On January 7 John Maloney flew NX190RF, which wears the markings of a JG4 machine, on an air-to-air photographic mission from Chino.

On January 8 at Chino, California, the first of the Planes of Fame Museum’s monthly living history events for 2011 took on the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 as its subject. Unfortunately, the planned debut Chino flying display from Rudy Frasca’s new-build Flug Werk FW 190A-9, NX190RF, had to be cut short after the starboard undercarriage leg failed to lock up, pilot John Maloney making only one pass for the crowd before landing.

Museum president Steve Hinton, who took NX190RF up on its maiden flight at Chino on May 13, 2010, explained that the test flights had tended to be rather short as the team tried to sort out cooling problems with the tightly-cowled Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engine, which still does not have a cooling fan. Hinton, who, on December 1, had taken the Flying Heritage Collection’s genuine

Fw 190A-5, WNr 1501227, on its maiden flight in Arizona (see News, January Aeroplane) praised the Fw 190’s cutting-edge features, instancing the command lever for power, manifold pressure, prop settings etc, which gave the fighter something of an advantage from a pilot’s point of view.