• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • Contact

Golf Hotel Whiskey

Golf Hotel Whiskey: for pilots and aviation enthusiasts

Restoring a Focke Wulf 190F-8 from World War II

We have have recently noted an article about resurrecting lost RAF spitfires in Burma and then the finding of aviation’s equivalent of Tutankhamun’s tomb in the form of a lost RAF Kittyhawk P-40 found in Egypt’s desert but General Aviation News has a detailed article about an effort to restore a Luftwaffe Focke Wulf 190F-8 “White One” that was shot down over Norway on February 9, 1945.

The aircraft’s pilot, Luftwaffe Unteroffizier (Corporal) Heinz Orlowski had just gone up against an RAF Mustang (which crashed, killing the pilot) and had taken flak, probably from the German destroyer Z33 and support ships that the RAF planes had been sent to destroy, when his aircraft was hit by a shell. While attempting to bail, Orlowski got entangled and by the time he freed himself, he was already too low and the chute only partially opened. He landed on a mountain, sparking an avalanche that caused his flare pistol to ignite and seriously burn his leg. After being found hiding in a barn by locals, he was turned over to German ground forces and spent the rest of the war in a hospital.

In 1983, the “White One” and other wrecked FW190s were shipped to the Texas Air Museum on an exchange deal to be partially restored and put on static display to be visited by Orlowski in 1994 (he passed away a couple of years ago in Berlin). In 1999, the aircraft was acquired by Mark Timken with the intention of restoring it to its 1945 flight condition to become the second air worthy FW190F-8 fighter bomber.

Of course, restoring a World War II aircraft to flying condition is never easy and the article goes into considerable detail about the trials and tribulations faced by the restorers, including corrosion, having to translate the original flight and maintenance manuals from German to English and missing and damaged parts. In fact, the restorers have had to do a worldwide search for FW190 parts which, surprisingly, occasionally pop up on eBay – meaning restoration can continue until another missing part stalls progress. Hence, it will probably be another two years before the entire restoration is completed.

To learn more about project or about restoring World War II era fighters in general and how you can help, visit WWIIFighterAircraftFoundation.org.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Matthew Stibbe
Matthew Stibbe is CEO of Articulate Marketing and Turbine, the easy, online way to deal with office paperwork. He has an FAA CPL/IR and an EASA PPL/IR and sometimes flies a Cirrus SR-22. He also writes about wine at Vincarta and being a better manager at Geek Boss.
Bureaucracy must die eBook
Subscribe via RSS

Recent Posts

  • IATA Airport Abbreviations
  • Upcoming Concorde and Apollo documentaries
  • Lie Back And Think Of England: London To Austin On BA’s New 787 Dreamliner
  • Video: Parachuting from the edge of space
  • Hilarious preflight safety video for GA aircraft
  • San Francisco Airport at night – beautiful time lapse video
  • A practical jetpack (finally) takes off
  • A man in a hot air balloon realises he is lost
  • Pegasus House: The former HQ of the Bristol Aeroplane Company is restored
  • Vintage British aviation posters from the 1920-1930s

Copyright © 2023 Golf Hotel Whiskey. All rights reserved.