Yes, IL-2’s FW190D-9 is coming with both canopy types UPDATED

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Late last week, after the reveal of the FW190D-9 by 1CGS, I started asking myself what modifications the FW190D-9 might come with. We now have confirmation of at least one of those modifications and its the FW190D-9s blown canopy. And that raises a couple more questions!

Blown versus non-blown canopies

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In a quest to improve the rear facing vision of the FW190 beyond its already very good status, the designers and engineers at Focke Wulf ended up fitting a new blown canopy arrangement to the FW190A-8, A-9, F-8 and D-9. Not all of these fighters received the modification but many of them were fitted with these canopies before the January 1st Bodenplatte raids.

What is the blown canopy? You can see what the differences are like from this website.

The purpose as I said before was to improve the rear facing vision and into the winter months of 1945, many FW190s would receive this modification.

Confirmed

We now have confirmation that this modification will be coming to the FW190D-9 as stated by IL-2’s Lead Producer Jason Williams:

There will be the two types of canopies available for the Dora. I had originally thought no, but I was thinking of another plane. The Dora will have two different styles of canopies available.

So far, all of the screenshots of the D-9 show the original arrangement but it is nice to know that we’ll be seeing both in the future release of this aircraft.

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This raises another important question. Most or all FW190F-8 models were equipped with the blown canopy style enabling easier spotting of ground targets by the pilots. Will the FW190F-8 (or the A-8 in general) be given this modification too? We don’t know that yet.

UPDATE (October 19, 2018 at 10:15 pm EST): BlackHellHound1 on Discord pointed out that the blown canopy can be seen on the FW190D-9 un-textured work in progress models that were released some time ago. Well spotted!

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6 responses to “Yes, IL-2’s FW190D-9 is coming with both canopy types UPDATED”

  1. Trudy Avatar
    Trudy

    I like the fact that the BoBP aircrafts are getting much more modifications. BoBP will give a whole lot more tactical possibilties, you can fiddle out with.

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    1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      It’s most certainly a good thing. It adds a lot per aircraft and it makes the 8-10 aircraft coming with Bodenplatte stretch out about as much as 1CGS can historically stretch. I’m excited they made the FW190A-8 into the F-8 and G-8 as well and it looks like they are trying to throw as many major (and sometimes minor) modifications in as possible.

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  2. TJR Avatar
    TJR

    Thats Awesome, The 190 has the best sight lines on the Axis side, that bubble canopy will “blow” the competition away…. Pun intended. Did the Germans have a hard time with making Perspex? Is that why the 109 looks like a bird cage?

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      As Zoomy says, I think that has more to do with the Bf109s design and priorities for the type than anything else. If we look at the Me-309 that was being designed, it has a more bubble canopy type approach (although it still has more canopy bracing than your average Thunderbolt or Typhoon).

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  3. Capt. Zoomy Avatar
    Capt. Zoomy

    I think it was more the time period. The 109 first flew in 1935. If you look at aircraft from the same time period, most of them have birdcage type canopies too. The “blown” hood type canopies start appearing around 1939/1940, and doesn’t seem to become all that common on Allied fighter planes until 1944.I might be wrong, but, I think modernizing the 109s canopy was of lower priority for the Messerschmidt’s team then other improvements and didn’t really have to do with technological hurdles that needed to be overcome. Look at the Romanian IAR 80. It had a “blown” type canopy as early as 1940, so the technology to make them was certainly within Germany’s grasp.

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  4. Francesco Kasta Avatar
    Francesco Kasta

    I love these kind of details, it makes the sim feel more authentic and complete.

    Liked by 1 person

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