Actually, here it is. The most successful angle and the logical result. Nevertheless, the history of this aircraft is more than interesting.
The main question to which I will try to answer is: why on the Eastern Front the Fokker was treated, so to speak, with coolness, while on the Western Front it was a true scarecrow for pilots of all levels?
But first, a little history.
In general, the FW-190 should not be called "Fokker". The plane had nothing to do with the real firm of Anton Fokker. Probably, some consonance and historical memory played a role, since Fokker aircraft in the Red Army were used very actively at first. The Fokker D. VII was purchased, and the Fokker D. XI was even built under license at the Aviarabotnik plant.
Focke-Wulf is by name. And not the creators of the aircraft, but the creators of the company. At the time the aircraft entered the big life, the founding fathers of the company, Professor Heinrich Focke and Georg Wulf, not only did not participate in the management of it, they had nothing to do with the development of the 190th either.
G. Focke dealt exclusively with the prototypes of helicopters, and G. Wolfe died during the tests of the aircraft in September 1927.
So the FW-190 was created by the real technical manager of the Focke-Wulf firm, Kurt Tank.
It cannot be said that it was a one-time luck of the Tank. His developments were the FW-200, one of the best multipurpose aircraft of that time, whose pilots drank a lot of blood from British and American submariners, and the "frame" cursed in all dialects of the Russian language, that is, the FW-189 is probably the best scout and spotter of the Second World War.
So Kurt Tank created the FW-190. What can you say about him?
Probably not what Yakovlev wrote in his "Purpose of Life". If we leave behind the scenes everything Yakovlevsky, then it is worth noting two things: the Tank knew how to build airplanes and knew how to fly them. This is important. And second: The tank was an excellent fighter of the undercover front, otherwise the 190th will never see the sky, as many developments did not see, having lost the battle with the Bf-109.
In our history, it was usually customary for the authors of memoirs and memoirs to talk about how "so-so" the car was. They say they beat the 190 mercilessly right from the moment he appeared at the front in 1943.
I will say this: this assessment is not very true, and I will try to prove it.
But I will emphasize in advance: we are talking about the FW-190 fighter. It is about the fighter, and about nothing else.
I will not praise Tank for praises, he really designed a very outstanding combat vehicle. Moreover, he designed it exactly when the whole world was in a rush to develop fighters with water-cooled engines.
And here the nuances begin. What were Mitchell, Messerschmitt, Polikarpov and Gurevich and everyone else doing? They worked on machines in the design of which all ideas and solutions were subordinated to one thing: obtaining the highest maximum flight speed.
Indeed, if one took advantage of the powerful liquid-cooled 12-cylinder engines introduced in the latter half of the 1930s properly, it was not a very difficult task. The same Spitfire is the best example of this. Although the MiG-3 was not much inferior to him in terms of flight characteristics.
Aircraft with liquid-cooled engines by the beginning of World War II had indeed become a very real force. Possessing a small cross-section, unlike their counterparts with "air vents", they quite really approached the cherished speed of 600 km / h, and the experimental versions exceeded 700 km / h.
It seems to be a complete victory, but there were also flys in this ointment. Everything had to be paid for. The survivability of the engine, which one large-caliber bullet could completely disable, is not even talking about the cannon projectile, and operating the "water" engine in winter conditions was not the most pleasant task.
"Airman", however, quite normally held even the shells of air cannons, and even not in a single quantity. There are plenty of memoirs on how they attacked under the guise of an engine, all those who had planes with such engines abound. And we, and the Germans.
So, Tank had a slightly different approach to what an ideal fighter should have been. It was supposed to be an aircraft, durable without sacrificing flight performance, capable of operating from field airfields (a stone in the garden of Willie's colleague), easily repairable and - importantly - easily mastered by flight and technical personnel. That is, it is easy to operate and repair.
That is, the 190th was supposed to become, according to Tank's idea, a real "workhorse" of the war. How did it work out?
My opinion is that it is 101%. Especially when compared with the Bf-109. Let's compare, of course, why not compare?
I will not be distracted for long. In two articles about the 109th Messerschmitt, I strongly supported the idea that the Me-109 as an airplane was so-so. It was pulled out by the fact that it was easy to manufacture (otherwise it would not have been riveted so much) and Germany had many very good pilots (until 1943) who were able to handle this aircraft normally. The advanced pilots ended - the Me-109 ended as a weapon capable of really resisting both the allies and the Red Army Air Force.
But in terms of the FW-190, I will probably refrain from such a line. The 190 was a completely different plane. Yes, it was produced in a slightly smaller quantity, but it is also quite impressive: more than 20 thousand (13 367 fighters and 6634 fighter-bomber).
