As an aircraft maintainer myself, the 190 just completely won me over! Designed to be easily maintained and ahead of the curve in terms of engine management, flight controls and life support systems, all while prioritizing the pilot's well-being! I had no idea the 190 was that robust and well designed. Thank you for the excellent in-depth on The Butcher Bird!
@@spindash64 I wonder how the 'rebuilt' FWs are doing with the Russian engines? Presumably it's more mechanically reliable than the original BMW. The Butcher Bird is a nickname for The Shrike--a small, aggressive carnivorous bird (related to the cuckoo, I think?) that has the charming habit of impaling it's victims on spines, thorns or branches in a larder for 'future use'--the 'hanging meat' image is where the 'butcher' derives from. So the FW is, in effect', fierce 'bird of prey' in a compact package.
@@nickmitsialis In Southern Africa it is the Fiscal Shrike (so-named because its black and white plumage put some in mind of the clothing of De Fiskaal - the highest ranking judicial official in the Dutch East India Company of the Cape of Good Hope in the 18th Century. Another nickname for the Fiscal Shrike is "Jacky Hangman". All of which is straying from the subject in hand! I believe that the BMW engine of the FW190 was prone to catching fire on start up. For this unfortunate habit, FW and BMW played the blame game with each other.
@@promerops nice bit of info. As for the engine all that l knew was thru Don Caldwell & his JG 26 Unit histories. However it was clear that Germany lacked the resources to create metals with strength & heat resistance. See problem later with the me 262 jet engine.
The best part of these videos is that for a layman (non-aero-engineer), deciphering the manuals can be challenging. Greg is able to translate from engineer speak to human speak, and still relay all the nuances. Amazing work yet again.
I always thought the FW190 was beautiful in a 'form = function' kind of way...which in my opinion, is a better gauge of beauty than most. It seemed elegant and efficiently designed, from a purely aesthetic point of view. It was very interesting to learn of the 'cavalry horse' design philosophy, probably because I am a 'jack of all trades, master of none', kind of guy. Thanks.
In early 1977, I went to Australia/New Zealand. I had recently turned 16, and was a big fan of Wargames, and this was one of my favorite WWII planes. While trying to amuse myself during the day in Auckland, while my mother did her business thing, I would pass the time by visiting the many war museums. I walked into one, that had an FW-190 in it! My jaw dropped! The old man who ran the museum let me climb up and sit in the cockpit, play with the controls, actually touch it! I was in heaven! He told me that it had been recovered from a Sunken U-boat in parts, all boxed up that had been intended for Japan. That he had been tasked with putting it all back together. Unfortunately, I couldn't convince my mom to go back later to take pictures, and I got distracted by the fact that I could legally buy Beer at age 16! About all I remember now about it, is that the "Old Man" said that it wasn't air worthy, but likely only because he wasn't a mechanic. He just didn't know if he had put everything on correctly. I'd really love to find out what ever happened to that machine!
As somebody born in, and living in that region most of my life, this story has some serious wires crossed. Firstly in NZ from 1910 drinking age (at bars or take away) was pegged at 21, and only lowered to 20 in time for this 1977 tale (its now 18, but hasn't been 16 for over 100 years when the 1881 bill limited the age at bars, but that bill also set no age on take away alcohol). Now of course lots of places justified flaunting said laws in some way, by end of the 1970's the strictness of moral opinion and related enforcement had relaxed so that most restaurants wouldn't have batted an eye at a 16 year old sharing a wine with parents over dinner, and in a rural area local kids would have been tolerated grabbing a few beers so long as they weren't up to trouble... but as tourist who is unaccompanied minor in the nations largest city with often the most strict adherence to regulation? Places that'd let you buy beers weren't going to leave you with take away impression it was legal. Secondly the only two FW-190's in NZ are one imported in the 2010's and damaged in 2015 crash in a ground loop during performance at Ohakea air base, and another that claimed to be assembled from genuine parts in the 1990's, so seeing either in 1977 would have been impossible. Also the reason the later is "claimed" for its not certain is because its been claimed as "under restoration" from a very long time, meanwhile it hasn't been shown off and they avoid discussing authenticity (its private owners have vintage planes from movie use) and so many think its largely (or almost entirely) of more recently created replica parts (which is still 100% suitable for its intended use in films). Australia on the other hand got its only FW190 in 2015, which itself was a repair from a nose over on landing previously... there wasn't even a known replica on display that has anything resembling mechanical parts inside to see in the late 1970's.
@@spatclaymoregdh1147 The ONLY information that I can provide, is as above, what I said in my earlier story. I was 16, no one ever "Carded" me (asking for ID) , I had been informed by a local - (her words) "If you are old enough to walk in, and lay your money down on the bar, they will likely serve you" I WAS a big kid! 6' 2" by age 14. In fact, I was buying beer at home, in America, commonly when I turned 15! Obviously, NOT legally! Castle Main (?) Was my Favorite Brand.. In any Case - The Story about the FW-190 is completely True as the Guy who was at that "War Museum" had told me. I am just reporting what HE had told me. I have no Evidence IF is is actually What actually happened. He said, he had put it together and had NO instructions, No Manuals, It didn't fly, the engine didn't work, But he was confident that if you stepped on the pedals, Control surfaces would move, etc.. And it DID happen in 1977 - Likely near the middle of January as we (my mother and I) spent a Month touring New Zealand, and Australia. And Aukland was our first stop. I was a Bored American Teenager, stuck in motels in another country - BTW - in 1977, Your Television programming quite literally sucked! So I spent a LOT of time, riding the Bus, with a Telephone Book - Visiting 'War Museums', which turned out to be Boring collections of Nazi Regalia. So When I walked in to this "War Museum" and instead There was a Full Sized REAL FW-190 A6 (if i remember correctly) - Well, THAT was quite Unforgettable!
Sorry for bad english, but: Composition of the fuel mixture on the Soviet MiG-3, LaGG-3, La-5 (F, FN) and La-7 fighters could be controlled both manually and automatically. On many Soviet fighters, it was possible to simultaneously move the manifold pressure control lever and the propeller speed control lever At the Messerschmitt, the flaps were released manually by the helm, which, accordingly, had to be twisted. On all Soviet fighters of the 40s. - pneumatic system. Some Messerschmitts had a limited view of back. The Soviet fighters since 1943 - the rear view, with the exception of a relatively small number of LaGGs, was excellent. And yes, the Germans had superiority in automation.
Wasn't such a big deal most of the time. On the Eastern Front 190s were fairly quickly downgraded to ground attack missions (low and slow), so they didn't benefit much from all of their Kraut magic, while at the same time the Soviets didn't suffer that badly from their manual controls. From what I read in the interviews of actual pilots, the main advantage of automatic controls was when being bounced. Cruising happily and then suddenly being expected to push several levers in proper order and switching some switches was no fun, especially when compared to simply jamming the throttle forward. Soviets countered this problem by cruising at higher speeds. It limited the range and engine longevity, but they just sucked it up. Engines don't last all that long when exposed to enemy fire anyway. Another equalizing factor was the strategy of the Luftwaffe for gathering numbers before engaging the enemy. It seems reasonable at first, but Soviet pilots considered it cowardly, because the attack often came after the mission was done. Luftwaffe was a much more independent force than VVS, who was supposed to cooperate with ground troops very tightly, but the disadvantage of that was that Luftwaffe was not very keep on risking an attack while outnumbered, even if it could result in much less effective enemy strike. Anyway, Soviet pilots scorned this approach and because of that prevalent tactic, they were rarely surprised during big operations. Germans attacked in numbers, but often after the enemy was well aware of them loitering above. I didn't come up with all of that by myself. I will dig up the sources when asked for them. Eventually... ;-)
That being said 4 of those levers are the supercharger and engine cooling systems that as most radials are kinda set and forget unless doing prolongued dives in winter with low throttle settings were they would need to close the shutters, so they would be set once entered the combat zone.
@@jackd1582 except the 190 was designed with ease of maintenance in mind, that's it's genius (relative ofc any top end fighter aircraft from any era is gonna be a bitch)
“You have to see the Fw190 Bismarck shows”. Not only have I seen the video, I’ve seen that aircraft in person. Beautiful piece of engineering. Loving this series Greg.
Did you also have look over the Fairey Gannett that they had there? Pristine condition compared to the one outside on display at the Moorabbin Air Museum in Melbourne, Australia. Weird looking aircraft.
@@markfryer9880 I've also been to Gatow this year. Great collection, and yes, the Fairey Gannett is one of the weirdest aircraft ever built, with the Dual-Mamba engine. There's also a Gannett at the German Airship and Naval Aviation Museum ("Aeronauticum") at Nordholz, where it sits, somewhat neglected, outside.
