Fw-190D-9 DORA
"Long Nose FW"
Blue-10
CFS3 - V4.00.164
This aircraft was built by GregoryP using the Version 4.00.164 AvHistory 1% Assembly Line process. It is based on the FW-190D aircraft designed and built for use in CFS3 by VB Planes' Graham Rollinson.
John BRAVO/4 Whelan painted Dora as Fw190D-9 W. Nr 210983 Blue 10. Blue 10 was an aircraft assigned to STAB. II/JG26. It was flown by Hauptman Peter-Paul Stiedel during January 1945 in defense of Germany.
The FW-190 was the only completely successful piston-engined fighter introduced by the German air force, the Luftwaffe, after World War II started. The D represents the "second-generation" Fw-190s which followed the Fw-190A into combat.
The Fw-190D interceptor was considered by many German pilots to be the finest piston-engined fighter in Luftwaffe service.
The longer-nosed Fw-190D, with a redesigned tail, was a success with pilots because of increased engine reliability and performance much superior to the Fw-190A-8 in climb, dive and level speed.
Pilots considered it more than a match for the P-51D "Mustang". Armament was two 20mm Mauser MG-151/20 cannon in the wing (with a robust 250 rounds per gun) and two 13mm Rheinmetall MG-131 cannon (with 475 rounds per gun) over the engine.
Small batches of Fw-190D-0 and D-1 preproduction fighters were delivered for service evaluation in Spring and Summer 1943, just as the American 8th Air Force was starting large daylight bombing raids.
Construction started at Marz, Cottbus, and Kassel-Waldau in Summer 1944. This was part of a major expansion in German single-engined fighter production initiated 2 years earlier by Erhard Milch, chief of aircraft procurement and supply. Over 1,000 fighters a month were now entering air defense service.
Figures vary, but approximately 13,250 fighters were produced.
BEAR
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