Shockwave 'Wings of Power' He 219 Owl for FS2004

By Andrew Herd (21 May 2006)

n the period during which it was operational, the He 219 became known as the most effective night fighter developed by any of the fighting powers during World War II - a reputation which was enhanced by its appearance. With the possible exception of the He 111, few German twins of the era had any pretensions to beauty of line, but the He 219 took functionality to the extreme. Its slab-sided fuselage squatted on ungainly tricycle gear, the cockpit was perched at the very end of the nose, from which vantage point the pilot's vision was bracketed by a forest of aerials belonging to an FuG 220 Lichtenstein SN-2 radar, or in later models, an FuG 218 Neptun. Armament eventually settled at no less than four 30 mm and two 20 mm cannon, with many planes sporting an extra pair of upward firing schrage musik 30 mm cannon that wreaked havoc in bomber streams. A measure of how effective this armament could be lies in the account of the first operational mission by a 219, flown on the night of 11-12 June 1943, when an A-0 flown by Major Werner Streib is said to have shot down no fewer than five four engined bombers in a single sortie - the flight ending in near disaster for Streib when the flaps failed to deploy on approach and the 219 ran off the end of the runway and broke up.

Heinkel's new fighter was much more than a cannon platform: it incorporated a pressurised cockpit; an effective de-icing system; an autopilot; blind landing aids; ultraviolet night lighting; and - incredibly for a plane of its vintage - ejection seats, which made their debut in the 219. Although the plane is often described as a purpose-built night fighter, it was no such thing, its origins lying in a private venture by Heinkel aimed at designing a multipurpose twin to rival the Ju 188 and that plane's subsequent developments. The original plans included such exotica as remote controlled barbettes, but the project failed to impress the Luftwaffe and the plans ended up being shelved until a chance visit by the commander of the German night fighter force led to Heinkel re-work the plans at his suggestion. An incredibly protracted development followed, prolonged by bitter infighting between Heinkel and General Milch, who could see no use for a plane as sophisticated as the 219 when cheaper and proven designs like the Ju-88 and Me-110 were available.

One of the casualties of the 219's prolonged gestation was the intended engine fit. This was supposed to have been a pair of V12 DB 603Gs, rated at 1900 hp each for takeoff and 1560 hp at operational height; but non-availability of the powerplant resulted in substitution of the 603A, which provided nearly the same horsepower at altitude, but several hundred less at takeoff, which was precisely when 219 crews needed it. The problem pilots faced was that if an engine failed at below 220 km/h with the gear down and the plane below 90 m, not only was it almost impossible to hold the airframe straight, but the rate of sink as the undercarriage was raised was liable to take the plane back into the trees. There were also other problems with the design, which had an uncomfortable gust response at low speeds and on approach, lateral control with full flap was sluggish in the extreme, so pilots had to be careful not to drop full flap until they were lined up - and then they faced the problem that the 219 ran out of elevator authority very early in the landing run, so the nose wheel couldn't be held off for long, with resultant prolongation of the landing run. Despite these shortcomings, the 219 did make a very fine nightfighter and it played a part in ending the reign of the previously invulnerable de Havilland Mosquito, which the Allies had been operating with almost complete impunity over the skies of the Reich.

Given the above, the only surprising fact about the He 219 is that we haven't seen a sim of one before now, but Shockwave have put this right by releasing an He 219 in their 'Wings of Power' series - and done us proud in the process. The addon is available from the Pilot Shop as an instant-delivery download and if you are a fan of FS warbirds, it is worth a look. The package weighs in at 125 Mb and after after a user name and key code have been entered, the installation adds four different variants of the plane into FS2004 and creates a program group containing links to the manual and Shockwave's website and forums. Although the early part of the 93 page manual is generic to the Wings of Power product line, the remainder forms a very good guide on how to fly the 219, the emphasis on realism being very strong throughout.

