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The Focke-Wulf Fw 190S was the designation given to a small number of dedicated two-man trainers produced to help convert pilots from two-seat bombers to the single seater Fw 190.
By 1943 the Ju 87 Stuka had become obsolete even on the Eastern Front, where it had made an impressive contribution to the 1941 campaign, and the much more survivable Fw 190, in its many fighter bomber variants, was replacing it. Two two-main trainers based on the Fw 190A were produced in small numbers, starting in June 1944.
Fw 190S-5
The first trainers were produced by converting existing Fw 190A-5s, which had their armament removed, an instructor’s cockpit added behind the pilot and an enlarged canopy added. The new canopy was more heavily framed than the standard type, and instead of sliding backwards to open it had two sections hinged on the right, opening on the left.
This version may have been given the designation Fw 190A-5/U1, although that U number was also used for an armament test bed. The A-5 based trainers were later re-designated as the Fw 190S-5, with S standing for Schulflugzeug or training aircraft.
Fw 190S-8
The second trainer version of the Fw 190 was based on the Fw 190A-8, and later became known as the Fw 190S-8. Like the S-5, the S-8 was produced by extending the cockpit backwards to make space for the instructor and covering the entire thing with a longer canopy. It had its armament removed, but the bulged panels over the 13mm machine guns in the fuselage were retained. On some S-8s the rear part of the canopy was extended out to the sides to improve the instructor’s forward view. This was done by replacing the rear panel of the canopy with a flattened pyramid structure, with four triangular panels joining at a tip in the middle of the canopy.
Some two-seaters were also produced by converting Fw 190 F-8s, including W.Nr.584219, which was captured intact by the British. This aircraft was built as an F-8, probably by Arado, in 1944. It was then converted into a two-seater late in the year at R Sochor Fabrik at Blanz-Blansko in Poland, probably in November 1944. The aircraft was captured at Grove, Denmark, while probably serving with Jagdfliegerschule 103 and flown to Britain. It is now part of the collection of the RAF Museum at Hendon.