Focke-Wulf Ta 153

The Focke-Wulf Ta 153 was a prototype German fighter aircraft built during the Second World War as a development of the Fw 190C, itself a Fw 190A with a Daimler-Benz DB 603A engine. A project called Ra-4 began in 1943 to create a new high-altitude fighter derived from the Fw 190, in competition with the Messerschmitt Me 155B. The Ta 153A-1 was to use the Jumo 213A or C engine and the new wings of the Fw 190B prototype, and the Ta 153D-1 was a high-altitude version with long-span, high-aspect-ratio wings and the DB 603G engine. Although derived from the Fw 190, it was essentially a new aircraft needing new tooling, so Kurt Tank instead added a rear fuselage plug to the Fw 190A to make the Fw 190D, and later joined that fuselage to the long wings of the Ta 153D-1 to create the successful Ta 152H.