FW 190 Engine maintenance access panels designed to use as work platforms. As opposed to U.S. 60KW genset access panels that are designed to fall down and hit the mechanic in the head.
I recently read the War DIaries of Chas Lindburg. Hewas a factory rep in the Pacific. He made a number of talks to pilots about using the auto lean and lower engine rpms for cruse. He found many if not most pilots could benefit from better engine management for better economy to stay on patrol and get much longer duration from better fuel economy Once in combat the mix went to auto rich for best power. THanks
Years back I talked to a Boeing engineer who had worked with WWII aircraft. He commented that the FW190 had a kind of analog "fly by wire" system that made it very easy to fly - easy in terms of WWII fighters all of which were "hot."
When I hear you talking about the 190's rugged reliability and ease of maintenance I think about the P-40. Love the P-40 references here! A ton of P-40 pilots pushed those Allisons as high as 72 inches prompting Allison to issue a memo regarding the use of high boost and that it was approved in combat. The Allison an incredibly tough engine and I hate how it gets short changed in many post war histories.
"...we will probably cover everything in here in more detail than you want..." Uhm, no. We come here specifically for that level of detail. :) The great advantage of a youtube video is the ability to skip forward, should the detail be too high. However, I have yet to catch myself doing so on your videos. I doubt too many of your regular viewers would complain, at least judging by the other comments. Back to your video. I absolutely LOVE the Kommandogerät (yes, I am German, I love planes, and yes, I have also worked for BMW in their Spandau facilities while studying engineering). The Kommandogerät for me symbolises the German approach to basically smother a problem with a technical, mechanical solution. Mechanical computers were long considered very rugged and resistant to temperature variations and vibrations, which would disable capacitors and tubes respectively in old electronic circuits. Especially since the inputs and outputs were physical "signals" (lever position, pressure, rpm etc) that would have to be transduced to an electric signal in the first place. The series of non-descript cams and followers contain all essential information of different settings in relation to each other, ignition advance can be curved to follow rpm, absolute manifold pressure and mixture settings. The (unrelated) Kugelfischer ignition system achieved this by means of rotating and translating a 3D-cam (affectionally called "potato") to capture the relation between several parameters (throttle setting and and rpm). It could correct the output for altitude (pressure) and temperature. Re-mapping such an injection system involves good old "mechanische Bearbeitung", mechanically modifying the cam to yield a different curve. The Kommandogerät uses several such cams to link values in non-linear fashion. From a practical approach, the P40 seems to hit the sweet spot. Not a fully manual system like Russian fighters (or nearly all GA piston engine aircraft) where every parameter would have to be set, changes would cross-influence the setting. Instead a couple of automatic systems each optimised for their respective task avoids the complexity of managing all variables at the same time. When something fails, the failure mode is clear and corrective action is also easy. The Kommandogerät poops the sheets and you're basically out to dry, because a normally super simple engine becomes unmanageable (bar, of course, the prop rpm with its separate circuit). Despite these disadvantages I still love the clockwork-like Kommandogerät. Love this series!
Great videos often provide great commentary, as is illustrated by your excellent contribution! I, too, have a soft spot for mechanical calculators/computers... One of my mentors showed me a lathe with a cam-driven controller. It was love at first sight...
Greg as ever a fantastic job. I don't know if you realize the immense value of these videos, not just as informative, educational and entertaining pieces, but as genuinely valuable historical works. No one else bothers to read the original documentation and collate it like you do. I really appreciate it and I am sure thousands of your viewers do too.
Greg you are a worldclass "teacher" , I'm so impressed of your "natural" pedagogical skills. This series of the 190 make me really wonder what would happened if the designers of this masterpiece had access to better fuel and other resources to further increase it's specs. Hat of to you Greg , for this great video 👍
Getting under the skin of the aircraft is why I enjoy your work so much. The Fw family is my favorite Axis AC and does fill the shelves with all my P-47's. Great job, always a pleasure. Thanks
Thank you for all these details, Greg. My admiration for the FW-190 increased greatly after watching your videos and learning about the designer and his goals.
Dear Greg: Your airplane films are very instructive, and educational. Your subject matter on the Luftwaffe series especially Dipl. Kurt Tanks Fw 190, Ta 152 H and Ta 152 C series both ground attack and fighter aircraft is excellent. Lastly, l am fascinated by the Kommanduer device of the Fw 190 series airplane. And, l would like to know more about it. Another special video for that? Anyway, the late Doug Champlin had in his museum a: Fw 190 D9( restored as Yellow 9) and l believe this particular Fw 190 D9 still had its Kommanduer engine control "Computer" fitted to the airplane. Apparently, it has been ground run but never to take to the air due to its historic value. This Luftwaffe Fw 190 D9 may now be in the Smithsonian? Museum. Please continue to keep your airplane series alive.I thank you. George Knott, Australia.
Superb video, loved Part 1. I understood the outstanding feature (and what worried the Brits greatly when the 190 debuted) was its superb roll rate and power/performance. This was investigated using a captured example in Farnborough which resulted in Brit pilots being instructed not to engage the 190 in certain scenarios and flight conditions.
I am honestly amazed at the complexity of the fighter planes from the 30's and 40's. I didn't realize just how sophisticated they were, I would often wonder...did they think of this, or that, regarding different machines. The answer it turns out is always yes, yes they did and then some !I've always found that extremely interesting. I would like to thank you for providing not only the fine details but also the thinking behind them and their different methods of execution. It really brings the aircraft to life in a way that is hard to come across. Wonderful job !
Thank you so very much for the in depth details on my favorite WWII fighter. At 39:00 you can see that the canopy rides on roller bearing and not ball bearings.
The one piece main spar was forged in a 30,000 ton press. The "D" model engine mounts were also one piece forged magnesium alloy called "Elektron" . The Germans never ran out of magnesium. I was fascinated as to how the Germans were able to build so many aircraft during 1944. 35,000. Thanks for highlighting the mundane, which really is not
Jim Wahl: Hi, do you have any good, readable links about magnesium metal production in WW2 germany, or the manufacturing of magnesium parts like this? I think infrastructure in Germany as its situation worsened through the last years of the WW2 is interesting.
@@nickmitsialis yeah but its flammable in the same way paper is. very densely packed paper (cardboard) is actually pretty difficult to light. High surface area like with shavings or chips lights pretty easily and will burn intensely even underwater. My dad is a machinist and we regularly brought powdered and shaved magnesium to use as fire starter out backpacking innawoods.
@@MultiZirkon the Germans built 35000 aircraft in 1944. Make your own conclusion. There are numerous references to the 15,000 and 30,000 ton presses that made this possible. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/iron-giant/308886/
Just to be able to fly the The Butcher Bird I am thinking of spending a few on IL2 Stormovik again :) Your explanation of this aircraft is like no other, this is one of a kind, very well done and I am sure a huge amount of time has been spending on gathering research material for this episode.
Greg, please continue! I have read a lot of literature about Wurger, it's my favourite warbird. I've got Novarra, Harmann, some of Ospreys and AJ Press nad more, but nowhere the fascinating philosophy of Fw 190 construction is caught as perfect as in Your documentary. Good Job!
1943 Aviation Week did a detail Design Analysis of the Faber machine. The rolled it into a hanger, disassembled and reassembled the bird and drew everything. The last word on an A model
Thank you, Sir. You could definitely give classes on aircraft design. In my opinion the command unit was build, to increase the survivability of inexperienced pilots. And offer exhausted pilots some comfort. Hour after hour hearing these extreme engine noises plus the smell of the engine gases plus the cold outside plus 10 to 14 combat hours a day. You are going to be extremely happy if all you have to do is push the throttle. Thanks for the excellent content.
Thanks for these. The Fw-190 is a plane that's always left me wondering what it existed for as I never really understood how it stood apart from the Bf-109. I was never sure if it was intended to be a higher performing replacement or if it had some specific mission to fill that the 109 couldn't. I come away from these videos with a great appreciation for it as well as a feeling of relief that most of Germany's weapons weren't as thoughtfully designed. It's interesting how much more effective a weapons platform can be when they remove just a tiny fraction of performance to enhance durability, maintainability, and usability.
Now it's been almost 45 years and my memories are less accurate than ever and my understanding as a teenager was not good of such things, but I remember an old German mechanic in my town, was considered a wizard, as in he was considered being able to actual magic on the very early fuel-injected post-WWII cars around Washington DC. He was quite dismissive of his skills, often saying some like 'Bah, I've been doing this since the 40's' in a quite heavy German accent to which everybody would look on in amazement and understanding. AS he worked on cars and airplanes and many of his customers fought in WWII, he was considered just like everyone else. (Back in the 60s through the 2000s, association with German was not nearly so touchy as it seems to be in some circles today) Anyway, I was studying German and he was a great research, especially when he would drop something, bang his knuckles, etc. the stream of utterances were...interesting. The point is, this engine management computer was in essence a hydromechanical fuel management system.
