Make : Focke-Wulf 190 A-6/R8
W/nr : 550214 "PN+LU"
Manufactured : AGO (Aktien Gesellschaft Otto) at Oschersleben
Date of Manufacture : W.Nr 550 158 was built on 30.06.43, and W.Nr 550 563 and 550 570 were built on 09.09.43. That means W.Nr 550 214 was built some time in the summer of 1943, using some parts stockpiled since late1942 manufactured at Posen, Poland.
Air Ministry Number : AM 10This Focke-Wulf FW190 A6/R8 W/Nr (Factory number) 550214 can be seen at the South African Museum of Military History. It's code letters or radio call letters were PN+LU upon capture. We call her Lulu. This name, like all the names of planes on this site, is not official. I just like to name things.
A few years ago it was stripped of years of RAF, SAAF and museum paint jobs to reveal some of it's original colours . The colour scheme it carries today is the best approximation that can be made thus far as to it's original scheme. This scheme includes the yellow Reichsverteidigung band (Not to be confused with the Eastern front service band) And the Unit badge of the test unit that this aircraft is guessed to have belonged to at capture. This unit was the Erprobungsstelle (Test employment) unit 8/JG11. The previously wrongly identified theatre band now gives rise to speculation about the plane's combat history. This is however, just an educated guess made by consensus between historians in Europe and South Africa. The truth is that we simply do not know. The planes log book was not captured and is lost.
Throughout this planes life as an exhibit many errors have been made regarding it's service history and it's type. While I cannot be certain that theories I put forward are correct, I can take this opportunity to dispel some myths about her.
Firstly, she was not a night fighter. This was established by German Radar experts who quite correctly identified the radar array on her wings as that of the range finding radar device Neptun-Lilliput. This kind of device would be inadequate for Night Fighting. She is also not an R6 or R2 variant as some documents and experts claim.
The R6 variant of the A6 was a modification where the outer cannons were removed and a single 210mm timed rocket mounted under each wing. During the restoration it was discovered that use had been made of the MK108 30mm cannon mountings on the wings. So, although it is an R6, and therefore supposedly rocket armed, at some stage it had the cannons fitted. In fact , there is some doubt as to whether these rockets were ever fitted. There are no indications on the plane that they were. The museum re-fitted the cannons. This modification with the MK108s was referred to as the R8 modification. During restoration, an identification plate was found under some layers of paint, next to the place where the original manufacturer's plate was stolen from by collectors, confirming that this was in fact modified to R8 status. Why the Mk 108's were fitted in gondolas rather than in the wing might be explained by the radar fitting on the wings in the area of the cannon. But this is just a guess.
One might wonder how it was decided that the cannons were fitted and not the rockets. Well, each weapon system will leave its own footprint of little holes drilled for cabling, and fittings scratched and so on. Also, with the 190 being the "Electric Fighter", each weapon set will have it's specialized control wires and boxes in the fuselage. In the case of this aircraft all of these things were found for the MK108 pods, and none for the 21cm Rockets. I will still confirm the above by interviewing Jeff Bell about this. He was the chief engineer during the last restoration when the above was discovered.
The Neptun-Lilliput radar, with it's low power drain (28V/4A instead of 28V/17A), was intended for day fighters to automate the process of firing timed 210mm BR Geraet air-to-air rockets into bomber formations, and was also meant to increase accuracy. This was achieved by measuring the distance to the bomber and firing the rockets at precisely the right time so they would explode amidst the enemy formation. Although some experts will claim that such a scheme could not work, it was tested successfully and operational deployment was planned. Attacks, when accurate, by 21CM rockets had devastating effects on US bomber formations, and so the improvement of accuracy with these weapons seemed a natural development route.
The radar had two arrays, one on each wing. The array on one wing transmitted the radar signal while the other wing received the echo. This was a simplified version of the Neptun Fug 217J and 218 units, but since it could only measure distance, and not height or direction, it was thus not used for night fighting. This unit was destined to be supplied to day fighters for distance measurement for the little Elfe EG3 automatic firing box. This "Rustzustand" of the plane was called the "Fliegende Panzerfaust" or Flying Bazooka.
These units were manufactured by Siemens and more than 100 "Elfe" was produced after the end of testing in the autumn of 1944. We do know that the warehouse near Munich where these radar sets and associated equipment were stored was hit by bombs in the last weeks of 1944 before they could start serious delivery, thus ending German plans to use these sets on a large scale.
