The Failures Behind the Fw 190

[ __ ] wolf this is a name that should be familiar to anyone with a passing interest in world war ii aviation and the reason for this is simple here it is a plane that needs no introduction it's the focke-wulf fw 190 now while germany came out with many designs for the war fighter designs as well as other designs i think it's hard to argue that the fw 190 was not among the best if not the best plane they had if you like add all the factors and try to find a mean average and there is no exact way of doing this but in my opinion that was more suited to the operational conditions Germany faced than BF 109 and it had a better overall design now stats wise yes it did not have that client performance or that high altitude performance of the Messerschmitts until the later two more power models but if you look at it's over construction the systems the redundancies that were built into it the carpet it's clear that the FW 190 is a step ahead of the BF 109 it's just that those things won't show if you're playing Top Trumps [Music] and yes I know someone will bring up one of the many experimental designs that Romney had that were all so sophisticated and code F should have won the war of only they'd been flown on that very specifically Tuesday in 1944 when Uranus Saturn and Pluto are perfectly aligned in the sky and the pilot was called Kevin but that didn't happen so let's leave the window waffles with the exception of the me-262 to the left waffles and get on with the video this is not exactly going to be an expose on the fw 190 in itself if you want a video like that I have one right here but before you click away humor me with a few minutes of your attention because I want to show you why the fw190 is so much more than you think in how the company's history and court Hanks life influenced the design now you probably won't believe me but if you would have asked anybody in the mid to late 1920s if they knew the company [ __ ] they would have probably assumed that you mispronounce a Dutch [ __ ] company [ __ ] Wolff had absolutely no design that got them any international attention had a lot of failures and no one would have put money down in betting that they had would become one of the most famous aviation companies of all time and what I personally find so interesting about focke-wulf is that if you look at the company's history you really start to understand why the fw190 became the aircraft it wants [ __ ] Wolff existed as a company since 1923 but it was only named [ __ ] the year later it was a company founded by free men you have finally [ __ ] as the technical director kkeok Wolff asked a test pilot and dr. V on annulment asked the commercial director now Hank the man everybody associates with FW was M has nothing to do with the company at this point their first aircraft was a seven-story these were the best pictures I could find that that's going to be a recurrent problem with the earlier aircraft in this video they build one of these the a 16 was a bit of an early breakthrough actually a small airline of which fokker wolf managed 23 for the mid-1920s that's not too bad and is actually a commercial success but it was limited to Germany and the successor the larger a 17 got [ __ ] wolf 11 sales if you look at them they aren't exactly standout designs they rely heavily on following the general trend of the time they have that massive topping a large engine and that's where Foose allows the follow-ups to these aircraft the a 43 and the a 38 well they didn't do that well on the market divert by now focal was known let's say two people in the know in Germany but abroad on the international market the company was virtually unknown in the meantime with the domestic commercial success that the company has it starts to experiment what you are seeing here is the f9 CNN turn that's F 19 duck it's a cute design remarkable in three ways first it was a tail first aircraft second it had an open canopy and an enclosed passenger compartment behind it that actually made it very similar to a horse carriage and third it killed young wolf during a test flight so the company is essentially down one owner this aircraft got [ __ ] wolf some publicity yet but it was well it was a complete failure but now come the 1930s and it's been more than five years since focke-wulf had joined any of your success on the market the company had about 150 employees and was kept over water by selling the occasional airliner but it didn't really grow rich but suddenly if the wind shift in Germany the government starts getting more serious about acquiring military hardware and this is actually still before the Nazis take over in 1943 my job first [ __ ] tries to get contracts for recon aircraft proposing the s 39 and FW 40 livre are accepted in fact the fw 40 is a complete disaster and only noteworthy because it's the first fw design to actually have that fw prefix as the political changes happen in germany the company tries it's luck with the fw 42 it was meant to be a media bomber have two defensive turrets in a canard configuration making it look like this [ __ ] wolf was quite invested in this one building a full-scale mock-up having parts of the plane tested in wind tunnels which is expensive and cutting edge at a time and assumed that this plane could carry about 5,000 kilograms of equipment going at a top speed of 300 kph investing so heavily in an experimental design is high-risk high-reward and in this case the reward was being told by the government that the design was nonsense it probably also didn't help that FW essentially presented the project as a upscaled reimagined and supposedly improved f19 enter you know the plane that killed one of its founders in the meantime fokker wolf takes over I bought Hoss and quoting the company and he comes aboard as both a test pilot and an aircraft designer now he previously worked at Oba and by Russia Fukuoka quote Aang's first hands-on experience at his new company isn't as a designer but it's getting getting the f/w of 40 fully into the air it's an ambitious attempt at a high-performance single-seater aircraft