Eagerly waiting for the next episode :) Long videos are really helpful for us laymen to understand and appreciate the thinking behind the designs of these beautiful planes. Many many thanks for your hard work and time!
Love this video serie. Please keep them coming! You are the absolute best on this topic. The only one that truely explaines the engineering side to things.
Great insights---that indirect factors like ease of engine optimization in flight and maintenance on the ground factors into performance and combat effectiveness
Wonderful episode! It seems you are building up a very serious analysis of this wonderful airplane with a very lengthy series of episodes. Thank you so much, what a joy!!!
Germany's fighters have such a good aesthetics, I go back and forth between the 190 and 109 fpr my favorite, though I think the p40 is my favorite ever plane, I confess that its appearance in the movie Pearl Harbor when I was a kid made me love that interwar style.
Greatest entrance of a movie character EVER, John Belushi as "Wild" Bill Kelso in the movie 1941. "Death Valley California, High Noon", that Flying Tiger style P40 with the sharks mouth lands on that road and pulls into a gas station and out jumps John Belushi, if you were a 14 year old kid in 1979 I just didn't come any cooler then that👍👍👍.
Excellent. these videos are freaking amazing. I'm very curious to see some stuff in the future on the IFF systems. Amazing the kind of stuff they already developed at that era.
I find bits like 28:20 just amazing. All that using pencils, paper and brains. No CAD or Solidworks or anything. I do feel like we have lost some of that talent.
Brilliant exploration of this important aircraft! As this series develops you’re clearly showing Kurt Tank’s underlying wish for simplicity of use on an inherently complex machine.
Yet a nother wonderfully made video for a fantastic wwII aircraft! Keep it up! I love learning the more technical aspects of all the planes i thought i knew alot about.
Thank you so much for all the work you do on these videos Greg. I've been a long time WW2 aviation buff but i have never found any other source which goes into as much depth and detail as you do!
At 24:50, the author discusses the complexities of controlling the propeller-engine group of Yak aircraft. It's noted that not everything was so problematic. The temperature of the cooling mixture was controlled by the automatic regulator ART-1 (АРТ-1), though it wasn’t widely used in the first series. Additionally, the propeller pitch adjustment was hydraulic and semi-automatic, controlled by the R-7 (Р-7) regulator.
Greg not sure how you want viewers recommending topics, but a series of videos like this on the Willys Jeep would be awsome. After all cant forget about the other half of your channel's name lol.
I do take suggestions, not only that, I have access to a pair of them just down the street, both in full military dress, guns and all, one is a WW2 and one is from Nam.
@@GregsAirplanesandAutomobiles Well its ultimately up to you weather you want to do it or not. Thanks for the clarification. Pretty convenient with those Jeeps too.
This is a fantastic idea for a Greg's Airplane and Automobiles series, Zachary! My dad was one of the greatest generation and fell in love with Jeeps, during the war. Growing up in the 1950s and 60s we always had at least a couple of "Army Jeeps" on the family ranch. I've owned various different "flat fender" Jeeps all of my life. I've got a CJ-2A and a Willys M-38 right now and still prefer them to our Polaris Ranger, just because... Semper Fi, TreeTop
Excellent series (as I've come to expect from Greg)! Regarding the whole constant speed propeller discussion, for those of us who don't fly, a good analogy might be the transmission in our cars -- which most people 16 years and older will be familiar with. Increasing the prop pitch is like shifting to a lower gear in a car. While 1st gear is great for pulling away from a stop, and 2nd gear is the gear to use to accelerate quickly when rolling, neither is good for cruising or highway use, let alone top speed on some Nevada highway. Those activities require a much lower pitch on the prop (i.e. lower ration in a car's gearbox). Conversely, if you're puttering around in top gear at 1200 RPM in your car trying to the to the next gas station without running out of fuel, and you need to accelerate quickly, mashing the throttle open won't do much except make your engine rattle. You need to jump to a lower gear and mash the throttle to accelerate with any authority. Adding a turbo (i.e. manifold pressure) provides another layer of complexity. Regarding the engine control system, I think that you summarized it well as a mechanical computer. I can't tell for sure, but I suspect Robert Bosch had something to do with it. The company starting making integrated diesel fuel injection pumps in 1927, which seemed to be the standard for this application until the 1950's. From that diesel injection pump is a small step to gas injection (see most Germany aircraft engines of WWII) and engine controls. After the war this technology showed up in the German manufactured race engines and eventually performance street car engines in the 50's and 60s. I think that I can see a barometric measuring feature in the top right of the diagram at 28:00. In addition the throttle position ( possibly lower left?) and engine speed (light blue?). These look similar to what you'd see on an early Porsche 911 Mechanical Fuel Injection (MFI) system.
Reminds me of working on classic Volkswagens. They had a deceptively simple practicality. Like having the headlights wire through the ignition circuit, so it's physically impossible to drain your battery by leaving the lights on - a feature that US cars still don't have in 2020, even with everything being electronic now. It's mechanically trivial to add this feature - just put the wire here on this already existing switch (the ignition) - but someone had to think about it and plan ahead and the manufacturer had to care enough to bother putting it in.
@@luvr381 It's no coincidence that when I had to give up my VW I moved to a Subaru :) They aren't what they used to be though. 2000-2008 was the sweet spot.
@@roggy001 Partly because they were just really old by the time I was driving them. Partly because the generator was in the rear and the the lights were in the front, which at 12v and 5-10 amps (I forget what headlights are) that's a lot of voltage loss due to wire resistance over that distance. This goes double for the really old VW's that used 6v batteries.
This has to be one of my favourite RUclips episodes ever! I like your explanation of the Kommandogerät a whole lot, the pics reminds me of something similar I saw twentyfive years ago about the hydraulic/mechanical computer controlling the jet engine of a SAAB AJ37 Viggen fighter, it also had a number of cogwheels and levers, and it all was powered by hydraulic pressure provided by jet engine fuel from the afterburner fuel pumps. Really cool! And oh yeah, you say Kommandogerät pretty well. It´s only the Gerät part you stress backwards, you say it roughly like Garrett. But it should be more like ka-chunk. With very little stress on the Ge, and all the stress on Rät. But I don't care, I just say this because you commented yourself about not being sure about the way to say the word.
Although I think handwaving the question of why units like the Kommandogerät weren't more widely used by talking about how jets were taking over and didn't need anything like that is a little disingenuous, given that there were years between the introduction of the FW 190 and the Me 262; given all of the different propeller-driven aircraft that the Third Reich developed and updated during the war, there needs to be an explanation why a device like the Kommandogerät wasn't implemented for them.
Great engine management section, and love the deep dive on the 190! Although minor mistake, the 109s past the E's (and even some E's) had automated prop pitch. So "unified" throttle for them too. One MAJOR deficiency in the unified throttle control is the ability for fuel efficiency. Take the P38 for example, where Lindberg helped get much more range out of P38s with extreme engine settings in cruise. It's something that rarely matters in simulators for sure, though. Would love a video on the mis understandings of the P38, such a wonderful AC too, and again it's deficencies are not apparent automatically in simulators either (hard to work drop tank switches, cold cockpit because of lack of engine in front of the pilot). On IL2, I think the current g-force modelling which was recently updated works much better, and honestly seems to be about the best g-force simulation for any of the current crop of simulators. I don't fly Spits often (really very rarely), but at high speeds the FW 190 does indeed seem to be able to out turn the Spit in my limited testing there. Again just don't fly the Spit much probably need comment by someone who flies them more. 109's specifically seem to be effected the strongest by this as black out in many maneuvers happens much faster, so having to adjust years of "bad" habits from poor g-force simulations. Really don't like flying the 109s right now in that sim, probably a good thing :).
This seemingly contradicts the point about the similar positioning of pilots in german planes. You should experience the same G tolerance in the two planes. If it differs it's a mistake or game blance.
Hi Greg, great video as always! In one of the more recent updates to IL-2, the developers reworked the pilot physiology system and the seating position has a noticeable effect on how easy it is to black out. In high speed turns, most allied planes can't easily out turn 109s and 190s, because they would black out. IL-2 now also simulates anti G suits for American fighters that then give pilots superior resistance to G forces compared to German fighters.
You are correct about exhaust traveling forward, especially with the canopy open to any degree. The boot around the tailwheel of the BT-13 demonstrates how Vultee dealt with the issue.
