Warbird Information Exchange

Focke Wulf Fw 190 High-altitude developments. The Fw 190C V18 prototype, with large ventral "pouch" fairing for the turbocharger installation and broader-chord vertical fin/rudder.

Designer Kurt Tank started looking at ways to address the altitude performance problem early in the program. In 1941, he proposed a number of versions featuring new powerplants, and he suggested using turbochargers in place of superchargers. Three such installations were outlined.

Fw 190 V12
(an A-0) would be outfitted with many of the elements which eventually led to the B series.
Fw 190 V13
(W.Nr. 0036) first C-series prototype
Fw 190 V15
(W.Nr. 0036) second C-series prototype
Fw 190 V16
(W.Nr. 0036) third C-series prototype
Fw 190 V18
(W.Nr. 0036) fourth C-series prototype

The Fw 190A series' performance decreased at high altitudes (usually 6,000 m (20,000 ft) and above), which reduced its effectiveness as a high-altitude interceptor. From the Fw 190's inception, there had been ongoing efforts to address this with a turbosupercharged BMW 801 in the B model, the much longer-nosed C model with efforts to also turbocharge its chosen Daimler-Benz DB 603 inverted V12 powerplant, and the similarly long-nosed D model with the Junkers Jumo 213. Problems with the turbocharger installations on the -B and -C subtypes meant only the D model entered service in September 1944. These high-altitude developments eventually led to the Focke-Wulf Ta 152, which was capable of extreme speeds at medium to high altitudes (755kph/469mph at 13,500m/44,300ft).[5] While these "long nose" 190 variants and the Ta 152 derivative especially gave the Germans parity with Allied opponents, they arrived too late to affect the outcome of the war.

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45+47=Psalm 92:6

I have a limited-run 1/48 model kit of that airplane. I need to dig it out and build it sometime.

What a great start to 2020 Mark

Thanks for posting. Very nice

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Better is the enemy of Good.

The nice thing about those photos, is the guys flying the flag werk FW-190’s with the Chinese engine and four bladed props can say “ yes, a few Fw-190s flew with a four bladed prop.”

Would be a nice goal for a Flug Werk builder to make a copy of this design....not a combat plane, but a really neat pattern for a build.....

The V-18 looks awkward with the turbo seeming tacked on.
This seems to be the case with any fighter aircraft not designed around the turbo system and retrofitted with one.
Is there any example of a turbo being successfully retro fitted to an existing fighter design?
Bombers were different as the wing mounted engines and nacelles gave greater ability to add turbos without compromises eg B-17, B-24 all started without turbos but quickly gained them.

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Chris Mellor

You could compare the evolution of the P-41 to the P-43 to the P-47,

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

The P-41 and P-43 were developed in parallel and the P-43 installation was better integrated than the V-18, hardly looking bolt on at all. The P-47 was more refined and bigger!

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Chris Mellor

Was this FW.190 design influenced by the P-51, or made independent of that?

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Kevin McCartney

I'm guessing independently since the Meredith paper was published in 1936. In fact, the Germans may have already known of it through their own research, but I don't know either way.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meredith_effect

https://www.hq.nasa.gov/pao/History/SP-445/ch5-5.htm

Not looking bolted on, but all of the supercharger trunking run below the wing of the previous generations, giving the P-47 its distinctive egg shaped fuselage section.

For looking kind of kludged you'd need to look at early American aircraft of the 30's with exposed, vertically mounted turbo-superchargers and piping.

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.