Germany's Missed Opportunity | Focke Wulf FW 187

Ғылым және технология

Today's video was made with the help of my friend Alex from ‪@aviationdeepdive‬ who shares my passion for all things aircraft / aviation :)
Today we look at the Focke Wulf FW 187.
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Want to support the channel? I have a Patreon here - / rexshangar
Recommended Reading:
amzn.to/48ou93r [Focke-Wulf Fw 187: An Illustrated History]
Sources:
Flugzeug Classic 2005-10. Dietmar Hermann. Der verhinderte Rekordversuch
Flugzeug Classic 2012-01-02. Herbert Ringlstetter. Top-Jager in Wartestellung
uftArchiv.de. Focke-Wulf Fw 187 Falke
Bernard & Graefe. Heinz J. Nowarra. Die Deutsche Luftruestung 1933-1945 Vol.2.
Erla-Heinkel

Пікірлер: 896

  • @ME262MKI
    @ME262MKI9 ай бұрын

    For someone with the last name "TANK", Kurt was a genius in the aviation world

  • @MaticTheProto

    @MaticTheProto

    9 ай бұрын

    Tank means… tank in german. Not the vehicle, the storage unit

  • @stop-the-greed

    @stop-the-greed

    8 ай бұрын

    @@MaticTheProto tank means tank in English ..🤘 the British titled any paperwork for their land ships as water tank to keep them secret..glad the name stuck ...land ship is just silly

  • @MaticTheProto

    @MaticTheProto

    8 ай бұрын

    @@stop-the-greed the Germans were like: „Hmm this is like a shell… like on a turtle… or armor… yes let’s just name it like that!“ And that’s how the Panzer got its name

  • @stop-the-greed

    @stop-the-greed

    8 ай бұрын

    @@MaticTheProtoIndeed

  • @gehtdichnixan3200

    @gehtdichnixan3200

    8 ай бұрын

    @@MaticTheProto infact they called it panzerkampfwagen ... but the real german engeneering genius is make extreme long words than short them down as much as possible and forgett that they where redicolus long in the first place

  • @Xubor
    @Xubor9 ай бұрын

    The cockpit floor being transparent is quite an amazing feature as well

  • @dallesamllhals9161

    @dallesamllhals9161

    9 ай бұрын

    Yeah! And it ain't a 87 - it's a 187 😛 Hey! It's just numbers!.I didn't write Ju or Fw...

  • @FirstDagger

    @FirstDagger

    9 ай бұрын

    The Pe-2 and Me 410 also had transparent floors.

  • @dallesamllhals9161

    @dallesamllhals9161

    9 ай бұрын

    @@FirstDagger ..both later - ain't they?

  • @FirstDagger

    @FirstDagger

    9 ай бұрын

    @@dallesamllhals9161 ; Didn't realize we were having a competition about introduction date. You can keep that goalpost.

  • @dallesamllhals9161

    @dallesamllhals9161

    9 ай бұрын

    @@FirstDagger ..erh..thanks? (FIRST-Dagger) 🙃

  • @teklarmeeps7338
    @teklarmeeps73388 ай бұрын

    Evidently Goering had his Mosquito equivalent all along. Good thing he was stupid and high as a kite. A most excellent video, Rex.

  • @therealspeedwagon1451

    @therealspeedwagon1451

    5 ай бұрын

    It’s a good thing that Hitler was more obsessed with megalomaniac projects and untested but groundbreaking technology than with actually realistic projects like this one.

  • @EneTheGene

    @EneTheGene

    4 ай бұрын

    ​@@therealspeedwagon1451How did you draw Hitler to this?

  • @Farweasel

    @Farweasel

    4 ай бұрын

    @@EneTheGene Yeah .... What did he have to do with WW2 & Germany's armmament policies eh? Oh, hang on.......

  • @EneTheGene

    @EneTheGene

    4 ай бұрын

    @@Farweasel Hitler didn't have much impact on the development of single types of aircraft. His effect has been played up by designers who survived the war and wanted to bury/downplay their own mistakes.

  • @thebaronofsd6293

    @thebaronofsd6293

    4 ай бұрын

    @@EneTheGene oh he absolutely did impact designs. two famous ones would be the Me262 which he insisted required bombs. then there is the STG44 which had to be developed as a machine pistol as Hitler had banned any more self loading rifle projects. however his nonsense pales in comparison to Goering and Erhard Milch's meddling.

  • @tinglydingle
    @tinglydingle9 ай бұрын

    The twin engined Focke Wulf fighters are my favourite German designs; the 57, the 187, the 189, and the 154 are such cool aeroplanes and so often forgotten.

  • @Cuccos19

    @Cuccos19

    9 ай бұрын

    I read Hungarian pilots' stories how they made fool of the Soviet fighter pilots in tight maneuvering in the Fw-189 'Uhu' at the Eastern Front. It was a quite well turning aircraft in experienced hands.

  • @Talon3000

    @Talon3000

    9 ай бұрын

    The FW-154 is such a beautiful aircraft. German Mosquito, therefore called Moskito.

  • @juanaq

    @juanaq

    9 ай бұрын

    @fockewulf2352 the plane somehow prefigures the lines of the argentine's pucará. i wonder if the argentinian design owes some genes to kurt tank, who was a designer in argentina's airplanes industries post ww2.

