Late 41- middle 42 very good, very dangerous
Middle 42- middle 43 Average
Middle 43 -middle 44 out classed
Middle 44- VE day shooting target
The Fw 190 is overated. The airframe was not particulary bad , but certain features crippled its performance
a)The BMW 801 was a terrible engine. Heavy, required c3 fuel and even then had a poor power to weight ratio, and above 6000m was tragic.
b) The wing was small for the weight of even the earlier versions. It suffered from deformation under stress giving violent high speed stall. It s airfoil was obsolete by 1943.No internal fuel tanks untill the very end
c) The armament in later versions was overkill and its weight further crippled performance
d) The surfaces building quality caused further performance loss. Heavy armor again reduced performance. Heavy radio/navigation equipment did not help . Inferior fuels did not help either.
e) The operational requirement that ,essentially a single air frame(A/F/G-8), perform every single mission, from high altitude combat to ground support , very naturally created an aircraft simply inferior.
The D series tried to restore some performance , but did not succeed. The wing was still the same, the engines were still single stage,C3 fuel was not available, and essential aerodynamic features of the aircraft could not be produced.Additional weight and drag was caused by the requirement for the "power egg", in order to make production easier
The Ta152 versions were again crippled by unreasonable requirements for heavy armament, still more armor, plus more fuel ,and still on B4 fuel.
In my opinion the Fw190 was not a good fighter after 1942 and does not deserve its fame
Heretic!!!
What was an average fighter in 'mid 42-mid 43'? One to two cannons + LMGs, or perhaps 4 to 6 heavy MGs (nod for Fw 190). Rate of roll - nod Fw 190. Outright speed at 2, 5, 7 km - again nod Fw 190. Ability to shrug to too heavy enemy fire - again Fw 190 was good there. Airfoil choice - not the cutting edge, but not that obsolete either. The average fighter in that time frame was perhaps Spitfire V, Lagg-5, Yak-1 and -9, P-40F, M and N, P-39L and N, P-51 (no letter). There is no Merlin Mustang, no Tempest, the P-47C is better above 7km but it still needs plenty of improvement on fuel system and powerplant to be really better all-arounder. P-38 offers range and hi-alt climb & perhaps speed but has it's host of serious problems, Japanese can't compete unless for CV duties. Italians - no chance.
The drag of the powerpant was favorable, the armored oil cooler was a trade off - lets recall that late US radial fighter/bombers (FM-2, AU-1, F8F, F7F) went to hide and armor the oil coolers, a step that acknowledged the real danger of oil system being a weak spot on their earlier designs.
So the Fw 190 is right there as a top dog, together with new Spitfire marks as all-altitude adversary.
From mid 1943, yes, the situation gets worse. That RLM though it would've been a good idea not to improve the powerplant of the Fw 190 in a timely manner helped for things to go downhill. It certainly was no fault of design that the big firepower and armor suite was installed without much of problems.