AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 173 / 335

Plate 173 of 335 · Second World War · High-altitude fighter

Focke-Wulf Ta 152 H-0

Ta 152 H-0 150020 ‘Green 4’, painted as Focke-Wulf Ta 152 H-0 Werknummer 150020, ‘Green 4’ of the Stab of Jagdgeschwader 301 in the spring of 1945, the only Ta 152 to survive: a single-seat high-altitude fighter developed from the Fw 190 D, with a Junkers Jumo 213E inverted-V12 behind an annular radiator in a long round cowling, a broad three-blade propeller, a long, slender wing spanning 14.44 m, a lengthened rear fuselage, a bubble canopy and a tall broad fin, shown tail down on its wheels: RLM 81 and 82 splinter on the upper surfaces, RLM 76 sides and undersides with a light mottle of 81 and 82 on the sides and fin, JG 301’s yellow and red Reich Defence band with a thin green Stab bar around the rear fuselage, a green ‘4’ ahead of the black and white fuselage cross, black outline crosses on the wings and a black swastika edged white on the fin, and a black spinner with a white spiral (no Ta 152 is in a UK museum; the survivor is in storage at the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center; shape from a Ta 152H three-view scaled to the published dimensions and checked against photographs of this aircraft as FE-112; no colour photograph shows ‘Green 4’, so the shades, splinter pattern and band widths follow published profiles and the NASM conservators’ findings, and the Werknummer follows NASM, though some sources give 150010).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as Focke-Wulf Ta 152 H-0 Werknummer 150020, ‘Green 4’ of the Stab of Jagdgeschwader 301 in the spring of 1945, the only Ta 152 to survive: a single-seat high-altitude fighter developed from the Fw 190 D, with a Junkers Jumo 213E inverted-V12 behind an annular radiator in a long round cowling, a broad three-blade propeller, a long, slender wing spanning 14.44 m, a lengthened rear fuselage, a bubble canopy and a tall broad fin, shown tail down on its wheels: RLM 81 and 82 splinter on the upper surfaces, RLM 76 sides and undersides with a light mottle of 81 and 82 on the sides and fin, JG 301’s yellow and red Reich Defence band with a thin green Stab bar around the rear fuselage, a green ‘4’ ahead of the black and white fuselage cross, black outline crosses on the wings and a black swastika edged white on the fin, and a black spinner with a white spiral (no Ta 152 is in a UK museum; the survivor is in storage at the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center; shape from a Ta 152H three-view scaled to the published dimensions and checked against photographs of this aircraft as FE-112; no colour photograph shows ‘Green 4’, so the shades, splinter pattern and band widths follow published profiles and the NASM conservators’ findings, and the Werknummer follows NASM, though some sources give 150010). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.2 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (Ta 152H); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Ta 152 H-0 150020 ‘Green 4’ modelled here.

History

The Ta 152

By 1943 the Luftwaffe expected American bombers and their escorts to come over higher and faster than the Fw 190 and the Bf 109 could fight them. Kurt Tank of Focke-Wulf proposed a family of developments of the Fw 190 to meet them, and the Air Ministry gave the new type the prefix ‘Ta’ in his honour. The Ta 152 kept much of the Fw 190 D-9’s structure, with a Junkers Jumo 213 inverted-V12 behind an annular radiator that made the long nose look like a radial’s cowling, but it had a longer rear fuselage, a taller fin and a pressurised cockpit, and its guns were a 30 mm cannon firing through the propeller hub and two 20 mm cannon in the wing roots.

The Ta 152 H was the high-altitude version. Its new wing spanned 14.44 metres, almost four metres more than the Fw 190 A’s, and its Jumo 213E had a two-speed, three-stage supercharger, with MW 50 water-methanol injection for more power low down and GM 1 nitrous oxide for more at height. A converted Fw 190 flew as its development aircraft on 13 July 1944, and production H-0s and H-1s followed from late 1944. It was one of the best piston-engined fighters of the war at high altitude, but it came far too late: Germany was short of fuel, pilots and factories, and only a few dozen Ta 152s of all versions were finished.

The Ta 152 H went into service in early 1945 with Jagdgeschwader 301, which flew it in the defence of the Reich until the surrender in May. Most of its fighting was done low down, against Allied fighters, rather than against high-flying bombers. Oberfeldwebel Willi Reschke, the most successful Ta 152 pilot, shot down several Allied aircraft in it, including a Hawker Tempest. At the end of the war the Allies took a few Ta 152s for testing. One survives, in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in the United States; none is in a UK museum.

This airframe

Ta 152 H-0 150020 ‘Green 4’

150020The airframe modelled

The only surviving Ta 152 is a Ta 152 H-0, Werknummer 150020 according to the National Air and Space Museum’s research, though some sources give 150010. After trials at the test centre at Rechlin it went to Jagdgeschwader 301 early in 1945 and flew with the Geschwader’s Stab as ‘Green 4’. British forces found it at Aalborg in Denmark at the end of the war, and it was handed to the Americans, shipped across the Atlantic on the escort carrier HMS Reaper and tested in the United States as FE-112, later T2-112. It passed to the National Air Museum in 1960 and is in storage awaiting restoration. When NASM conservators examined it they found JG 301’s Reich Defence band and the swastika under the later Allied paint. The model shows it as ‘Green 4’ in the spring of 1945: RLM 81 and 82 splinter camouflage on the upper surfaces, RLM 76 sides and undersides with a light mottle on the sides and fin, JG 301’s yellow and red band with a thin green bar around the rear fuselage, a green ‘4’ ahead of the fuselage cross, outline crosses on the wings, a swastika on the fin and a black spinner with a white spiral. Its shape comes from a Ta 152 H three-view, scaled to the published dimensions and checked against photographs of this aircraft as FE-112. No colour photograph of ‘Green 4’ is known, so the shades, the splinter pattern and the band widths follow published profiles.

Where to see one

Not on charge

The only survivor is held by the Smithsonian’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.

All 335 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.