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Martin's latest PSS offering is
based on the Fw190 flown by Hans "Peter" Wulff in
WW2. This former German pilot was known to Martin
through their modelling interests. This is Martin's
story of the pilot and the machine:
Hans 'Peter' Wulff
Flying models with the Wessex Soaring
Association in the hills of Dorset and Wiltshire draws
interest from many folk, and often those who have some
connection with aircraft in a personal way. So it was
when I had the pleasure of meeting Hans Wulff during 1995
whilst flying gliders at one of our regular club sites.
Conversation soon revealed that Hans - 'Peter' to those that
knew him well, had been a Luftwaffe pilot during World War 2
and he expressed his own in my projects involving scale
models. At the time I was trying to complete my
Blackburn Firebrand, a project that he thought was odd and
interesting as a potential glider.
Born in 1923 in Lübek, Northern Germany,
Hans 'Peter' Wulff began flying gliders when he was 14 and was
flying solo before he was 17. By 1937 he was flying
aerobatics and night flying (in gliders!) in preparation for
his inevitable place in the Luftwaffe.
To his disappointment, Lieutenant Hans
Wulff was posted to Russia on bombing missions with KG53
(Legion Condor), flying Heinkel He111s. He had so dearly
wanted to fly fighters, but the authorities had different
plans for him. Peter was impressed by the performance of
twin engined aircraft, firstly the Heinkel He111, and later
the Messerschmitt Me110 and Me410 and this attraction to
'twins' lasted throughout his life.
The high speed and manoeuvrability of the
Me410 gave Peter an 'interesting time' flying with ZG26 based
at Königsberg, trying to chase off the overwhelming American
B-17 formations over Germany in Summer 1944. Heavily
engaged in combat during the Battle of the Bulge he was
shot down on 3 occasions and he lost all his comrades
in the conflict.
As the situation became desperate for the
Defence of the Reich many pilots were posted to fighter
squadrons and Peter finally got his wish to fly the mighty
Focke-Wulf Fw190, though not on terms which he would have
chosen! During late 1944 Peter flew the Fw190A-8 with
I/JG6 near Cologne and survived a number of remarkable combat
missions. Though Spitfires and Mustangs had shot him
down, he survived where most others did not.
Understandably, he began to feel he was leading a 'charmed
life', generating an optimism which never deserted him.
Flying with I/JG6 from Quakenbrük in
Holland, Peter was involved in the January 1st 1945 offensive
against the airfields occupied by the allies, known as Operation
Bodenplatte. Flying his 'Blue 4' (the Focke-Wulf
Fw190A-8) he was detailed to attack Volkel airfield soon after
dawn. But his entire unit failed to arrive on target due
to a navigational error and disruption by 'early morning
Spitfires.' Becoming detached from the rest of I/JG6,
Peter became involved in combat with Allied fighters near
Eindhoven, during which action he shot down a Spitfire, before
being set upon by Tempests of 486 Squadron (New Zealand).
Peter's aircraft was reported as having
been shot down at very low level, first emitting white, then
black smoke before exploding in a field. In fact the
white smoke was Peters parachute which opened inadvertently at
below 200 feet as the canopy of the Fw190 blew clear.
Peter was wrenched out of the fighter by the chute and
although he was seriously injured by his collision with the
tailplane, he survived once again and was taken by the British
as a Prisoner of War. (As a note of interest, it was
Sq.Ldr Spike Umbers of the New Zealand 486 Sqn who appears to
be credited with shooting down Peter's Fw190. Spike
Umbers was himself shot down and killed on 14 February 1945).
Imprisoned in various British wartime
establishments, the last being in Pembrokeshire, Peter settled
in Wales after his release in 1948. He was able to mix
his love of flying with his work in farming. Twin
engined aircraft were always a lasting fascination, and he
flew a Dornier for a local business man for several
years. He was also heavily committed to gliding, owning
several of his own and a Fournier RF4. Along with
current Wessex Soaring Association member Lloyd Edwards, Peter
was a founder member of the West Wales Gliding Club, where he
committed himself to many hours on the tug.
Peter's flying activities were curtailed
increasingly by diabetes, which affected his eyesight.
Undaunted he learned to fly Microlight aircraft, owning and
flying a Chevron until ill health forced him to give up, aged
71.
In May 1997 he went on a pilgrimage to
St. Petersburg, (Russia) with his 'German Lions Club'.
And this is where Peter suddenly died on June 2, aged 74.
It had been my plan to involve Peter in
my project to model a Focke-Wulf 190A-8, based on 'Blue 4',
his last combat aircraft. I know he was very interested
in what I was doing and I regret that he was not able to see
its completion.
I would now like to dedicate the model to
the memory of Hans Peter Wulff.
The Model (Blue 4) - Focke-Wulf
Fw190A-8
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Martin
Hursthouse lends scale to his masterpiece, the 1/5th
scale Fw190A-8 |
Having decided to model the Fw190, I was
reasonably confident that I could make it work at true scale
and as a glider. As Peter Wulff had said about an
earlier PSS project (the Blackburn Firebrand), "If you
have done your homework, and all the relevant calculations are
correct, it should work." After 2 years work, I was
relieved that the previous model had worked very well, indeed
better than I had expected.
