This FW last flew on a raid of a Russian airfield in Lennigrad in 1943. During the mission, the pilot landed in a bare spot in a pine forest and escaped on foot. He reported he took flak and crash landed. Forty Three years later, in 1987, hunters found the plane where it belly landed to a halt, undamaged except for bent prop. The plane survived intact excepy for minor rodent damage. Upon retrival and dismantalling, they found zero flak damage but the engine was seized. BMW had slave labor build the engines and an assembler placed a rag in a location that it would get sucked up in the oil pump and block a vital passage. Think how many engines they did that to. They checked the log book and found, yes indeed, the Focke Wolf had a brand new engine replacement. The plane sat for years as the forest grew in around it, hiding it for over four decades. Paul Allenn of Microsoft fame, heard about it, purchased it and took twenty more years to restore it. Today it flys out of his Aircraft Heritage Museum in Everett, WA.
