Focke-Wulf Ta 152
The Focke-Wulf Ta 152 was a German high-altitude fighter of the Second World War, developed under Kurt Tank from the Fw 190 to intercept Allied bombers far above the altitudes earlier fighters could reach. Powered by a supercharged Junkers Jumo 213 with methanol-water boost, in long-wing H and shorter-wing C versions, it was rushed into production late in 1944 after only a few dozen hours of testing. Engine trouble and shortages kept most of the few dozen completed aircraft on the ground, and its brief service with JG 301 ended with the H models grounded in April 1945. A single example survives, in the National Air and Space Museum.
Why It Mattered
The Focke-Wulf Ta 152 was the final development of the Fw 190 line, created to fight Allied bombers and their escorts at altitudes the earlier fighters could not reach. Its designation recorded its designer: in 1944 the German Air Ministry decreed that new fighter designations must include the chief designer's name, and 'Ta' stood for Kurt Tank. The Smithsonian, which holds the type's only survivor, describes it as probably the fastest and most capable production propeller-driven fighter Germany fielded during the war. Its potential showed in an episode the museum recounts, in which Tank, flight-testing an unarmed Ta 152H, was intercepted by Mustangs and simply outran them using his boost system. None of it altered the outcome: rushed and barely tested, the Ta 152 served briefly, in tiny numbers, in the war's last months.
Design Notes
Tank built the Ta 152 around the Junkers Jumo 213, the engine of the Fw 190D, in an uprated E version fitted with a two-stage, three-speed supercharger and MW 50 methanol-water boost, which raised output from 1,750 hp to 2,050 hp for short periods. For the high-altitude H model, the wing was greatly extended, to 14.44 m (47.4 ft), and the cockpit was pressurized. Aluminum shortages forced the wing's spars to be made of steel, and 3 degrees of washout kept the ailerons working as the wing's center section began to stall. Armament was a 30 mm MK 108 cannon firing through the propeller hub, with a 20 mm MG 151 in each wing root. The program was hurried throughout: superchargers failed, pressurized cockpits leaked and several prototypes crashed, yet only 31 hours of flight testing had been completed when full production began in November 1944.
Operational History
The Ta 152H prototype was converted from an Fw 190 prototype airframe in the fall of 1944, and production ran from October 1944 to February 1945. In that time Focke-Wulf completed 67 aircraft of the H-0, H-1 and C-1 models, though the total number produced remains uncertain and other published figures differ. Most of the fighters went to Jagdgeschwader 301, whose third group was ordered to convert to the type in January 1945 and flew it operationally for a short time. Engine fires, further engine problems and shortages of spare parts grounded most of the fleet, so the type's combat record stayed slight. It is reported as probably seven victories against four losses in air combat, though a degree of uncertainty attaches to those numbers. By 30 April 1945 only two Ta 152C-1s remained operational, and the Luftwaffe had grounded every H model.
Afterlife
A single Ta 152 survives, an H-0 held by the National Air and Space Museum, which describes it as the only extant example of the fighter in the world. Museum research in 1998 indicated that the airframe is Werk-Nummer 150020, probably built at Cottbus in December 1944, delivered to the test unit at Rechlin and then passed to JG 301, where it flew as 'Green 4'. The British recovered it at Aalborg, Denmark, at the end of the war, and it was shipped to the United States and flight-tested at Wright Field under the Foreign Equipment number FE-112, later T2-112. Transferred to the National Air Museum in 1960, it has since been conserved rather than fully restored: museum staff stripped back Allied paint to reveal its original markings and JG 301 tail bands, and rebuilt the wooden tail to its original German configuration. The aircraft is in storage and not on display.