Developed from the Focke-Wulf  FW 190, the Ta 152 was designed as a high altitude, high speed day fighter / interceptor. The design team, headed by Kurt Tank inspired the prefix in the name ‘’Ta’’. Though the resulting fighter certainly achieved the status of being one of the best fighter aircraft of WW II, it arrived late in the battle and in too few numbers to affect the eventual outcome. Also, in the late stages of the air war over Europe, there remained an ever diminishing number of experienced and well trained pilots that could take full advantage of this top of the line fighter.  Fuel had become such a scarce commodity to the German airforce by late war, that hours of flight training had been curtailed to such a great extent that debutant fliers were thrust prematurely into action against highly trained and experienced Allied fighters -- and the results were predictable. In the hands of one of the older ‘experten’ the Ta 152 was a very dangerous foe armed with a 30mm engine-mounted cannon and four 20mm MG 151/20 wing-mounted cannons.