Oops I was thinking when you posted Martin and didn’t see it. I hope you don’t mind.

F-8 Crusader.

That’s right Olivier it’s the F-8 Crusader.
Your turn.

Ok, here's a tough one!

List the differences between a Pîaggio P.149 and a Focke-Wulf FwP.149D.

There are pretty obvious differences if you know your stuff!

I'm looking for 3 things...

1) The Fw version uses a BMW-built Lycoming engine as opposed to the Piaggio's Lycoming-built Lycoming

2) The data plate: P-149's have a Piaggio data plate, while Fw-built 149D's have Fw data plates.

3) Serial numbers: Fw-built machine serials range from 001 to 190.

You really know how to make a guy suffer :-)

1) almost there, you are missing something...

2) not quite what I'm looking for

3) they built more than that, and no, it's not something I'm looking for either!

Keep lookin', it's there, somewhere!

You know how to hurt a guy lol

Let's try
1) Fw - 3-blade prop vs. Piaggio-built - 2-blade prop?

2) How about military-standard instrumentation in Fw's, including a complete instrument-flight rig?

3) and probably too obvious even for me - Fw's were produced in Germany while the Piaggios were produced in Italy?

Any more thought and I'm going to bleed from my nose, ears and eyes

I would say the instruments are in Italian on the Piaggio and German on the FW...

Jean-Luc

Guys, you're searching much too deep.

Two of the things I'm looking for can be plainly seen while looking at the two versions, comfortably sat in a chair 30 feet away.

:-)

I think one of them is that the Pîaggio P.149 had fixed landing gear and the Focke-Wulf FwP.149D had retractable .
Andy

Let me move my chair to your hangar then :-)

Every pic I've googled so far is of surpluse Fw's

Hi all!

So what now? no questions anymore

Jean-Luc

Well no one has found the answers.

One more day and I'll release the trivia...

Hi Olivier!

Could you tell us what answers we gave were right... so we could hunt for the last ones... Thanks!

Jean-Luc

LOL! I've been out of touch... but the difficulties on this one made it hard to resist doing a web search!

About the first thing I found was this:

5/26/2003. Remarks by Dave Simpson: "In late 1953 Piaggio of Italy began to build the P.149 four seat trainer which was an upgrade of their earlier P.148 two seat trainer for the Italian AirForce (don't know how many but it appears few were built as Italy was happy with the P.148). The main buyer was the German Luftwaffe who bought the P.149-D version as a standard basic trainer and liaison aircraft. The Piaggio company built the first 72, and the remainder of the 190 planes were built under licence in Germany by Focke-Wulf as FWP-149-D. Your picture is either a P.149-D or a FWP-149-D, and unless you look at the manufacturer's placard on the firewall there is really no way to tell them apart."

It seems we're not alone in struggling to spot a difference!
:-)

Thank heavens for a bad back!....

Rowan

You guys are killing me.

When I'll show you pictures of the differences, you'll bang your heads against the wall.

It is that obvious.

:-)

Hi Olivier

Mike's got a very good point! Whether I do a search under Piaggio or Fw, every site I've found says the aircraft were identical - and then only shows a pic of a German-built aircraft!

Can you post a pic of the real Piaggio? :-)

All the best

Rowan

Will do at the end of the day!

Thank (insert preferred deity or supreme entity here) that I'm not insane

As promised, here are the shots. First one is a P.149 based in the USA, and the second is the FwP.149D I fly all over the place.

Now, here's what I was looking for, see if you can spot it :

1- Different tail shape (fairing and rudder)
2- Difference in windows on the canopy
3- Increased gross weight for the German version (ok, hard to see :-) )

Hi Olivier!

You fly the second one... is it your paint scheme? :-)

I'm not the boss here but I think you must ask another (easier ) question...

Jean-Luc

Hi Olivier

As you say, the first two differences are obvious - when you've actually got a picture of the Piaggo to compare with the Fw. It's amazing that none of my web-searches turned up a photo of an Italian aircraft!

All the best

Rowan

Yes it is the one I fly, I helped design the paint scheme.

Ok, here's an easier question.

Who was the first Allied pilot to shoot down a Focke-Wulf Fw 190?

Omer Levesque, No. 410 Sqdn RCAF

Good name, but he was in 401 at the time.

410 was his post-war Squadron, right here in Montréal.

You have the helm, fire away!