Focke-Wulf Fw 190
The Butcher Bird
“The German fighter that caught the RAF off guard in 1941.”
Focke-Wulf · military
When the Fw 190 appeared over France in 1941 it outclassed the Spitfire Mk V in almost everything but turning, and the RAF had to rush the Spitfire IX into service to answer it. Kurt Tank designed it around a big BMW radial with wide-track landing gear and electric controls, a fighter built to be flown from rough fields by tired pilots. No original Fw 190 flies on its original engine; the aircraft in the air today are mostly new-build Flug Werk airframes with Russian radials.
The Fw 190 used electric motors for its flaps, landing gear and even its gun charging, an unusual choice in an era of hydraulic fighters that made it far easier to maintain in the field.
A tight cowling around a radial engine with a big spinner, a wide-track gear, and a square-tipped wing. Looks compact and purposeful; often in Luftwaffe mottled grey.
One might be overhead right now.
Bogey turns the The Butcher Bird from a dot in the sky into a card in your logbook.
