In June 1942, a Luftwaffe deserter fortuitously presented the Allies with his Fw 190A fighter intact, the detailed examination of this remarkable product of the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau profoundly influenced fighter thinking in Britain. It directly result in the issue of specification F.2/43 to which was designed the Hawker Fury, embodying numerous features directly copied from the Fw 190A, and F.19/43 which produced the Folland Fo.118 fighter project, also owing much to the design of the Fw 190A. What higher tribute could have been paid to what was undoubtedly the finest warplane to which Germany gave birth.

The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Ranks with the Supermarine Spitfire, Vought F4U Corsair and North American P-51 Mustang as one of the best fighters of World War II. The Focke-Wulf 190 was the work of a team of German designers headed by the famous Kurt Tank. It was evolved basically as a successor to the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter, although the official view was that it would never be capable of matching the operational prowess of the Bf 109. How wrong this proved!

http://www.aviation-history.com/focke-wulf/fw190.html

http://www.warbirdalley.com/fw190.htm