  • @steveperreira5850

    @steveperreira5850

    9 ай бұрын

    Beautiful means “capable” when it comes to airplanes.

  • @timonsolus

    @timonsolus

    9 ай бұрын

    @@steveperreira5850 : Yes, but it depends on having the right engine. The British Westland Whirlwind was beautiful, but it had the wrong engine (Rolls Royce Peregrine) which lacked development potential, and it was too small to be upgraded to Merlin engines. But the pilots loved flying the few (114) that were produced.

  • @Splattle101
    @Splattle1019 ай бұрын

    At 7.30, the test pilot's name was Hans SANDER, not Safer. He's one third of a remarkable team: Kurt Tank, Rudi Blaser & Hans Sander. Blaser was fully qualified as a test pilot (and Tank famously did a lot of his own test flying), while Sander was a qualified aero engineer. These three were cross skilled, and were central to the development of the FW-190 and Ta-152.

  • @Parocha
    @Parocha9 ай бұрын

    Considering the HUGE numbers of BF-109s that were lost due to their narrow-track landing gear, the higher cost and longer manufacture time of the FW-187 would have been non-issues, had it being chosen

  • @johncmitchell4941

    @johncmitchell4941

    9 ай бұрын

    Point made, as they may have rivaled F100 for unfortunate landing attempts. In regard to FW-197 and many others one thing the BF-109 always had going for it was that as among the 'muscle car'-type fighters it inspired it was very economical to produce. Willy knew how to leverage that.

  • @janmale7767

    @janmale7767

    9 ай бұрын

    That story of 'huge numbers' of 109s lost due to narrow landing gear is a 109' bashers favorite argument, the only problem with it is that it is almost completely false, the Spitfire had marginally narrower gear, the Wildcat also had narrow landing gear, you never hear that those aircraft suffered huge losses due to norrow landing gear!? 🤣

  • @SheepInACart

    @SheepInACart

    9 ай бұрын

    Ratio of 1,500 BF109 losses in the first two years of ww2 is around 10% takeoff and landing losses, spitfires numbers where all over the place, just over 10% early on, almost 20% in mid 1940, but lower during the late war. This mirrors training time (9months >100hours in type early, 6months >20hrs in type mid, 12months >150hours in time late) without any real reflection of aircraft type... hurricanes had simlar rates to spitfires, BF109's to FW190's, despite widely different wheel arrangements, technological maturity and pilot visibility,

  • @Parocha

    @Parocha

    9 ай бұрын

    @@janmale7767 1. 10% lost out of over 30K produced is not an insubstantial number for you to be air-quoting “huge”. 2. My comment is in the scope of the video (Fw-187 vs Bf-109), I don’t understand why you mix other airplanes into the discussion, as it has no bearing on my point. 3. I was not bashing on the 109, I consider it to be a great airplane, but the intentional design feature of having the landing gear be outward-retracting and connected to the fuselage had negative consequences, despite its benefits; that’s fact, not opinion. I’m not saying cons outweighed pros, just stating a fact. 4. As long as you bring up other airplanes, adding the Wildcat into the mix is misleading, as it was designed from the beginning as a naval fighter, meant to be flown from the heaving deck of an aircraft carrier; this means that the landing gear assembly was built to withstand harder landings than land-based planes. Moreover, the Wildcat had experience and pedigree behind it, as Grumman had long been building fighters for that purpose. Messerschmitt had never built a high-performance fighter before, and based his plane on the Bf-108, a lighter airframe, designed for a totally different purpose, and much of his experience before that had been designing gliders… aircraft without landing gear, so there is that. I wouldn’t know about the Spitfire, but Reginald Mitchell had a lot more experience building military aircraft than Willy Messerschmitt by the mid-1930s, and maybe (and I know I’m guessing on this particular point) he had a better grasp on how strong a landing gear had to be to endure the mostly grass airfields of the day. 5. I’m aware the numbers of 109s lost to undercarriage failure improved 1942-onwards, but the point stands.

  • @janmale7767

    @janmale7767

    9 ай бұрын

    @@SheepInACart i love when somebody comes up with the cold hard stats, rather than parroting some propaganda based BS just to be able to say something, if you cannot comment on something you do not have in deph knowledge on, rather don't comment at all!

  • @michaeltelson9798
    @michaeltelson97989 ай бұрын

    I first saw pictures of this aircraft in the 1960’s . There was a board game based on the TV show “12 O’clock High” that had cards with aircraft pictures and this was one. I wished that I would have been able to keep those cards.

  • @1joshjosh1

    @1joshjosh1

    9 ай бұрын

    Cool.

  • @johncmitchell4941

    @johncmitchell4941

    9 ай бұрын

    The WWII TV show “12 O’clock High” was a total favorite of mine back in those days, as were "Combat" and "The Gallant Men". Anyway, IMO it'd be something indeed to have the whole game set and play it.

  • @fonesrphunny7242

    @fonesrphunny7242

    9 ай бұрын

    I found an eBay auction for a cardgame that does indeed have the 187, but it's called 'Ground Support'. I wonder if they mistook it with the Hs-129, but sadly that card isn't in the the foreground and you can only see the 'header'. Such old board / card games are really interesting time capsules.

  • @michaeltelson9798

    @michaeltelson9798

    9 ай бұрын

    @@fonesrphunny7242 I have several old board games. Including one from Avalon Hill game company “Starship Troopers” that was endorsed by Robert Heinlein and closely based on the book.

