Focke-Wulf Fw 190
“Würger”
Kurt Tank’s radial-engined “Butcher Bird” — the fighter that shocked the RAF on its 1941 debut, hit hard, rolled superbly on a wide-track undercarriage, and evolved into the long-nose Dora and the high-altitude Ta 152.
The fighter that shocked the RAF
When Focke-Wulf’s new fighter appeared over the Channel in the late summer of 1941, RAF pilots flying the Spitfire Mk V met something they could not out-fly. The Fw 190 — designed by a team under Kurt Tank — rolled faster, dived harder and was quicker at low and medium altitude than the best fighter the RAF then had. For roughly a year, until the Spitfire Mk IX arrived, the Fw 190 held a clear edge in the daylight air battle over occupied Europe.
What made it work was an unusual choice for a fighter of its day: a big, air-cooled BMW 801 radial engine rather than the slim inline V12 favoured by most 1930s designers. Tank wanted a rugged, easy-to-maintain warhorse that could absorb battle damage and operate from rough fields, and he got it. The radial was paired with a Kommandogerät — an automatic engine-control unit that managed fuel, mixture, boost, timing and propeller pitch from a single throttle lever, sparing the pilot a cockpit full of levers during combat.
The Fw 190 became one of the Luftwaffe’s two mainstay fighters alongside the Messerschmitt Bf 109, and served on every front — as a day fighter, a fast fighter-bomber, a heavily armed “Sturmbock” bomber-destroyer against American formations, and a ground-attack aircraft in the East. Its nickname, Würger (the shrike, a bird that impales its prey), gave it the English tag “Butcher Bird.” Around 20,000 were built. Late in the war the design was stretched into the inline-engined Fw 190 D-9 “Dora” and the high-altitude Ta 152, both among the finest German piston fighters ever flown — though they arrived far too late, and in far too few numbers, to change the outcome.
01The Fw 190’s shock debut: how it outclassed the Spitfire Mk V
The Fw 190 entered squadron service with Jagdgeschwader 26 in the second half of 1941. In combat over northern France its advantages were immediate: a roll rate no contemporary Allied fighter could match, a strong dive, heavy cannon armament and excellent speed below about 6,000 m. RAF Fighter Command, which had held the initiative since 1940, suddenly found its Spitfire Mk Vs outclassed in most of the flight envelope.
The alarm was serious enough that Supermarine rushed the Spitfire Mk IX — essentially a Mk V airframe with a two-stage Merlin 61 — into service in 1942 largely to restore parity. The Allies got their first intact example of the new German fighter almost by accident in June 1942, when a disoriented pilot landed his Fw 190 A-3 at an RAF airfield in Wales. Test flights of that aircraft confirmed what the squadrons already knew: the Würger was a formidable opponent.
What makes it special
A radial engine and an automatic “brain”
Most fighters of the era used slim inline engines; the Fw 190 was built around the fat, air-cooled BMW 801 twin-row 14-cylinder radial, giving roughly 1,700 PS in the A-8. To tame its complexity Focke-Wulf fitted the Kommandogerät, an electro-hydraulic unit that automatically set mixture, boost, ignition timing and propeller pitch — so the pilot flew the engine with a single lever and could concentrate on fighting.
Roll rate, firepower and forgiving gear
The Fw 190 rolled superbly — commonly cited around 162° per second, among the best of any WWII fighter — letting pilots flick out of trouble faster than opponents could follow. It hit hard, too: the A-8 carried four 20 mm cannon plus two 13 mm machine guns. Its wide-track undercarriage, retracting inward, made it far more forgiving on the ground than the narrow-tracked Bf 109.
The Dora and the Ta 152
By 1944 the radial A-series was losing its edge at height. The answer was to graft an inline Junkers Jumo 213 V12 onto a lengthened nose, creating the Fw 190 D-9 “Dora,” a much faster high-altitude fighter. Tank pushed the idea further into the long-winged Ta 152 high-altitude interceptor — superb performers that reached service too late and in too small numbers to matter.
02The Fw 190’s Kommandogerät: the single lever that flew the engine
The BMW 801 radial was powerful but demanding, with many variables a pilot would normally juggle by hand — fuel mixture, supercharger gear, boost pressure, ignition timing and propeller pitch. Focke-Wulf’s solution was the Kommandogerät (“command device”), an early electro-hydraulic engine-control computer that read altitude and throttle position and set all of those parameters automatically. The pilot moved one lever; the unit did the rest. It cut cockpit workload dramatically and let a relatively new pilot get full performance from a complex engine — a genuinely advanced piece of engineering for the early 1940s.
