FlugWerkFW-190 A8/N ZK-RFR, seen near Omaka on April 21, 2011,was due to resume test flying before the end of the year. This is the first air-to-air photograph of the aeroplane to be published in the northern hemisphere.ATOMAKA AIRFIELD, New Zealand, Flug Werk FW-190 A8/N ZK-RFR received a fresh Certificate of Airworthiness on December 13, 2011, and was expected to resume test flying before the year’s end.
Now owned by the Chariots of Fire Collection, the machine was the first of the new-build FlugWerkFW-190s to fly, in July 2004 at Manching, Bavaria (see News, October 2004 Aeroplane). It arrived in NewZealand in January 2011 and made its first flight there on April 20, but two days later a couple of cooling-fan blades sheared off, damaging two propeller blades. Sadly, the Pratt & Whitney R-2800 powered fighter had to sit out the Classic Fighters air show at Omaka over the Easter weekend.

Over the past fewmonths a JEMAviation team atOmaka, led by Jay McIntyre, have completed repairs and constructed undercarriage doors, which had not previously been fitted. The aircraft nowalso has amore accurate representation of the colour scheme worn by 222-victory ace Maj Erich Rudorffer’s Focke-Wulf Fw 190 when he commanded II./JG 54 on the Eastern