  • @mikehipperson
    @mikehipperson9 ай бұрын

    The RML wasn't the only procurement team to get it wrong. The British equivalent did exactly the same with the Westland Whirlwind, a single seat, twin engined heavy fighter. It too was lumbered with a poor engine choice as all the RR Merlin's were earmarked for the Spitfire and Hurricane production lines. At least it did see service, mainly as a 'back stop' defence fighter to mop up the German bombers that did get through and was later relegated to training units for converting pilots to multi engined aircraft. Eventually some Merlin's were found and the aircraft showed what it could have done if equipped from inception but by then the airframe was dated and needed too many upgrades to make it viable in its original role so they were withdrawn and scrapped before the invasion of Europe.

  • @paulnutter1713

    @paulnutter1713

    9 ай бұрын

    What!!!!!

  • @katana1430

    @katana1430

    9 ай бұрын

    Ironically, the DH Hornet and Sea Hornet proved the concept about two years too late. When you have that much power, maneuverability is simply unbelievable.

  • @tz8785

    @tz8785

    9 ай бұрын

    And the Mosquito was essentially pushed through by the persistence of Geoffrey de Havilland.

  • @malcolmstonebridge7933

    @malcolmstonebridge7933

    9 ай бұрын

    Whirlwind was way to small for Merlins - high altitude version (Welkin) had merlins.

  • @papalegba6796

    @papalegba6796

    9 ай бұрын

    Whirlwind was uneconomic. Could make 2 spitfire or hurricanes for the price of 1 whirlwind, maintenance also costlier, performance similar, so no point in it existing.

  • @avnrulz8587
    @avnrulz85879 ай бұрын

    10:55 twin engined, not single engined. Excellent video for a little known aircraft.

  • @reinbeers5322

    @reinbeers5322

    9 ай бұрын

    I believe he meant if the 187 became a single-engined craft due to engine failure.

  • @christophermurphy7113

    @christophermurphy7113

    8 ай бұрын

    @@reinbeers5322 , it's clear from the rest of the text that he did not mean that.

  • @majorbloodnok6659
    @majorbloodnok66599 ай бұрын

    Thank you for covering this aircraft, I have long admired it for its racy looks.

  • @petegarnett7731
    @petegarnett77319 ай бұрын

    Willy Messerschmitt had the ear of major figures in the 3rd Reich, so his aircraft were often preferred over others. This was almost certainly a factor in this case.

  • @sandervanderkammen9230

    @sandervanderkammen9230

    8 ай бұрын

    Messerschmitt aircraft were also preferred because they were significantly better than others..

  • @charlesfaure1189

    @charlesfaure1189

    8 ай бұрын

    And cheaper. Me's were a good buy. @@sandervanderkammen9230

  • @jlv2335

    @jlv2335

    8 ай бұрын

    Yes and General Milch the only high rank opponent to WM was driven to suicide ...

  • @sandervanderkammen9230

    @sandervanderkammen9230

    8 ай бұрын

    @@jlv2335 A very intertaining anecdote but when the technical specifications of competing Heinkel and Messerschmitt aircraft Projekts are compared, Messerschmitt's aircraft consistently proved to be significantly better. The case of the Projekt 1065, the He-280 v Me-262 is an excellent example. While the He-280 did outperform every Allied aircraft, the Me-262 was an exceptional design with stellar performance that completely overshadowed the He-280.

  • @timothydraper6626

    @timothydraper6626

    6 ай бұрын

    @@sandervanderkammen9230 Being a person who likes detail, is that trend consistent throughout all aircraft proposed by the two companies for specific roles?

  • @christopherkroussoratsky2014
    @christopherkroussoratsky20148 ай бұрын

    You forgot to mention the phenomenal performance of the FW-187 V6 when it was finally fitted with the originally intended Daimler Benz 600A engines. It achieved 394.5 MPH in October 1939.

  • @lookythat2
    @lookythat29 ай бұрын

    Does anyone notice a resemblance between this aircraft and the FMA IA 58 Pucará? Interesting since Kurt Tank was working in Argentina postwar. Also the Pucara has a T-tail, which Tank had also been exploring.

  • @kwharrison6668

    @kwharrison6668

    4 ай бұрын

    Hilariously I made the same comment before seeing you had already made this comment. They are VERY similar.

  • @mothmagic1

    @mothmagic1

    3 ай бұрын

    It shows a greater resemblance to the Hs129

  • @darrellid
    @darrellid9 ай бұрын

    Many of Tank's designs boasted clean lines and relatively excellent performance. Fortunately, I don't think anything could have changed the ultimate outcome of the war, but a capable craft such as this could've made things that much more difficult.

  • @scullystie4389

    @scullystie4389

    9 ай бұрын

    This thing may have given allied bomber formations hell, but I think you're right, Germany never had the juice to achieve a total victory.

  • @ricardobeltranmonribot3182

    @ricardobeltranmonribot3182

    9 ай бұрын

    Imagine this long range aircraft as the bomber escort during the battle of london (an aircraft that for what I read before, the Fw 187 could fight the Bf 109 in similar performance), instead of the Bf 110, maybe the outcome of that battle could had been diferent, but like other bad decitions the RLM was one ot the best allied to the british, americans and soviet during the war

  • @darrellid

    @darrellid

    9 ай бұрын

    @fockewulf2352 Username checks out. LoL

  • @urgo224

    @urgo224

    9 ай бұрын

    @@scullystie4389 The fact Germany didn't develop proximity fuses really hurt their ability to prevent allied air superiority.

