FOCKE WULF Fw 189
Designer: Kurt Tank
Type: Tactical reconnaissance and army cooperation aircraft, light bomber
Crew: Three
Number Built: 864
First Flight: July 1938
Service Delivery: August 1941
Retired: 1945
Operators:
- Luftwaffe
- Hungarian Air Force
- Slovak Air Force
Powerplant:
- Model: Argus As 410
- Type: Air-cooled inverted V12
- Number: Two
- Horsepower: 459hp
Dimensions:
- Length: 12 m (39 ft 4 in)
- Wingspan: 18.4 m (60 ft 4 in)
- Height: 3.7 m (12 ft 0 in)
- Wing area: 38 m² (409 ft²)
- Weights:
- Empty: 2,680 kg (5,920 lb)
- Loaded: 3,950 kg (8,708 lb)
Performance:
- Maximum speed: 357 kph at 2,600 m (222 mph at 8,530 ft)
- Cruising speed: N/A
- Rate of climb: 8.3 m/s (1,640 ft/min)
- Service ceiling: 8,400 m (27,550 ft)
- Range: 670 km (416 mi)
- Wing loading: 103.9 kg/m² (21.3 lb/ft²)
- Power/mass: 86.6 W/kg (0.053 hp/lb)
Armament:
- 2 × 7.92 mm MG 17 machine guns mounted in the wing roots, firing forward
- 1 × 7.92 mm MG 15 machine gun in dorsal position, flexible mount, firing rearwards
- 1 × 7.92 mm MG 15 in rear cone, flexible mount, firing rearwards
- In later versions, MG 15 were replaced with 7.92 mm MG 81Z twin-barrel machine gun
Payload:
- Underwing racks for 4 × 50 kg (110 lb) bombs
Crashed Fw 189. Note the two MG 81Z machine guns.
Sources:
Gunston, Bill & Wood, Tony - Hitler's Luftwaffe
, 1977, Salamander
Books Ltd., London
Wikipedia - Fw 189
Gunston, Bill & Wood, Tony - Hitler's Luftwaffe
, 1977, Salamander
Books Ltd., LondonWikipedia - Fw 189
