Innholdsfortegnelse for January - February 2022 i Flight Journal

The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 originated from an order from the German Air Ministry in the autumn of 1937 for a single-seat fighter to supplement the Messerschmitt Bf 109. Designed by Focke-Wulf’s chief designer, Kurt Tank, the Fw 190 was very nearly stillborn and its gestation period was troubled with problems, including overheating engines. Despite some fine qualities, the Fw 190 was eventually accepted for production only because it was to be powered by a BMW air-cooled radial engine, meaning that production of the Daimler-Benz liquid-cooled aero engines could be preserved for the Bf 109. The pugnacious shape and size of the Fw 190’s BMW 801 powerplant was its most obvious difference from the Bf 109. On the Fw 190 A-4, this was a BMW 801D-2 developing 1700hp. The first Fw…

As a boy, my dreams were all about aviation. The thought of flying was almost an obsession, and while attending college, I did learn to fly through the U.S.government’s Civilian Pilot Training Program. Later, I volunteered to be a U.S. Army Aviation Cadet, and before I got my silver wings, I decided I wanted to be a fighter pilot. Then, living my dream, my first assignment was to a P-39 fighter group. Later, I was one of the original pilots assigned to the 357th Fighter Group. We trained in the P-39 and then deployed to England in 1943. There, flying the new P-51 Mustang, our mission was to protect the 8th Air Force heavy bombers over German-occupied Europe. I considered myself a fighter pilot and now wanted to join that…

From a Luftwaffe pilot’s point of view, the Fw 190 was ideally suited to the Eastern Front for a number of reasons, not least its big radial engine. Its bulk offered a degree of protection for the pilot and it could absorb an enormous amount of damage which, in an arena where low-level operations were dominant and enemy ground fire was a constant hazard, provided considerably improved survivability over the Bf 109. However, if the Fw 190 engine did fail, the aircraft possessed the gliding characteristics of a brick! Bailing out was recommended rather than attempting a dead-stick landing, although some pilots, including Otto Kittel, managed to crash-land successfully. Another significant advantage of the Fw 190 on the Eastern front was its strong wide-track undercarriage, which made for excellent ground…

Captain Thomas A. Dwelle had no interest in the Distinguished Flying Cross or any of the U.S. Air Force’s other air medals by the time he’d spent a few months flying the Douglas A-1E Skyraider in South Vietnam. “At least once a month, sometimes twice, we’d stand out on the ramp and some general officer would come through to pin medals on a guy.” “I thought, ‘Screw this.’ I’d rather be flying!” Stationed at Bien Hoa Air Base, 16 miles northeast of Saigon in South Vietnam, Dwelle was a pilot with the 602nd Air Commando Squadron, a unit that had been activated secretly in 1964 at Hurlburt AFB, Florida to train Air Force pilots to fly the A-1E. Adapted from the U.S. Navy’s AD-5, the twin-seat E model was known…

Over 36,000 Ilyushin IL-2 Sturmoviks were manufactured by the Soviet Union. The front fuselage of the aircraft was essentially an armored “bathtub”, the armor plate ranging in thickness from 5-12mm (2-5 inches), designed to protect the engine, the pilot’s cockpit, the coolant and oil radiators, and the fuel tanks. Reliable and tough, but relatively slow (top speed was only about 250mph) and not especially maneuverable, the Sturmovik was armed with two forward firing 23mm cannons and two 7.62mm machine guns. The air-to-ground armament of the IL-2 included rockets, which were very inaccurate, and small “shaped charge” 1.5 kg (3.3 lb.) bomblets, which were first used on a large scale during the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, and which could easily penetrate the upper armor of the German heavy tanks.…

On a chilly December day, master warbird pilot and Planes of Fame Air Museum President Steve Hinton pulled back on the stick of the Flying Heritage Collection’s (FHC) freshly restored Focke Wulf Fw 190A-5/U3 and took to the air in the only airworthy, original example of the legendary German fighter. “It hit me right away,” Steve says. “Holy smoke! I’m flying a real 190! I was thrilled to death that I could fly a piece of history like that.” Hinton has amassed thousands of flight hours, piloting almost every WW II piston-engine fighter you can think of plus a host of Korean War era jets as well as WW I fighters, championshipwinning Unlimited class air racers, and more. But for the man who’s flown more than 50 P-51 Mustangs, taking…

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