  • @robd8577

    @robd8577

    8 ай бұрын

    Relatively excellent?

  • @discordia013
    @discordia0138 ай бұрын

    There's a lot of similarities to the HS129 in the overall fuselage shape and the original wing/engine design (@ 3:09). Tank was really 5-10 years ahead of everyone else in that game. Even the FW190 had some very clever kit for it's time.

  • @sebastianucero7535
    @sebastianucero75359 ай бұрын

    The Henschel Hs 129 Panzerknacker looks a lot like this. So the design lives on! Very good video thank you

  • @ZachariahJ

    @ZachariahJ

    9 ай бұрын

    I thought I'd seen something very similar before! The description didn't match my memories, and now I understand why. ;-)

  • @zappa79

    @zappa79

    9 ай бұрын

    Was thinking exactly the same! I love the Duck!

  • @NareshSinghOctagon

    @NareshSinghOctagon

    9 ай бұрын

    Hs 129 is the fat duck and the FW 187 is the slim swan.

  • @paulfrantizek102

    @paulfrantizek102

    9 ай бұрын

    This is closer to the German version of the Westland Whirlwind, even down to the engine issues and cost concerns.

  • @robertwilloughby8050

    @robertwilloughby8050

    9 ай бұрын

    Now, I know the Hs129 as the Battlebus - so it had two other nicknames?

  • @jameslawrie3807
    @jameslawrie38079 ай бұрын

    I can't think of what an early war German P-38 Lightning would have done to the opposition

  • @RoamingAdhocrat

    @RoamingAdhocrat

    9 ай бұрын

    replace double the number of Bf 109s perhaps

  • @Itsjustme-Justme

    @Itsjustme-Justme

    9 ай бұрын

    @@RoamingAdhocrat Nope. Replace a slightly lower number of less capable Bf110s without affecting the number of Bf109s.

  • @paulnutter1713

    @paulnutter1713

    9 ай бұрын

    Same as an actual p38......not a lot

  • @richardmeyeroff7397

    @richardmeyeroff7397

    9 ай бұрын

    @@paulnutter1713 The P-38 did a great deal especially in the pacific theater. Also it suffered many of the same problems FW-187 encountered. It had a rather slow development cycle because the AAF felt that they could build 2 P-51's for the same cost as a P-38

  • @treyhelms5282

    @treyhelms5282

    9 ай бұрын

    @@paulnutter1713 The P-38 that slaughtered Zeros in the Pacific. And did well in the ETO as well. especially the Med?

  • @bruceday6799
    @bruceday67999 ай бұрын

    Top quality stuff. Kurt Tank aircraft could have been very difficult for the Allies. Willie Messerschmitt may have been a really good thing for the Allies.

  • @stephenremington8448
    @stephenremington84489 ай бұрын

    Very interesting, and reminds me a bit of the Mosquito. Also, a quick fact, Mick Taylor who was The Rolling Stones guitarist, his dad worked for De Havilland.

  • @58fury45

    @58fury45

    9 ай бұрын

    As the 20 yr old singer in a classic-esque rock band, and fellow military machinery/history enjoyer, i find that fascinating and super awesome. thanks for sharing.

  • @malcolmcarter1726
    @malcolmcarter17269 ай бұрын

    What a beautiful looking fighter! Professor Tank was a pretty amazing chap. I remember reading about him flying a Ta 152C-0 prototype, and being pursued by "Indians at the garden gate" in the form of two P 51s, and hitting the MW 50 tit for full WEP and leaving the Mustangs standing! But such an important man doing standing patrols? Like I said, he was quite the laddy. As always a terrific video. Thank you.

  • @sheepFP5
    @sheepFP59 ай бұрын

    Great video yet again Rex, I've always had a thing for the 187 and the even weirder 189, Tank was a mad genius! Minor errata regarding engines: at 6:42 you show a DB600 engine upside down, they were an inverted V12 like all German designs of the period as mandated by the RLM in 1928. At 6:59 when you mention the Jumo 210, Jumo should be pronounced with the the same J sound as Junkers since it is just short for "Junkers Motorenwerke"

  • @galier2

    @galier2

    9 ай бұрын

    Yes, and the drawing behind on 6:42 is not a FW-187 but and Arado 240.

  • @GunsmithSid

    @GunsmithSid

    9 ай бұрын

    10:52 he mistakenly refers to the 187 as a single engine design.

  • @rumpstatefiasco
    @rumpstatefiasco9 ай бұрын

    An exquisitely excellent presentation, thank you!

  • @MattnessLP
    @MattnessLP3 ай бұрын

    Never heard about this plane, thanks for the video! The audio quality is great, no hint of a cough or sudden cuts. Wishing you a speedy recovery!

  • @MrIwan18
    @MrIwan189 ай бұрын

    Thanks very much from a prop enthousiast, these were the times! Keep up your great work, greetz from 🇳🇱!!

  • @joeobyrne3189
    @joeobyrne31899 ай бұрын

    Good luck with the move, just moved house a few months ago myself. Thanks for all the great vids, looking forward to the next one.

  • @Vikingdescendent
    @Vikingdescendent5 ай бұрын

    5:42 Beautiful aircraft. Ahead of it's time!