but it again for short this is also the last plane that did now professor [ __ ] helped design himself from now on core tank essentially plays a more prominent role now if you're interested to know the backstory [ __ ] actually gets thrown out of his own company the reason for this aren't quite clear allegedly because he didn't want to license bill to aircraft by other companies like Hein co and that upset his shareholders so he himself is also a bit upset of quitting thrown out of his own company so yeah he just goes off and develops the first operational helicopter I want to ask you what you know about Co tanks early life because I think his early experiences in the aviation industry actually left a big impact on his aircraft and the ultimate design of the FW 190 and his life as a soldier in World War one sort needed the same I think his experience there did have an influence on his ability to think about how equipment gets used in well operational conditions and what sort of problems can occur on the front lines in the field that no one thinks of in a drawing room and his approach and creating planes that can take a beating and continue using our relatively easy to maintain might very well have been influenced by this experience our tongue joins the aviation industry at the worst of times just a few years before the recession hits but he has enough time to get hands-on experience during these years it is quite normal that companies designed a lot of machines a name very inefficient sort of process it just purposely designed and built for a specific airline company and it's always this chasing of possible contracts that at best result in a handful of orders wobba the first company tank work that goes down the drain in 1929 so he switches to really Messerschmitts by a chef ROC vodka only to be laid off two years later when the recession really hits now I can't be sure but based on his labor actions I think that as a newcomer to the industry this lack of long-term security with companies constantly running after small batch orders each with a new design made an impression on him he certainly didn't like it after all at war ba in like six years he goes for more than ten designs most of them are actually his own with little commercial success now while the company [ __ ] survives in no small part because they now do build for example Heinkel heo 45 aircraft for the army quad tank himself gets to work his first aircraft design it the company is the fw 44 Stieglitz and it's probably the first classic aircraft built by the company it's a no-nonsense aircraft has exceptional flight characteristics and gets popularized by stunt pilots like gat a keyless email cop or even an stood it flies one it also remains a popular design today amongst aviation enthusiasts I might be wrong but I think that this might actually be the first [ __ ] aircraft to come to the United States when get a kailasam a day US tour the aircraft is also adopted as a trainer in Luftwaffe gets exported far and wide and licenses are sold as well the aircraft that follows it the fw 47 gets adopted by the army's meteorological service and the fw 55 that is also being sold at this point it's a rebranded Alberta's aircraft that keeps getting sold all in all [ __ ] starts making money and this is both because they have well coming out with some really good designs but also because Germany starts to rearm cook tank is quick to capitalize on this he and the shareholders want long-term security and that means right now building aircraft for the army in large batches the fw 59 has some successes well this one is important to remember it for later on and focal wolf starts thinking about going bigger the FW 57 fails but the 58 does well as a twin-engine trainer used even to the end of World War two it's the first universal design that a company has created for the army able to fulfill training for multi-engine aircraft navigation evacuation reconnaissance and it's even a used as a trainer for float planes in only about two to three years focal wolf has become a key aircraft provider for the army it exports its designs abroad and has done so with three out of four total designs if we look at them closer we also see a common trend the fw of 44 and 58 our trainers they need to have those I of flight characteristics a tough construction a strong year good visibility a favorable cockpit layout and just be easy to use they fulfil those criteria and the FW 57 itself might have been more narrow in its application but it also follows that trend these aircraft are key in getting an air force up and running because they provide the new pilots so they need to be reliable and able to take the beating or frequent use some people call the fw 190 the Luftwaffe swore course because it just kept going in all conditions but I think that a lot of Tanks early work here with these machines show just that same characteristic work they might yes certainly they might not have earned that acclaim of the 190 but it's here a tank and [ __ ] wolf developed that design philosophy it's all the more strange than that at this point in time there ends up being a strange little hiccup that ends up being really important ignoring the f/w was 62 didn't work out we come to this one the f/w of 159 I am fascinated by this machine you might not know it but it was in fact a direct competitor to the B of 109 in 1944 the German Air Ministry drew up specs for an aircraft to substitute the Arado 68 and heichal 51 fighters Messerschmitt came up with T BF 109e uncle came up of th e 112 Arado with trad and [ __ ] oaf well it came up of this you should never judge a plane by its look but I think we can make an exception here if you compare these designs side by side with hindsight it's clear to see why the Arado and the fokker wolf had no chance you can see how they are stuck in that part of the interwar years or the Messerschmitt and the hike of resemble the types of planes we associate with world war ii the Fokker 159 is based on the FW 59 a plane from earlier they I asked you to remember it's not exactly clear why [ __ ] Wolff try to rehash this