Focke Wulf 190D9 Cottbus (Early)- IBG 72531

Fw 190D was the final mass-produced version of the ‘golden child’ of Focke-Wulf company, that lived to see many variants differing in armament and engines used.

Although the version of Fw 190 equipped with an inline engine is often considered to be a late-war design, its history in fact dates back to earlier years and follows a natural direction of the machine’s development. As early as 1941 it was obvious that German fighters would have to contend with Allied bombers equipped with turbocharged engines capable of sustaining high power at altitudes exceeding 6000m. Focke-Wulf realized that the Allies were rapidly gaining the technical advantage and began courting the Air Ministry for a contract to develop versions that would sustain their combat characteristics at higher altitudes. Work soon began on developing fighters equipped with turbocharger. Initial trials with a radial engine (Fw 190B) were not promising and the attention of designers focused on inline engines (Fw 190C with DB603 engine). Despite extensive development programs, both versions were plagued by technical problems resulting from severely underdeveloped systems. Eventually they did not meet with the RLM enthusiasm, remaining only in prototype stages. In the end, advances in the development of the Junkers Jumo 213 engine gave hopes for a fighter that could at last match the more advanced designs of the enemy.