Not being very scientifically minded I
find the aforementioned calculations tedious and perplexing, I
prefer to see those projects as 'flying paintings' rather than
mathematical machines. There is of course great
satisfaction in getting it to look right and perform
correctly, and a project which can take upto 2 years to
complete cannot wholly rely on guess work. I feel that
this has caused a good mix of discipline for me, as it is
essential to keep learning. Otherwise, why do it?
Known as the 'Butcher Bird of Bremen' the
Focke-Wulf Fw190 was a small fighter, introduced as a radial
engined alternative to the Me109, perhaps the most famous WW2
German aircraft. The Fw190 was a brute of an aircraft
and some would say that its mean, purposefulness was its
beauty. It's main attractions for many were its turn of
speed and breathtaking manoeuvrability - unmatched until the
late Spitfires and Mustangs. I do not propose to give a
lecture on the subject here, though I have given a brief
bibliography at the end for those interested.
Original Focke-Wulf drawings and the most
superb drawings by Arthur Bentley were used, though it must be
stressed that these were 'scale drawings' and not model
building plans. All sections and profiles were scanned
into the PC and enlarged to 1/5 scale to give me a slightly
smaller model than the Firebrand. The scanning took much
of the tedium out of the drawing and planning stage. Ply
wood, ramin and balsa timbers were used in the basic
construction, with glass fibre and carbon fibre reinforcement
in high stress areas. Wing spars are of spruce and birch
ply. The fuselage was built as 2 half shells, laying up
balsa strips over ply formers. This method is
traditional, though I hadn't tried it before and I found it a
very slow but satisfying way of achieving deadly accurate
contours. In my usual way I overdid the belt and braces
with too much ply in the formers, but I can see that a very
lightweight fuselage could be built in this way. After
the 2 shells were joined, the whole structure was given a coat
of epoxy resin and glass cloth. Body filler was kept to
an absolute minimum to keep weight down and some areas were
covered in tissue and dope (rather than glass skin) for the
same reason.
The pattern for the canopy was built in 2
sections, using kafir plaster, then the canopy was vacuum
formed using PETG. With plasticard and ply detailing
around cockpit and canopy areas. Much time was
spent in getting this particular canopy to look right.
It seems that many people dislike the paint finishing and
detailing stage, but it has become one of the most fascinating
'duties' for me. Indeed, if somebody would care to build
my models, I'll just do the painting and detailing.
After much research and preparation for this particular model,
it was important for me to get it right. This was the
time when I really did need Peter's recollection and criticism,
but I am afraid that is gone forever.
Vinyl and acrylics were used for all
paintwork, and application was by hand, using a 'scale size'
brush when appropriate, and with airbrush dusting over.
The trouble with airbrush finishing is that the subject
becomes 'too perfect' with an all over velvet like
sheen. This is OK if your subject has just rolled out of
the factory, but in this case, Peter Wulff had told me that
all the I/JG6 aircraft were "lying all over the field, a
bit of a mess, dirty and pretty beaten up". This
condition is indicated by most photographs of the time, and
the 'used' look was essential for this project. The hand
painting and detailing took a considerable while and was quite
demanding to achieve, but was very rewarding as completion
approached.
All markings and decals were hand
painted, though 'Lettraset' was used for some of the finer
stencilling and then doctored with acrylics.
A visit to the Imperial War Museum in
Lambeth to see the only Fw190 in Britain proved very useful,
though the example there has been poorly 'tidied up' (a Dulux
job?) since I first saw it in the early '60s.
The various local library services
continue to be valuable research centres, though owning your
own source of material that you can browse through at will is
better if you can do it. It has surprised me that
numerous folk (including fellow club members) have archive and
original material tucked away, either belonging to a relative
or just simply acquired over the years, and all you have to do
is ask. Letter writing to historians, illustrators and
aviation authors also produced great supporting interest in my
project.
The Fw190 is modelled at 1/5 scale giving
a span of 88" or 2.25m. Aerofoil section is the
trust Eppler 374. The AUW is 11lbs. 10oz, the wing area
is 1300 sq. ins. (approx) and the wing loading is 20.6 oz/sq
ft. This loading is still a bit higher than I would have
liked but also a relief after the 27+oz/sq ft. I had
"achieved" with the Firebrand.
Radio control is by Futaba PCM 1024 and
control surfaces are ailerons, elevator, split flaps and
rudder. Crow mixing, flap-elevator, snap-roll, aileron
rudder are all programmed in, and everything seems to work as
intended.
After quite a considerable wait for
decent weather and wind direction, I finally got
the model airborne in April, and I was delighted with the
first flight, there was no need for trim corrections or for
any trepidation. What came as a real surprise was the
true scale-like 'sit' in the air and also the willingness of
the model to soar in relatively poor lift. I didn't try
anything too ambitious, but having run through the operation
of flaps, crow and mixing patterns in the air, I know that all
regular manoeuvres will be OK. Landing with a low wing
model requires a pretty good surface and a straight approach,
both of which I had on this first occasion, though a bit of a
bumpy put-down knocked off the spinner which contains the
battery and about 1lb of lead. Otherwise, a very
pleasing first flight.
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Focke-Wulf
Fw190A-8 "Blue 4" designed and built by Martin
Hursthouse |
I would like to thank Lt. Hans 'Peter'
Wulff (the pilot) for his help and interest during the early
stages of the project, and for the wonderful life story.
A very special thanks to Marion (Peter's widow) for her
support with Peter's details which helped me glue the history
together.
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