Hey Greg! A Fan of yours from India. Your detailed videos are always a pleasure to watch.A tidbit of the connection between Dr. Kurt Tank and India is that after the war he went to India to teach aeronautics in a university where he taught the former president of India Dr. Abdul Kalam who would later on go on to develop India's guided missile development programme! Dr. Kurt Tank also designed India's first supersonic jet fighter ,the HF-24 Marut as well.
@@spindash64 thanks for info! I didn't know that Dr. Kurt Tank had helped the Argentinians with development of the IAe 33 too! It's a pity it wasn't put into production.
Your channel is so wonderful. I am a University student studying mathematics but I find after watching these videos that may be engineering would be of more interest. Thank you again Greg-san for all your effort.
Excellent video Greg! I'm glad you focused on the factors that created the high reliability and operational readiness that matter so much in ensuring something is available, and of course the HOTAS style ergonomics that give a low workload and good pilot efficiency!
Not sure how it is that I have just now found your channel???? But boy am I glad I did and I have SUBBED! Greg you sir have saved me hours as I do research on every aircraft subject I build (I'm an avid modeler both scale plastic and R/C plus sims. yeah I'm single and have that kind of time. It's glorious too!)
Knowing usability and maintenance simplicity is a topic almost no videos address and in a practical viewpoint that is definitely a reason it was successful in war despite the poor resources the axis had tword the end
I would love to see a program on the Junkers 88 - designed as a dive bomber, it served in that capacity as well as a level bomber, recon bird, weather ship, heavy fighter, ground attack and night fighter - the 88 was what the Germans call an "all singing, all dancing" aircraft. Thanks for your great programs.
I love this series so much, I actually bulid a model of Fw. 190 D9, I worked on it for several monthts and spent long hours looking ant it, but I never thought it's features are that interesting!
I believe ergonomics and the study thereof came from "time motion" studies. These became quite popular in the 1950s, but were certainly around during the war years. There is a fairly recent Periscope Films video on RUclips from the 1940s showing some of the basics of time-motion studies in an office setting in the 1940s. Basically the researcher studied what someone did to perform a task, and the motions involved. Then he spent a while reasoning about how the number and duration of motions could be reduced. This led to things like putting items that would be used together next to each other to reduce the motion needed to reach between them.
Hi Greg, you sound like you had a 190 and a P 40 and some other birds in your garage and spent the last 40 years playing and fliyng with them.. you are really great!.thanks !
Notice the unique ports on the wing roots of the Flugwerk replica at the beginning of the video. This is a custom oil cooling system that several Flugwerk owners are using. The original oil cooler design from Flugwerk used an adjustable system in the top cowl gun location that allowed pilots to maintain oil temperatures. But this system was not working very well. This Flugwerk is with the Hangar 10 collection in Germany and was rebuilt from the French-registered example that ditched into saltwater. I learned recently that Hangar 10 has additional plans to refit the aircraft with an original BMW 801 in coming years. Also notice the lack of a forced-air cooling fan on the replica because there was no such geared fan system on the ASh-82 radials. Flugwerk replicated the look with a ground-adjustable fan attached to the propeller spinner but several owners have removed it. A New Zealand based Flugwerk experienced a problem when the engine cowling flexed in flight and contacted the fan. (The Flugwerk cowlings are not armored and are not as strong.) Here is good picture of that custom oil cooler system in the wing: i.postimg.cc/0jVRSP04/Fw190-A8-M-Hangar10-2019-04-05-9.jpg
Just for people who aren't too familiar with this - "fine" or sharp (high percentage) propeller pitch means the blades are more perpendicular to the plane's nose, while "coarse" (also refered to as 'flat' in the video) means blades are more parallel to the direction of the nose. Also, prop feathering is course pitch taken even further, so that the blades induce the smallest amount of drag possible, for cases such as engine failure when you are forced to glide.
After listening to how the throttle, mixture and blade pitch were adjusted I thought of how many engines met their death from the mismanagement of those three things alone. I bet the number was not insignificant ! I cant tell you how many times I have wondered about this exact subject regarding WWII aircraft. I'm a mechanic, so I ponder these things often...again, thank you for such an excellent description !
All true ! I like to emphasize this fuel metering unit being a marvel. This engine having direct fuel injection optimizing the fuel flow according power, available manifold pressure, temperature, engine rpm... Nowadays one would call for an electronic fuel computer. These guys made this mechanically ! I observed engine start. They crank an inertial starter, engage a clutch, and the engine starts. Compare this to modern piston engine. Incredible !
loving the series, this is one of my favorite planes ever, just as a future project subject i’d love to see a one episode analisys on the p-39 airacobra, very unusual configuration, i think it would make a very interesting episode
Never knew the 190 was predominately Dural, so that is new to me. Combined with its rugged construction it undoubtedly earned that rugged reputation. And good points about the O2 bottles, multiple small bottles with one way valves would undoubtedly be more survivable than one large tank. Yet another informative video Greg. The details and explanations are superb, painting an ever more detailed image of the aircraft.
Dural (specifically 2024 Aluminum) is still used for the bottom skin of modern jet liner wings (at least the ones made out of aluminum). The top skins are typically 7055 Aluminum. The 7055 is typically a bit stronger but is more sensitive to stress corrosion cracking under tensile loads, hence its use on the upper surface which is loaded in compression, and not the lower surface which is loaded in tension.
As an aircraft maintainer myself, the 190 just completely won me over! Designed to be easily maintained and ahead of the curve in terms of engine management, flight controls and life support systems, all while prioritizing the pilot's well-being! I had no idea the 190 was that robust and well designed. Thank you for the excellent in-depth on The Butcher Bird!
Jake Hefferman
Yeah. It wasn’t just a high performance aircraft, it was a FIGHTER, thru and thru. “Butcher” was no exaggeration
Perhaps it is even more forward thinking than the F-16?? I have seen some pictures from maintenance... Perhaps an F-16 mechanics could say??
@@spindash64 I wonder how the 'rebuilt' FWs are doing with the Russian engines? Presumably it's more mechanically reliable than the original BMW.
The Butcher Bird is a nickname for The Shrike--a small, aggressive carnivorous bird (related to the cuckoo, I think?) that has the charming habit of impaling it's victims on spines, thorns or branches in a larder for 'future use'--the 'hanging meat' image is where the 'butcher' derives from. So the FW is, in effect', fierce 'bird of prey' in a compact package.
@@nickmitsialis In Southern Africa it is the Fiscal Shrike (so-named because its black and white plumage put some in mind of the clothing of De Fiskaal - the highest ranking judicial official in the Dutch East India Company of the Cape of Good Hope in the 18th Century. Another nickname for the Fiscal Shrike is "Jacky Hangman". All of which is straying from the subject in hand!
I believe that the BMW engine of the FW190 was prone to catching fire on start up. For this unfortunate habit, FW and BMW played the blame game with each other.
@@promerops nice bit of info. As for the engine all that l knew was thru Don Caldwell & his JG 26 Unit histories. However it was clear that Germany lacked the resources to create metals with strength & heat resistance. See problem later with the me 262 jet engine.
The best part of these videos is that for a layman (non-aero-engineer), deciphering the manuals can be challenging. Greg is able to translate from engineer speak to human speak, and still relay all the nuances. Amazing work yet again.
I concur, Greg does an excellent job.
Right you are there Prince - I must have been sick when this was covered in law school.
Absolutely. The mad lad and his channel are gems.
I agree. This is the first time I actually understand wth 'manifold pressure' is.
Greg is unique, no body does this but Greg. We're privileged to watch his videos.
34:58
"I'm not sure ergonomics was a term"
French tanks with their one-person turrets: No, no it was not
T-34 crews: What's that? Is it a joke?
I always thought the FW190 was beautiful in a 'form = function' kind of way...which in my opinion, is a better gauge of beauty than most. It seemed elegant and efficiently designed, from a purely aesthetic point of view. It was very interesting to learn of the 'cavalry horse' design philosophy, probably because I am a 'jack of all trades, master of none', kind of guy. Thanks.
In early 1977, I went to Australia/New Zealand. I had recently turned 16, and was a big fan of Wargames, and this was one of my favorite WWII planes. While trying to amuse myself during the day in Auckland, while my mother did her business thing, I would pass the time by visiting the many war museums. I walked into one, that had an FW-190 in it! My jaw dropped! The old man who ran the museum let me climb up and sit in the cockpit, play with the controls, actually touch it! I was in heaven! He told me that it had been recovered from a Sunken U-boat in parts, all boxed up that had been intended for Japan. That he had been tasked with putting it all back together. Unfortunately, I couldn't convince my mom to go back later to take pictures, and I got distracted by the fact that I could legally buy Beer at age 16! About all I remember now about it, is that the "Old Man" said that it wasn't air worthy, but likely only because he wasn't a mechanic. He just didn't know if he had put everything on correctly.