You get four variants of the He 219 in all: the A-0; A-2; A-5; and A-7. The developers have clearly done a good deal of research into the plane and the A-0/R2 is in the livery of the plane mentioned above, which shot down five RAF bombers in a single night; while all the variants are fundamentally similar to look at, there are detail differences between them in terms of performance and armament, all of which are brought out very well. Shockwave have included another plane from the development series, the A-0/R6, this one differing from Streib's plane by having larger radar antennae, two additional cannon in the wing roots and twin Mk108 Schrage Musik cannon firing upwards out of the fuselage. If you look at the screenshot at top right, you can see the two gun ports in the top of the fuselage, just behind the trailing edge of the wing. The R6 performance appears to be identical to the R0, according to the manual, although I would imagine that the increased weight would have shaved a certain amount off the aircraft's top speed and climb rate - however to give credit to Shockwave, data on the 219 variants must be extremely hard to find.

The next variant is the A-2/R1, which differs from the A-0 models by having a drop tank to confer extended range - two liveries are provided, one almost identical to the screenshots, the other with black undersurfaces. Then there is the A-5, a Czech conversion, which had improved performance thanks to a reduction in armament to four cannon, but greatly extended range because of it. A well painted Czech livery is provided, with green upper surfaces and blue below. Finally, we have the A-7, fitted with the DB 603Gs the 219 was designed to fly with, increasing the performance to a top speed of 408 mph (which, interestingly enough, isn't quite fast enough to catch a Mosquito, which was one of the main reasons for designing the plane in the first place). The big problem with the A-7, much power that it had, was that it ended up being stuffed so full of kit that it didn't climb as well as the earlier variants it was intended to replace.

The visual models are all excellent, with crisp textures and plenty of animations, including an opening canopy and an extending ladder, as you can see in the screenshot above left. The gear is particularly well detailed and the retraction sequence is equally well done. If you get bored, the external tank can be dropped with shift-D; the armored glass retracts if you hit 'o'; the gunsight mode can be toggled by repeatedly hitting 'r'; the tailhook command ejects the canopy; and the seats will follow if you use the water rudder command - and there is engine smoke.

The addon loads with a standard 2D cockpit view - your reaction will probably be the same as mine when you first see it, which is disappointment, because what you see is more or less what you get in 2D mode, apart from a modern set of pop-up radios and the usual set of 2D views. You can fly the 219 from the 2D cockpit, but the moment you switch to the VC, it becomes clear why the developers didn't waste any time with it, because the virtual cockpit is one of the best I have seen in an FS warbird, with graphics that rival the better Il2 Sturmovik planes - if you haven't seen Il-2, that is saying something.

I have included a screenshot of the 2D panel in the middle row, but if you are thinking of buying this addon, make sure you take a look at the VC shots in the third row down, as this is the guts of the sim, and very good guts they are too. Using a point of view aid like Track-IR, the cockpit takes on a very lifelike appearance and is extremely easy to use, with virtually everything you can see either clickable or animated - you can even eject using the VC controls, although make sure you jettison the canopy first, or you will end up with a headache.

As you can see, the VC gauges are done to a very high standard - just about the only other FS2004 addon plane I can think of that has such a good VC is the RealAir Spitfire. I found myself flying the plane in VC mode the vast majority of the time and rarely used the 2D panel, but if you lack an aid like Track-IR the 2D panel will come in handy as it can be disorientating flying the plane when the POV is under the control of your thumb rather than your eyes.

The flight model appears to be good and corresponds reasonably well with the accounts I have read of flying the 219. With planes of this type, it really is anybody's guess what their performance was like, as few book figures are available and planes that were test flown by the Allies at the end of the conflict were often more than a little war-weary. However, the 219's performance does match the figures Shockwave quote in the manual pretty well and the configuration makes it an interesting plane to land, thanks to the way the pilot is sat so far forward of the CofG. True to form, if you don't maintain a reasonable amount of power on final, the 219 develops a thrilling rate of sink and if you don't catch it very quickly, you will undershoot.

Verdict? Shame the guns don't work! I did the testing around Seattle, which gave plenty of opportunity to practice interceps on GA traffic and the slower turboprops - and I enjoyed myself immensely. If FS warbirds are your thing (and even if they are not), Shockwave's 219 is a superb plane with one of the best VCs around and I can thoroughly recommend it.