design but it was most likely to save time it seems that FW got started late on this projects and the reason as to why is not fully known some argue that the company I ever got the notice months later after all the other companies seems a bit weird to be honest while another theory is that they simply didn't start working on it right away go tank himself apparently only oversaw this project this is not unusual oftentimes the names you associated with a company are not always the people that actually design the specific aircraft that the company is famous for in any case the 159 had some things going for it it was all metal nice had an enclosed canopy cool and a retractable landing gear how on closer examination that's where the positive features end and they weren't even that positive the all-metal design aside that was right the plane did not really provide a good fighter platform the canopy was somewhat bf-109 like but visibility must have been rather poor in certain angles due to the long nose and the parasol wing design downward visibility might have been a hue of a good because of the way the wings are placed it was the gear however that was the worst feature meant to be retractable it was as interesting as it was weak it was raised and lowered by a two chamber element with an additional lever action folding of the wheel it took a lot of space in the plane basically the whole area between the engine and the pilot and a retractable undercarriage yes it would help the plane's performance but it has to work this one certainly didn't on the planes first flight to test pilot tried to with no avail to extend the on a carriage before landing it never did and the plane was seriously damaged on landing and then the second prototype with an improved undercarriage didn't do much better the gear simply wasn't robust enough and only and not a prototype after that was built but even if it worked it was a whirring flaw in any way the plane was seriously outclassed by the competition I think it is here that core tank might have had that final spark that made him realize how slippery the slope is between experimentation and practical value the FW 159 well it had no chance and what was really needed at this point was a new generation of aircraft and Messerschmitt and Heinkel had essentially provided that focke-wulf didn't so from now on we see focke-wulf start and design aircraft and systems that are based on solid data know-how proven concepts all gained from a rapidly accelerating aviation industry now cook tank and the companies realizes that the military needs solid fighting equipment and 3159 well it was never fit for purpose one of the standout features of the designs that the aircraft company produces that are successful is that they are strong sturdy machines but now [ __ ] also starts incorporate systems that are new but are proven to work tank isn't the kind of guy who goes for experimental gizmos especially if there are actually critical systems in a design in the hopes that they will somehow work out in the end focal wolf as a company is really down-to-earth and able to walk that thin line between technological progress and fantasy the company leans heavily into the FW 187 and has some really good practical ideas on how to make this heavy fighter work although I hasten to add that the gear on that design was also a weak point core tank even manages to convince the Air Ministry for some time that this plane was worthy of support until it got canceled and then of course we come to the [ __ ] Wolff 189 which is a multi-purpose aircraft it becomes one of the best recording aircraft actually of the war able to perform in nearly any condition and if you are wondering why I have not addressed the fw 200 the Condor yet well that's because I am planning a whole other video on that aircraft alone so I'm just gonna bracket it off here so now we arrive at the fw 190 a plane that is so remote from the flimsy patchwork fw 159 as it could only be it will take some time to get it to work and the engine is a headache early on but it is spaced exactly on this balance that I was talking about including cutting edge stuff in the design but only if it works and all based around the machine that is built for the task it is meant to fulfill and that is to go up day-in day-out in adverse conditions in any climate from any airfield and at the same time it has competitive performance a system redundancies good reliability is easy to maintain comfortable to fly it's exactly the plane you want and when you look at curtains life before this plane from his time in the first world war over to his struggles with uber and by other Shahrukh's like there get the history of the [ __ ] Wolff company in itself the success of the robust machine was likely for cool 44 Stieglitz the failure of the 159 well then you start to appreciate what sort of design philosophy went into the focke-wulf 190 and how it became the plane that it was and that brings us to the end I hope you guys enjoyed this look at a legendary German aviation company and of course core tank and if you are in a patreon or a channel member thank you very much make these sort of videos plus my insider carpet series possible because they wouldn't be made by the traditional media now if you are not yet supporting us please consider it but if that's an option to you I understand it no worries please consider subscribing or sharing the video with friends on forums and social media and so on now as I leave you here I will be adding two videos that you might be in find interesting if you are a fan of the fw190 one of them is by Craig's airplanes he does a good job at looking at the design of the aircraft and the other one is by myself it's a hands-on look at an AAA 8 that you can find in the Luftwaffe Museum in Berlin as always I hope you guys have a great day and see you let's go

Channel: undefined

Views: 152,481

Rating: 4.9387074 out of 5

Keywords: Fw 190, Focke Wulf, Fw 159, Luftwaffe, Kurt Tank, Aircraft, ww2, fighter, germany, history, education

Id: JPLGVsP2gg0

Length: 19min 59sec (1199 seconds)

Published: Thu May 21 2020