Germany's Missed Opportunity | Focke Wulf FW 187

Today's video was made with the help of my friend Alex from @aviationdeepdive who shares my passion for all things aircraft / aviation :)
Today we look at the Focke Wulf FW 187.

Recommended Reading:

Sources:
Flugzeug Classic 2005-10. Dietmar Hermann. Der verhinderte Rekordversuch
Flugzeug Classic 2012-01-02. Herbert Ringlstetter. Top-Jager in Wartestellung
Bernard & Graefe. Heinz J. Nowarra. Die Deutsche Luftruestung 1933-1945 Vol.2.
Erla-Heinkel

[Xubor]

The cockpit floor being transparent is quite an amazing feature as well

[MEMKI]

For someone with the last name "TANK", Kurt was a genius in the aviation world

[tinglydingle]

The twin engined Focke Wulf fighters are my favourite German designs; the 57, the 187, the 189, and the 154 are such cool aeroplanes and so often forgotten.

[teklarmeeps]

Evidently Goering had his Mosquito equivalent all along. Good thing he was stupid and high as a kite. A most excellent video, Rex.

[StopItRyan]

The RLM sleeping on this plane was one of history's greatest blunders.

[Splattle]

At 7.30, the test pilot's name was Hans SANDER, not Safer. He's one third of a remarkable team: Kurt Tank, Rudi Blaser & Hans Sander. Blaser was fully qualified as a test pilot (and Tank famously did a lot of his own test flying), while Sander was a qualified aero engineer. These three were cross skilled, and were central to the development of the FW-190 and Ta-152.

[michaeltelson]

I first saw pictures of this aircraft in the 1960’s . There was a board game based on the TV show “12 O’clock High” that had cards with aircraft pictures and this was one. I wished that I would have been able to keep those cards.

[christopherkroussoratsky]

You forgot to mention the phenomenal performance of the FW-187 V6 when it was finally fitted with the originally intended Daimler Benz 600A engines. It achieved 394.5 MPH in October 1939.

[discordia]

There's a lot of similarities to the HS129 in the overall fuselage shape and the original wing/engine design (@ 3:09). Tank was really 5-10 years ahead of everyone else in that game.
Even the FW190 had some very clever kit for it's time.

[avnrulz]

10:55 twin engined, not single engined. Excellent video for a little known aircraft.

[mikehipperson]

The RML wasn't the only procurement team to get it wrong. The British equivalent did exactly the same with the Westland Whirlwind, a single seat, twin engined heavy fighter. It too was lumbered with a poor engine choice as all the RR Merlin's were earmarked for the Spitfire and Hurricane production lines. At least it did see service, mainly as a 'back stop' defence fighter to mop up the German bombers that did get through and was later relegated to training units for converting pilots to multi engined aircraft. Eventually some Merlin's were found and the aircraft showed what it could have done if equipped from inception but by then the airframe was dated and needed too many upgrades to make it viable in its original role so they were withdrawn and scrapped before the invasion of Europe.

[lookythat]

Does anyone notice a resemblance between this aircraft and the FMA IA 58 Pucará? Interesting since Kurt Tank was working in Argentina postwar. Also the Pucara has a T-tail, which Tank had also been exploring.

[darrellid]

Many of Tank's designs boasted clean lines and relatively excellent performance. Fortunately, I don't think anything could have changed the ultimate outcome of the war, but a capable craft such as this could've made things that much more difficult.

[petegarnett]

Willy Messerschmitt had the ear of major figures in the 3rd Reich, so his aircraft were often preferred over others. This was almost certainly a factor in this case.

[CarmenAdams-lm]

The cockpit floor being transparent is quite an amazing feature as well. The cockpit floor being transparent is quite an amazing feature as well.

[malcolmcarter]

What a beautiful looking fighter! Professor Tank was a pretty amazing chap. I remember reading about him flying a Ta 152C-0 prototype, and being pursued by "Indians at the garden gate" in the form of two P 51s, and hitting the MW 50 tit for full WEP and leaving the Mustangs standing!
But such an important man doing standing patrols? Like I said, he was quite the laddy.
As always a terrific video. Thank you.

[majorbloodnok]

Thank you for covering this aircraft, I have long admired it for its racy looks.

[Parocha]

Considering the HUGE numbers of BF-109s that were lost due to their narrow-track landing gear, the higher cost and longer manufacture time of the FW-187 would have been non-issues, had it being chosen

[sheepFP]

Great video yet again Rex, I've always had a thing for the 187 and the even weirder 189, Tank was a mad genius!

Minor errata regarding engines: at 6:42 you show a DB600 engine upside down, they were an inverted V12 like all German designs of the period as mandated by the RLM in 1928. At 6:59 when you mention the Jumo 210, Jumo should be pronounced with the the same J sound as Junkers since it is just short for "Junkers Motorenwerke"

[sebastianucero]

The Henschel Hs 129 Panzerknacker looks a lot like this. So the design lives on! Very good video thank you