  • @bgl11
    @bgl119 ай бұрын

    Another outstanding video, love the channel.

  • @jasonz7788
    @jasonz77888 ай бұрын

    Cool thanks Rex great work Sir

  • @CounterClaws
    @CounterClaws9 ай бұрын

    It looks like a combination of th Ta 154 and Me 410

  • @dallesamllhals9161

    @dallesamllhals9161

    9 ай бұрын

    de Havilland DH.88 Comet

  • @Caseytify
    @Caseytify9 ай бұрын

    The narration sounds fine. I would say this is an excellent example of empire building among various factions in the bureaucracy.

  • @patjohnson3100
    @patjohnson31009 ай бұрын

    Another interesting aircraft, well researched. I was unaware of this plane. Thanks

  • @airmakay1961
    @airmakay19619 ай бұрын

    Another beautiful Kurt Tank design.

  • @aquilamario8300
    @aquilamario83009 ай бұрын

    The audio was perfect !

  • @MM22966
    @MM229668 ай бұрын

    It's funny that with so many "What If" scenarios of WW2 featuring strange/unproduced aircraft designs, I have never seen this used.

  • @deingewissen_official
    @deingewissen_official7 ай бұрын

    Awesome quality! Keep it up

  • @kevindixon2645
    @kevindixon26458 ай бұрын

    great looking aircraft

  • @toxified3937
    @toxified39377 ай бұрын

    Tbh honest, comparing this to a 109 is like comparing apples and pears. They both fly, but realistically they will both have strong points in different situations and be used for different things all together. (I feel you some what mention this with the bias but people have selective hearing with this topic around WwII era germany.)

  • @RexsHangar
    @RexsHangar9 ай бұрын

    Today's video was made with the help of my friend Alex from @aviationdeepdive F.A.Q Section Q: Do you take aircraft requests? A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:) Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others? A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both. Q: Will you include video footage in your videos, or just photos? A: Video footage is very expensive to licence, if I can find footage in the public domain I will try to use it, but a lot of it is hoarded by licencing studies (British Pathe, Periscope films etc). In the future I may be able to afford clips :) Q: Why do you sometimes feature images/screenshots from flight simulators? A: Sometimes there are not a lot of photos available for certain aircraft, so I substitute this with digital images that are as accurate as possible.

  • @peterjohnson6273
    @peterjohnson62733 ай бұрын

    Always interesting. Thanks.

  • @user-vl5tx6je5u
    @user-vl5tx6je5u9 ай бұрын

    The cockpit floor being transparent is quite an amazing feature as well. The cockpit floor being transparent is quite an amazing feature as well.

  • @alexturnbackthearmy1907

    @alexturnbackthearmy1907

    8 ай бұрын

    Yeah, these thing are very helpful when you pilot stuka from cabine.

  • @FirstLast_Nba
    @FirstLast_Nba9 ай бұрын

    Never heard of it, an excellent video, really enjoyed it

  • @chrishartley4553
    @chrishartley45539 ай бұрын

    I wonder why when building the Ta 154 Kurt Tank didn't ape this low wing design more. In the later fighter the position of the engines seriously hampered visibility. The Fw 187 is a tidy little design, but the foward opening design of the cockpit canopy in the pre-preduction models would have been so difficult to open of the piolot needed to bail out.

  • @wbertie2604
    @wbertie26049 ай бұрын

    In, say, 1934, your fighter was even a little faster than the bombers it might not help. With standing patrols you might be 5 miles away from the bombers when spotting them and even if your margin of speed was theoretically 10mph in your favour the fighter would be out of fuel before you got close enough to fire given the fuel consumption at full power. This happened in war games.

  • @MrHws5mp

    @MrHws5mp

    9 ай бұрын

    Also, time-to-climb. The bombers could cruise-climb from the moment they took off, but from a scramble-on-visual-warning, the fighters didn't have time to get up to their altitude. This is why radar was so vital in the Battle Of Britain: it gave enough advance warning time for the fighters to get up to the bombers' altitude and be waiting for them.

  • @wbertie2604

    @wbertie2604

    9 ай бұрын

    @@MrHws5mp where fighter twins had an advantage was the potential for loiter time at altitude, provided you had the engine power. That gave us the P-61 but in A and B versions it wasn't considered to be fast enough. For efficient interception they considered more like 50mph to be the margin required. It's also about manoeuvre - if a 10 mph advantage in a tail chase is all you have as a fighter then something like a G4M with a 20mm cannon in the tail is doom. If you try a head on, you might only get one pass before you turn round and are back to a tail chase.

  • @MrHws5mp

    @MrHws5mp

    8 ай бұрын

    @@wbertie2604 Indeed, but you still had to get up to that altitude to loiter there. Maintaining relays of standing combat air patrols would mean fewer fighters in the air at the time the bombers arrived and so more would get through. Yes, maneuver matters in all sorts of ways. The wider the turn radius of a fighter, the more time and fuel it takes to turn onto the tail of a bomber having intercpted it.

  • @wbertie2604

    @wbertie2604

    8 ай бұрын

    @@MrHws5mp all true. From 1937 onwards the RAF wanted to concentrate on cannon-armed fighters to maximize the effectiveness of even single squadron attacks, starting with two but rapidly moving to a requirement for four

  • @mirrorblue100

    @mirrorblue100

    8 ай бұрын

    Its a mistake to believe the FW 187 would have cleared the sky during the BoB - the fighters speed would have been tied to that of the bombers - no advantage there. Once the Luftwaffe went to night bombing there would have been no role for the 187.

