Documental Focke Wulf Fw-190

Video from the channel xxREY_HUNTERxx about Focke-Wulf Fw 190, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 49:58. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

A documentary dubbed into Spanish, from the series "Wings of the Luftwaffe," dedicated to the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. It opens with an example preserved at the Champlin Fighter Museum, on the outskirts of Phoenix (Arizona), and traces the aircraft's genesis, the figure of its designer Kurt Tank, its technical evolution and its role in the Second World War. It includes testimonies from former German pilots and from an American pilot who examined and flew captured examples. It closes with a short-nosed survivor at the Texas Air Museum, in Harlingen, and a three-quarter-scale replica that flies with a different engine.

In the late 1930s the Messerschmitt Bf 109, with its Daimler-Benz inverted-V twelve-cylinder engine, seemed unbeatable, and the radial engine was considered not aerodynamic enough for a fighter. Since Daimler-Benz could not produce more engines, Focke-Wulf's design was accepted as a backup, as it used a BMW radial with less demand. The documentary cites as references the Hughes H-1 racing aircraft and the Mitsubishi A6M Zero. The Fw 190 entered service in 1941 with JG 26, and in its first combat, on 27 September, it got the better of the Spitfires over the English Channel. It later fought on the Eastern Front, replaced the Stuka in ground attack, and focused on defense against American bombers.

The V1 prototype first flew on 1 June 1939 in Bremen, piloted by Hans Sander. Excess cockpit heat led to the cockpit being moved back and the special engine fairing being abandoned. The production version mounted the 14-cylinder double-row BMW 801 D, rated at 2,100 horsepower. Its maximum takeoff weight was around 5,000 kg, compared to about 4,000 for the Bf 109, and it had electrically operated flaps, landing gear and control surfaces. Production was spread across at least 24 sites, which made it very hard to halt with bombing. The D series received the twelve-cylinder Jumo 213, with the rear fuselage lengthened by 25 cm and around a meter and a half more in overall length, and it evolved into the Ta 152. Around 20,000 units were built.