You mentioned the word BMW now to most people.
You might think of a sleek luxury car, or a boy racer power sliding around a corner, or sometimes
a driver that forgets his indicators. However, most people think of a car. They don't think
of something of an engine of 1,800 horsepower powering one of the deadliest fighters of
the Second World War. The Focke-Wulf 190. Our story today starts with not the Focke-Wulf
190, but the areoplane behind me the Messerschmitt 109. This is an E model that would have been
around in the Battle of Britain and the first three high scoring aces of all time all flew the
109. The fourth and the fifth highest score aces of all time flew the Focke-Wulf 190. With a huge
development going on for the German ministry in the wartime the Messerschmitt 109, mass-produced,
Daimler-Benz engines in the 109 were pretty well subscribed. The German ministry wanted another
fighter for the Luftwaffe to fight alongside the 109. The gentleman designing it, a fantastic
aeronautical engineer called Kurt Tank. Bit of a hero in National Socialist Germany. Fantastic
aeronautical engineer and test pilot himself, Kurt Tank worked for Messerschmitt
a short time on his own but then his genius was revealed and he went on to
design what became the Focke-Wulf 190. Kurt Tank's design of the Focke-Wulf 190
very different from Willie Messerschmitt's 109. A 109 is sleek, aerodynamic. A
Focke-Wulf is hunched like a pitbull. Very strong in design. Tapered wing
edges. It could roll very fast. It could take a lot of punishment. And
the performance was electrifying. Well the 190 was a beautiful aircraft to handle.
Magnificent to fly and maneuver. Was very fast for a piston engine aircraft and it had nice
characteristics even to fly in bad weather. In a traditional engine like the V12 Rolls-Royce
Merlin or the inverted Daimler-Benz, also a V12 but inverted, the Pistons go up and down. Up
and down in a V hence the V12. The radial is different obviously because the cylinders and the
cylinder heads are spayed out like half a corn cob if you will. With a crank in the middle.
With it not being an inline engine it's got a larger frontal area, not as aerodynamic. But
very rugged indeed and can take quite a bit of punishment. As brilliant as a designer as Kurt
Tank was, of course all new design planes are going to have problems. And the Focke-Wulf wasn't
without them. The cooling of this huge powerful engine was a problem. Basically some of the pilots
enjoyed it because they like to keep the feet very warm. But it wasn't very good for the engine.
Initially cowlings to try and get more air into the fins of the cylinders and the cylinder
heads. But then ideas of fans came on board, first a 10 bladed fan and then later on with 12.
Therefore aiding the cooling of the huge powerful radial. Kurt Tank did a lot of testing himself,
in fact in one of the pre-production models nearly killed himself in an inverted spin. But of course
being the brilliant pilot he was he got out of it. The Focke-Wulf's problems were
eventually ironed out. Late 41, early 42 appearing in squadron service.
Very well made at the Focke-Wulf Factory and the pilots loved them. A Focke-Wulf
was rugged, with a big wide track. Yes, quite difficult to land because of the torque and
the power of it. But eventually with the modern things like electrical undercarriage, a roll
rate that was previously just about unknown, a huge amount of power, the Focke-Wulf was
very much liked by its Luftwaffe Pilots. When the Focke-Wulf became successful, a lot
of the aces stuck with the old tried and tested Messerschmitt 109s. But pilots like Otto Kittle
and Walter Nowatny changed to the Focke-Wulf. Another famous exponent of the Focke-Wulf 190,
Joseph 'Pips' Priller. Priller unfortunately having the famous distinction of shooting
down over 60 Spitfires with his Focke-Wulf. The National Socialists of course were very
proud of the design of their areoplanes and Priller actually posed with his BMW sports
car with his Focke-Wulf in the background. Just for a nice little promotion picture
for the national socialists and for BMW. The Focke-Wulf 190 first entered service in late
1941. First flying on the Western Front against the Royal Air Force. When the famous ace Johnnie
Johnson returned from his aerial battle first encountering the Focke-Wulf 190 he was amazed at
the performance of the new rugged aerplane that no one had seen before. And he got back and presented
his reports to his officers and exclaimed how deadly these areoplanes were that had just
had him and his Spitfire pilots for breakfast. I had seen one in late 1941 and I had reported
it as a new type of aircraft with square wind tips and a radal engine and I even drew
a sketch of it. And somebody at the Air Ministry came back and told us that it was
some French areoplanes which the Germans had refurbished. So the the the Focke-Wulf 190 took
our intelligence services completely by surprise. In 1941 the contemporary Spitfire was a Mk
V. A Spitfire Mk V was in trouble against a Focke-Wulf 190. A Focke-Wulf could out
climb it, out roll it, initially out dive it, but it couldn't outturn it. A MK V Spitfire
could just outturn the Focke-Wulf and from a very very high altitude eventually out dive it.
But in an initial dog fight it was outclassed in most respects. So to try and help the Mk V
Spitfire, to try and help it roll quicke,r they cliped the ends off the wings. Looks like it's
got a couple of metal snippers and gone clip, clip. But it hasn't it's just left the elliptical
end off the wing. So the surface area of the wing is not there, it can't turn as tight as it
would have done. But in an initial dogfight it could roll out the way quicker. Also to help
it they clipped and cropped the wheels and fans in the supercharger to make it spin up quicker.