However, the vitality of the structure, erected at the forefront, ease of operation, ease of maintenance - these are Tank's trump cards in the fight against Messerschmitt for a place at the budget trough.
Didn't lose. And considering how many "friends" in the Luftwaffe and around him in various committees Willie Messerschmitt made, punching his 109th, then the Tank even had some concessions.
We will return to LTH, for now it is worth noting that in comparison with the 109th, the FW-190 had quite a few advantages.
The first is vitality. The air-cooled engine was also additional armor, and it was difficult to remove it with a single rifle caliber bullet. It was enough for the liquid one to interrupt the important branch pipe, and, being left without cooling, the engine quietly wedged.
The air vent, of course, could well do without two or even three cylinders.
Technical point: in front of the engine there was a 12-blade fan, which was rotating 2 times faster than the propeller by a reducer and creating excess pressure under the hood.
This provided excellent cooling to the leading star, and, unlike many of its colleagues, the 190 was not afraid of engine overheating during takeoff and landing. And at high speeds, the fan, on the contrary, slowed down the cooling air, preventing overcooling of the cylinders.
Another advantage over Bf.109. The Focke-Wulf was much less sensitive to the quality of the airfields thanks to the wide track of the landing gear, which retracted towards the fuselage, rather than towards the wingtips, as in the Bf.109.
The landing gear legs were designed with a large margin of safety and, together with large diameter wheels, ensured landing at high speed and cross-country ability even on soggy ground.
Ask, what about the disadvantages?
There were, of course, drawbacks. And what a lot!
The main disadvantage, uncharacteristic of the aircraft of that time, was the FW-190's ability to glide with the engine turned off or damaged. It was roughly like a concrete block, and here's why: the engine was very heavy and in the event of its failure, the aircraft immediately lowered its nose and began to dive. Sheer. The wing area was too small to keep the 190 "afloat".
This is why the FW-190 has so few officially recorded forced landings. It was easier for the pilots to throw off the flashlight and just leave the car. If only the height allowed it. And the plane was banging to pieces.
In general, towards the end of the war, a whole system of recommendations for the landing of the FW-190 with an inoperative engine was developed. If the altitude allowed (!), It was necessary to pick up speed in the dive, smoothly level the plane near the ground and put the propeller blades in the zero pitch position. Bending when hitting the ground, the metal blades turned into a kind of landing skis.
And the heavy engine here also guarded the pilot, demolishing any obstacles in such a landing, up to trees of medium thickness.
But in any case, the ride was of dubious pleasure and required just iron nerves from the pilots.
In addition, Tank paid great attention to the review. This resulted in the design of a large cockpit canopy with a minimum of metal frame elements, which provided the pilot with exceptionally good viewing conditions for the upper hemisphere.
Very quickly, everyone realized that the gargrot was good, and the review was better, and the idea was simply copied. And the teardrop-shaped lantern has become quite common for new generation fighters, but the ancestor of all these designs was the glazing, first designed by the Focke-Wulf engineers.
Not to say about weapons - this is not to speak about 190 at all. Convenience and reliability are great, but the weapons … It was a song.
Two synchronous "sighting" machine guns in the engine hood. At first they were of the standard caliber 7, 92 mm, then they mutated to 13 mm.
The idea was simple: first, a "sighting" line was thrown from machine guns, if the lead and angle were taken correctly, a button was pressed and …
Four cannons 20 mm. Yes, not masterpieces, at the root of the MG-151 wing, further in the MG-FF wing. But there are four of them! And then MG-FF was replaced with MG-108 in 30mm caliber. And MG-17 machine guns on MG-131.
Thus, the FW-190 became a kind of record holder in terms of the ability to throw metal at the enemy. The total mass of a second salvo of Fw-190D11 or 12 was 350 kg / min. For comparison, the Il-2, a very serious aircraft in this regard, with two VYa-23 and two ShKAS had "only" 265 kg / min. The enemy fighters of the 190th were even more modest. La-5 -150 kg / min, "Spitfire" IX - 202 kg / min and "Airacobra" (version with a 37-mm cannon and two machine guns) - 160 kg / min.
Of everything that the Allies flew, the American Thunderbolt was comparable, but it was armed with large-caliber machine guns, and the damaging effect of bullets was lower than that of a high-explosive projectile.
Yes, German guns with ballistics (especially MG-FF) and armor-piercing effect were so-so, but with so many shells ejected, this was not scary. The main thing here was to get there, and with such an amount, at least something flew.
An advanced fire control system was also a plus. She generally allowed to fire as it was convenient for the pilot, simply by switching the appropriate toggle switches. It was possible to shoot only from machine guns, from any pair of cannons, machine guns and two guns to choose from, only 2 or 4 guns, or even from all at once.