These times combined with the manufacturing date of the plane suggests the possibility that this plane might not have been the original or only test bed for this device, but was meant to operationally fitted. The bomb raid on the equipment prevented further deployment and semi fitted aircraft were retro fitted for bomber interception and released from the program. Having said that, it was not unusual for test units to try out ideas and techniques on the spur of the moment without documenting the tests or results. Thus out 190's strange outfit might have been the result of some strange idea by a couple of test pilots. Perhaps they used her to test ranges and sights in flight conditions for the 108's. Although certain narrow minded historians will scoff at the idea of using range finding radar with the short ranged 108 slugs, anyone with any combat experience in the air will tell you that accurate ranging in a huge bonus with any weapon, and doubly so with the misleading sizes of the big B17 bombers. These bombers were so big that many pilots opened up and expended their ammunition while still far out of range.
Further development of range finding radar might eventually have lead to gun sights similar to those used in Korea by the Sabres and in fighter jets today. So the idea of using radar with gunfire is really not so far fetched, and while it is obvious that the penalty in drag and weight would have made this specific application unfeasable, the core of the idea is quite sound.
The plane has the send and receive aerials attached today, as they were upon capture. The radar set and the Elfe sub-assembly that triggered the 210mm rockets at a preset range are missing from the plane, but their fittings and all the wiring remains. However, there is no evidence that the accompanying rockets were ever fitted. Instead it seems the plane was fitted with the MK108 pods, which has no use for radar. This gives one a small insight into the turmoil in Germany during the last year of the war. It is obvious that the plane was intended for action rather quickly, preventing the removal of the radar array. This array and its wiring prevented the heavy guns from being fitted in the outer wing bays as usual. One can therefore assume that the fighter was intended for use against day bombers, and not fighters, where the high drag induced by the outer gun-pods would have discouraged their fitment.
During the last restoration in 1990, several patched holes were found in the rear fuselage( 5 in total ) These took the form of squares cut out of the body and patched over, consistent with techniques used by aircrew to repair damage caused by shrapnel or bullets. The position of at least one of the repairs excludes the possibility of damage from ground fire.
These marks combined with the strange and incomplete weapons and avionic fittings suggest a rather more colourful service life than a simple test bird. What that might have entailed will probably remain the stuff of fantasy. But that was not the only surprise found in the fuselage.
Inside the fuselage a poem was written in pencil. It was discovered by chance and preserved.
Research about the poem was done by Rainer Lück from Germany and he found that it was a chorus from a popular song published in Germany in 1944.
The song was called Wie schön wär' heut' für mich die Welt
Music: Anton Profes
Lyrics: Aldo von Pinelli
Publisher: Cineton Lied
From the Movie "Der weiße Traum" ("The white dream")
First performed by: Alda Noni
The section he transcribed from the photographs reads :
Wie schön wär heut für mich die Welt, wenn der der mir
gefällt mich in die ...while the actual lyric of the song goes :
Wie schön wär' heut für mich die Welt
wenn der
der mir gefällt
mich in die Arme nähme. Translated :
How beautiful the world would be for me today
if the one I like
would hold me in his arms.He also looked at the signature below it, and made out the name "Traudl" , which is a short form of "Waltraud" or "Edeltraud" or anything else with "traud" in it. These names are out of fashion today.
The British captured this Fw-190 at Leck-Holstein, Germany. On 16 July 1945, after being captured, the plane was attached to Farnborough RAF, where it was given the designation AM10. It was flight tested after the main instruments ( e.g. Altimeter, airspeed indicator ect.) were replaced by American and British instruments in imperial measurements . The original instruments found their way to the bottom of a trash heap somewhere in the UK.
Later in 1945 it was exhibited at Hyde Park as part of the Battle of Britain display week in September 1945. In 1946 in was brought to Cape Town aboard the SS Perthshire arriving on 6 November. After that it was transported to CFS Dunnottar, then in 1971 it went to 15AD for restoration and arrived in 1972 at the Museum, having been donated by the SAAF. She was never flown in South Africa and the restoration attempts on her were mainly superficial. Her power plant and airframe remains untouched to this day. All control surfaces are in working order and all electrical systems are still intact, although most rubber and leather parts have dried and cracked. Past vandalism has been superficial and repairable, and the plane is currently very well looked after.
My inspection revealed only one fuel pipe unconnected. It has been stored inside the fuselage. I suspect that if one serviced the engine and replaced the oil, the engine might turn.
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Topic: Focke-Wulf 190 A-6/R8 W/nr : 550214 "Lulu" (Read 10962 times)
