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Come see Flying Heritage Collection's three airworthy German aircraft take to the sky! This event was held on August 17 at Paine Field in Everett Washington. Originally it was supposed to feature the Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3 (looks like an E-4, but has field modified canopy), but unfortunately the pilot had a problem and it couldn't fly. I did catch the early morning warmup flight. The other aircraft is their Focke-Wulf 190A-5, which is the only flying original Fw-190 in the world, and is powered by the only working BMW-801 in the world.

From www.FlyingHeritage.com

Bf 109E-3
This aircraft: This Bf 109-E was manufactured in Germany and deployed in October 1939. Piloted by Eduard Hemmerling, it flew primarily over France. Hemmerling shot down a British Spitfire on July 7, 1940, while escorting Stuka dive-bombers that were attacking British ships in Dover harbor. Later that month he destroyed a British Blenheim bomber and another British plane. But his own aircraft was mortally wounded, and Hemmerling turned back toward France. His failing airplane crashed off the coast of Cap Blanc Nez, killing the 27-year-old pilot. In 1988, a man walking on the beach near Calais noticed a piece of metal sticking out of the sand -- the tip of this plane's wing.

See how the FHC's Messerschmitt Bf 109 is cockeyed? It's intentional. In order to counteract the torque of the fighter's engine on takeoff, the left strut has 100 more PSI than the right. It's something the Germans did during WWII and the FHC follows suit. With the Daimler Benz engine running at takeoff power, that left strut gets more pushed down to the level of the right, and the fighter climbs off the deck at an attitude quite close to parallel.

Fw-190:
This aircraft: This Fw 190 was built in 1943 and factory-modified for ground attack duties. Fighting on the Eastern Front, the aircraft was assigned to Jagdgeschwader (fighter wing) 54 near Leningrad. On July 9, 1943, while attacking a Soviet supply train, the plane crashed. The pilot became a prisoner in Russia, but his plane remained untouched and hidden by acres of impassable wetland and a growing forest of young saplings.

The amazingly intact plane was discovered by a warbird hunter in the late 1980s and was carefully dismantled and airlifted with a helicopter. In England and later in the U.S., the fighter underwent an extensive restoration process. Today, the plane is the only original flyable Focke-Wulf 190A fighter to take to the skies with a genuine BMW 801 engine.
The Germans called the Fw 190 Würger or "Butcher Bird."

The Focke-Wulf Fw 190's canopy rails are not parallel. They taper inward as they extend toward the tail. As the canopy slides backwards on these rails, Focke-Wulf designers came up with a solution to make sure the brittle acrylic glass doesn't crack. A hinge at the top front edge of the canopy relieves the pressure, actually making the canopy slightly taller and narrower when it is in the open position than when it is closed. The bowing canopy is an ingenious engineering feat, but it's also a nightmare for modelers to accurately depict!


Fieseler Fi 156 Storch
This aircraft: This is a true combat veteran, one of the few airworthy Storches in existence. It was manufactured in Germany in 1943 was used by the Luftwaffe in Occupied Europe and on the Russian Front. It was found in derelict condition in East Germany in the late 1980s and restored to a very high standard. It displays the Summer, 1943 Luftwaffe markings: a medium and dark green splinter pattern on its upper surfaces, with a light blue underside. The fuselage and wings carry the Balkenkreuz (black crosses), with the tail carrying the Hackenkreuz (swastika).