  • @garyrunnalls7714
    @garyrunnalls77149 ай бұрын

    Looks like the props both turned the same way instead of counter rotating which made a difference in the later P-38 models. Great vid as always❤❤❤❤❤

  • @MrLBPug

    @MrLBPug

    9 ай бұрын

    All P-38s had counter-rotating propellers from the outset. In the prototypes they did turn inward instead of outward. It was possible to fit the Allison V-1710 with propeller gearing that turned the prop clockwise or counter-clockwise independently of the driveshaft direction. That made it very easy to replace an engine as well.

  • @garyrunnalls7714

    @garyrunnalls7714

    9 ай бұрын

    @@MrLBPug some models such as the P322 Lightning 2 had props that turned both props to starboard.

  • @MrLBPug

    @MrLBPug

    9 ай бұрын

    True, it's often overlooked due to its small production run compared to the other Lightning variants.

  • @sergeipohkerova7211
    @sergeipohkerova72119 ай бұрын

    Th Fw187 looks a lot like am F7F Tigercat! It could have probably been modified to have a second crewman and a radar to be a nightfighter, too. It makes the Bf110 look like a pile of wolfturd. Or wulfturd.

  • @wbertie2604

    @wbertie2604

    9 ай бұрын

    It would have been too small to add the extra equipment, as I subsequently see, Rex noted.

  • @sebastianucero7535

    @sebastianucero7535

    9 ай бұрын

    The F7F Tigercat was built 13 years later and its cabin is further back

  • @MrHws5mp

    @MrHws5mp

    9 ай бұрын

    @@wbertie2604 And a back-seater and a radar would have made it as heavy as a Bf 110, and on the same engines, there goes the performance.

  • @wbertie2604

    @wbertie2604

    9 ай бұрын

    @@MrHws5mp you'd hope it could have been made SLIGHTLY lighter than a 110 with the same kit. But yes, a performance hit and hard to see where the Schrage Musik would go

  • @wbertie2604

    @wbertie2604

    9 ай бұрын

    For all the praise of Tank, in WW2 only the 190 made any impact, and both twin engined fighters were failures. Yet no one much talks about Camm who managed three solid designs in the same period.

  • @Fizwalker
    @Fizwalker9 ай бұрын

    The idea of the "A Bomber will always get through" was also a principle that the US Strategic Air Command followed post WWII too

  • @RoamingAdhocrat

    @RoamingAdhocrat

    9 ай бұрын

    It was the groupthink across most of the world ~1920-1940. And true, if not for the invention of radar… which not all nations had the scientific and industrial oomph to invent and implement.

  • @IncogNito-gg6uh

    @IncogNito-gg6uh

    9 ай бұрын

    They had to learn the lesson all over again over Korea. To be fair, they didn't anticipate the Mig-15, though during earlier practice B-29 "attacks" on England RAF Meteors shredded their formations.

  • @lonelyone69

    @lonelyone69

    9 ай бұрын

    Black Thursday rings a bell

  • @ROBERTO-in2iq
    @ROBERTO-in2iq9 ай бұрын

    I've been looking forward to this

  • @terraflow__bryanburdo4547
    @terraflow__bryanburdo45479 ай бұрын

    Like a DH Hornet, but 7 years earlier!

  • @HaVoC117X

    @HaVoC117X

    9 ай бұрын

    Or F7F Tigercat

  • @AxelPoliti
    @AxelPoliti7 ай бұрын

    Great video. One of the very few German machines I did not know. Thank you

  • @MakotoAtava
    @MakotoAtava9 ай бұрын

    Waiting for this bird so long, thank you for this great video. 🙂👍

  • @StopItRyan
    @StopItRyan7 ай бұрын

    The RLM sleeping on this plane was one of history's greatest blunders.

  • @chollythecrazycorgihesinsa6505
    @chollythecrazycorgihesinsa65059 ай бұрын

    Great video!

  • @jaws666
    @jaws6669 ай бұрын

    Saturday just got so much better👍👍👍

  • @mrrolandlawrence
    @mrrolandlawrence9 ай бұрын

    Tank was a legend. We in England were lucky he didn't get too many types into service. Also get well soon buddy. A Bob Fleming clip to make you chuckle: kzread.info/dash/bejne/f6qppbaGYtKTdbw.html

  • @alexturnbackthearmy1907

    @alexturnbackthearmy1907

    8 ай бұрын

    Dude even made a jet fighter for india in his old years, really was build like a tank.

  • @marckyle5895

    @marckyle5895

    8 ай бұрын

    It was A Very Good Thing that the RLM was so corrupt.

  • @Chezzers.
    @Chezzers.8 ай бұрын

    Great video, had never heard of this design

  • @benjaminrush4443
    @benjaminrush44439 ай бұрын

    Very Good Video. Thank you.

  • @chrisloomis1489
    @chrisloomis14898 ай бұрын

    This is a beautiful design , and yes as commented the glazed floor of cockpit is a superb feature if you wish to dive down upon enemy aircraft. I opine the rear - gunner requirement is from " out dated " air combat theory. Imagine a ME 262 Jet with a rear facing gun pod , this was a fast aircraft and it's speed and maneuverability would be it's greatest defense and if it had gotten the original high output engines , would have been a terror to Spitfires and even P 40 thunderbolts ...with 2 cannon mounted underneath. Politics and cronyism destroyed many good ideas in the Luftwaffe , and encouraged absolute waste and folly in some heavy tank designs too. Elephant ...

