F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

When the German Focke Wulf Fw190 fighter burst onto the scene over France in 1941 it took the RAF by surprise, outperforming the Spitfire Mk V. At the time the RAF described the performance gap as ‘a quantum leap’. Its superior performance on the Eastern Front had a significant impact in the air war against the Soviet Union. Graeme Douglas gets under the skin of the Fw190 with the new-build Focke Wulf Fw190A-8 and D-9 models built by the Flug Werk company in Germany. He also describes flying and maintaining the Fw190 in combat.

Reviews

Excellent. everything I had hoped for. The first truly good, broad book on aircraft I have ever found. I am delighted with it. Except. I do not know whether it is as a result of modern photography or printing techniques… but too many of the photos are or have aspects that are too dense to black. Shame really, but it seems to be so often in modern books and it IS very disappointing. Otherwise. Fab’.

The discussion on the development of the original aircraft and later replicas is fascinating, but I do have trouble reading in the dark, so roll on summer! I can then find out how the issue of using slave labour to manufacture the aircraft is discussed and I am also fascinated to know how in a country, suffering the severest, self-inflicted deprivations of war, development and innovation continued.

Graeme Douglas is the author of the Haynes Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated B-24 Liberator Manuals. He has extensive experience of working on preserved aircraft, including B-17 ‘Mary Alice’ at Duxford and the privately-owned B-17 ‘Sally B’. He lives in Essex.