03The Fw 190 D-9 “Dora” and Ta 152: the long-nose developments
The radial-engined Fw 190 was outstanding low down but faded at high altitude, where escorting American fighters increasingly operated. Rather than redesign the aircraft, Focke-Wulf fitted the liquid-cooled inline Junkers Jumo 213, its annular radiator disguising the change so the nose still looked almost radial. The resulting Fw 190 D-9 — the “Langnasen-Dora,” or long-nose Dora — reached service in 1944 and could top roughly 685 km/h. Kurt Tank then stretched the concept into the Ta 152, a high-altitude interceptor with long wings and a Jumo 213E, reportedly capable of around 755 km/h at height. Both were excellent, but only a few hundred Doras and a few dozen Ta 152s were completed before the war ended.
Full specifications
Figures below are baselined on the Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-8, the most-produced sub-type (BMW 801D-2 radial, 1944). Grey text gives imperial equivalents, qualifiers and, where relevant, the radically different Junkers Jumo 213-engined Fw 190D-9 “Dora”, which was in engineering terms a new aeroplane on the same airframe.
Dimensions & weights
- Crew
- 1 (pilot)
- Length
- 9.00 m (29 ft 6 in) – D-9: 10.20 m (33 ft 6 in) with the longer Jumo nose and extended tail
- Wingspan
- 10.51 m (34 ft 6 in)
- Height
- 3.95 m (12 ft 11 in), tail down
- Wing area
- 18.30 m² (197 sq ft) – a small, highly loaded wing
- Empty weight
- 3,200 kg (7,055 lb)
- Loaded weight
- 4,417 kg (9,738 lb), clean fighter
- Max takeoff weight
- 4,900 kg (10,800 lb) with external stores
- Internal fuel
- ~524 L (~138 US gal) in two self-sealing fuselage tanks
Performance
- Max speed
- 656 km/h (408 mph) at 6,000 m (19,700 ft) on boost – D-9 reached about 685 km/h (426 mph) with MW 50
- Cruise speed
- 475 km/h (295 mph) at economical settings
- Rate of climb
- 15 m/s (2,950 ft/min) at sea level, clean
- Service ceiling
- 11,410 m (37,430 ft); useful combat performance ran out far lower
- Range
- ~800 km (~500 mi) on internal fuel
- Range with drop tank
- ~1,400 km (~870 mi) with a 300 L centreline tank; G-series long-range marks did better still
- Takeoff run
- 450 m (1,480 ft) at loaded weight, hard surface
- Landing run
- 500 m (1,640 ft); the wide-track gear made this far less eventful than in a Bf 109
- Load factor
- +8 g design limit; the airframe was notably strong and dive-tolerant
Propulsion & systems
- Engine
- BMW 801D-2 14-cylinder twin-row air-cooled radial, direct fuel injection – D-9: Junkers Jumo 213A inverted V-12, liquid-cooled but fitted behind an annular radiator that kept the radial-like nose
- Power
- 1,700 PS (1,250 kW / 1,677 hp) for takeoff; about 2,000 PS briefly on C-3 injection – D-9: 1,750 PS, about 2,100 PS with MW 50
- Propeller
- VDM three-blade constant-speed metal unit, 3.30 m (10 ft 10 in) diameter, with a broad cooling fan behind the spinner
- Kommandogerät
- Single-lever engine control a hydraulic-electric “engine computer” that automatically set mixture, propeller pitch, boost pressure, ignition timing and supercharger gear from one throttle lever. The pilot pushed the throttle and flew; a contemporary Allied fighter pilot juggled three or four levers. It is the single most advanced feature of the design and a major reason the Fw 190 was an easy aircraft to fight in.
- Guns
- 2 × 13 mm MG 131 + 4 × 20 mm MG 151/20 cowl machine guns over the engine, cannon in the wing roots and outer wings; heavy for a single-seat fighter of its day
- Cockpit & visibility
- Excellent all-round view a roomy, well-laid-out cockpit under a clear sliding canopy, later a blown “Galland” hood. The wide-track, inward-retracting undercarriage gave a stable, forgiving ground stance — the Fw 190 was markedly easier to take off and land than the narrow-track Bf 109, whose landing accidents cost the Luftwaffe a well-documented number of aircraft and pilots.
- High-altitude weakness
- Performance faded above ~6,000 m (~20,000 ft) — the BMW 801's single-stage supercharger ran out of breath just where the USAAF daylight bomber streams and their escorts operated. Fixing that is precisely why the Jumo-engined D-9 and the long-span, pressurised Ta 152H were developed.
