What exactly was the Ta 153?

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spicmart

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The Ta 153 was envisioned as the successor to the Fw 190 and was a completely new design. Yet it looked just like a Dora fuselage with the Ta 152C wing.
To not delay fighter production for too much Kurt Tank proposed to use a more derivative design which would was the Ta 152.
Most of its parts were taken from the Fw 190 for ease of construction and was it essentially a "stretched" 190.

Now I wonder what the Ta 153 was. The wing, is an enlarged 190 wing lengthened at the wing roots and the internal structure should be too similar to be called a new design (?).
With the fuselage looking identical to the 190's which (internal) features/differences did warrant to call it as completely new a design? I would expect it to look completely different.
What benefits would this approach have offered compared to improved D-models and Ta 152s?
 
spicmart said:
The Ta 153 was envisioned as the successor to the Fw 190 and was a completely new design. Yet it looked just like a Dora fuselage with the Ta 152C wing.
To not delay fighter production for too much Kurt Tank proposed to use a more derivative design which would was the Ta 152.
Most of its parts were taken from the Fw 190 for ease of construction and was it essentially a "stretched" 190.

Now I wonder what the Ta 153 was. The wing, is an enlarged 190 wing lengthened at the wing roots and the internal structure should be too similar to be called a new design (?).
With the fuselage looking identical to the 190's which (internal) features/differences did warrant to call it as completely new a design? I would expect it to look completely different.
What benefits would this approach have offered compared to improved D-models and Ta 152s?
Click to expand...

The Ta 153 came first. It started out as the 'Fw 190 D' in 1942 before being renamed 'Ta 153' in mid-1943. Balancing out the Jumo 213 engine needed a longer fuselage than that of the basic 190 and the Ta 153 achieved this extra length with a smooth continuous curve from the rear of the cockpit canopy to the tail fin. It was a completely new fuselage, though it did look very similar to that of the standard 190 - just a bit longer.
During July-August 1943, the Me 209 was in direct competition with the Ta 153 and it was winning - because Messerschmitt insisted that it was only about 50% 'new'. The other half was standard 109 parts. The Ta 153 was about 90% new parts, mostly to suit the all-new fuselage.
Then, in August 1943, Focke-Wulf had the revelation that it could ditch the new fuselage completely by putting a simple 1m insert into a standard 190 fuselage. A new RLM number was then allocated - Ta 152 - and the Ta 153 was cancelled outright. The 152 shared far more parts with the 190 than the 209 shared with the 109 and therefore ended up defeating it. Messerschmitt would then concentrate on the 262 while Focke-Wulf built the last-generation piston engine fighter.
The Ta 153 only existed under that designation for a month or two, although it had existed as the Fw 190 D for much longer beforehand.
Thereafter the Ta 152 became the focus of various other improvements - new tail, new wings, later versions of the Jumo 213 etc. While all this was being done, a stop-gap was needed. This became the Fw 190 D-9 - which stuck to the original basic idea of just taking a 190 and stretching it with an insert.
 
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