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I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the Wright Flyer.

Despite our accumulated wealth of hours (which may or may not be of any use) could any of us have flown that thing? Would you have liked to replace Orville on that first flight? I know I would.

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New Build Focke-Wulf FW190

A new build FW 190 is the latest ‘Warbird‘ to become part of Spitfire Ltd’s collection residing with the Aircraft Restoration Company at Duxford, and is already an extremely popular addition on static display in the IWM hangar. Flight development trials have been undertaken on a similar example at Flug Werk in Germany, and on behalf of the owner, ARCo have been investigating the feasibility of putting the aircraft on the British Register with the CAA. After many months of discussions with the CAA, they have finally accepted the outline project concept and have given permission to proceed with an application. This is a major step forward and will now see the aircraft undergo inspection and assessment by ARCo engineers and design team with a view to submitting the findings to the CAA in 2008. Maybe then enthusiasts will finally see a flying example of this incredible aircraft in the UK.

History

Designed as a new fighter to fight alongside the Messerschmitt Bf 109, the Focke-Wulf FW 190 Wurger (“shrike”) was a single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft of Germany’s Luftwaffe, and one of the best fighters of its generation. These aircraft were used extensively during the Second World War, over 20,000 being manufactured, including around 6,000 fighter bomber models. Production ran from 1941 to the end of hostilities, during which time the aircraft was continually updated.

For the first few months of the FW 190’s combat career, the Allies, were entirely unaware of the new fighter. As allied fighter losses rose, it became obvious that this new German aircraft outperformed the Spitfire Mk V then in service. Fortunately in June 1942 a German pilot landed on a British airfield by mistake, which allowed the RAF to study the aircraft for any novel design elements. Finding that in terms of firepower, rate of roll and straight line speed at low altitude, the FW 190 was considerably better than the then top-of-the-line Spitfire Mk V, the hasty development of the upgraded / up-engined Spitfire Mk IX model began.

The FW190 was well liked by its pilots, and compared to the Bf 109, the FW 190 was a “workhorse” proving itself suitable for a variety of roles, including ground attack, long-range bomber escort, night-fighter and high-altitude interceptor. At least 28 FW 190s exist in museums, collections and in storage worldwide with 15 displayed in the United States.

Starting in 1997, a small German company, Flug Werk GmbH, began work on a new FW 190A-8. These are new builds from the ground up, using many original dies, plans and other information from the war. Werk numbers continued from where the German war machine left off with the new Fw190A-8 labelled FW 190A-8/N (N for Nachbau which translated to English means “reproduction, replica or clone”). Some of these new FW 190s are known to be fitted with the original tail and wheel units from the Second World War.

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