But the Focke-Wulf still held the advantage. It wasn't until the introduction of the Spitfire
Mk IX with its two-speed, two-stage supercharged Merlin engine, nearly 1,700 horsepower, to
redress the balance against a Focke-Wulf. When the British government realised that the
Focke-Wulf 190 was not one of the P-36s left behind and something to be highly regarded
and fearful of. Balls started rolling even for a commando unit idea to go and steal one with
a pilot. But then as it happened we didn't really need to. A pilot called Armin Faber got lost in
some bad weather over the Bristol Channe.l He'd actually just had a dogfight with a Spitfire
and unfortunately shot it down. He hadn't got many hours in a Focke-Wulf and he wasn't the
most experienced Focke-Wulf pilot. He landed at an airfield that happened to be in southern
Wales. The Focke-Wulf was gestured by some RAF groundman into a pen. A quick thinking
Sergeant got hold of his very pistol, jumped onto his wing pointed it at the pilot's
head and then he realised what had happened. He was taken captive and Faber actually
tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide. Now we had a Focke-Wulf in captivity it had
to be tested and evaluated through hours and hours of painstaking testing. The impact
of having a Focke-Wulf in captivity can be seen in later years on the development of
the Hawker Tempest and the Hawker Sea Fury. The war on the Western Front, the air war was
one thing. On the Eastern Front it was a whole different ball game. We have 22 miles of sea. On
the Eastern Front they had a line. I think JG 52, a very famous Luftwaffe Squadron moved 30 to
40 times in the space of 2 and a half years as the war went good or bad for the Germans
or the Russians. Pilots were in a target-rich environment within 15 minutes flying time. All
the highest scoring aces of all time were all German pilots and mainly all on the Eastern Front.
Now the argument there is that when Germans first went towards the Eastern Front against Stalin
the Russian areoplanes weren't up to much. Yes that might be the case, the little Polikarpov
biplanes about the same sort of performance to the British Gladiator long before the war. But
with the Russian design bureaus like Lavochkin, Yakovlev, Mikoyan-Gurevich, and Ilyushin
with Stalin's gun at the back of the designer's head. They were working 24/7 to
get something to beat the Nazi war machine. In a modern day Formula 1 car drivers of
course have to be superbly fit to suffer modern day lateral G-forces that a Formula
1 car can produce. Back in the war time, a Focke-Wulf was at the pinnacle of piston
engine technology. And basically the pilots had to be fitter than modern Formula 1
drivers to pull the positive of plus 7, plus 8G in a Focke-Wulf 190 without the G suit
that modern jet pilots have. Pilots like Kittle and Nowotney were at the top of their game
with extremely capable and deadly fighters. The 109 obviously a tried and tested areoplane.
During the war time around 30,000 made in E, F, G and then right at the end of the war the K model.
The three main German aces it was their favorite areoplane and their weapon of choice. But again it
had its limitations. I spoke to Günther Rall and he didn't like the leading-edge slats that were
gravity controlled and came out all of a sudden when you were coming into land. The undercarriage
very slayed, like a giraffe having a drink if you will. Very difficult to land, a lot damage
and written off. The Focke-Wulf however, made in a different Factory, very rugged indeed.
Very strong electrical undercarriage, very wide. The pilots loved the areoplane. Notions of which
of the Luftwaffe fighter is the better aerplane between the 109 G, F or K or the Focke-Wulf
190A, to D can only be really down to the pilots themselves. Test pilots, some of them would put
the Focke-Wulf way above the one 109, but again when it's an extension of your right arm you make
the best use of the areoplane you're used to. With the Allies gaining air superiority in the end
of the war the threat against all German munitions factories, in fact all of Germany was pretty
grave indeed. Instead of attacking the formations of heavy bombers from all angles, with the threat
of the escort as well to deal with, German pilots would hurl themselves headon at the stream of
heavily armed B-17s so all thats needed then at a closing speed of nearly 600mph, which is over
in a second, is a couple of cannon shells in the cockpit of the B-17 and that aeroplane is going
down with 10 very brave young Americans on board. 1944, 45 the culmination of the Focke-Wulf design
came in the D model and the TA152. TA for Tank, after his name. The D model Focke-Wulf 190 is
in Eric 'Winkle' Brown's list of the top 20 best areoplanes that he ever flew. And bearing
in mind he flew more marks than anybody else basically in history, that gentleman ought to
know. The Focke-Wulf 190D could be going up with the Tempest at 440 mph. Ahe TA152, the very
last one, could also operate way above 30,000ft. Of course towards the end of the war the
Messerschmitt 262 shocked everyone. A swept wing jet, it was years ahead of anything that the
Allies had. However it was very very poorly made, by slave laborers who may accidentally,
on purpose if the foreman isn't watching leave a rivet out or two and quite a few of
them crashed inexplicably. The Focke-Wulf, even though a step back in a piston engined
areoplane, in its rugged design was very well made to the tune of 20,000 Focke-Wulfs serving
on just about all fronts in the Second World War. Towards the latter part of the war 1943, 44
and onwards Luftwaffe pilots were getting rare. Towards 44 and 45 on the Eastern Front if
you were a Luftwaffe fighter pilot you either very good or very dead. Pilots were getting
sparse, of course certainly in frontline units. Not much better than Hitler Youth were being
sent up in areoplanes like Focke-Wulf 190s. A few hour and then getting up in one of the
most deadly fighters around. But no matter who was behind the controls, the Allied pilots
always had respect for the Focke-Wulf 190.
