November 07, 2006

WWII Focke-Wulf Fw 190 wreck discovered off Norway - colour pictures of the recovery. This kite hit the drink off Bergen in Norway on 15 December 1943, only to return to the surface on November 2nd 2006. The pilot apparently survived the crash. Verblüffen!

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 at Wikipedia.

posted by Chyren 18 years ago
  • That's pretty Fockewulfin' cool. Why is it so well preserved?
  • from the wiki: However it was not till a design used the air-cooled, 18-cylinder BMW 139 radial engine that RLM's interest was piqued. At the time, the radial was frowned on in Europe because of its large frontal area, which was believed to cause too much drag to allow for a competitive design. Tank was not convinced of this, having witnessed the success of the Pratt & Whitney Wasp radial engines utilized by the US Navy, and designed a highly streamlined mounting for the engine. Instead of leaving the front of the engine "open" to allow cooling air to flow over the cylinders, Tank instead used a very small opening between the engine cowling and an oversized propeller spinner to supply air, blowing it over the engine with a fan. In theory, the use of the tight-fitted cowling would also provide some thrust due to the compression of air at speed through the cowling. So is it that it's a kickass air-cooled fighter plane, basically? Or are they all blowed up good, so finding one intact is very rare?
  • Oops. Links are for zargon.
  • zorgon, even. Gah.
  • There weren't any details about this wreck, but it looked like shallow water based on the equipment. Ah! If it was in a fjord, then the water would be anoxic if it was below the sill depth! Cool. I think it's the latter, petebest. They're all bloweded up, so this one is quite a find.
  • And it's likely to end up in the national aeronautical museum just down the road from me.
  • That is fucking cool. It looks great below the surface of the water, all mysterious like! I tried years ago to paint a Spitfire with that kind of imagery in mind, but it looked nowhere as good as that. I demand more WWII kit be dragged up out the earth / sea!
  • fantastic set of pictures. thanks chy!
  • 18 kinds of awesome. Thanks, Chy!
  • Excellent find, thanks again to Chyren.
  • Pretty flipping cool. Did they find a mummified Nazi army under the sea as well? A golden submarine?
  • That was utterly fantastic. Chy resurrects a World War II fighter plane. I do a link to jarts. We are not dealing with equals here.
  • "A golden submarine?" Fnord!
  • "We are not dealing with equals here." Yeah, but fair's fair, you're the owl guy. That's a full-on MoFi meme. But, obviously, all ordinary folk have trouble measuring up to my sheer awesomeness. I mean, I'm wearing a Fez as I write this. Now send me money.
  • You're holding Fes to ransom?
  • I bet he makes a great tie.