FW190 in RAF markings

Is Faber still with us? He could be, judging from this website:
http://www.aviartnutkins.com/pages/luftwaffe_art.htm

William

I’m sorry to say that Armin passed away several years ago.

Geoff

One of our volunteers who is quite remarkably an ex spitfire and test pilot still remembers his first posting to Sicily where an abandoned 190 was put through its paces by his C.O. and Flight leader.Think he was in 602 Squadron at the time.Did his training in Rhodesia and finished the war in another Squadron in Burma before returning to test fly here in S/E Queensland.Anyone know of many 190,s abandoned in the Med??

I have a shot somewhere of a captured FW 190 in the med with one u/c leg collapsed having just been ground looped by an american pilot. There was a lot of it about…..
PS. Could you check that squadron number?

One of our volunteers who is quite remarkably an ex spitfire and test pilot still remembers his first posting to Sicily where an abandoned 190 was put through its paces by his C.O. and Flight leader.Think he was in 602 Squadron at the time.Did his training in Rhodesia and finished the war in another Squadron in Burma before returning to test fly here in S/E Queensland.Anyone know of many 190,s abandoned in the Med??

Is Faber still with us? He could be, judging from this website:
http://www.aviartnutkins.com/pages/luftwaffe_art.htm

William

I have been in continuous touch with Len Thorne, who not only flew the Mk XII Spitfire but also surviving Spitfire MH415 when it was at the AFDU.

I knew he had quite a lot of hours on the FW190 and I have just found this little paragraph on Google:-

…One of them was flown for nearly 50 hours by Len Thorne–one of the surviving test pilots at the AFDU. Len, now in his eighties, remembers his flights in this machine well: “Having mastered the techniques of takeoff and landing, I thoroughly enjoyed the eight months of the assignment. The high cruising speed, well in excess of 300mph, compared very favourably with the Spitfire and was similar to the Merlin-engine Mustang, the Thunderbolt, Typhoon and Tempest. The cockpit was roomy and well laid out, and the teardrop canopy gave excellent visibility. In my estimation, the Fw 190 A-3 is classed with the Spitfire VIII or IX and the Mustang III. It was one of the best fighters of WW II

Using Supermarine test pilot Jeffrey Quill!

Yes, so Quill wrote.
Although he himself admits it would have been a very risky mission I would rate it almost foolhardy to have used him. The intelligence implications of his being captured would have been considerable. I have often wondered if he was really being sounded out as to the feasibility of using another pilot in a less sensitive post. It would have been a bit of overkill I feel to have had to use a test pilot of his status and importance to swipe a line aircraft. There was actually of course a case of a 190 being stolen by a shot-down American pilot and flown home later in the war.

allegedly removed the motivation for the UK plan to steal one from an airfield in France.

Using Supermarine test pilot Jeffrey Quill!

Thanks for that ( although I’m fairly old I wasn’t on first name terms with him 🙂 )

The Pembrey aircraft was I believe Joachim Farber’s (? its from my poor memory) .

The pilot’s first name was Armin (although this is often wrongly written as ‘Arnim’). Here is a link to the page on our website re the remains of his Fw190 http://www.shoreham-aircraft-museum.co.uk/faber.htm

Geoff.

Part of it IIRC. I think the 2 stage blower started for the Wellington VI ( high altitude) using a first stage off of a Vulture ….? I’m sure there are Merlin 60 experts out there who know the story far better.
You could try Hookers “Not much of an Engineer” for his version . I’ll see if I can dig my copy out.

According to “The Merlin In Perspective” The first Merlin 61 was ready on Chrismas Day 1941

Best wishes
Steve P

The remains of Faber’s FW 190 are at the Shoreham Aircraft Museum . . . 😀

Did it look anything like this ?

Part of it IIRC. I think the 2 stage blower started for the Wellington VI ( high altitude) using a first stage off of a Vulture ….? I’m sure there are Merlin 60 experts out there who know the story far better.
You could try Hookers “Not much of an Engineer” for his version . I’ll see if I can dig my copy out.

I’d forgotten about that book. I’ve seen it but haven’t got it. I was thinking about an interview with Hooker on a programme called ‘The Plane Makers’ I fished out on video recently, where he states that it was one of his first senior posts (if not the first) he had with RR. This followed a report he’d written regarding supercharging and he was given the job, along with aforementioned blower. Mind you, I don’t recall him mentioning WHEN he landed the job, so it’s not inconceivable that he worked on the Vulture.

We certainly had another two, NF754 and NF755, both captured in December 1942.

Wasn’t the Pembrey aircraft, after evaluation, part of the catalyst to have the two-stage blower fitted to the Merlin. IIRC this mod was designed by Stanley Hooker at Rolls (who later went on to develop the Harrier’s engine design)

Part of it IIRC. I think the 2 stage blower started for the Wellington VI ( high altitude) using a first stage off of a Vulture ….? I’m sure there are Merlin 60 experts out there who know the story far better.
You could try Hookers “Not much of an Engineer” for his version . I’ll see if I can dig my copy out.

Ah haa! again, GIS throws up a couple of snaps of the aircraft… http://images.google.ie/images?q=MP499&btnG=Search&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=

We certainly had another two, NF754 and NF755, both captured in December 1942.

Wasn’t the Pembrey aircraft, after evaluation, part of the catalyst to have the two-stage blower fitted to the Merlin. IIRC this mod was designed by Stanley Hooker at Rolls (who later went on to develop the Harrier’s engine design)

The Pembrey aircraft was I believe Joachim Farber’s (? its from my poor memory) who apparently got mixed up between the French and Welsh coasts. I think it was Roy Nesbit who wrote this up very well a few years back in an article in one of the comics. This “lucky accident” 🙂 allegedly removed the motivation for the UK plan to steal one from an airfield in France.

Ah haaa! Thank you!

The FW190 landed at Pembrey, 23/6/42. It was an FW190A-3 and carried the serial MP499. It served with the Royal Aircraft Establishment (Farnborough) for evaluation and was struck off charge on 18/9/43

Sounds like it. The programme had a local who told of a couple of myths about the landing. One was that a refueling bowser drew up to the plane and the crew, thinking it was Norwegian (!), said to the pilot “Strange types you lot fly!”. Another was that before landing the pilot flew over the airfield inverted and extending his u/c!