Fw 190Aa-3 for Turkey ?

[Seaplanes]

Several publications claim that the Fw 190Aa-3 was a special version for export to Turkey. However, I found at Bundesarchiv Freiburg records of Fw 190 production. Here the Fw 190Aa-3 is listed as follows:
Ago production December 1942 - April 1943 total 21 Fw 190Aa-3.
Arado production August 1942 - March 1943 total 18 Fw 190Aa-3.
Fieseler did not deliver any Fw 190Aa-3.
As Germany delivered 72 Fw 190 to Turkey during the summer of 1943 +
8 replacement aircraft in May 1944, these figures does not correspond at all. Can anyone highlite what the Fw 190Aa-3 actually was built for.
The 8 replacement aircraft were ordinary Fw 190A-3 W.Nr. 0327, 0404,
0458, 0501, 0527, 2141, 5334 and 5438.

[Col Bruggy]

Hello,

http://fw190.hobbyvista.com/foreign.htm

Col.

[Rasmussen]

I saw the records 2 weeks ago and I believe they contained the numbers of a/c from the subcontractors alone.

Best regards
Rasmussen

[Seaplanes]

Thank you both. To Rasmussen, you are absolutely correct, the file contains subcontractor production only for the period up to September 1943. I posted this in hope of getting some references to BA/MA records
that could prove this once and for all.

[Rasmussen]

September 1943? --- The records was for the period up to June 1944 ...

Regards
Rasmussen

[Dénes Bernád]

I am wondering what was the 'a' standing for?

So far, I thought it denoted German design aircraft built under licence outside the Reich (e.g., Me 210Ca-1, or Bf 109Ga-6, built in Hungary).

[Mikael Olrog]

a=ausland

Some manufacturers, e.g. Messerschmitt and Focke-Wulf, used "a" to designate export aircraft while Junkers for example used K and Z as you are well aware of. The K and Z was used also when the aircraft was built on license abroad. RLM didn't govern how the manufacturers designated their export aircraft. This left it open to the manufacturers to set their own standards which is shown by the different approaches. How ever it appears that this was not always strictly adhered to since there are examples of export aircraft keeping the "German" designation when the aircraft was diverted from a German customer. THe later is exemplified by the eight replacement Fw 190 A-3 for Turkey mentioned above, which lacks the "a" in their designation.

Some authors tend to ignore the fact that the manufacturer decided themselves which export designation system they wanted to use and have applied the system with "a" on for example Junkers aircraft resulting in fictious designations like for example Ju 86 Ga-1 for the aircraft delivered to Hungary.

/Mikael

[RT]

a = Ausland

Rémi