Focke-Wulf
Fw 190 Würger
 Photo: Robert Deering 10/23/2006
National Air and Space Museum
Dulles International Airport (IAD)
Chantilly, Virginia
Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG (German pronunciation: [ˌfɔkəˈvʊlf]) was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during World War II.  Many of the company's successful fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.
More about the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger

HISTORY

The company was founded in Bremen on 24 October 1923 as Bremer Flugzeugbau AG by Prof. Henrich Focke, Georg Wulf and Dr. rer. pol. Werner Naumann  Almost immediately, they renamed the company Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG (later Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH).

Focke-Wulf merged, under government pressure, with Albatros-Flugzeugwerke of Berlin in 1931. Albatros-Flugzeugwerke engineer and test pilot Kurt Tank became head of the technical department and started work on the Fw 44 Stieglitz (Goldfinch).

Dr Ludwig Roselius became Chairman in 1925 and handed over to his brother Friedrich in early 1933. In 1938 Roselius' HAG combine increased its shareholding to 46% and Lorenz A.G. secured 28%. The company was reconstituted as Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH and no longer had to publish its accounts. A substantial capital injection occurred at this time.

In August 1933 Hans Holle and Rudolf Schubert were given power of attorney over the Berlin branch of Focke-Wulf. Then in October 1933, Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau A.G. Albatros Berlin was officially registered with the Department of Trade.

Dr Roselius always remained the driving force of Focke-Wulf. He and his closest collaborator, Barbara Goette, often met with technical director Professor Kurt Tank. When Roselius died in May 1943, Heinrich Puvogel continued handling the financial affairs of Focke-Wulf as chief of Seehandel A.G.

Hanna Reitsch demonstrated the Focke-Wulf Fw 61, the first fully controllable helicopter (as opposed to autogyro), in Berlin in 1938. The four-engined Fw 200 airliner flew nonstop between Berlin and New York City on August 10, 1938, making the journey in 24 hours and 56 minutes. It was the first aircraft to fly that route without stopping. The return trip on August 13, 1938 took 19 hours and 47 minutes. These flights are commemorated with a plaque in the Böttcherstraße street of Bremen.

The Fw 190 Würger (butcher-bird), designed from 1938 on, and produced in quantity from early 1941–1945, was a mainstay single-seat fighter for the Luftwaffe during World War II.

Repeated bombing of Bremen in World War II resulted in the mass-production plants being moved to eastern Germany and Poland, with AGO Flugzeugwerke of Oschersleben as a major subcontractor for the Fw 190. Those plants used many foreign and forced labourers, and from 1944 also prisoners of war. Focke-Wulf's 100-acre (0.40 km2) plant at Marienburg produced approximately half of all Fw 190s and was bombed by the Eighth Air Force on October 9, 1943.

Many Focke-Wulf workers, including Kurt Tank, worked at the Instituto Aerotécnico in Córdoba, Argentina between 1947 and 1955. Focke-Wulf began to make gliders in 1951, and in 1955, motorised planes. Focke-Wulf, Weserflug and Hamburger Flugzeugbau joined forces in 1961 to form the Entwicklungsring Nord (ERNO) to develop rockets.

ITT Corporation, which had acquired a 25% stake in the company prior to the war, won $27 million in compensation in the 1960s for the damage that was inflicted on its share of the Focke-Wulf plant by WWII Allied bombing. Focke-Wulf formally merged with Weserflug in 1964, becoming Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW), which after several further mergers it is now part of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V. (EADS).

Source: Wikipedia
AIRCRAFT      
       
Focke-Wulf A 3      
Focke-Wulf A 4      
Focke-Wulf A 5      
Focke-Wulf A 6      
Focke-Wulf A 7      
Focke-Wulf A 16 1924   Light transport aircraft
Focke-Wulf A 17 Möwe (Gull) 1927   8-passenger airliner
Focke-Wulf A 20 Habicht (Hawk) 1927   4-passenger airliner, .
Focke-Wulf A 21 Photomöwe  1929   Aerial photography version of A 17
Focke-Wulf A 26     Engine testbed
Focke-Wulf A 28     Re-engined A 20
Focke-Wulf A 29 1929   Production version of A 17
Focke-Wulf A 32 Bussard (Buzzard) 1930   Airliner
Focke-Wulf A 33 Sperber (Sparrowhawk) 1930   3-passenger airliner
Focke-Wulf A 36 Mastgans (Mast Goose) 1931.   Mail plane
Focke-Wulf A 38 Möwe (Gull) 1931   10-passenger airliner
Focke-Wulf F 19 Ente (Duck) 1927. Experimental civil utility aircraft
Focke-Wulf GL 18 1926   Light transport aircraft developed from the A 16
Focke-Wulf GL 22  1927   Revised GL 18
Focke-Wulf K 23 Buchfink (Chaffinch) 1928   Two-seat reconnaissance aircraft
Focke-Wulf L 101 D Albatros      
Focke-Wulf S 1 1925   Trainer
Focke-Wulf S 2  1928   Two-seat trainer,
Focke-Wulf S 24 Kiebitz (Lapwing) 1928   Sport aircraf
Focke-Wulf S 39      
Focke-Wulf S 48      
Focke-Wulf W 4 1927   Reconnaissance floatplane
Focke-Wulf W 7  1932   Maritime patrol biplane
       