  • @MiKeMiDNiTe-77
    @MiKeMiDNiTe-779 ай бұрын

    It was faster than a BF109B imagine if it had wooden components ie wooden tail and wings. The Germans had a habit of neglecting good aircraft or putting them aside and dithering until the last minute when they realized they actually needed them.

  • @lewiswestfall2687
    @lewiswestfall26879 ай бұрын

    Thanks Rex

  • @moxie_ST
    @moxie_ST9 ай бұрын

    Audio is great 👍 Video is even better ❤

  • @christophgrottke6045
    @christophgrottke60459 ай бұрын

    well, the 187 had one big flaw: it wasnt from Messerschmitt, same procedure as with the Heinkel He 280 wich was superior to the Me 262

  • @crazymazzei2
    @crazymazzei28 ай бұрын

    What a gorgeous plane

  • @androidemulator6952
    @androidemulator69529 ай бұрын

    Note the triangular shark-like body shape , same as ME262 jet .. ;)

  • @masterofreality.o0o.535
    @masterofreality.o0o.5359 ай бұрын

    One of my absolute favourites.

  • @mauriciomorais7818
    @mauriciomorais78189 ай бұрын

    10:51 Mistake "...as it was a *TWIN* engine aircraft..."

  • @Bradly197
    @Bradly1979 ай бұрын

    Thank's Rex

  • @carcharinus6367
    @carcharinus63678 ай бұрын

    According to the rule: a beautiful bird flies beautifully. And it was a really beautiful plane!🐦

  • @hadoken8688
    @hadoken86889 ай бұрын

    Beautiful plane

  • @charlesmoss8119
    @charlesmoss81198 ай бұрын

    As others have said this resembles the Whirlwind - the more I learn about aviation the engines are just so utterly important - it’s so easy to assume a new set can be slapped on but bad engines have damed so many good designs to the also rans list

  • @mpetersen6
    @mpetersen69 ай бұрын

    Costing twice as much as a single engine is a no brainer. Twice as much cost in engines, more material costs in the airframe and man hours in construction. While this would likely be better than the Bf-110 in daylight operation the Bf-110 probably had more growth potential as a night fighter

  • @akritasdigenis4548

    @akritasdigenis4548

    9 ай бұрын

    Yeah, as FW187 would undoubtely have been better suited for assaulting the GB, it could not match the versatility of BF110.

  • @alexglanowski695
    @alexglanowski6959 ай бұрын

    That really was a good looking aircraft 😮

  • @markturner3490
    @markturner34909 ай бұрын

    Another great 'WhatIf...'. Makes you think about what would have happened if the production Whirlwinds had the same props as the evaluation one.

  • @malcolmjcullen
    @malcolmjcullen9 ай бұрын

    Reminds me of the Bristol Beaufighter, probably my favourite WWII fighter/ bomber aircraft.

  • @Omnihil777
    @Omnihil7776 ай бұрын

    And again, great content, thank you! I got a proposal for a video: Jumo engines vs the Daimler Benz ones, what's the difference, technology-wise? I think that would be interesting. Keep up the good work, you got a fascinating thing running here!

  • @raymundovergararoman2473
    @raymundovergararoman24738 ай бұрын

    I love single seat version of the falke, looks very sporty, the me-110 wasn't something like that at all

  • @MammothPaige
    @MammothPaige4 ай бұрын

    Very cool

  • @marcusbraun8889
    @marcusbraun88899 ай бұрын

    As sleek as the Fw 187 looks I don't think the Luftwaffe had been better off with it. Replacing the 109? Yes, longer range, but going up against Spits and Hurricanes and later other single engined fighters? Not a good idea. Like the 110 it would have to look for a new role. Night fighter and ground attack? Not enough space for radar equipment, how about adding 'schraege Musik' on top of it? So it could do only one of those two roles, the 110 could do both. On top of that there's not all that much known about that Fw 187. Those single-seat protoypes, were they fully armed with 4MG and two cannons? Did they have armor plate, self fueling tanks? If not, how would a fully battle ready plane perform? And as above, what happens if you try to adapt it to other use - add second crew, armor, radar, etc, etc? It perhaps might have turned rather into a kind of a German Ki46 'Dinah' - sleek, fast, pretty, indeed - but rather limited in role.

  • @amerigo88
    @amerigo888 ай бұрын

    At 6:50 the DB600 engine is shown upside down. As I recall, it was an inverted V-12 engine, looking like a capital letter A. This led to the low placement of the exhaust stacks on aircraft using the DB 6 series engines, such as the Bf-109.

  • @Unfassbarer
    @Unfassbarer9 ай бұрын

    Danke!

  • @lifesahobby
    @lifesahobby9 ай бұрын

    Thank you

  • @wadejustanamerican1201
    @wadejustanamerican12019 ай бұрын

    Quality was good as usual. Hope the move goes well.