Very comfortably. It is clear that not for those who appeared in the sight.
Reservations also took place. It consisted of a 14-mm armored headrest, an 8-mm armored seat, an armored back plate of the same thickness, and 8-mm armor plates that covered the pilot in the lateral projection. God knows not what, but a 7.62 mm bullet or a fragment of an anti-aircraft projectile could delay.
The annular oil cooler in the nose of the engine was covered with a 5-mm front hood ring and an armored cap. In addition, the lower walls of the engine hood, the lower surfaces of the center section, and the lower part of the fuselage under the gas tanks were armored. The total mass of the armor was 110 kg, and on assault modifications it reached 320 kg.
Control. I would like to say boldly and separately about him. ALL control of the propeller group was carried out by one lever. Automation (this was in those years!) Was at the highest level and, depending on the position of this lever, set the operating mode of the supercharger, fuel supply ("gas"), ignition timing, propeller pitch.
The German pilot controlled it all with one lever. His colleagues posed as octopuses by jerking, moving and pressing. And the automatics worked for the German, and the pilot, freed from many actions, was puzzled only by how to catch the enemy in the sight and smack four cannons on him …
An empty FW 190A-2 of the main modification weighed 3170 kg. The normal flight weight, depending on the weapon variant, ranged from 3850 to 3980 kg. The maximum speed of the fighter at an altitude of 5500 m was 625 km / h, and when using an emergency one-minute mode using the afterburner GM-1 or MW-50 - 660 km / h at an altitude of 6400 m.
The practical range at a cruising speed of 445 km / h did not exceed 900 km.
If you carefully study the table, then the conclusions are original. The 190th was in no way inferior to its opponents. Again, middling. Not the fastest, not the lightest, not the most maneuverable, but …
But why, then, on the Western Front, the 190th instilled such horror in all Allied pilots since its inception? And why it was a little different on Vostochny. "Well 190th … Well strong … Well they beat …".
Here's the thing. The point, it seems to me, is the time of the aircraft entering the battlefield. Our 190th appeared in normal quantities at the very end of 1942, and it was only in 1943 that they began to meet it regularly in the sky.
And then the Germans already had a very difficult time.
But at the beginning of its career, the FW 190 began to enter the Western Front en masse. And there it turned out that there was simply nothing to fight with him. The only fighter in 1942 capable of more or less adequately withstanding the FW.190A-3 was the Spitfire IX series.
The problem was that the Spitfires were there, but they weren't! Against 400 Focke-Wulfs in the summer of 1942, the RAF could deploy just TWO Spitfire IX squadrons.
It is quite understandable that with the rest (the old Spitfires, Seafires and Hurricanes) the German pilots did whatever they wanted.
So the nickname given by the British pilots, "The Flying Butcher" was well deserved.
And it so happened that until the mass arrival of the Spitfire series IX, the Focke-Wulf provided the Luftwaffe with complete air superiority. And the advantage that the British won in the hardest battles of the "Battle of Britain" was simply lost in the battles with the new machine.
And all would be fine, but 1943 …
As for the Eastern Front, I'll just say here: FW.190 was a little late with us. Our pilots have already learned how to fight and shoot down everything. In addition, we had planes that made it possible to play with the FW.190, if not on an equal footing …
In general, what kind of equality or inequality are they talking about, if ours fought on everything that could fly and shoot?
And when the Yak-9 appeared, which was inferior in armament, but surpassed the "ironed" FW.190 in maneuvering, the La-5F, which were generally comparable in terms of flight characteristics and the "Airacobra". The latter are a moot point, but they beat …
By the way, the British, having abandoned the P-39, had to gnaw their elbows, because the Cobra, if used correctly, could take out the Focke-Wulf's brains at all.
You can talk for a long time and compare LTH and TTX, but here it all comes down to one thing. If engineers BMW or Junkers managed to create a workable engine with a capacity of 2500+ hp, then the fate of the Focke-Wulf could have been somewhat different.
But alas, the plane continued to get heavy and they began to plug the holes formed in the assault and bomber aircraft. This was an undoubted mistake, and instead of a heavy fighter with good performance, they began to produce, in general, not bad, at the level of the IL-2 in 1940, attack aircraft and fighter-bombers.
However, the lack of the ability to defend in the rear hemisphere put an end to this idea, and it became punishable.
In perspective, the FW.190 was a machine with a lot of potential. Much larger than the Messerschmitt-109. More reliable, more convenient in terms of use.
"Focke-Wulf" was ruined, as I said, by the lack of an engine with which this machine could withstand the "Thunderbolts" and "Mustangs", but this will be continued, so as not to overload.
