Focke - Wulf Fw 189 The Focke - Wulf Fw 189 " Uhu " ( " Eagle Owl " ) was a German twin - engine , twin - boom , three - seat tactical reconnaissance and army cooperation aircraft . It first flew in 1938 ( Fw 189 V1 ) , entered service in 1940 , and was produced until mid - 1944 . This should not be confused with the Heinkel He 219 night fighter also named " Uhu " . Design and development . In 1937 , the German Ministry of Aviation issued a specification for a short - range , three - seat reconnaissance aircraft with a good all - round view to support the German army in the field , replacing the Henschel Hs 126 , which had just entered service . A power of about 850 – 900 hp ( 630 – 670 kW ) was specified . The specification was issued to Arado and Focke - Wulf . Arado ' s design , the Ar 198 , which was initially the preferred option , was a relatively conventional single - engined high - wing monoplane with a glazed gondola under the fuselage . Focke - Wulf ' s chief designer Kurt Tank ' s design , the Focke - Wulf Fw 189 was a twin - boom design , powered by two Argus As 410 engines rather than the expected single engine and a central crew gondola designed with a heavily glazed and framed " stepless " cockpit forward section , which used no separate windscreen panels for the pilot ( as with many German medium bombers ) , while Blohm & Voss proposed as a private venture something even more radical : chief designer Dr . Richard Vogt ' s unique asymmetric BV 141 . Orders were placed for three prototypes each of the Arado and Focke - Wulf designs in April 1937 . The Fw 189 was produced in large numbers , at the Focke - Wulf factory in Bremen , at the Bordeaux - Merignac aircraft factory ( now the Dassault Mirage plant ) in occupied France , then in the Aero Vodochody aircraft factory in Prague , occupied Czechoslovakia . Total production was 864 aircraft of all variants . Operational history . Called the " Flying Eye " of the German army , the Fw 189 was used extensively on the Eastern Front with great success . Its Russian nickname was " " Rama " " ( Frame ) , referring to its distinctive tailboom and stabilizer shapes giving it the characteristic quadrangular appearance . Despite its slow speed and fragile looks , the Fw 189 ' s maneuverability made it a difficult target for attacking Russian fighter s . When attacked , the Fw 189 was often able to out - turn attacking fighters by simply flying in a tight circle into which enemy fighters could not follow . Variants . The main production model was the Fw 189A reconnaissance plane , built mostly in two variants , the A - 1 and A - 2 . Unless otherwise stated all aircraft were powered by two Argus As 410 engines of 465 PS ( 459 hp , 342 kW ) . The Fw 189B was a five - seat training aircraft ; only 13 were built . The Fw 189C was conceived as a heavily - armoured ground - attack , close - support variant , but its two prototypes ( V1b and V6 ) were not satisfactory , and it was not produced . Survivors . One Fw 189 survives today . Its story starts on May 4 , 1943 when Fw 189 V7 + IH ( Werk Nr . 2100 ) , of 1 / " Nahaufklärungsgruppe 10 " , with V7 originally the " Geschwaderkennung " code for Heeres - Aufklärungsgruppe 32 ) based at Pontsalenjoki ( due east of Kuusamo , and within the south - central area of modern Russia ' s Republic of Karelia ) took off on a mission to photograph the Loukhi - 3 airbase from an altitude of , then to continue north along the Murmansk - Leningrad railway . Approximately 31 minutes after taking off , V7 + IH was attacked by Lend - Lease - acquired Soviet Hawker Hurricane fighters . The aircraft dived to escape the fighters , but owing to damage already suffered , could not pull out in time , and it struck the treetops . The tail was torn off , and the crew nacelle left hanging upside down within the trees . The pilot , Lothar Mothes , survived but one crewman was killed in the crash and the third died from blood loss as a result of a severed leg . Incredibly , Mothes was able to survive two weeks in sub - zero temperatures , evading Soviet patrols while eating bark and grubs as he walked back to his base . Mothes spent the next nine months in a hospital recovering from severe frostbite before returning to the front lines to eventually fly another 100 missions . In 1991 , the wreckage of V7 + IH was found in the Russian forest where it had remained for 48 years . The aircraft was purchased by a group of British aircraft enthusiasts and was shipped to the UK , arriving in the town of Worthing , West Sussex in March 1992 . The Focke Wulf 189 Restoration Society was formed to restore the aircraft to flying condition . Her pilot met up again with his aircraft in 1996 at Biggin Hill airshow . It has been reported that this aircraft has recently been acquired by Paul Allen ’ s Flying Heritage Collection .