Focke-Wulf Fw 189 Uhu

The Focke-Wulf Fw 189 Uhu, the Eurasian eagle-owl, was a twin-engine, twin-boom tactical reconnaissance and army cooperation aircraft and one of the most prominent short-range reconnaissance types of the Luftwaffe in the Second World War. It answered a 1937 Air Ministry specification to replace the Henschel Hs 126. While Arado offered a conventional design, the Focke-Wulf team under Kurt Tank produced the unconventional twin-boom Fw 189 with a glazed central crew gondola. The first prototype flew in July 1938 and the type entered service in 1940. It was used heavily on the Eastern Front for reconnaissance, as a light bomber and as a night fighter, and production at Bremen, Bordeaux-Merignac and Prague totalled 864 aircraft before it ended in mid-1944.