When I say "never" I mean "never in a meaningful way". In other words, had the D never flown any at all, what difference would there have been? None. The D's contribution to ground attack was less than its contribution to air attack, which was itself minor in the grand scheme.
The A on the other hand was a major factor in the air and on the ground for most of the war.





The Jedi Master

Yes, it's only to aviation enthusiasts that some airplanes are important. I agree that the "D" model of the FW-190 had no meaningful effect on the course of the war, while the "A" most certainly did.
Had the Focke-Wulf never flown, I think that you could make a good argument for the possibilty that there would never have been a Spitfire MK9, arguably the most important model of the series. And, some pilots say, the best. It was rushed into service to counter the new, radial engined fighters that were wresting control of the air from the R.A.F. While it was supposed to be a stop gap version until later models made it to the front, it wound up serving for the rest of the war. It was the early marks of the Focke Wulf that gave the airplane its fearsome reputation.

I agree the Fw-190A's models would fit the bill perfect, but really so would any late model G from the Bf-109 series. But I sure hope it's an Fw-190 if this route is taken and not something over the top like a Me-262, Ta-152 or Do-335.

I'm not sure that I would call the development of the D series as non important. The Dora version was developed as a direct response to the primary weakness of the BMW 801 powered A models. At higher altitudes the A4-A8 had a significant decrease in performance and would have been eaten alive by high altitude fighters like the P-51 and P-47. I agree that the D model didn't have the impact that the A3 did when it was introduced in 1942. It came as a complete shock to the British and they didn't really have an effective response to the aircraft until the Spitfire IX. But the D9 gave the Luftwaffe something of a shot at the bomber streams without the risk of a dropoff in performance that the A series or the sapping of performance that occured when you had to upgun the Bf109s to counter the bombers.

If you are going to have a competition between aircraft, to me the D9 is probably the best aircraft to go up against the P-51D. The 109K4 would be another great aircraft to go against the Mustang. The A8 and 109G6 would be overmatched IMHO, especially at higher altitudes. No one would fly them against the P-51.

Maybe, "important" wasn't the corrct word. "History Changing" airplanes. Aircraft that, in some way, actually effected the outcome of the war and it's battles. Airplanes that caused a change in tactics, airplanes that effected the way the enemy had to fight.
Spitfire, of course. The Zero, the Mustang. The Lancaster and B-17. And, naturally, the B-29, the airplane that brought the war to the Japanese people, and, ulimately, the Atomic Bomb.
I think that, using these criteria, the "A" makes the cut and not the later long nosed versions of the FW-190.

Of course if you're talking dogfighting parity, that's a whole other ball game.
However, the D9 did indeed seem to be a "Mustang counter" more than the A model which was developed far before the Mustang was known to the German pilots. That's why I think the A is more interesting. It has more armor and firepower than a Mustang, but it's not as good up high. So it's the differences in their performance and who can capitalize on their strengths more and play against the other's weaknesses best that makes the determination who wins.
A D9/51D matchup is far closer and IMO only a step removed from simply having two 51Ds dogfight.



The Jedi Master

A developer note written by the lead FM developer on the subject of the Merlin engine:

http://forum.lockon.ru/showpost.php?p=1436727&postcount=1

Robin: "Holy resurrection Batman! Da Pilot is Back !!- and he also has a map on his left leg !! ... Is this the information we are searching for? - does this map show us where the evil Joker has his hideout!?
- Dammit ! I wish we had a better view on this !"

Batman: " Don't worry Robin! I'm already calling EagleDynamics with my absolute ridiculous looking red Toy- *ahmm*... Bat-phone to give us a better look from different angles ! "

>>> http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=1437389#post1437389

Second developer's note on the variable pitch propeller:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1441842&postcount=92

The Flight manual for the soon to be released P-51 Mustang has been released.

http://files.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/178850/

Nate