- First flight
- 1 June 1939 prototype Fw 190 V1, flown by Hans Sander
- Service entry
- 1941 A-1 with JG 26 over the Channel front, where it briefly outclassed the Spitfire Mk V
- Built
- ~20,000 all marks, 1941–1945. Like all late-war German aircraft output, this total rests on dispersed factories that used forced and slave labour, including concentration-camp prisoners.
- Unit cost
- ~RM 55,000–65,000 (airframe and engine, mid-war estimate). Prices inside a controlled war economy using unpaid labour are not comparable to a market price and should be read as indicative only.
- Cost per flight hour
- ~USD 6,000–10,000 modern warbird operation, fuel, insurance and radial-engine overhaul reserve included. Note that almost every “flying Fw 190” today is a modern Flug Werk FW 190 reproduction built from new tooling in Germany from 1997 onwards, flying on Chinese-built Shvetsov ASh-82 radials rather than a BMW 801.
04The Fw 190’s cost: why no reliable price exists
The Fw 190 was a wartime German state product, mass-produced across a dispersed network of factories and forced-labour plants under a command economy, and never sold on any open market. As a result there is no reliable flyaway unit price in the public record, and no meaningful cost-per-flight-hour figure — the type has no operator today. What is well documented is scale: around 20,000 airframes were built between 1941 and 1945, making the Würger one of the most-produced German fighters of the war alongside the Bf 109. Any precise money figure attached to an individual Fw 190 should be treated as an estimate.
Armament & payload
“Würger” firepower — four cannon, two machine guns and a kit for every job
The Fw 190 was designed from the start as a gun platform rather than a light dogfighter, and Kurt Tank built it to be armed, repaired and re-roled quickly in the field. By the A-8 of 1944 a standard fighter carried six guns; bolt-on factory and unit kits turned the same airframe into a bomber destroyer, a dive-bomber, an anti-tank aircraft or a torpedo carrier. Every kit bought firepower with weight and drag, and the trade-off was well understood by the pilots who flew them.
Guns (standard)
- 2 × 13 mm MG 131 synchronised cowl guns, ~475 rounds each
- 2 × 20 mm MG 151/20 wing-root cannon, ~250 rounds each
- 2 × 20 mm MG 151/20 outer-wing cannon, ~140 rounds each, on the A-8
- Earlier A marks carried 7.92 mm MG 17s and slower-firing MG FF/M cannon; the A-8 fit above became the standard heavy battery
- Electrically fired, with an EZ 42 or Revi reflector sight depending on mark and date
Umrüst-Bausätze / Rüstsatz field kits
- Umrüst-Bausätze (/U) factory conversion sets — a documented, bolt-in way to turn one production line into many roles
- Rüstsatz (/R) unit-level field kits fitted at the squadron
- /R2 2 × 30 mm MK 108 replacing the outer 20 mm cannon — devastating against a four-engined bomber, short-ranged and low-velocity against a fighter
- /R6 2 × WGr 21 rocket mortar tubes under the wings
- Handling penalty every kit added weight and drag; a fully kitted Sturmbock lost roughly 30–50 km/h and much of its agility, which is why escorting light fighters flew with them
Bombs
- ETC 501 centreline rack 1 × SC 250 or SC 500 (250 kg / 500 kg)
- ETC 50 / ETC 71 wing racks up to 4 × SC 50 (50 kg) on F-series ground-attack marks
- SC 1000 1,000 kg carried by some G-series marks with armament and fuel reduced to compensate
- ~1,800 kg max (~4,000 lb) theoretical maximum external load; operational loads were far lower
- AB-series cluster containers and SD fragmentation bombs were also used against troops and transport
Rockets & anti-bomber weapons
- WGr 21 (21 cm) spin-stabilised mortar rounds fired from underwing tubes to break up bomber boxes before the gun pass
- MK 108 30 mm the definitive bomber-killer — a few hits sufficed, but its shells dropped fast and hitting a manoeuvring fighter was difficult
- MK 103 30 mm higher velocity, heavier and bulkier, carried in underwing gondolas on some marks
- Panzerblitz / Panzerschreck rockets air-to-ground rockets trialled and used in small numbers on F-8s against armour
- R4M late-war folding-fin rockets, mainly an Me 262 weapon, trialled on the Fw 190
Ground-attack fits
- Fw 190F dedicated Schlachtflugzeug — added armour under the cockpit and engine, outer cannon usually deleted to save weight
- Fw 190G long-range fighter-bomber with underwing drop tanks and a reduced two-cannon battery
- Typical F-8 load 1 × SC 250 centreline plus 4 × SC 50 underwing, guns for strafing
- The air-cooled BMW 801 was more tolerant of ground fire than a liquid-cooled V-12, a real advantage in the low-level role
- From 1943 the F progressively replaced the Ju 87 Stuka in front-line service
Torpedo & special fits
- F-8/U2 and /U3 carriers for the BT 700 and BT 1400 bomb-torpedoes for anti-shipping work
- LT F5b torpedo trialled on modified airframes; operational use was very limited
- Mistel composite an Fw 190 mounted above an explosive-filled unmanned Ju 88, the fighter aiming the combination and then separating
- Reconnaissance fits Rb 12.5 or Rb 20 cameras in the rear fuselage on a small number of aircraft
- Night and bad-weather marks A-5/U2 and similar, with flame dampers and blind-flying equipment, used against night intruders with modest success
Three typical Fw 190 fits
- Interceptor
- A-8 clean fighter — 2 × MG 131 and 4 × MG 151/20, full internal fuel, no external stores. The standard day-fighter configuration: best climb, best roll rate and the fastest of the A-series fits, flown against escorts and over the Eastern Front.
