Focke-Wulf Fw 190A: An Illustrated History of the Luftwaffe's Legendary Fighter Aircraft

I did like this book but not thrilled. A good addition for the FW fan but not a must have. I am glad I purchased this, do not get me wrong, but it does not complete my FW library, only adds to it. If you want to add to your FW library so you may have every small detail about the FW purchase this volume. The avid FW fan WILL NOT be dis- appointed.

This book would have been more acceptable if entitled 'The FW190A, an illustrated history of its development' because, as in Mr Hermanns books on the 'FW190 Long Nose' and te 'TA152', the photographs and illustrations are superb but the text is brief in the extreme- I got through all 224 pages in little more than a day. There is no comparison with, say, Alfred Price's thoroughly detailed 'The Spitfire Story. - but that was published in 1982, in the pre internet age, at a time when people were still prepared to really read such books provided they were well written.The best feature is a series of interviews with personalities in the story, including pilots and Kurt Tank himself. Most of the book deals with development of the aircraft and getting it into production: the chapter 'Production begins' ends at page 148. Subsequent to that there were seemingly hundreds af variations, all given torturous names, like 'FW190 A-1 / UI W Nr 001 SB + KA, The 'A' designation indicates the engine and airframe whilst the 'U' number identifies such things as armament and equipment combination. There were 24 Marks of Spitfire but somehow the Germans made everything seem much more complicated. Perhaps it's as well that the author does not bore us to death by trying to explain all these things in detail, but the narrative seem to just peter out somewhere in late 1942.It is quite interesting to read the book though. We learn that the BMW 801 engine was really quite a rough and noisy thing and that in early aircraft cockpit temperatures could reach 140 degrees. The big radial had a fancy integrated control system- an early version of the 'black box' that controls modern motor car engines and equally perplexing even to experts when something went wrong. Still, this was a rugged aeroplane and, overall, a much less temperamental machine than the Messerschmitt BF109. However, effort came to nothing in the end and Impenetrable bureaucracy did its best to defeat the war effort even without the help of the enemy: one young pilot tells how his great operational experience was wasted when he was sent to test torpedo dropping gear for months on end - though that was preferable to ending up on the Russian front.The glory of this book lies in the photographs, all reproduced on a large scale. They include factory assembly shots and many of them show close- up detail. Some photo's are a bit fuzzy and are over- enlarged from fairly poor originals, but in those times people had greater concerns than perfect photography. The atmosphere of the period is captured very well.This book asks more questions than it answers, especially about the late war period. It is titled 'FW190A' so perhaps we should not complain that it does not go into much detail about the later varients, which ended up at the 'G' model. One is thankful not to be drowned in a sea of statistics but at the same time frustrated at not getting the full story. Still, I enjoyed the personal anecdotes and would probably buy the book just for the photos and illustrations. Like all Schiffer publications this one is produced to a very high standard using gloss paper.

Une des plus belles description du bijou technologique de kurt tank, le célèbre focke wulf anton. A conseiller pour ceux qui souhaitent découvrir ce redoutable chasseur de la luftwaffe.

This book has many good photos and a good history of the design development of this fighter, but no real history of the combat role the Luftwaffe utilized this plane in.. Not all the Marks used in combat by the Luftwaffe are even mentioned. Overall this book is a disapointment-there are many better books written about this plane.