I'd really love to find out what ever happened to that machine!
Now THAT is a story. Hopefully someone can dig up more info on that bird!
If you could provide more information about the museum you visited, we could look for the fate of that beautiful machine
As somebody born in, and living in that region most of my life, this story has some serious wires crossed.
Firstly in NZ from 1910 drinking age (at bars or take away) was pegged at 21, and only lowered to 20 in time for this 1977 tale (its now 18, but hasn't been 16 for over 100 years when the 1881 bill limited the age at bars, but that bill also set no age on take away alcohol). Now of course lots of places justified flaunting said laws in some way, by end of the 1970's the strictness of moral opinion and related enforcement had relaxed so that most restaurants wouldn't have batted an eye at a 16 year old sharing a wine with parents over dinner, and in a rural area local kids would have been tolerated grabbing a few beers so long as they weren't up to trouble... but as tourist who is unaccompanied minor in the nations largest city with often the most strict adherence to regulation? Places that'd let you buy beers weren't going to leave you with take away impression it was legal.
Secondly the only two FW-190's in NZ are one imported in the 2010's and damaged in 2015 crash in a ground loop during performance at Ohakea air base, and another that claimed to be assembled from genuine parts in the 1990's, so seeing either in 1977 would have been impossible. Also the reason the later is "claimed" for its not certain is because its been claimed as "under restoration" from a very long time, meanwhile it hasn't been shown off and they avoid discussing authenticity (its private owners have vintage planes from movie use) and so many think its largely (or almost entirely) of more recently created replica parts (which is still 100% suitable for its intended use in films). Australia on the other hand got its only FW190 in 2015, which itself was a repair from a nose over on landing previously... there wasn't even a known replica on display that has anything resembling mechanical parts inside to see in the late 1970's.
@@spatclaymoregdh1147 The ONLY information that I can provide, is as above, what I said in my earlier story. I was 16, no one ever "Carded" me (asking for ID) , I had been informed by a local - (her words) "If you are old enough to walk in, and lay your money down on the bar, they will likely serve you" I WAS a big kid! 6' 2" by age 14. In fact, I was buying beer at home, in America, commonly when I turned 15!
Obviously, NOT legally!
Castle Main (?) Was my Favorite Brand..
In any Case - The Story about the FW-190 is completely True as the Guy who was at that "War Museum" had told me. I am just reporting what HE had told me. I have no Evidence IF is is actually What actually happened. He said, he had put it together and had NO instructions, No Manuals, It didn't fly, the engine didn't work, But he was confident that if you stepped on the pedals, Control surfaces would move, etc..
And it DID happen in 1977 - Likely near the middle of January as we (my mother and I) spent a Month touring New Zealand, and Australia. And Aukland was our first stop. I was a Bored American Teenager, stuck in motels in another country - BTW - in 1977, Your Television programming quite literally sucked! So I spent a LOT of time, riding the Bus, with a Telephone Book - Visiting 'War Museums', which turned out to be Boring collections of Nazi Regalia.
So When I walked in to this "War Museum" and instead There was a Full Sized REAL FW-190 A6 (if i remember correctly) - Well, THAT was quite Unforgettable!
Might have been Australia, Castlemaine is an Aussie beer
The La 5 pilots who had to fiddle with 6 levers simultaneously would've been extremely happy if they had the mechanical computer like the 190 did
Another reason why the Russians likes Lend Lease fighters I guess
Sorry for bad english, but:
Composition of the fuel mixture on the Soviet MiG-3, LaGG-3, La-5 (F, FN) and La-7 fighters could be controlled both manually and automatically.
On many Soviet fighters, it was possible to simultaneously move the manifold pressure control lever and the propeller speed control lever
At the Messerschmitt, the flaps were released manually by the helm, which, accordingly, had to be twisted. On all Soviet fighters of the 40s. - pneumatic system.
Some Messerschmitts had a limited view of back. The Soviet fighters since 1943 - the rear view, with the exception of a relatively small number of LaGGs, was excellent.
And yes, the Germans had superiority in automation.
Wasn't such a big deal most of the time. On the Eastern Front 190s were fairly quickly downgraded to ground attack missions (low and slow), so they didn't benefit much from all of their Kraut magic, while at the same time the Soviets didn't suffer that badly from their manual controls.
From what I read in the interviews of actual pilots, the main advantage of automatic controls was when being bounced. Cruising happily and then suddenly being expected to push several levers in proper order and switching some switches was no fun, especially when compared to simply jamming the throttle forward.
Soviets countered this problem by cruising at higher speeds. It limited the range and engine longevity, but they just sucked it up. Engines don't last all that long when exposed to enemy fire anyway.
Another equalizing factor was the strategy of the Luftwaffe for gathering numbers before engaging the enemy. It seems reasonable at first, but Soviet pilots considered it cowardly, because the attack often came after the mission was done. Luftwaffe was a much more independent force than VVS, who was supposed to cooperate with ground troops very tightly, but the disadvantage of that was that Luftwaffe was not very keep on risking an attack while outnumbered, even if it could result in much less effective enemy strike.
Anyway, Soviet pilots scorned this approach and because of that prevalent tactic, they were rarely surprised during big operations. Germans attacked in numbers, but often after the enemy was well aware of them loitering above.
I didn't come up with all of that by myself. I will dig up the sources when asked for them. Eventually... ;-)
Ask P38 pilots about it
That being said 4 of those levers are the supercharger and engine cooling systems that as most radials are kinda set and forget unless doing prolongued dives in winter with low throttle settings were they would need to close the shutters, so they would be set once entered the combat zone.
Typically Germanic in design, so very thorough and smart that it leaves you wondering, just brilliant.
But a bitch to maintain .. looking at you Audi
Well the designer knew the KISS principle, so not typical anywhere.
Classic Mercedes (pre-1995) are built like this too.
@@verdict1163 I had one and what a machine. I still miss it.
@@jackd1582 except the 190 was designed with ease of maintenance in mind, that's it's genius (relative ofc any top end fighter aircraft from any era is gonna be a bitch)
“You have to see the Fw190 Bismarck shows”. Not only have I seen the video, I’ve seen that aircraft in person. Beautiful piece of engineering.
Loving this series Greg.
Did you also have look over the Fairey Gannett that they had there? Pristine condition compared to the one outside on display at the Moorabbin Air Museum in Melbourne, Australia. Weird looking aircraft.
the fw 190 flugwerk variant with ash 41 engine
@@markfryer9880 I've also been to Gatow this year. Great collection, and yes, the Fairey Gannett is one of the weirdest aircraft ever built, with the Dual-Mamba engine. There's also a Gannett at the German Airship and Naval Aviation Museum ("Aeronauticum") at Nordholz, where it sits, somewhat neglected, outside.
I hate you j/k
Bismarck has a good vid on this
FW 190 Engine maintenance access panels designed to use as work platforms. As opposed to U.S. 60KW genset access panels that are designed to fall down and hit the mechanic in the head.
Kurt Tank must have had the top cover of an MG08/15 land on his head.
"If one of those get hit, its going to be exciting for the pilot".
That's outstanding.
I recently read the War DIaries of Chas Lindburg. Hewas a factory rep in the Pacific.
He made a number of talks to pilots about using the auto lean and lower engine rpms for cruse.
He found many if not most pilots could benefit from better engine management for better economy to stay on patrol and get much longer duration from better fuel economy
Once in combat the mix went to auto rich for best power.
THanks
Years back I talked to a Boeing engineer who had worked with WWII aircraft. He commented that the FW190 had a kind of analog "fly by wire" system that made it very easy to fly - easy in terms of WWII fighters all of which were "hot."
When I hear you talking about the 190's rugged reliability and ease of maintenance I think about the P-40. Love the P-40 references here! A ton of P-40 pilots pushed those Allisons as high as 72 inches prompting Allison to issue a memo regarding the use of high boost and that it was approved in combat. The Allison an incredibly tough engine and I hate how it gets short changed in many post war histories.
"...we will probably cover everything in here in more detail than you want..."
Uhm, no. We come here specifically for that level of detail. :) The great advantage of a youtube video is the ability to skip forward, should the detail be too high. However, I have yet to catch myself doing so on your videos. I doubt too many of your regular viewers would complain, at least judging by the other comments.
Back to your video. I absolutely LOVE the Kommandogerät (yes, I am German, I love planes, and yes, I have also worked for BMW in their Spandau facilities while studying engineering). The Kommandogerät for me symbolises the German approach to basically smother a problem with a technical, mechanical solution. Mechanical computers were long considered very rugged and resistant to temperature variations and vibrations, which would disable capacitors and tubes respectively in old electronic circuits. Especially since the inputs and outputs were physical "signals" (lever position, pressure, rpm etc) that would have to be transduced to an electric signal in the first place.
