Quick technical question about the FW190

[piero]

Were the two rectangular bulges on the wing top of the A-8 also present on the A-6 and A-7?
Many thanks in advance.

[harrison987]

Do you mean the MG access bulges? Those were present on all Fw190 variants.

[piero]

Originally Posted by harrison987

Do you mean the MG access bulges? Those were present on all Fw190 variants.

No, the external rectagular bulges.

[leonventer]

Originally Posted by piero

Were the two rectangular bulges on the wing top of the A-8 also present on the A-6 and A-7?

Hi Giampiero,

Yes, they were the gun covers for the outer MG151/20 cannons that were introduced on the Fw190A-6, and they were present on all subsequent variants.

Regards,
Leon Venter

[Leo Etgen]

Hi guys

Are you referring to the rectangular bulges located midway on the wing near the location of the outer wing mounted cannon? If so, according to all the references that I have seen, these were introduced on the Fw 190 A-8 in order for the wing to accept either the MG 151 or MK 108 cannon although it should be pointed out that not all of this sub type were fitted with those bulges, the aircraft associated with Oberleutnant Hans Dortenmann of 2./JG 54 being one of those. However, there were some Fw 190 A-7/R2 types fitted with the MK 108 and I am quite sure these had the bulges as well for clearance. Any further comments are welcome!

Horrido!

Leo

[leonventer]

Hi Leo,

Thanks very much for your post. You're absolutely correct and I was wrong.

Despite having over 150 books on the radial-engined versions of the Fw 190, I made the regrettable blunder of consulting only 2 of them before posting my earlier response to Giampiero's question.

The offending books are:

• "Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Volume One 1938-1943" by Smith and Creek, Classic Publications, 2011
  On page 291, it states that the larger dimensions of the outer MG151/20 cannons introduced on the A-6 "resulted in a modified wing with a flat bulge on the upper surface to accommodate the more advanced weapons."
• "The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Radial-Engined Versions (Second Edition)" by Franks, Valiant Wings Publications, 2019
  Pages 143 & 144 contain diagrams depicting the A-6 variant and its many sub-variants. All of them feature the rectangular bulges over the outer guns, captioned as "MG151/20 cannon bulges in upper wing panels."

However, this information is INCORRECT according to a more reliable reference, namely:

• "Focke Wulf Jagdflugzeug: Fw 190 A, Fw 190 'Dora', Ta 152 H" by Peter Rodeike, Struve Druck, 1998

Herr Rodeike shows convincingly, via drawings and photos in his chapters on the A-6, A-7 and A-8 variants, that the outer MG151/20 did not require an upper rectangular bulge. It was only necessary on machines designed to fit outer MK108s.

To summarize:

• The A-6 did NOT have the rectangular bulges.
  (Note: The Franks book depicts an experimental A-6/R-12 sub-variant that was fitted with outer MK108s, so it presumably would have had bulges.)
• The A-7 sub-variants fitted with outer MG151/20s did NOT have bulges. However, some A-7s carried outer MK108s, and those DID have bulges.
• On the A-8, it's a bit more complicated. Some A-8s with outer MG151/20s did NOT have bulges, but other A-8s were produced with a 'universal' wing that could accommodate either an outer MG151/20 or MK108, so all these latter machines DID have bulges, regardless of the weapon type.
• For the A-9, things are a bit fuzzy because I'm not sure if all of them had the 'universal' wing.

Hope that clarifies things a bit. My apologies for spreading misinformation.

Regards,
Leon Venter

[piero]

Leo and Leon, many thanks for the informations !