FW-190 propensity to spin

[Stephan Wilkinson]

I have read that the Focke-Wulf FW-190 had a dangerous propensity to stall, flick and flat-spin if turned too tightly at too slow a speed. (Which sounds to me like what a lot of aircraft, from Cessna 150s on up, will do if mishandled.) Was this a dangerous trait that cost a lot of airplanes or just something to be routinely avoided? Which I guess is another way of asking, was this FW-190 trait exaggerated?

[fiftycal]

any aircraft will flick if you push it, its not so much about your speed but your angle of attack that will get you into trouble, as for getting flat in a spin that is more to do with the CG, for example the PA38 has a tendency to go flat but if it starts flattening out you just need to slide your seat forward as far as you can go to change the CG and if its not fully developed you would be ok.

[JohnB]

I've just finished reading a Christmas gift, The German Fighter since 1915 by Rudiger Kosin, a 1988 Putnam translation of the 1983 German language book.
Kosin was a design office director and engineering pilot for Heinkel and Arado (which built Fw-190s under license. He evaluated several aircraft for the Luftwaffe and Air Ministry and quotes other reports on various aircraft at length. In short, the book goes into a good deal of detail about the strengths and weaknesses of various type.

He says the initial Fw 190 tests were fine and no handling issues were found. ..."The aircraft showed no pronounced tendency to drop a wing when stalled"...and predictably, he complimented its wide track landing gear (which after all the troubles with the Bf-109 he describes, is understandable).
He does make several mentions of the aircraft's two biggest faults, the unreliability of its BMW engine and the factthe cockpit was very warm "One pilots initial assessment was 'the Fw 190 is a pilot's frying pan' ".

Interesting stiff on most of the German fighters from an industry "insider".

[JimH]

Here is a link to a Youtube video of Jay Cullum (sp?) spinning a Mustang. It gets real interesting at the 6:30 mark.

Jim

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGaz-610mx4

[Stephan Wilkinson]

any aircraft will flick if you push it

That's basically what I said, having screwed up enough times myself to be aware of it.

[pjpahs]

I have read that the initial FW 190 had the BMW 139 radial engine and maybe that was the
engine that was the unreliable one and it was WARM in the cockpit. They changed to the BMW 801
for more power and maybe reliability, and had to move the cockpit more aft to counter
the heavier 801 and to correct for center of balance, and it moved the pilot farther from that
14 cylinder furnace, and maybe put in better venting.