The mysterious ‘swoosh’ by Giampiero Piva
In the second half of 1944, the use of the new RLM 81 and 82 colours began to become widespread in production, alongside the practice of leaving the undersides of the wings partially in bare metal. On a number of Fw 190s - both short and long-noses - a section of the fuselage also appears to be painted in a darker shade than RLM 76, perhaps RLM 75, which generally extends beneath the fuselage itself. There is no certainty regarding the purpose of this ‘swoosh’, as British and American experts and researchers call it; there are only many hypotheses. Finally, it should be noted that it is present on both the FW 190 A/F/G (photo 1) and the FW 190 D (photo 2).
