06/30/2024. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "War Aircraft Replicas (W.A.R.) was founded at Santa Paula, California, USA in 1973, to market plans and kits for amateur construction of ½ scale replicas of a series of WW II aircraft. The term "½ scale" is not strictly accurate, but refers to the general overall dimensions of the aircraft. For example, to provide adequate accommodation for the pilot, the cockpit is considerably larger than ½ scale, and the area of the horizontal and vertical tail surfaces has been increased beyond scale to ensure adequate stability.

The basic concept involves the use of a common design wooden fuselage box and spar structure, the desired contours to duplicate a particular aircraft are obtained by using carved polyurethane foam, covered with high-strength laminating fabric and epoxy resin to form a lightweight and rigid structure that is stressed to ± 6g, allowing for aerobatic maneuvers. By changing fuselage contours, using different engine cowlings and wingtips, and by shape changes to tail unit surfaces, it was considered that a number of different aircraft could be copied with reasonable similarity to the full-scale combat types. W.A.R.'s aircraft were originally designed for Volkswagen engines, but later also other engines were used.

The first in this series of replicas was the Focke-Wulf FW 190 and design started in July 1973, work on the prototype started in February 1974 and the aircraft was first flown six months later, August 21, powered by a 70 hp 1,600 cc modified Volkswagen car engine. It was later re-engined with an 100 hp Continental O-200-A, which was also the recommended engine. Several aircraft were built, including examples in Australia, Belgium, France, Switzerland, UK and USA.

Since 1973 plans and parts for over twenty types have been produced, plans and parts for twelve are still available from War Aircraft Replicas, presently based at Owasso, Oklahoma.

The aircraft pictured above was built in Australia in 2014 by Reinart Vandermolen. It is fitted with a Lycoming O-320 four-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled engine. The family naam is also known in the Netherlands, this, and the roundel on the fuselage suggests that the builder has roots in the Netherlands.

(OO-90) (Henk Wadman Collection)

Gerrit Titeca of Oudenburg, Flanders, Belgium, built the replica above from plans he acquired from WAR in 1978. Titeca reserved the registration OO-90 on January 2, 1979, after encountering many difficulties, the aircraft neared completion in the spring of 1984. The aircraft was fitted with an 100 hp Rolls-Royce/Continental O-200-A four-cylinder horizontal-opposed air-cooled engine, driving a three-bladed Poncelet propeller of 60 in (1.52 m) in diameter. Also fitted was a not jettisonable auxiliary tank under the fuselage, shaped alike those on the original Fw 190.

April 2, 1984, the FW 190 replica was registered to G. Titeca and he made the first flight from nearby Ostend Airport the following April 13. After Titeca had made fifty flight hours the aircraft received its CofA. On July 6, 1992, the FW 190 replica was registered to C. Kelleter of Saint-Ghislain, Wallonia, Belgium, it was registered back to the builder Titeca on May 4, 1999.

In October 1999 it was registered, still as OO-90, to Karl Alwin of Neuburg-am-Donau, Germany. On January 1, 2001, the aircraft was damaged near Neuburg-Egweil airfield in a mid-air collision with a Dornier Do 27, but landed safely, the registration OO-90 was cancelled on May 29, 2001.

For the aircraft Karl Alwin reserved on the German D-ERFW on April 22, 2002, and marked as Karl /FW.190A-1, it received a permit to fly on November 9, 2004. The permit expired April 28, 2011, and the replica was subsequently sold to the Netherlands.

On April 19, 2016, the aircraft was registered in the Netherlands as WAR Fw-190 PH-ROA c/n 1999. The c/n was a mix-up with the type certificate number L-1999, it was changed to the correct c/n 209 on July 6, 2016. PH-ROA had an incident at Hoogeveen Airport on February 13, 2017, the registration was cancelled as written off on November 23, 2017. However, in a 2023 newspaper interview with the Belgian builder Titeca it was stated the aircraft was still stored in a hangar in the Netherlands."

Thanks to Luc Wittemans and Henk Wadman for the additional information.