OT : Wings of the Luftwaffe

[paulb]

Reading the recent threads about the Fw190 (and having just bought the package myself), I found myself reading "Wings of the Luftwaffe" again. For those who don't know, this is a book by Capt Eric Brown. It covers his experiences flying a number of Luftwaffe aircraft immediately after the end of WW2. The book includes his experience of the Fw190 A-4/U8 (amongst others). It makes fascinating reading and somehow makes flying the aircraft in FSX more enjoyable. I can highly recommend the book.

BTW, he also wrote a similar book "Wings of the Navy", which is equally excellent! :d

[Mathias]

When reading Wrinkle Brown's take on the Fw190A one should be aware that this A-4/U8 suffered from aileron damage and repair.
His writeup is part of the myth why some believe an Fw190 is a stalling bitch. :-)

[paulb]

When reading Wrinkle Brown's take on the Fw190A one should be aware that this A-4/U8 suffered from aileron damage and repair.
His writeup is part of the myth why some believe an Fw190 is a stalling bitch. :-)

Hi Mathias

Can you recommend any similar books which cover flying Luftwaffe fighters?

[Mathias]

Oh, there's a lot out there, of varying quality.
Generally speaking, keep you fingers away from stuff older than from the 1995ish and from this "all Luftwaffe aircraft on 200 pages" kind of stuff if you are looking for accurate technical material.
I can't really think of another good quality allaround Luftwaffe title other than Wrinkle Brown's "aviation memories".
There's of course a lot of good stuff around on specific aircraft.
There's a very good print magazine that comes with excellent detail infos on pilots, machines and operations, "Luftwaffe im Focus". It's printed in German and English language and comes three times a year.
http://www.luftfahrtverlag-start.de/EHomepage/LwFEnglisch/lwfenglisch.html#Edition17
A good place to get reviews of old and new Luftwaffe titles is http://www.luftwaffe-experten.org/forums/index.php?act=idx (requires registration to view all subforums.
towards the bottom there is a number of subfora dealing explicitely with Luftwaffe literature sorted by publisher.

[paulb]

Thanks Mathias, I will check out those links.

I have many books (100+) covering Luftwaffe aircraft history/individual aircraft markings etc, but very few talk in any depth about the handling characteristics and generally 'what its like to fly' them.

Another book -that I quite enjoy - is Luftwaffe Test Pilot by Hans-Werner Lerche. However that covers flying captured allied aircraft in WW2.

Cheers

Paul

[Paul K]

I believe Capt. Eric 'Winkle' Brown RN holds the record for having flown more WW2 aircraft types ( both Allied and Axis ) than any other man in history. I read his account of taking up a Blohm & Voss BV141 at an airfield occupied by the Red Army. He just drove up in jeep, asked the OIC ' Do you mind if I take that thing up for a spin ?', did a couple of circuits in it and wrote up a report. Nice way of doing business.

[paulb]

I believe Capt. Eric 'Winkle' Brown RN holds the record for having flown more WW2 aircraft types ( both Allied and Axis ) than any other man in history. I read his account of taking up a Blohm & Voss BV141 at an airfield occupied by the Red Army. He just drove up in jeep, asked the OIC ' Do you mind if I take that thing up for a spin ?', did a couple of circuits in it and wrote up a report. Nice way of doing business.

LOL! :icon_lol:

I think that he has a nice writing style, which makes his books an easy read. The 'Wings of' are my favourites because - in addition to his writing about test flights - they are well illustrated with photographs, 3 view drawings, cockpit panel diagrams, brief specification details and 3D cutaways of most of the aircraft.

[SkippyBing]

I believe Capt. Eric 'Winkle' Brown RN holds the record for having flown more WW2 aircraft types ( both Allied and Axis ) than any other man in history.


He actually holds the record for most types of aircraft flown at 400 and something, not just WW2 types, which is more impressive when you realise that for the purposes of the record the 14 Spitfire variants he's flown count as 1 type!
He also holds the record for number of carrier landings.