Fw-190 Documentary in Spanish | Part 1

Video from the channel Flying Machines about Focke-Wulf Fw 190, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 21:55. Language: Spanish. Video type: Documentary.

First part of a documentary on the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, presented using an example preserved at the Champlin Fighter Museum, on the outskirts of Phoenix (Arizona). It explains how a fighter conceived merely as a backup to the Messerschmitt Bf 109 ended up becoming a key piece of German fighter aviation, and follows its story through to late 1941.

The video places the design within Kurt Tank's career at Focke-Wulf, creator of the Fw 200 Condor airliner, used during the war for maritime reconnaissance over the Atlantic, and of the Fw 189 observation aircraft. By the late 1930s the liquid-cooled inline engine dominated, such as Daimler-Benz's 600 series used in the Bf 109 and Bf 110 or the British Rolls-Royce Merlin. Since Daimler-Benz could not produce more engines, a design using a BMW radial engine, then in lower demand, was accepted. Tank took into account precedents such as the Hughes H-1 or the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, which showed that a radial engine could deliver high speed. The piece ends with Operation Barbarossa, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler's declaration of war on the United States.

From 1939 a decentralised production scheme was planned among subcontractors, which would eventually reach 24 manufacturing centres. Fully fuelled, the aircraft weighed around 5,000 kg, against roughly 4,000 kg for the Bf 109, in exchange for a sturdier structure, with a one-piece wing and a wide landing gear track. The first prototype, the V1, took off from Bremen on 1 June 1939 flown by test pilot Hans Sander. Sander confirmed its manoeuvrability but suffered excessive cockpit heat caused by the engine cooling system. The switch to the more powerful but heavier BMW 801 forced the pilot's position to be moved back, which eased the problem, and production aircraft returned to a conventional cowling. The video highlights the raised cockpit with better visibility, the canopy that could be jettisoned using explosive charges, and the hinged access panels. In summer 1941 it entered service with Adolf Galland's JG 26, and on 27 September it faced Spitfires over the Channel for the first time, with a very favourable outcome. A German pilot recalls that its main flaw was poor forward visibility during take-off, while another account compares the Bf 109 to a foil and the Fw 190 to a sabre.