Fw190 flying again!!

[stiz]

"We are excited to report, yesterday afternoon (December 1), the Flying Heritage Collection’s Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5 flew for the first time since 1943. Warbird test pilot Steve Hinton lifted into the skies for a 20-minute maiden flight to test all major systems. Hinton reported that the vintage fighter passed its trial flight with flying colors. “The plane is very light, fast, and responsive,” reported Hinton. “This lived up to the history books.” Future flights will take place though December, and soon, the rare vintage aircraft will be on its way to Washington State to be put on display at the FHC. Photo courtesy of Jim Larsen and Air Classics magazine"

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=477343128665&set=a.115249348665.100226.13883518665

[CP1207]

Had no idea. Thanks for sharing!
More WWII stuff flying now than when I was a kid in the 60-70s.

[brad kaste]

stiz,....do you have any idea why it wasn't painted beforehand? It appears to be kind of a dead looking green color. Maybe a primer of some sort? And the rudder isn't painted with no markings/insignia of any kind. Seems odd to me......

[stiz]

well it was the first flight of a just restored machine, so guessing its better to leave it unpainted when testing it so any work that needed doing didnt scratch the paint work or if it crashed landed it wouldnt need to be repainted?? that or they have picked a scheme yet which is prolly more likely.

[Allen]

stiz,....do you have any idea why it wasn't painted beforehand? It appears to be kind of a dead looking green color. Maybe a primer of some sort? And the rudder isn't painted with no markings/insignia of any kind. Seems odd to me......


Look like to me that the rudder and part of the cowl is painted white... I could be wrong.

[stiz]

from WIX


This is a remarkably original aircraft. Excluding the engine which is rebuilt from half a dozen examples, new prop and all the electrics the vast majority of the structure is original. The wing had a new spar, couple of repaired ribs and a new leading edge but nearly everything else is original right down to the skins. Similar story to the fuselage.

The MG151 cannons are original, MG17's second hand new. It also has a rebuilt ETC501 bomb rack which will be great to see. Even the canopy perspex is original - recovered from a lake and the master compass was second hand.

and


The FHC's Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-5 will be painted like it was the day it was lost. The plane is a strange mixture of "in the field" colors applied over the top of its factory scheme. Unlike the typical gray over gray seen on many Fw 190s, mechanics in Russia covered the plane's top surfaces in forest colors they scrounged from the locals—green, dark green, and brown. Since they were not typical German colors, the skins from the wreck had to be matched to come up with the proper shades

guess the colours on it now is the orig paint?!?

[brad kaste]

...It's hard to believe they'd leave it so butt ugly as the link/photo shows it. There's a tremendous amount of different paint schemes they could use for the FW-190,..and they decided to use one that looks like an aircraft was dragged through a swamp? Makes absolutely no sense to me.....

[stiz]

their not gonna leave it like that, gonna look like this when its painted

24633

edit - little article http://www.eaa.org/news/2010/2010-12-02_fw190.asp

[Willy]

Thanks for the link Stitz. There's another link there that has videos of the A-5 as a wreck in the swamp and a runup of the rebuilt engine.

[Wulf190]

Awesome! It would be nice to get some good audio recordings from that bird!

[Mathias]

Excellent news!
Seems they couldn't wait to get the puppy up in the air since the first test run of the unmounted engine was just by early October.

[stansdds]

I couldn't care less about it's current paint (probably just a primer or base coat anyway), but it's nice to see another WW II era combat aircraft back in its element.

[Chunk]

I will make a special trip to the PNW just to see this bird fly! For anybody that lives up there, the entire Flying Heritage collection is absolutely phenomenal! Totally worth a look.

[Wittpilot]

I am thinking this is the airframe when they found it in the forest.... Someone can correct me if I'm wrong....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jueDXiuU6aM

Brad,
This is typically the way things go with warbirds. Usually flight testing is done before any major painting.

[edit]
Sorry Willy, I didn't see your post.... You mentioned the swamp and I dind't see it... So the link you speak of is the one I posted I believe...

[Willy]

That's the same video I found linked to earlier. According to the links, it's the same Fw 190 that just flew.

