Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Fw 190 F-8

The Fw 190's ground-attack configuration was first tested in May 1942 on an A-0/U4 fitted with centreline and wing-mounted bomb racks. The first F versions were redesignations: the F-1 were renamed A-4/U3 aircraft, of which eighteen were built, and the F-2 were A-5/U3, of which Focke-Wulf production logs and Ministry of Aviation acceptance reports record two hundred and seventy. The F-3, developed under the designation A-5/U17, carried an ETC 501 centreline rack and, in its R1 version, two additional ETC 50 racks under each wing; four hundred and thirty-two were built.

The F-8 was the qualitative leap. It was based on the A-8 fighter and added a slightly modified injector on the compressor, which allowed increased performance at lower altitudes for several minutes — exactly where an attack aircraft works. Its fixed armament was two MG 151/20 cannon in the wing roots and two 13 mm MG 131 machine guns above the engine, and it carried an ETC 501 rack on the fuselage centreline plus four ETC 50 racks under the wings.

As was the rule in the family, the F-8 generated its own conversions. The F-8/U1 was a long-range Jabo, with V.Mtt-Schloß shackles for two 300-litre drop tanks and ETC 503 racks that let it carry one SC 250 bomb under each wing and another on the centreline. The U2 was a prototype torpedo bomber with the TSA 2 A sighting system, able to employ a 700 kg BT 700 weapon against seaborne targets; the U3, a heavy torpedo bomber with an ETC 502 rack for a 1,400 kg BT 1400 torpedo, which forced the tail gear to be lengthened and which used the 2,000 PS BMW 801S engine and the tail of the Ta 152. The U4 was a night bomber with exhaust flame dampers, a FuG 101 radio altimeter and the PKS 12 autopilot. The F-9, based on the A-9, adopted the bulged canopy and four ETC 50 or ETC 70 underwing racks: one hundred and forty-seven were accepted in January 1945 and probably several hundred more between February and May, although those records were lost.