The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D-9, popularly referred to as the “Dora-9,” is possibly the most dazzling fighting piston plane to see service with the German Luftwaffe during World War II. The great Fw 190 D-9 was a monster departure from its predecessor, the Fw 190A, debuting from the drawing board of Kurt Tank. It had been tremendously respected by German pilots for performance and reliability.
Work on the Fw 190 D-9 had long been considered a stop-gap measure, waiting for the even more advanced Ta 152. Prototypes had flown since March 1942, in the guise of a Focke Achgelis Fa 223 helicopter fitted with the new liquid-cooled Junkers Jumo 213A 12-cylinder engine, rather than—as previously published —a part-titanium D-9 fuselage and wings, to be powered by the earlier BMW 801-series engine. The new engine, rated at 1776 HP and boosted to as much as 2240HP with water-meth.
The longer nose and redesigned tail of this contributed to the Fw 190 D-9’s enhanced performance. The speeds it reached were 692 km/h (430 mph) at 11,300 meters (20,200 feet), and the impressive range was 850 km (480 miles). This fact made it a formidable interceptor against the increasing number of Allied bomber formations. To German pilots, it represented more than a matching rival for the American P-51D Mustang.
Armament for the D-9 was two wings mounted 20mm Mauser MG-151/20 cannons with two 13mm Rheinmetall MG-131 cannons mounted over the engine. Its first operational mission with II/JG-26 brought down four British Lancaster Bombers and one Mosquito fighter—outfitted with only double-Dora-9 guns, while it had no loss surprisingly.
The Fw 190 D-9 came into general service in October 1944 with III/JG-54, I and II/JG-26, JG-2, and JG-301. The type proved excellent, but the problem of the air battle by then was one of the Allied bombing offensive against assembly plants and oil refineries, which drastically reduced fuel supplies and operational capabilities.
Werk-Nr. 210,486, one of the first production models of the Fw 190 D-9, if not the first, rolled off the assembly line in the summer of 1944, with over 1,000 fighters coming into service each month. This was a quite versatile aircraft design, as some went into bombing with the appropriate gear, while others—carrying radar—went to work as night fighters. It is estimated that at the end of the war, anywhere between 650 and 700 Fw 190 D-9s had been finished.
The cut-off D-9 was also believed to be a superb torpedo bomber by the Luftwaffe, although the type was never used in squadron service, post-war capture D-9s were used by the Soviets’ Baltic Fleet with the NA until 1947 or 1948.
At least 11 are now in museums worldwide: four in the United States, including one at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, in the U.S. Air Force Museum, and another at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM).
The NASM’s Fw 190 D-9, factory number 601088, was made at the manufacturer’s Bernburg plant. It was flown by a staff officer of the 4th Squadron of Fighter Group 3 (IV (Sturm)/JG-3 “Udet”) and was among a group of 21 German aircraft collected by USAAF intelligence officers in June 1945. The aircraft was flight-tested by the USAAF Air Materiel Command at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, and a performance report was issued in September 1946. The aircraft was donated to NASM by the U.S. The aircraft was delivered to the U.S. Air Force on 15 June 1960 and has been on loan to the U.S. Air Force Museum since 1975.
The Fw 190 D-9 continues to be a testimony to German engineering and innovation during World War II and has earned its place as one of the world’s foremost piston-engined fighters of the era.