FW 190 found in a forest

[wingstrut]

Does anyone know what the story is behind this FW 190 which was apparently found intact somewhere in a russian (?) forest?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUwF2...eature=related

[IvanK]

Yes it was restored in the UK by JME aviation and now resides in USA. It is somewhere on the eastern seaboard and has been there for just on a year.

[Snuff_Pidgeon]

Originally Posted by IvanK

Yes it was restored in the UK by JME aviation and now resides in USA. It is somewhere on the eastern seaboard and has been there for just on a year.

this is correct, heres an article i found on the smithsoneon website, it gives the history of this AC.

JME Aviation is restoring the collection's Fw 190 as well as its Me 262. Fw 190s were the best of the Axis propeller fighters, and are rare today; about two dozen airframes, or portions of them, are known. No flying example of reasonable authenticity exists.

The collection's Fw 190 came from Russia, where it had lain for decades, upright and relatively undamaged, in a remote forest east of Leningrad (St. Petersburg today). What was an airplane doing deep in a forest? The answer, deduced from the damage to the leading edges of the wings, was that it had crashed among poplar saplings only a few feet tall. The forest had grown up around it.

Flash back to July 19, 1943. Two Fw 190s were attacking a Russian supply train bound for Leningrad when the engine of one quit. The pilot, Sergeant Paul Rätz, glided to a safe landing. He left his flying cap on the seat but took the airplane's panel clock with him. Trying to make his way back to German lines, he was captured a few miles away and remained imprisoned in Russia for 16 years before finally returning to Germany. In 1988, a collector found the Focke-Wulf where Rätz had left it, his helmet still resting on the seat. Rätz died in 1989, never having learned that his airplane had been recovered. But his family did—and, it turns out, they still have the clock.

A Vintage Wings technician dismantling the 190's BMW 801 engine found a clod of dirt in an oil line downstream from the oil filter. This had evidently been the reason for the forced landing: Lack of lubrication had caused an internal shaft to overheat and fail, disabling the fuel and oil pumps. But how had the dirt—not engine dirt, but soil, earth—gotten there? Says Jeff Thomas, "BMW's policy on major engine maintenance was to insist that the whole 'power egg'—the engine and all of its plumbing and equipment and mounting hardware—just be taken off and sent back to the factory rather than repaired in the field." As a result, all engine assembly was done in Germany, some of it by slave laborers. The theory is that one of those laborers had packed dirt into the oil line to sabotage the engine, the engine had then been shipped to Russia and installed on the airplane at the front, and within a few minutes after takeoff the defiant act of the distant and anonymous captive had done its work.

[SlipBall]

Very interesting story behind the landing

[bomath]

I don't know what to believe! My grandfather was taken prisoner in the Eastern Front, and came back with a plane clock... I'll post later some pics of that clock. If his family has it, it might not be the same but I'll try to dig some history.

[BadAim]

Originally Posted by bomath

I don't know what to believe! My grandfather was taken prisoner in the Eastern Front, and came back with a plane clock... I'll post later some pics of that clock. If his family has it, it might not be the same but I'll try to dig some history.

I've read several stories of pilots taking the clock when they diched, I believe there was a shortage of clocks in the luftwaffe for some time and it was standard procedure to grab the clock if there was time.(no pun intended)

Also iirc that aircraft is restored and flyable now.

[Flyfinn]

Hi..

From Flying Heritage Collections website..

The planes within the Flying Heritage Collection..
Currently Under Restoration...

Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3 "Emil"
Hawker Mk.XIIb "Hurricane"
Mitsubishi A6M3-22 "Zero-Sen" (two-seat field modification)
Focke Wulf FW 190A-5 "Butcherbird"...
Republic P-47D "Thunderbolt"
Goodyear FG-1D "Corsair"
North American B-25J "Mitchell"
Boeing B-17E "Flying Fortress"
Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a "Schwalbe"
V-2
Ilyushin IL-2M-3 "Shturmovik"...
P-38J "Lightning"

[bomath]

Originally Posted by BadAim

I've read several stories of pilots taking the clock when they diched, I believe there was a shortage of clocks in the luftwaffe for some time and it was standard procedure to grab the clock if there was time.(no pun intended)
[...]

Good to know, thank you!

[QuietMan]

Originally Posted by Flyfinn

Hi..
...
V-2
...

flyable?

I saw one in the "German Technik Museum", also one of those guided air-to-air missiles we have now in IL2. They are pretty big. They also have models showing development of US and russian rockets with relative size starting from V-2. Oh man, the Saturn V was unbelievable big.

QuietMan

[Bobby109]

Incredible pictures! imagine just walking in a forrest and bumping into that

Originally Posted by BadAim

I've read several stories of pilots taking the clock when they diched, I believe there was a shortage of clocks in the luftwaffe for some time and it was standard procedure to grab the clock if there was time.(no pun intended)

Also iirc that aircraft is restored and flyable now.

LOL!