[Bomber_12th]

This is definitely one of those warbird restorations ranking right up there as being one of the most significant of all time. It has been 61 years since the last, true, Fw 190 has flown. The aircraft is 100% authentic, with almost all of the structure, and even skins, original to this specific aircraft - that is how good the condition the aircraft was in when discovered in 1990! As many have stated, if it wasn't for the deep pockets of Paul Allen, this aircraft wouldn't be flying, as it demanded so much intensive work to get, what was an extinct aircraft (in an airworthy sense), flying again, and not just that, but be 'impossibly' authentic. The aircraft, for the most part, was restored at the uncompromising JME Aviation, in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region> (now disbanded - same place that FHC's Bf 109E was restored), with final work being undertaken at GossHawk Unlimited, here in the states. Vintage V-12's/Vintage Radials were of course the go-to guys to get an original BMW-801 running again, complete with a fully functioning Kommandogerat engine-computer. The engine itself required the parts of 12 different examples (as is the case with such rare engines).<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
Mr. Steve Hinton now can lay claim to having flown both a FlugWerk FW 190 (replica), and this original Focke-Wulf Fw 190 (note the designation differences, as respected amongst the warbird/historian community). I really hope he will write about, or at least will discuss in some capacity, the differences between the two.
<o:p></o:p>
As indicated before, it is extremely common to wait until flight testing is done, before laying down an expensively authentic paint scheme. In some cases these vintage aircraft require mechanics to crawl over them, during the flight test program, to make final adjustments and tune in the aircraft, which would very easily lead to early, unnecessary wear & tear on the paint. As seen in the photo, the aircraft is simply bare, in primer, with some areas of bare metal and doped-fabric. It sounds like it will be painted early next year, with its public debut at Paine Field, early in the FHC-based display-season next Spring/Summer.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
The final paint scheme, as indicated already, will be exact to how it looked on its last mission, and you can count on it being correct to the Nth degree possible, just like the rest of the aircraft. Besides this, the scheme is amazing - not only just original to this aircraft, but interesting in its own right.
<o:p></o:p>
For Paul Allen's Flying Heritage Collection, there is also an original Me 262 under restoration to airworthy at the moment. Word has it that original Jumo engines are being restored/rebuilt, for operation in the aircraft, re-engineered at least to some degree, to improve reliability over the original design to the point that the aircraft will be safe to fly. This aircraft too, like the rest of Paul Allen's aircraft, is being restored to near impossible standards, not skipping over a single detail of the original.<o:p></o:p>

[Allen]

This is typically the way things go with warbirds. Usually flight testing is done before any major painting.


This way if it crashes your not out the money for the paint! :jump:

[Chunk]

Awesome! It would be nice to get some good audio recordings from that bird!

Here's the first start-up!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1DYiPJAunA

[stiz]

blimey that sounds completly different to the flugwerk stuff, must sound great in the air!

[Allen]

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
For Paul Allen's Flying Heritage Collection, there is also an original Me 262 under restoration to airworthy at the moment. Word has it that original Jumo engines are being restored/rebuilt, for operation in the aircraft, re-engineered at least to some degree, to improve reliability over the original design to the point that the aircraft will be safe to fly. This aircraft too, like the rest of Paul Allen's aircraft, is being restored to near impossible standards, not skipping over a single detail of the original.<o:p></o:p>

That Me-262 is a Me 262A-1a/U3 unarmed photoreconnaissance version (FE-4012). It has a fighter nose fitted to becasue testing by the USAAF. The Me-262A-1a at the National Air and Space Museum (FE-111) had and may still have the nose from Paul Allen's Me-262A-1/U3. I think the NASM modified the photoreconnaissance nose to be a fighter nose. I can't say this for sure as it has been to long for me to know for sure. Also Howard Hughes owned Paul Allen's Me-262A-1/U3 at one time. Hope the can find a U3 photoreconnaissance for it.



NASM Me-262A-1a (FE-111) "Dennis" With Me 262A-1a/U3 (FE-4012)'s nose before restore at one point.
http://www.stormbirds.net/images_variants/me262A-1aU3_photo3.jpg

[Bomber_12th]

Allen, yep, that's the one! I recall my dad talking about that plane when I was very young, discussing how Hughes had wanted to race the aircraft, but was denied in light of the fact that it would likely have beat out all of the US-military aircraft competing against it at the time.

It seems that disclosure of photos and video of the first flights is limited to only a couple of sources, as instructed by Paul Allen (or 'his people'), thus there hasn't been much but that take-off photo, and ground-running video. However, I read a statement by one of the individuals in attendance, that when the 190 did a low pass at the end of its first flight, the sound of the engine was so smooth, it was like a cross between a radial and a V12 - quite unlike the raspy/tractor sound of the Ash-82 powered FlugWerk examples.

[Allen]

Allen, yep, that's the one! I recall my dad talking about that plane when I was very young, discussing how Hughes had wanted to race the aircraft, but was denied in light of the fact that it would likely have beat out all of the US-military aircraft competing against it at the time.

The first pic I posted is not the one Hughes wanted to race. The pic is the one that National Air and Space Museum has.


Me 262A-1a/U3 (FE-4012) After Hughes bought it for racing. It has the NASM Me-262A-1a (FE-111) Fighter nose on it.

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/images/lrg0014.jpg