- Bomber destroyer (Sturmbock)
- A-8/R2 or R8 — outer MG 151/20 replaced by 2 × 30 mm MK 108, plus armoured windscreen quarter-panels and cockpit side armour. Built to press close-range attacks on B-17 and B-24 formations from astern; the weight and drag left it near-helpless against Mustangs, so Bf 109 top cover flew with the Sturmgruppen.
- Ground attack
- F-8 Schlachtflugzeug — 2 × MG 131 and 2 × MG 151/20, additional belly armour, ETC 501 with an SC 250 and four SC 50s underwing, or anti-armour rockets. The type that replaced the Ju 87 in the close-support role from 1943.
Armament varied sharply by mark, by production block and by unit. An A-4 of 1942, an A-8/R2 Sturmbock of late 1944 and an F-8 on the Eastern Front shared an airframe and very little else; figures above describe the common fits rather than a fixed standard.
Variants
From the A-1 to the Ta 152 — one airframe, many aeroplanes
Focke-Wulf treated the Fw 190 as a platform. The same fuselage absorbed a new engine, a longer nose, a pressurised cockpit and a wing of quite different span, and production shifted between fighter, fighter-bomber and attack roles as the war demanded. Production totals below are approximate and disputed between sources; late-war German aircraft output was dispersed into tunnels and shadow factories that relied on forced and slave labour, including concentration-camp prisoners, and any figure for these aircraft carries that history with it.
- Fw 190A series (1941–1945)
- The BMW 801-engined main line, A-1 through A-9. Roughly 13,000 built. Fast, strong, superb roll rate and an easy aircraft to fly; increasingly outclassed above 6,000 m as Allied escorts arrived.
- Fw 190A-8 (1944)
- The most-produced single sub-type, around 6,600 aircraft. Standardised the six-gun battery, added a rear fuselage tank for MW 50 boost or extra fuel, and served as the basis for the Sturmbock kits.
- Fw 190F (1943–1945)
- Dedicated ground-attack Schlachtflugzeug with extra armour and reduced gun fit; roughly 6,000 F and G aircraft between them. Took over the close-support role from the Ju 87.
- Fw 190G
- Long-range fighter-bomber — armament cut to two cannon, underwing drop tanks and heavier bomb loads including the SC 1000. Built in the low hundreds to low thousands depending on how sub-types are counted.
- Fw 190D-9 “Dora” (1944–1945)
- Jumo 213A inverted V-12 in a lengthened nose, with a plug in the rear fuselage to restore balance. About 700–1,800 D-series aircraft depending on the source. Regained the high-altitude performance the radial A-marks lacked and is widely rated the best-performing Fw 190 to reach service.
- Ta 152H (1945)
- A further Kurt Tank development rather than a simple Fw 190 variant: long-span high-altitude interceptor with a pressurised cockpit and a ceiling above 13,000 m. Roughly 150 airframes of all Ta 152 sub-types were completed and only a handful reached an operational unit before the war ended; its combat record is negligible.
- Flug Werk FW 190 (modern reproductions, 1997–)
- Clearly labelled new-build aircraft, not restorations. The German company Flug Werk manufactured roughly 20 airframes from newly made tooling, flying from 2004 on Chinese-built Shvetsov ASh-82 radials in place of the unobtainable BMW 801, with modern instruments and systems.
No original Fw 190 remained airworthy for decades after 1945. The aircraft flying today are overwhelmingly modern Flug Werk new-build reproductions with Chinese-built ASh-82 radials, alongside a very small number of restored originals, some of them rebuilt around recovered wartime components. Surviving original airframes number a few dozen worldwide and are almost all static museum exhibits.