The series of non-descript cams and followers contain all essential information of different settings in relation to each other, ignition advance can be curved to follow rpm, absolute manifold pressure and mixture settings. The (unrelated) Kugelfischer ignition system achieved this by means of rotating and translating a 3D-cam (affectionally called "potato") to capture the relation between several parameters (throttle setting and and rpm). It could correct the output for altitude (pressure) and temperature. Re-mapping such an injection system involves good old "mechanische Bearbeitung", mechanically modifying the cam to yield a different curve. The Kommandogerät uses several such cams to link values in non-linear fashion.
From a practical approach, the P40 seems to hit the sweet spot. Not a fully manual system like Russian fighters (or nearly all GA piston engine aircraft) where every parameter would have to be set, changes would cross-influence the setting. Instead a couple of automatic systems each optimised for their respective task avoids the complexity of managing all variables at the same time. When something fails, the failure mode is clear and corrective action is also easy. The Kommandogerät poops the sheets and you're basically out to dry, because a normally super simple engine becomes unmanageable (bar, of course, the prop rpm with its separate circuit).
Despite these disadvantages I still love the clockwork-like Kommandogerät.
Love this series!
Great videos often provide great commentary, as is illustrated by your excellent contribution! I, too, have a soft spot for mechanical calculators/computers... One of my mentors showed me a lathe with a cam-driven controller. It was love at first sight...
“If one of those bottles gets hit, it’s going to be pretty exciting for the pilot” 😂😂 to say the least!
Greg as ever a fantastic job. I don't know if you realize the immense value of these videos, not just as informative, educational and entertaining pieces, but as genuinely valuable historical works. No one else bothers to read the original documentation and collate it like you do. I really appreciate it and I am sure thousands of your viewers do too.
Thank you.
Greg you are a worldclass "teacher" , I'm so impressed of your "natural" pedagogical skills. This series of the 190 make me really wonder what would happened if the designers of this masterpiece had access to better fuel and other resources to further increase it's specs.
Hat of to you Greg , for this great video 👍
Getting under the skin of the aircraft is why I enjoy your work so much. The Fw family is my favorite Axis AC and does fill the shelves with all my P-47's. Great job, always a pleasure. Thanks
Thank you for all these details, Greg. My admiration for the FW-190 increased greatly after watching your videos and learning about the designer and his goals.
A tour de force, in depth, the minutiae to the major. Seriously absorbing. A gem.
A3/A5 are among my favorite planes in IL2.
The cockpit is awesomely clean and well designed.
I love your content! It's so refreshing to hear details and in depth evaluation of aircraft instead of just regurgitated hearsay and myth.
Dear Greg:
Your airplane films are very instructive, and educational. Your subject matter on the Luftwaffe series especially Dipl. Kurt Tanks Fw 190, Ta 152 H and Ta 152 C series both ground attack and fighter aircraft is excellent. Lastly, l am fascinated by the Kommanduer device of the Fw 190 series airplane. And, l would like to know more about it. Another special video for that? Anyway, the late Doug Champlin had in his museum a: Fw 190 D9( restored as Yellow 9) and l believe this particular Fw 190 D9 still had its Kommanduer engine control "Computer" fitted to the airplane. Apparently, it has been ground run but never to take to the air due to its historic value. This Luftwaffe Fw 190 D9 may now be in the Smithsonian? Museum. Please continue to keep your airplane series alive.I thank you.
George Knott,
Australia.
Best docu ever for me. I always fly the 190´s in War Thunder and ILL2 sims. I always knew it was a awesome fighter. Now i know. Thanks.
Superb video, loved Part 1. I understood the outstanding feature (and what worried the Brits greatly when the 190 debuted) was its superb roll rate and power/performance. This was investigated using a captured example in Farnborough which resulted in Brit pilots being instructed not to engage the 190 in certain scenarios and flight conditions.
Outstanding presentation.
I am honestly amazed at the complexity of the fighter planes from the 30's and 40's. I didn't realize just how sophisticated they were, I would often wonder...did they think of this, or that, regarding different machines. The answer it turns out is always yes, yes they did and then some !I've always found that extremely interesting. I would like to thank you for providing not only the fine details but also the thinking behind them and their different methods of execution. It really brings the aircraft to life in a way that is hard to come across. Wonderful job !
Thank you so very much for the in depth details on my favorite WWII fighter. At 39:00 you can see that the canopy rides on roller bearing and not ball bearings.
You and Bismarck should totally collab!! You would be great for each other!!
Second that.
The one piece main spar was forged in a 30,000 ton press. The "D" model engine mounts were also one piece forged magnesium alloy called "Elektron" . The Germans never ran out of magnesium. I was fascinated as to how the Germans were able to build so many aircraft during 1944. 35,000. Thanks for highlighting the mundane, which really is not
Jim Wahl: Hi, do you have any good, readable links about magnesium metal production in WW2 germany, or the manufacturing of magnesium parts like this? I think infrastructure in Germany as its situation worsened through the last years of the WW2 is interesting.
@@MultiZirkon But ain't magnesium sort of...flammable?
@@nickmitsialis yeah but its flammable in the same way paper is.
very densely packed paper (cardboard) is actually pretty difficult to light. High surface area like with shavings or chips lights pretty easily and will burn intensely even underwater.
My dad is a machinist and we regularly brought powdered and shaved magnesium to use as fire starter out backpacking innawoods.
@@MultiZirkon the Germans built 35000 aircraft in 1944. Make your own conclusion. There are numerous references to the 15,000 and 30,000 ton presses that made this possible. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/03/iron-giant/308886/
@@Snuckster2 Interesting; Thanks for the info.
Just to be able to fly the The Butcher Bird I am thinking of spending a few on IL2 Stormovik again :) Your explanation of this aircraft is like no other, this is one of a kind, very well done and I am sure a huge amount of time has been spending on gathering research material for this episode.
Greg, please continue! I have read a lot of literature about Wurger, it's my favourite warbird. I've got Novarra, Harmann, some of Ospreys and AJ Press nad more, but nowhere the fascinating philosophy of Fw 190 construction is caught as perfect as in Your documentary. Good Job!
Don't worry, this series will need at least three more episodes to complete, maybe more.
1943 Aviation Week did a detail Design Analysis of the Faber machine. The rolled it into a hanger, disassembled and reassembled the bird and drew everything. The last word on an A model
What a beautiful machine was FW190, so well designed
Kurt Tank was well-versed in Man-Machine Interface (MMI) and User Experience (UX).
Thank you, Sir. You could definitely give classes on aircraft design.
In my opinion the command unit was build, to increase the survivability of inexperienced pilots. And offer exhausted pilots some comfort. Hour after hour hearing these extreme engine noises plus the smell of the engine gases plus the cold outside plus 10 to 14 combat hours a day. You are going to be extremely happy if all you have to do is push the throttle. Thanks for the excellent content.
Thanks for these. The Fw-190 is a plane that's always left me wondering what it existed for as I never really understood how it stood apart from the Bf-109. I was never sure if it was intended to be a higher performing replacement or if it had some specific mission to fill that the 109 couldn't. I come away from these videos with a great appreciation for it as well as a feeling of relief that most of Germany's weapons weren't as thoughtfully designed. It's interesting how much more effective a weapons platform can be when they remove just a tiny fraction of performance to enhance durability, maintainability, and usability.
"Let'see...throttle , mixture, prop...nope! Ummm...mixture, prop, throttle...goshdangit...prop, mixture, throttle...fugg it. I'm going down...".
This episode was a true pleasure to watch!
This is an awesome looking FW-190. Another thing on my bucket list that will never happen, is to fly one. It must be glorious.
Kommandogerät in this case should be translated as "kraut space magic".
Now it's been almost 45 years and my memories are less accurate than ever and my understanding as a teenager was not good of such things, but I remember an old German mechanic in my town, was considered a wizard, as in he was considered being able to actual magic on the very early fuel-injected post-WWII cars around Washington DC. He was quite dismissive of his skills, often saying some like 'Bah, I've been doing this since the 40's' in a quite heavy German accent to which everybody would look on in amazement and understanding. AS he worked on cars and airplanes and many of his customers fought in WWII, he was considered just like everyone else. (Back in the 60s through the 2000s, association with German was not nearly so touchy as it seems to be in some circles today) Anyway, I was studying German and he was a great research, especially when he would drop something, bang his knuckles, etc. the stream of utterances were...interesting.
The point is, this engine management computer was in essence a hydromechanical fuel management system.
