Perhaps I’m getting carried away with the sight of the FW-190 taking off on Saturday at Legends, but from my poor position (not far from airspace) it seemed to have a far shorter take off run than the rest of the fighters that took off with it.
I got to thinking about the Graff Zeppelin aircraft carrier of WW2 and the Bf-109 developed for service on her. Surely the FW-190 would have been a better option? It is smaller, with a wide undercarriage, with a forward view that was poor but much the same as all “tail draggers” and not much worse?
I know that the German Navy were hot and cold with the aircraft carrier idea but wouldn’t the FW-190 been a better choice, especially as it later effectively replaced the JU-87 in the ground attack role so may also been able to take on the “strike” duties?
By: antoni - 14th July 2009 at 23:13
All aircraft had to be launched by catapult from the GZ. Its catapults could not launch the later, heavier versions of the bf 109 or the Fw 190. It would have taken too long to design and build new catapults.
By: PanzerJohn - 14th July 2009 at 22:05
I would have thought the 190 would be easier to land on a carrier than a 109 with its narrow track undercart and tendency to nose over.
By: Arabella-Cox - 14th July 2009 at 21:55
It is an interesting question to pose i suppose the biggest thing against the FW190 over the BF109 was the aircrafts weight as a FW190 was approx 2500kg heavier than the std carrier BF109 and it was larger, plus the germans lost interest in the carrier pretty quickly as it knew it would have no use in the wider war plus the aircraft designed for it were below par compared to their land based cousins.
The Germans did consider replacing the 109 on the Graf Zeppelin with another type but by the time the FW190 entered service the Graf Zeppelin was being used as a wood shed believe it or not.
curlyboy
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July 14, 2009 at 7:24 pm