In February 1937 a Reichsluftfahrtministerium specification
for a short-range reconnaissance aircraft was issued to Arado, Hamburger
Flugzeugbau and FockeWulf. Kurt Tank responded with the Focke-Wulf with Fw 189
Uhu (eagle owl), an all metal stressed-skin low wing monoplane that had an
extensively glazed fuselage pod, and twin booms carrying the tail surfaces. The
mainwheels retracted to the rear, into the booms. The crew nacelle provided
accommodation for pilot, navigator/ radio operator and engineer/gunner, and
power for the prototype was supplied by two 430-hp (321-kW) Argus As 410
engines. Construction of this aircraft began in April 1937 and designer Tank performed
the first flight in July 1938. The Fw 189 V2 second prototype, flown in August,
was armed with one 7.92mm (0.31-in) MG 15 machine-gun in each of nose, dorsal
and rear positions, two fixed MG 17 weapons in the wing roots, and four
underwing racks each carrying a 110-lb (50-kg) bomb. A third, unarmed,
prototype was flown in September, this Fw 189 V3's engines driving
Argus-designed air-pressure-actuated variable-pitch propellers.
The award of a development contract was followed by the
first flight of a fourth prototype, forerunner of the production Fw 189A, which
was powered by two Argus As 410A-1 engines and armed with only two MG 15
machine-guns. The fifth prototype was representative of the proposed Fw 189B
dual-control trainer, its redesigned fuselage nacelle having a stepped cockpit
and much reduced glazing. It was the dual-control trainer which gained the
first order in the summer of 1939, for three Fw 189B-0 pre-series and 10 Fw
189B-1 production five-seat crew trainers. These preceded the Fw 189A into
manufacture and service, some being used as conversion trainers by 9.(H)/LG 2
during the spring and summer of 1940. In a similar manner the construction of
10 Fw 189A-0 pre-production aircraft began in 1940, some of them being
delivered to 9.(H)/LG 2 for operational trials, and being followed by the
initial production Fw 189A-1 which was armed similarly to the Fw 189 V2
prototype, except that the MG 15 was deleted from the nose position and an Rb
20/30 or Rb 50/30 camera was carried. Further developments of this version
included the Fw 189A-1/ Trop which carried desert survival equipment, and the
Fw 189A-11U2 and Fw 189A-11U3which were equipped as personal transports for the
use of Generalfeldmarschall Kesselring and General Jeschonnek respectively. The
remaining Fw 189A variants included the Fw 189A-2 introduced in 1942, which had
the flexibly· mounted MG 15 machine-guns replaced by twin 7.92mm (0.31-in) MG
81Zs; the Fw 189A-3 two-seat dual control trainer which was built in limited
numbers; and introduced in late 1942, the light ground-attack Fw 189A-4 which
was armed with two 20-mm MG 151/20 cannon and two 7.92-mm (0.31-in)
machine-guns in the wing roots, and had armour protection for the underside of
the fuselage, engines and fuel tanks. Unbuilt project included the
c1ose-support Fw 189C and the Fw 189D twin-float trainer; the seventh
prototype, which had been intended to serve as the development aircraft for
this last variant, was completed instead as an Fw 189B-0. The use of
alternative powerplant was planned for the Fw 189E, a French-built Fw 189A-1
airframe being modified by the installation of two 7oo-hp (522-kWI Gnome-Rhone
14M radial engines, but when this prototype crashed while being flown to
Germany for evaluation, further development was abandoned. Final production
version was the Fw 189F-1, basically an Fw 189A-2 re-engined with two 580hp
(433-kW) Argus A 4llMA-1 engines; a similarly-powered Fw 189F-2 introducing
electrically-actuated landing gear and increased armour and fuel capacity was
planned, but none had been built when production ended in 1944. Total
production of the Fw 189 then amounted to 864 aircraft including prototypes,
built not only by Heinkel but also by Aero in Prague from 1940 to 1943, and by
SNCASO at Bordeaux-Merignac until 1944.
Fw 189s were supplied in small numbers to the Slovakian and
Hungarian air forces operating on the Eastern Front, in which theatre the type
was deployed most extensively by the Luftwaffe, but at least one Staffel used
the type operationally in North Africa.
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