LOL!
more corect "command device" but I see the humor....
Sauwitzig.... ich lach mir‘n Ast. ;-)
JR No shit
Eagerly waiting for the next episode :) Long videos are really helpful for us laymen to understand and appreciate the thinking behind the designs of these beautiful planes. Many many thanks for your hard work and time!
Pretty sure none of that is mediocre.
Great information, very interesting so far, and looking forward to the next one.
Love this video serie. Please keep them coming! You are the absolute best on this topic. The only one that truely explaines the engineering side to things.
Fantastic Greg! The Fw190 is my favorite piston driven fighter. Glad to see someone going in depth on it!
Great insights---that indirect factors like ease of engine optimization in flight and maintenance on the ground factors into performance and combat effectiveness
Wonderful episode! It seems you are building up a very serious analysis of this wonderful airplane with a very lengthy series of episodes. Thank you so much, what a joy!!!
Germany's fighters have such a good aesthetics, I go back and forth between the 190 and 109 fpr my favorite, though I think the p40 is my favorite ever plane, I confess that its appearance in the movie Pearl Harbor when I was a kid made me love that interwar style.
Greatest entrance of a movie character EVER, John Belushi as "Wild" Bill Kelso in the movie 1941.
"Death Valley California, High Noon", that Flying Tiger style P40 with the sharks mouth lands on that road and pulls into a gas station and out jumps John Belushi, if you were a 14 year old kid in 1979 I just didn't come any cooler then that👍👍👍.
@@dukecraig2402 Before my time, but I watched it recently, I cant believe 1941 wasnt more popular back in the day, crazy funny for sure.
The name's wild bill kelso, and don't you forget it!
@hiwetcam i had no idea there was a book, wilk have to check it out!
Excellent. these videos are freaking amazing. I'm very curious to see some stuff in the future on the IFF systems. Amazing the kind of stuff they already developed at that era.
I find bits like 28:20 just amazing. All that using pencils, paper and brains. No CAD or Solidworks or anything. I do feel like we have lost some of that talent.
Brilliant exploration of this important aircraft! As this series develops you’re clearly showing Kurt Tank’s underlying wish for simplicity of use on an inherently complex machine.
This needs to be a TV series!! Thanks for this again!
Yet a nother wonderfully made video for a fantastic wwII aircraft! Keep it up! I love learning the more technical aspects of all the planes i thought i knew alot about.
I’ve watched these two programmes a number of times. Masterful detail Greg.
Thank you so much for all the work you do on these videos Greg. I've been a long time WW2 aviation buff but i have never found any other source which goes into as much depth and detail as you do!
At 24:50, the author discusses the complexities of controlling the propeller-engine group of Yak aircraft. It's noted that not everything was so problematic. The temperature of the cooling mixture was controlled by the automatic regulator ART-1 (АРТ-1), though it wasn’t widely used in the first series. Additionally, the propeller pitch adjustment was hydraulic and semi-automatic, controlled by the R-7 (Р-7) regulator.
Greg not sure how you want viewers recommending topics, but a series of videos like this on the Willys Jeep would be awsome. After all cant forget about the other half of your channel's name lol.
I do take suggestions, not only that, I have access to a pair of them just down the street, both in full military dress, guns and all, one is a WW2 and one is from Nam.
@@GregsAirplanesandAutomobiles Well its ultimately up to you weather you want to do it or not. Thanks for the clarification. Pretty convenient with those Jeeps too.
I drive by the jeep plant in Toledo once in a while lol
This is a fantastic idea for a Greg's Airplane and Automobiles series, Zachary! My dad was one of the greatest generation and fell in love with Jeeps, during the war. Growing up in the 1950s and 60s we always had at least a couple of "Army Jeeps" on the family ranch. I've owned various different "flat fender" Jeeps all of my life. I've got a CJ-2A and a Willys M-38 right now and still prefer them to our Polaris Ranger, just because... Semper Fi, TreeTop
Ha, the contrast of this to his muscle cars series would be pretty good!
Thank you for your wonderful presentation of this beautiful aircraft. While I am afraid to fly myself I love aviation, so thank you again.
When it comes to the ease of maintenance, I think the Fw 190 could only be matched by the Martin-Baker MB 5, which hereby is suggested as a new topic.
Good thing Kurt wasn’t the regime favorite, or the war might have taken a lot longer
Gorgeous documentary, what a treasure! Very well done.
Excellent series (as I've come to expect from Greg)! Regarding the whole constant speed propeller discussion, for those of us who don't fly, a good analogy might be the transmission in our cars -- which most people 16 years and older will be familiar with. Increasing the prop pitch is like shifting to a lower gear in a car. While 1st gear is great for pulling away from a stop, and 2nd gear is the gear to use to accelerate quickly when rolling, neither is good for cruising or highway use, let alone top speed on some Nevada highway. Those activities require a much lower pitch on the prop (i.e. lower ration in a car's gearbox). Conversely, if you're puttering around in top gear at 1200 RPM in your car trying to the to the next gas station without running out of fuel, and you need to accelerate quickly, mashing the throttle open won't do much except make your engine rattle. You need to jump to a lower gear and mash the throttle to accelerate with any authority. Adding a turbo (i.e. manifold pressure) provides another layer of complexity.
Regarding the engine control system, I think that you summarized it well as a mechanical computer. I can't tell for sure, but I suspect Robert Bosch had something to do with it. The company starting making integrated diesel fuel injection pumps in 1927, which seemed to be the standard for this application until the 1950's. From that diesel injection pump is a small step to gas injection (see most Germany aircraft engines of WWII) and engine controls. After the war this technology showed up in the German manufactured race engines and eventually performance street car engines in the 50's and 60s. I think that I can see a barometric measuring feature in the top right of the diagram at 28:00. In addition the throttle position ( possibly lower left?) and engine speed (light blue?). These look similar to what you'd see on an early Porsche 911 Mechanical Fuel Injection (MFI) system.
Nice job Greg, you collate some excellent factual information, backed by your research skills and knowledge.
I really like the detail examination of these videos. I would do it the same way. Thanks Greg.
Was waiting for this one. My favorite ww2 plane. Great job as always. Thanks
Amazing work Greg. Thank you
Reminds me of working on classic Volkswagens. They had a deceptively simple practicality. Like having the headlights wire through the ignition circuit, so it's physically impossible to drain your battery by leaving the lights on - a feature that US cars still don't have in 2020, even with everything being electronic now. It's mechanically trivial to add this feature - just put the wire here on this already existing switch (the ignition) - but someone had to think about it and plan ahead and the manufacturer had to care enough to bother putting it in.
My Subaru had the same feature, keyswitched headlights, even had a separate switch so you could have the parking lights on with the ignition off.
@@luvr381 It's no coincidence that when I had to give up my VW I moved to a Subaru :)
They aren't what they used to be though. 2000-2008 was the sweet spot.
@@sbvera13 Mine was a '99, great car til rust ate it.
But did headlight brightness vary with engine rpm? Or if it did, did that mean the voltage regulator was failing? Just a quick thought....
@@roggy001 Partly because they were just really old by the time I was driving them. Partly because the generator was in the rear and the the lights were in the front, which at 12v and 5-10 amps (I forget what headlights are) that's a lot of voltage loss due to wire resistance over that distance. This goes double for the really old VW's that used 6v batteries.
Loving the entire series thus far.
A wealth of detailed, relevant and incisive information. Love your channel - thanks.
Very interesting and informative. The amount of research and "love" put into this series is outstanding.
This has to be one of my favourite RUclips episodes ever! I like your explanation of the Kommandogerät a whole lot, the pics reminds me of something similar I saw twentyfive years ago about the hydraulic/mechanical computer controlling the jet engine of a SAAB AJ37 Viggen fighter, it also had a number of cogwheels and levers, and it all was powered by hydraulic pressure provided by jet engine fuel from the afterburner fuel pumps. Really cool! And oh yeah, you say Kommandogerät pretty well. It´s only the Gerät part you stress backwards, you say it roughly like Garrett. But it should be more like ka-chunk. With very little stress on the Ge, and all the stress on Rät. But I don't care, I just say this because you commented yourself about not being sure about the way to say the word.
"Gereet" with a hard German G. And the E's a in endless or efficient.
Although I think handwaving the question of why units like the Kommandogerät weren't more widely used by talking about how jets were taking over and didn't need anything like that is a little disingenuous, given that there were years between the introduction of the FW 190 and the Me 262; given all of the different propeller-driven aircraft that the Third Reich developed and updated during the war, there needs to be an explanation why a device like the Kommandogerät wasn't implemented for them.
