I've never seen that version of the "Butcher Bird" before, but it gets
my vote as thee most beautiful prop-driven airplane EVER (the P-51D
used to have this honor 'till I saw this picture of the Fw-190 V19).


Ever see the XF-12 Rainbow...? Think B-29 after an extreme makeover, turning a
"One-eyed Bitch" into a streamlined vixen.

As for this one-off Wurger, I have to wonder why it has this sweep at all? Why
put it on a Radial-engined A-model? By this point in the war, the Jumo-engined
FWs were coming online and would be seen as the "fighters", while production of
the radials was shifted entirely to CAS/ Schlacht duties. So, why would you
sweep the wing on a CAS aircraft with a big fat radial, but not try the same
experiment on the fighter version with far better streamlining? Its just odd.

Other thing that makes this smell less than minty is the sweep itself - its not
37 degrees. The Techn. AMT folks as well as most of the other people working
on wing sweep in Germany had already settled on that as their "magic number",
and this isn't swept to that degree.

I think this is an interesting design, but I really don't know where it would
fit in the Luftwaffe. Painting it in mid-1945 colors, when JG 301 would have
been flying exclusively Doras and 152s, seems ingenuine. 300, 301, and 302
were some of the last functional units getting new build aircraft (D-9s, Ta
152s) in the spring of 45. I can't imagine them being handed a radial 190 that
couldn't possibly compete with the latest P-47s and 51s up in the rarified air
over the crumbling Reich.

Pretty, yes - but it doesn't make a lot of operational sense.

v/r
Gordon
====(A+C====
USN SAR

Donate your memories - write a note on the back and send your old photos to a
reputable museum, don't take them with you when you're gone.