From drawing board to long-nose Dora
Design begins
The German air ministry contracts Focke-Wulf; Kurt Tank’s team chooses the air-cooled BMW radial over an inline engine for ruggedness.
First flight
The prototype Fw 190 V1 flies on 1 June 1939, showing promise despite early engine-cooling troubles.
Combat debut
The Fw 190 enters service and quickly outclasses the RAF’s Spitfire Mk V over occupied Europe.
An intact example
In June a disoriented pilot lands an Fw 190 A-3 at RAF Pembrey in Wales, handing the Allies their first flyable Würger.
Bomber-destroyer
Heavily armed and armoured “Sturmbock” Fw 190s are fielded against USAAF heavy-bomber formations; F-series aircraft take up ground attack in the East.
The Dora arrives
The inline-engined Fw 190 D-9 “long-nose Dora” enters service, restoring competitive performance at higher altitude.
Ta 152 and war’s end
The high-altitude Ta 152 reaches limited service in the final months. Production ends with the German surrender; around 20,000 Fw 190s had been built.
Warbirds and replicas
A handful of original airframes survive in museums; restored originals and new-build Flug Werk reproductions keep the type flying at airshows.
Twelve stories of the Butcher Bird
The RAF meets its match
For a year the Spitfire V had no answer to the new Focke-Wulf fighter.
Read the full story
The Fw 190 that landed itself into Allied hands
A disoriented German pilot put an intact Fw 190 A-3 down at an RAF airfield in Wales.
Read the full story
Why they called it the Butcher Bird
“Würger” is German for the shrike — a small bird that impales its prey.
Read the full story
The single lever that flew the engine
The Kommandogerät automatically managed a complex radial engine.
Read the full story
The gear that saved pilots
A wide-track undercarriage made the Fw 190 forgiving where the Bf 109 was lethal.
Read the full story
The roll that shook off pursuers
An exceptional roll rate let Fw 190 pilots reverse a fight in an instant.
Read the full story
The Sturmbock bomber-killers
Heavily armed, armoured Fw 190s were sent head-on at American bomber boxes.
Read the full story
The Fw 190 in the mud
On the Eastern Front the F-series became a rugged close-support aircraft.
Read the full story
Enter the long-nose Dora
The inline-engined Fw 190 D-9 restored high-altitude performance.
Read the full story
Kurt Tank and the Ta 152
The designer reportedly used his own fighter’s speed to escape Mustangs.
Read the full story
The Jabo raids on England
Fast, low fighter-bombers dashed across the Channel to hit coastal towns.
Read the full story
What survives today
Few originals remain, but the Würger still flies.
Read the full story
The Würger in pictures
The Fw 190 in motion
A curated Fw 190 video feature is coming soon. In the meantime, explore the photo gallery above and the full story of the Würger below.
Where the Fw 190 fought
A mainstay on every front
The Fw 190 was one of the Luftwaffe’s two principal fighters for most of the war, serving alongside the Bf 109 from the Channel to the Eastern Front and in the defence of Germany itself. It fought as a day fighter, a fighter-bomber, a bomber-destroyer and a ground-attack aircraft, and many of Germany’s highest-scoring pilots flew it. Precise, verifiable kill totals for a single type are difficult to isolate and are best treated with caution.
Compare the combat record of every military aircraft. Figures as of July 2026.
Everything people ask about the Fw 190
Can I fly in an Fw 190?
What made the Fw 190 so good when it appeared?
Why is the Fw 190 called the “Butcher Bird”?
What engine did the Fw 190 use?
What was the “long-nose” Dora?
What was the Ta 152?
How many Fw 190s were built?
Are any Fw 190s still flying?
You can’t fly the Fw 190.
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Every fact, checked
- Imperial War MuseumsThe Fw 190 in RAF hands and the 1942 Pembrey landing that gave the Allies an intact example.
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum — Fw 190 F-8Airframe history and the preserved F-8 ground-attack variant.
- Smithsonian NASM — Ta 152 H-0The sole surviving Ta 152 and the high-altitude development story.
- The National WWII MuseumContext on the daylight air war over Europe and German fighter operations.
- Royal Air Force MuseumReference for the preserved Fw 190 airframe and RAF evaluation of the type.
- Key.AeroDevelopment history of the BMW 801 radial, the Kommandogerät and the D-9 Dora.
- The Aviation Geek ClubKurt Tank, the Ta 152 and the anecdote of out-running P-51 Mustangs.
- HistoryNet / Aviation HistoryThe Würger nickname, the Sturmbock bomber-destroyers and Fw 190 combat use.