There were topics about these aircraft on the old forums but with that being lost I’m making this one. The planes I’m talking about are the prototype Fw 190 D-14/15 which used the DB603 engine, and the Fw 190 D-13 and Ta 152 H-1 equipped with Jumo 213EB. I think these aircraft offer the greatest potential for closing the performance gap between the top German props and the Allied superprops they have to face. It has been very difficult to find information about them so I’m hoping through discussion more can be discovered and it can be determined if there is enough to get them in the game, or if their performance would actually be good enough to be useful.
The Fw 190 D-14 seems to have by far the most potential to me. Two prototypes were made, Fw 190 V76 (Werknummer 210040) and Fw 190 V77 (Werknummer 210043). These were originally Fw 190 D-9s.They used the DB 603E at first, but were at some point later re-engined to the DB 603LA. I haven’t been able to find out consistently what engine each plane used at a given time, let alone what settings. The first test flight was in November 1944. Planned armament would have been 2x MG151/20 in the wing root positions and 1x MK 108 motorkanone, like the Fw 190 D-12 or Ta 152 H. I don’t know if either of the prototypes were ever armed.
Finding information about the DB 603LA has been very hard as well, which makes me wonder where Gaijin got the information for that engine in the Ta 152C. Ingame it appears to be running a very high power setting that I can’t back up from anywhere else. Dietmar Hermann’s book on the 152 says the DB 603LA lacked an intercooler, and the planned DB603L which did have an intercooler made 1870 hp at takeoff which “could be increased to 2250 hp”, I presume with MW 50.
If the D-14 did use the DB 603LA running anywhere near the same power settings as the Ta 152C-3 ingame, or a DB 603EB/EC with C3 fuel and/or MW50, it would have greatly superior flight performance to any 190D or 152 currently ingame, especially in climb and speed. The horsepower of the 152C-3’s engine with the much lower weight of a 190D-9 airframe.
Here is the only picture I know of for one of the D-14 prototypes.
Spoiler
The Fw 190 D-15 is closely related to the D-14, but there is even less information on this one. It is possible that at least one prototype was completed before the end of the war, which may be Werknummer 601286. It would use the DB 603E engine, and the armament layout of the 190 D-11, that being 2x MG 151/20 in the wing roots and 2x MK 108 in the outboard wing positions. It was planned to use the Ta 152 style higher chord vertical stabilizer, but a prototype built from an earlier 190 variant might have lacked this feature.
It appears the D-14 project was cancelled in early 1945, and the D-15 is a sucessor to it.
As for The Jumo 213EB, this engine would have had 200 more horsepower than the 213E, achieved by means that are not known to me. I have heard that it used C3 fuel instead of B4, or that it had enlarged intake valves. This was the planned production engine for the Fw 190 D-13 but was not available so the Jumo 213E was used instead for early(and as it turned out, only) production aircraft. There is a chart from March 1945 made with calculated data that shows some extremely impressive but probably optimistic performance numbers for an Fw 190 D-12 and Ta 152H equipped with the Jumo 213EB. I have no idea if this engine was ever actually put into a plane, but a D-12 or D-13 with 200 more horsepower would also offer substantially greater performance than any existing 190 or the Ta 152 C.
Here is the (calculated data) chart showing incredible performance with the Jumo 213EB.