  • @willhovell9019
    @willhovell90198 ай бұрын

    The DH Mosquito proved the twin engined speed advantage With a speed of 400 mph (640 km/h) at 24,000 ft (7,300 m) and a cruising speed of 325 mph (525 km/h) at 26,500 ft (8,100 m) with a range of 1,500 mi (2,400 km) at 25,000 ft (7,600 m) on full tanks. Enough speed for the Stockholm Express , with a passenger such as Nils Bohr in the back. One of the big failures of the British Air ministry was the failure to get behind Frank Whittle's jet engined in the mid to late 1930s .

  • @dallesamllhals9161
    @dallesamllhals91619 ай бұрын

    5:37 Hey! That looks a bit like a Me 262 ;-)

  • @TXGRunner
    @TXGRunner9 ай бұрын

    Watching while in a restaurant in Berlin, makes this memorable.

  • @jamiebray8532
    @jamiebray85329 ай бұрын

    It's a good looking aircraft, I'll give it that. I like that flat bottom fuselage look it has. Just like the ME 262. That look reminds me of a shark. I'm pretty sure that's what they were going for.

  • @brucebaxter6923

    @brucebaxter6923

    9 ай бұрын

    Look at dehavilland hornett

  • @Br1cht
    @Br1cht7 ай бұрын

    Audio was totally fine

  • @GerdMartens-fj3qr
    @GerdMartens-fj3qr3 ай бұрын

    Imagine this thing later upgraded to DB 605s and MG 151/20s mounted … that would have been a real beast

  • @fonesrphunny7242
    @fonesrphunny72429 ай бұрын

    It reminded me of something ....the Henschel Hs-129. Possibly two completely different aircraft, but I can't help seeing a few similarities.

  • @ArcadeMusicTribute
    @ArcadeMusicTribute4 ай бұрын

    This is super baffling. I remember that several years ago I listened to somebody claim that Goering made a substantial mistake when investing into two engine fighters. I really don't remember which specific two engine fighter the documentary or presentation was talking about, but that kind of stuck with me. Supposedly Goering insistied in two engine fighters and even made the best German pilots transfer to them only to loose a large number of them, because this two engine fighter could not compete with the British fighters. :S

  • @morgananderson9647
    @morgananderson96479 ай бұрын

    This is a great expose! Thanks for your research! Could you please share more details about the armament, and the glass floor? It sleek lines reminds me and feels like it has similar to the Grumman F-7 Tigercat...

  • @garryferrington811

    @garryferrington811

    9 ай бұрын

    Expose? (I don't know how to add the accent mark.) Usually that term is applied to uncovering dirty secrets. No secrets here.

  • @LA_Commander
    @LA_Commander7 ай бұрын

    The 187 looks like it could have been the German equivalent to the British Mosquito or the American P-38. The BF 110 was almost a total disaster as a long-range escort fighter.

  • @johannderjager4146
    @johannderjager41469 ай бұрын

    A video on the Fw 189 Uhu would be appreciated.

  • @fabianseewald7884
    @fabianseewald78848 ай бұрын

    i´m a fan of kurt tank designs, mostly just the right mix of conventional and unconventional, i love it

  • @pseudonym745
    @pseudonym7453 ай бұрын

    I love how you can somehow recognise at first glance if an aircraft has 'it'

  • @tonyhaynes9080
    @tonyhaynes90809 ай бұрын

    14:43, notice the similarity of the front view of the fuselage to the ME262? Or is it my imagination?

  • @minera7595

    @minera7595

    9 ай бұрын

    I can see why, but I think Me 262 is slightly more...slimmer? sharper? Hard to put it

  • @kiwisteve6598

    @kiwisteve6598

    8 ай бұрын

    I was thinking of posting the same thing. It’s got the same triangular cross section.

  • @unclenogbad1509
    @unclenogbad15098 ай бұрын

    Westland Whirlwind, anyone? Once upon a time, I nearly bought the Airfix kit of this 'what if' product of prescient genius, but went for the Lysander instead. Enjoyed making and painting it. Here in the UK, we're probably fortunate that the RLM had such poor judgement, as it had the potential to make a big difference to the Battle of Britain. Oh well, such is history. Thanks for yet another well-researched and well-presented vid. Glad to have subscribed.

  • @Sirdoolan

    @Sirdoolan

    3 ай бұрын

    Lucky yes, but we can’t get too carried away. Lots of "nearly" aircraft had flaws that just weren’t exposed as they were never tested in war. More still were made with compromises, hampering their potential. If every British design had access to the top notch Merlin for instance, or if the brits had a half decent radial, freeing up more merlins. Just a big what if.

  • @PhantomLover007
    @PhantomLover0078 ай бұрын

    You can see the lineage of the Argentinian FMA IA 58 Pucará beginning in this aircraft and from the TA-152 and the TA-183 as well

  • @ericgrace9995
    @ericgrace99959 ай бұрын

    There's something attractive about twin engined heavy fighters. For me, the late war British Hornet sits atop the list.

  • @scootergeorge7089
    @scootergeorge70895 ай бұрын

    The Battle of Britain could have ender differently had the Luftwaffe Bf 109-E been equipped with jettisonabe external fuel tanks , or drop tanks as they are known. Changing the subject a bit, I wonder how much better the performance of the Bf 110 would have been as a single seat fighter. No rear gunner, cockpit, guns etc.

  • @kahumike
    @kahumike9 ай бұрын

    Around 6:45 the line drawing you're showing is an Arado AR240, not the FW187. So how about a video on the AR 240 as a comparison?

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