RLM Designations      
Focke-Wulf Fw 40      
Focke-Wulf Fw 42  1929   Proposed  twin-engined medium bomber project developed from the F 19,
Focke-Wulf Fw 43 Falke (Falcon)     Utility aircraft; known internally as A 43.
Focke-Wulf Fw 44 Stieglitz (Goldfinch) 1932.   Trainer (biplane)
Focke-Wulf Fw 47 Höhengeier (Vulture)     Weather aircraft; known internally as A 47.
Focke-Wulf Fw 55      Biplane floatplane
Focke-Wulf Fw 56 Stösser (Goshawk) 1933   Advanced trainer (parasol monoplane)
Focke-Wulf Fw 57 1935.   Twin-engined heavy fighter-bomber (prototype)
Focke-Wulf Fw 58 Weihe (Kite) 1937    Transport/photo reconnaissance/weather research aircraft
Focke-Wulf Fw 61  1936   Helicopter (prototype)
Focke-Wulf Fw 62 1937   Ship-borne reconnaissance (biplane seaplane)
Focke-Wulf Ta 152 1944   Interceptor/fighter (derived from Fw 190),
Focke-Wulf Ta 154 Moskito (Mosquito)–  1943   Night-fighter with wood structure like its British namesake
Focke-Wulf Fw 159 1935    Fighter (prototype only)
Focke-Wulf Fw 160     Proposed design for a four-engined bomber with a twin-boom, unconnected tail.
Focke-Wulf Ta 183 Huckebein  1942   Proposed design for a jet-engined fighter
Focke-Wulf Fw 186 1937   Autogiro reconnaissance aircraft (prototype),
Focke-Wulf Fw 187 Falke (Falcon) 1936   Twin-engined two-seat heavy day fighter ("Zerstörer")
Focke-Wulf Fw 188 1939   Reconnaissance aircraft (prototype)
Focke-Wulf Fw 189 Uhu (Eagle Owl) 1938   Twin-engined, three-seat army cooperation/tactical reconnaissance
Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Würger (Shrike/butcher-bird) 1939   Single-seat fighter/interceptor
Focke-Wulf Fw 191 1942.   Twin-engine Bomber B design competitor (prototype)
Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor 1937.    Four-engine airliner and maritime patrol-bomber
Focke-Wulf Fw 206 1940   Proposed commercial aircraft
Focke-Wulf Fw 238      Proposed long-range bomber project (RLM airframe number 8-238 already used by Blohm und Voss)
Focke-Wulf Fw 249     Proposed large transport aircraft project; officially designated as Project 195.
Focke-Wulf Fw 250     Proposed  twin-engine jet fighter project
Focke-Wulf Fw 252     Proposed single engine jet fighter
Focke-Wulf Ta 254      Proposed version of the Ta 154 fighter.
Focke-Wulf Fw 259     Frontjäger (concept)
Focke-Wulf Fw 260     1960s VTOL airliner proposal
Focke-Wulf Fw 261      Proposed four-engine bomber/reconnaissance/U-boat support aircraft project
Focke-Wulf Ta 283     Proposed interceptor fighter project
Focke-Wulf Fw 300 1941   Proposed long-range version of Fw 200
Focke-Wulf Ta 400 1943   Amerikabomber design competitor, never built,
Focke-Wulf Fw P.03.10206 1944   Series of long-range strategic bomber projects
Focke-Wulf Fw P.03.10221-15 1941    Large capacity strategic transport
Focke-Wulf Fw P.03.10025     A 1944 design with a swept wing, a forward-swept V-tail, and two pusher propellers at the rear
Focke-Wulf Fw 03.10251     Proposed series of jet-engined night and bad weather fighters
Focke-Wulf Fighter Project w/BMW803      A 1941 design with a connected twin-boom tail, slightly swept-back wings, and two pusher propellers at the rear.