Heres a nice find in the woods . LiveLeak.com - Luftwaffe FW190 discovered in forest near St Petersburg
It's in great condition, perfect to be restored. Apparently it forced landed and seeing the bent propellors, it still had the engine on when it happened.
"Belly landing , perhaps no big trees to hit back in 1943,didn't see any damage off hitting trees from the landing. Lot of trees have grown in last 47 years. Some instruments were missing when the guys filmed the find in 1989. The loss of Fw190 A5/U3 W.Nr 1227. On Monday 19th July 1943 Fw190 A-5 W.Nr 1227 'White A' went on a mission carrying a SC250 (550Ib) bomb. Taking off from Siwerskaja, on what was probably a hot summer day, 'White A' headed for the Front line which was only fifteen or so minutes flight time away. Crossing the front line over the Dvina River, the Fw190, flying with another crossed it and headed East. Whilst behind enemy lines, in an area called Voibakala, the 'Rotte' attacked an armoured train and reportedly suffered damage from flak. The loss report indicates the Fw190 crash landed due to this damage, although none was located on the airframe. It Fw190 suffered a catastrophic failure of the BMW801, caused by a rag -sabotage is suspected as it was a new engine was fitted a few days before). The Fw190 was recorded as being 100% lost in the map reference co-ordinates of Pl.Qu.20124. The pilot Feldwebel Paul R‰tz survived the crash landed behind enemy lines. He removed his leather flying helmet and retrieved the first air kit from the rear fuselage and is thought to have headed West back to the front line only a dozen or so miles from the crash site. He was undoubtedly captured by the Russians and interned although the Luftwaffe loss report still class him as 'Vermiflt' (missing) in action. Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-5 1227 (N19027) was recovered from Russia in the early 1990s and subsequently purchased by FHC, which contracted JME to complete it. Norfolk-based JME Aviation is making excellent progress on restoring a pair of World War Two Luftwaffe fighters to airworthy trim on behalf of the aircraftís owners, the Washington-based Flying Heritage Collection owned by Paul Allen of Microsoft Interesting thing is that flak was not the real cause of the crash. During engine strip down they found uniform rag's in the oil lines. German factories were using slave labor, haha payback." have you seen FW 190 in woods near Leningrad - The BMW M Lounge
Quote: Originally Posted by IvanK Yes it was restored in the UK by JME aviation and now resides in USA. It is somewhere on the eastern seaboard and has been there for just on a year. this is correct, heres an article i found on the smithsoneon website, it gives the history of this AC. JME Aviation is restoring the collection's Fw 190 as well as its Me 262. Fw 190s were the best of the Axis propeller fighters, and are rare today; about two dozen airframes, or portions of them, are known. No flying example of reasonable authenticity exists. The collection's Fw 190 came from Russia, where it had lain for decades, upright and relatively undamaged, in a remote forest east of Leningrad (St. Petersburg today). What was an airplane doing deep in a forest? The answer, deduced from the damage to the leading edges of the wings, was that it had crashed among poplar saplings only a few feet tall. The forest had grown up around it. Flash back to July 19, 1943. Two Fw 190s were attacking a Russian supply train bound for Leningrad when the engine of one quit. The pilot, Sergeant Paul Rätz, glided to a safe landing. He left his flying cap on the seat but took the airplane's panel clock with him. Trying to make his way back to German lines, he was captured a few miles away and remained imprisoned in Russia for 16 years before finally returning to Germany. In 1988, a collector found the Focke-Wulf where Rätz had left it, his helmet still resting on the seat. Rätz died in 1989, never having learned that his airplane had been recovered. But his family did—and, it turns out, they still have the clock. A Vintage Wings technician dismantling the 190's BMW 801 engine found a clod of dirt in an oil line downstream from the oil filter. This had evidently been the reason for the forced landing: Lack of lubrication had caused an internal shaft to overheat and fail, disabling the fuel and oil pumps. But how had the dirt—not engine dirt, but soil, earth—gotten there? Says Jeff Thomas, "BMW's policy on major engine maintenance was to insist that the whole 'power egg'—the engine and all of its plumbing and equipment and mounting hardware—just be taken off and sent back to the factory rather than repaired in the field." As a result, all engine assembly was done in Germany, some of it by slave laborers. The theory is that one of those laborers had packed dirt into the oil line to sabotage the engine, the engine had then been shipped to Russia and installed on the airplane at the front, and within a few minutes after takeoff the defiant act of the distant and anonymous captive had done its work. " FW 190 found in a forest - Official 1C Company forum
