field in Indiana when Wright Field could no longer handle additional aircraft. The D-13 was sent to Indiana. Among the 16,280 items and 6,200 tons sent for evaluation, the wings of the D-13 got mixed with those of a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D-9 aircraft.
The D-13 fuselage and the D-9 wings were packed up and moved, along with an
example of a Bf 109 G fighter, to be part of a static display at an airshow at Dobbins Air Force base near Marietta, Georgia. It is unknown whether the mechanics knew, or even
cared, that the 190’s wings were switched with another aircraft. The display was, of
course, static, and the parts fit together well enough for public viewing.
Interest in propeller-driven aircraft waned as it became clear that jets would be the
future of US military aviation. The authorities at Freeman Field did not want the German planes back at the end of the display period, so they were scheduled to be scrapped.
Circa 1946, the display aircraft were offered to Professor Donnell Dutton of the
Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Dutton was the director of the Guggenheim
School of Aeronautics at Georgia Tech and also was a member of the school’s flying club.
He accepted the planes and the D-13 was stored in a Navy hangar in Marietta, Georgia. It was there that it was discovered that the plane’s engine-mounted MG 151 20mm cannon
was still intact and loaded with ammunition.
The FHC’s Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D-13 is beautifully restored inside and out. The padded leather sill carries the plane’s Revi 16
reflector gunsight at the front of the cramped cockpit.
The son of a former Georgia Tech student related that his father reported that the plane was running in roughly the 1946 to 1948 period, but it was missing its Kommandogerät, the engine management computer. Engine speeds beyond idle were impossible without
this “brain box.” The student and others worked to create a new computer for the aircraft, but were not successful.
By the mid-1950s, both the Bf 109 and the Fw 190 were wrecks, having been
vandalized and damaged. An FAA inspector named Bud Weaver traded an Aeronca
Champ motor to the school for the two nearly priceless fighters. However, Weaver did not treat his new aircraft like valued relics; he moved them to various vacant lots and rental properties where they were even more damaged by collectors, curious teens, and vandals.
After Weaver passed away, his widow sold the hulk of the D-13 to an airline pilot,
Lloyd Freeman. One of the first things Freeman did to the 190 was to strip off all of its original paint, which was, by then, faded and peeling. The unpainted plane was covered in a coat of zinc chromate. After this and a few other very minor improvements to the plane, he advertised it in an aviation trade publication.
Freeman sold the aircraft to Dave Kate of Santa Barbara, California. Kate wanted to
restore the aircraft, but lacked the funds to get the job done. It is rumored that Kate and his associates may have been the first, since the D-13/D-9 wing switch, to note that the D-13
armament would not fit in the D-9 wings. This fact would be re-discovered by other
restorers in the future.
The next buyer had both the desire and resources to see the rare aircraft restored to its wartime condition. Oklahoma oilman Doug Champlin acquired the Fw 190 in 1972 and
had it shipped to Enid, Oklahoma. Soon, he struck a deal with Art Williams, an aircraft builder and restorer. The plane would be taken to Germany where it would be restored
near Augsburg over a period of roughly two and a half years. Art’s wife, Christina, was then working in the German aerospace field and could make contacts easily with those
who had the unique skills to work on the airplane.
Interestingly, Focke-Wulf designer Kurt Tank assisted in the restoration by supplying
wartime data and original manuals to the restorers. Of the many missing parts on the
plane, the most troublesome were the “brain-box” controller and original propeller and hub. A D-9 spinner was used in the place of the original and a propeller was specially-crafted in Germany.
Again, the wings were discovered to be incorrect: “the ammo chutes … didn’t line up
with the armament, and no one could ever quite manage to get the ailerons connected to the control stick in a logical way.” Data plates found inside the plane showed that the D-9
wings belonged to an aircraft held by the National Air and Space Museum but on display at the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. That plane, in turn, was equipped with the D-13’s wings.
The white stripe around the tail of the D-13 coincides with the plug installed in the tail to lengthen the plane’s fuselage. The added length helps account for the longer Jumo 213 engine, shifting the center of gravity aft to compensate for the bigger power plant.
Unable to convince officials at those institutions to make a trade, Champlin had the
restored 190 shipped back to the United States in 1976. The plane was put on display with Champlin’s extensive collection of other World War I and II fighter aircraft at a museum in Mesa, Arizona.
In 2001, GossHawk Unlimited started a second and more accurate restoration of the
aircraft that involved undoing much of what had been done in the 1970s. This time, the wings were successfully traded for those on the D-9 and, after almost sixty years, the original wings were reunited with the D-13. During this restoration, all the original
instrumentation, radios, and radio racks were placed back in the aircraft. The paint scheme was deduced from black-and-white photos of the original airplane and the colors matched to original factory paint chips.
While the 190 was in restoration, the rest of the Champlin collection was acquired by
The Museum of Flight in Seattle. The high value of the Fw 190 D-13 precluded it from
being part of a purchase funded by a Museum of Flight donor. So, the 190 was separated from the rest of Champlin’s fighter collection.
When the D-13’s restoration was finally completed in October 2004, Champlin chose
to loan the plane to The Museum of Flight while looking for a buyer. In March 2007, the FHC purchased the aircraft from Champlin. Due to its extremely rare nature and high
value, the fighter may never be flown.