Great engine management section, and love the deep dive on the 190! Although minor mistake, the 109s past the E's (and even some E's) had automated prop pitch. So "unified" throttle for them too. One MAJOR deficiency in the unified throttle control is the ability for fuel efficiency. Take the P38 for example, where Lindberg helped get much more range out of P38s with extreme engine settings in cruise. It's something that rarely matters in simulators for sure, though. Would love a video on the mis understandings of the P38, such a wonderful AC too, and again it's deficencies are not apparent automatically in simulators either (hard to work drop tank switches, cold cockpit because of lack of engine in front of the pilot).
On IL2, I think the current g-force modelling which was recently updated works much better, and honestly seems to be about the best g-force simulation for any of the current crop of simulators. I don't fly Spits often (really very rarely), but at high speeds the FW 190 does indeed seem to be able to out turn the Spit in my limited testing there. Again just don't fly the Spit much probably need comment by someone who flies them more.
109's specifically seem to be effected the strongest by this as black out in many maneuvers happens much faster, so having to adjust years of "bad" habits from poor g-force simulations. Really don't like flying the 109s right now in that sim, probably a good thing :).
This seemingly contradicts the point about the similar positioning of pilots in german planes. You should experience the same G tolerance in the two planes. If it differs it's a mistake or game blance.
@@Tesshier not sure. Just from my limited testing with the new g-force mechanics. It's likely they didn't account for things like this.
Hi Greg, great video as always! In one of the more recent updates to IL-2, the developers reworked the pilot physiology system and the seating position has a noticeable effect on how easy it is to black out. In high speed turns, most allied planes can't easily out turn 109s and 190s, because they would black out. IL-2 now also simulates anti G suits for American fighters that then give pilots superior resistance to G forces compared to German fighters.
Awesome. Thanks.
I think the D9 has also less Circuit Breakers. Again thanks for giving credit!
And the kommandogerät also gives the pilot a beer after a areal victory
LOL, a great idea!
You are correct about exhaust traveling forward, especially with the canopy open to any degree.
The boot around the tailwheel of the BT-13 demonstrates how Vultee dealt with the issue.
Hey Greg! A Fan of yours from India. Your detailed videos are always a pleasure to watch.A tidbit of the connection between Dr. Kurt Tank and India is that after the war he went to India to teach aeronautics in a university where he taught the former president of India Dr. Abdul Kalam who would later on go on to develop India's guided missile development programme! Dr. Kurt Tank also designed India's first supersonic jet fighter ,the HF-24 Marut as well.
Didn’t he also try to help Argentina build what looked like a bigger Ta 183?
@@spindash64 thanks for info! I didn't know that Dr. Kurt Tank had helped the Argentinians with development of the IAe 33 too! It's a pity it wasn't put into production.
Your channel is so wonderful. I am a University student studying mathematics but I find after watching these videos that may be engineering would be of more interest. Thank you again Greg-san for all your effort.
As you know, engineering and math are closely related. You have to focus on the field that's best for you.
The best and dominant fighter of WW2 and could out turn anything
Dominant? Lol
Excellent video Greg! I'm glad you focused on the factors that created the high reliability and operational readiness that matter so much in ensuring something is available, and of course the HOTAS style ergonomics that give a low workload and good pilot efficiency!
Not sure how it is that I have just now found your channel???? But boy am I glad I did and I have SUBBED! Greg you sir have saved me hours as I do research on every aircraft subject I build (I'm an avid modeler both scale plastic and R/C plus sims. yeah I'm single and have that kind of time. It's glorious too!)
Knowing usability and maintenance simplicity is a topic almost no videos address and in a practical viewpoint that is definitely a reason it was successful in war despite the poor resources the axis had tword the end
I would love to see a program on the Junkers 88 - designed as a dive bomber, it served in that capacity as well as a level bomber, recon bird, weather ship, heavy fighter, ground attack and night fighter - the 88 was what the Germans call an "all singing, all dancing" aircraft. Thanks for your great programs.
I love this series so much, I actually bulid a model of Fw. 190 D9, I worked on it for several monthts and spent long hours looking ant it, but I never thought it's features are that interesting!
I believe ergonomics and the study thereof came from "time motion" studies. These became quite popular in the 1950s, but were certainly around during the war years. There is a fairly recent Periscope Films video on RUclips from the 1940s showing some of the basics of time-motion studies in an office setting in the 1940s.
Basically the researcher studied what someone did to perform a task, and the motions involved. Then he spent a while reasoning about how the number and duration of motions could be reduced. This led to things like putting items that would be used together next to each other to reduce the motion needed to reach between them.
One might argue that it goes back, in principle, as far as the late 19th century - to Frederick W Taylor's 'Scientific Management' theory.
Hi Greg, you sound like you had a 190 and a P 40 and some other birds in your garage and spent the last 40 years playing and fliyng with them.. you are really great!.thanks !
Greg never mention an airplane he does not have in that large room at the end of his basement!
Il-2 just introduced Pilot Physiology, which does give the 190 the Edge over most contemporaries.
Love your videos dude. I'm more of a modern fighter buff but you explain these lovely machines eloquently. Keep up the amazing work.
More of this fw190 series pls! My most fav ww2 plane alongside the p-47 that you've covered.
Notice the unique ports on the wing roots of the Flugwerk replica at the beginning of the video. This is a custom oil cooling system that several Flugwerk owners are using. The original oil cooler design from Flugwerk used an adjustable system in the top cowl gun location that allowed pilots to maintain oil temperatures. But this system was not working very well. This Flugwerk is with the Hangar 10 collection in Germany and was rebuilt from the French-registered example that ditched into saltwater. I learned recently that Hangar 10 has additional plans to refit the aircraft with an original BMW 801 in coming years. Also notice the lack of a forced-air cooling fan on the replica because there was no such geared fan system on the ASh-82 radials. Flugwerk replicated the look with a ground-adjustable fan attached to the propeller spinner but several owners have removed it. A New Zealand based Flugwerk experienced a problem when the engine cowling flexed in flight and contacted the fan. (The Flugwerk cowlings are not armored and are not as strong.) Here is good picture of that custom oil cooler system in the wing: i.postimg.cc/0jVRSP04/Fw190-A8-M-Hangar10-2019-04-05-9.jpg
Just for people who aren't too familiar with this - "fine" or sharp (high percentage) propeller pitch means the blades are more perpendicular to the plane's nose, while "coarse" (also refered to as 'flat' in the video) means blades are more parallel to the direction of the nose.
Also, prop feathering is course pitch taken even further, so that the blades induce the smallest amount of drag possible, for cases such as engine failure when you are forced to glide.
*coarse
@@luvr381 woops
After listening to how the throttle, mixture and blade pitch were adjusted I thought of how many engines met their death from the mismanagement of those three things alone. I bet the number was not insignificant ! I cant tell you how many times I have wondered about this exact subject regarding WWII aircraft. I'm a mechanic, so I ponder these things often...again, thank you for such an excellent description !
All true !
I like to emphasize this fuel metering unit being a marvel.
This engine having direct fuel injection optimizing the fuel flow according power, available manifold pressure, temperature, engine rpm...
Nowadays one would call for an electronic fuel computer. These guys made this mechanically !
I observed engine start. They crank an inertial starter, engage a clutch, and the engine starts. Compare this to modern piston engine.
Incredible !
Wow, such a detailed overview of my favorite warbird! Looking forward to the next episodes.
loving the series, this is one of my favorite planes ever, just as a future project subject i’d love to see a one episode analisys on the p-39 airacobra, very unusual configuration, i think it would make a very interesting episode
Hello greg, great vid, thanks alot for sharing such a valuable info of the mighty butcher bird, blessings, keep it up, can't wait for the next vid
Such a good teacher
Great info! Always thought the 190 had a very distinctive canopy. Cheers!
Never knew the 190 was predominately Dural, so that is new to me. Combined with its rugged construction it undoubtedly earned that rugged reputation. And good points about the O2 bottles, multiple small bottles with one way valves would undoubtedly be more survivable than one large tank.
Yet another informative video Greg. The details and explanations are superb, painting an ever more detailed image of the aircraft.
Dural (specifically 2024 Aluminum) is still used for the bottom skin of modern jet liner wings (at least the ones made out of aluminum). The top skins are typically 7055 Aluminum. The 7055 is typically a bit stronger but is more sensitive to stress corrosion cracking under tensile loads, hence its use on the upper surface which is loaded in compression, and not the lower surface which is loaded in tension.
@@sheritonn5019 Interesting info, makes sense when one thinks about it.
😀😀😀👍🏼 Thanks Greg Answered a Lot of My Questions in This Episode
Thank you Greg. Your videos are so informative and information dense. Love them.
Outstanding work, Greg!
Thanks, my old friend flew a 190 at the end of the war ,passed away this year.