Flight Recorder Publications - Kurt Tank's Album

KURT TANK'S ALBUM - REVIEWS

A fascinating and very well put together album of photos taken by, or collected by, the designer of the Fw 190, Kurt Tank. An incredible insight.

Ken Ellis
Flypast

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KURT TANK'S PHOTO ALBUM 1940-1943
This is a curious but interesting book based on an album of 35mm negatives and contact prints that came into Mr Powell's possession in the early 1980s. Detective work identified it as having been the personal album of none other than Focke-Wulf designer Kurt Tank, and it comprises a curious mixture of images, ranging from aeroplanes and personalities to verses and illustrations for a bawdy drinking song (did this really merit 15 pages?) and photographs of European scenery and semi-naked ladies in a French cabaret.

Featured aircraft include a selection of derelict French military types, the Focke-Wulf Fw190, Fw191 and Ta 154, and the Berlin B9 experimental prone-pilot twin. Colour artwork of the last, and of the proposed camouflage scheme for the Fw 191, have been included. This is really quite an esoteric collection with limited appeal, but anyone mainlining on German Second World War aircraft will surely be happy to pay the very reasonable price demanded.

Philip Jarrett
AEROPLANE NOVEMBER 2004

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Kurt Tank était probablement I'un des meilleurs concepteurs d'avions en Allemagne, et responsable de certains des produits les plus remarquables de I'industrie aéronautique allemande, avant et pendant la Deuxième Guerre mondialo. La gamme des types d'appareils produits par la firme Focke-Wulf était très étendue, des petits biplans d'entramement aux meilleurs chasseurs, sans oublier les appareils long-courrier, qui étaient de conception très reussie. Kurt Tank était cependant un homme de son époque et cet album de photos personnelles donne une idée de ses conceptions et des événements auxquels il a participé dans les premières années de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. Toutes les images de ce livre sont extraites du propre album de Kurt Tank, des images reproduites à partir de négatifs originaux en 35mm. Toutes sont accompagnés de légendes fortement détaillées et d'un texte descriptif. Avec 135 photos en noir et blanc.

39-45 MAGAZINE No.216
Octobre 2004

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Many of us have photo albums, and many of our family members have photo albums.Collecting photos of a certain event, or certain time frame, is a common thing for people to do, which has often led me to wonder what it would be like to come across the photo album of someone famous. This book does just that, bringing to the public eye the photo collection of Kurt Tank, the chief designer of Focke-Wulf. As such, these photos are of an unusually high quality and show predominantly Focke-Wulf aircraft.

The book starts out with some background information and early photos from the album, including some interesting poster sketches. These apparently depict people from the company, displayed in tongue-in-cheek caricatures. The obvious humor clearly depicts a company in high spirits. As this is before the war, the high spirits are understandable, as German industry was in full swing, producing both military and civil aircraft.

Immediately following this is a section showing France after the fall in the summer of 1940, where apparently Kurt Tank toured. The photos here show French aircraft in varying states of disarray. For those of you who have given thought to doing a destroyed French aircraft diorama, you'll find lots of potential here. In addition to aircraft, there are also several photos showing armor vehicles, including an interesting Renault Char B1 tank with the name "Madagascar" on the turret side.

Once past this general overview comes detailed sections on aircraft. Adolf Galland gets some exposure here (in fact, it was through Galland that this album was identified as belonging to Kurt Tank, but the majority of the stuff; presented here are Focke-Wulf aircraft. These include the Fw 190 and Fw 189 in some detail, as well as the little-known Berlin B 9. This is an interesting little plane with a fascinating history captured in photos. Also presented is the unique Fw 191, an aircraft that had every moveable surface controlled electrically. Needless to say, this aircraft was a dismal failure.

This is a fascinating piece of history reproduced by the people at Flight Recorder Publications that will be of interest to both researchers and modelers alike. My thanks to Specialty Press for the review sample. Visit their website for this and other interesting aviation book titles.

Chris Banyai-Riepl
Internet Modeler October 2004

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Kurt Tank's Photo Album
This title makes you think of loads of images of the FW 190, but in truth it is a much more varied collection of images. The photo album on which this title is based wa passed to the authors in 1982 and is probably a relic of the material brought back from Bremen by the Allies in the immediate post-war period. As it held no technical data of interest it possibly got handed around over the intervening years and Roy Powell is the current (and very lucky) owner of it. The images have been organised, I suspect, as they are in the album, so should be in fairly chronological order. These images have all been produced nice and big, with three to a page coupled with extensive captions. They range from very personal images of places and people Tank knew, to more general images as he travelled around during WWII. This title only deals with the 1940 to 1943 period, so there is much on the fall of France as well as development of the FW 189 and FW 190 as well as oddities like the FW 191 and Berlin B9. Tank was associated with the latter due to his role of President of the German Academy of Aeronautical Research. The images of the B9 are certainly the clearest I have ever seen of the type, so are very welcome.

Overall, this is an interesting book that allows us to see all the images taken by Tank during the early war period. It would be nice to think that a later album exists to fill the 1943 to 1945 period, but that may be too much to hope for!

Scale Aviation Modeller
July 2004

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This is a fascinating book by Roy Powell and Barry Ketley. Card cover, 68 pages, 290 x 210 on high quality art paper. Kurt Tank was one of Germany's foremost aircraft designers, his most famous design being the Fw 190. This is a reproduction of photos from his personal album. With photos of the Fw 190, the 189, Ta 154 Moskito, Berlin B9, cartoons, personalities, French aircraft and vehicles of 1940 and full descriptions of the contents. Original and excellent for those interested in WW II. At £9.99 plus P&P it is 'a snip'.

BMFA News
August 2004

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Here is a book that is as much a result of happenstance as anything else. The first author was given a book of photos and negatives by a colleague. This book sat on the author's shelves for several years while other projects occupied his time. Later, it was 'rediscovered' and after some research it was determined that this must have been an album of photos taken by and of Focke-Wulf's most talented designer, Kurt Tank.

The images in the book are really quite telling and portray such things as visits to France right after the end of the fighting in 1940, social events, and photographs of several of his own aircraft, including the FW-191 and the Berlin B.9

A truly unique book that provides a bit of an insight into one of history's most famous aircraft designers. The photos are superbly reproduced, and as you might expect, they are unique to this book. I found it truly fascinating and can highly recommend it.

Modelingmadness.com

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Many of us have photo albums, and many of our family members have photo albums. Collecting photos of a certain event, or a certain time frame, is a common thing for people to do, which has often led me to wonder what it would be like to come across the photo album of someone famous. This book does just that, bringing to the public eye the photo collection of Kurt Tank, the chief designer of Focke Wulf. As such, these photos are of an unusually high quality and show predominantly Focke Wulf aircraft.

Immediately following this is a section showing France after the fall in the summer of 1940, where apparently Kurt Tank toured. The photos here show French aircraft in varying states of disarray. For those of you who have given thought to doing a destroyed French aircraft diorama, you'll find lots of potential here. In addition to aircraft, there are also several photos showing armor vehicles, including an interesting Renault Char B1 tank with the name "Madagascar" on the turret side.

Once past this general overview comes detailed sections on aircraft. Adolf Galland gets some exposure here (in fact, it was through Galland that this album was identified as belonging to Kurt Tank), but the majority of the stuff presented here are Focke Wulf aircraft. These include the Fw 190 and Fw 189 in some detail, as well as the little-known Berlin B 9. This is an interesting little plane with a fascinating history captured in photos. Also presented is the unique Fw 191, an aircraft that had every moveable surface controlled electrically. Needless to say, this aircraft was a dismal failure.

Chris Banyai-Riepl
Internet Modeler - October 2004

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Kurt Tank etait probablement l'un des meilleurs concepteurs d'avions en Allemagne, et responsable de certains des produits les plus remarquables de I'industrie aeronautique allemande, avant et pendant la Deuxieme Guerre mondiale. La gamme des types d'appareils produits par la firme Focke-Wulf etait tres etendue, des petits biplans d'entramement aux meifleurs chasseurs, sans oublier les appareils long-courrier, qui etaient de conception tres reussie. Kurt Tank etait cependant un homme de son epoque et cet album de photos personnelles donne une idee de ses conceptions et des evenements auxquels il a participe dans les premieres annees de la Deuxieme Guerre mondiale. Toutes les images de ce livre sont extraites du propre album de Kurt Tank, des images reproduites a partir de negatifs originaux en 35mm. Toutes sont accompagnes de legendes fortement detaillees et d'un texte descriptif. Avec 135 photos en noir et blanc.

MAGAZINE 39-45 No. 216 octobre 2004 page 63