Submarines and their Weapons - Aircraft of World War II

JET AIRCRAFT
engined bombers do. The Luftwaffe, we may recall,
was intended as a tactical, rather than a strategic, air
force, unlike the USAAF and the RAF, and it never
operated really large, long-range bomber aircraft, like
the American B-17 Flying Fortress or B-24 Liberator,
or the British Lancaster, in any substantial numbers. It
had aircraft, like the Focke-Wulf FW 200 'Condor'
and the Junkers Ju 290 (though the former was
designed as a civilian airliner and the latter was a
hasty transformation of another), which were capable
of flying very long distances, but these were intended
primarily for ultra-long-range maritime reconnaissance,
and while they did carry bombs (and variants
of both carried glider bombs), they were unsuitable
for use in combat conditions. Thus, when the USA
declared war on Germany in December 1941, the
Luftwaffe found itself without the means of attacking
its new-found enemy, and the RLM immediately
issued a specification for a suitable aircraft.
Three companies responded: Focke-Wulf with the
Ta 400; Messerschmitt with the Me 264; and Junkers
with the Ju 390. The Ta 400 was never built; the latter,
which was little more than a Ju 290 stretched in
wings and fuselage with two more engines, was reasonably
straightforward, and the first prototype flew
in August 1943. The second protype had a still longer
fuselage and carried FuG 200 Hohentweil search
radar and five 20mm cannon. On a test flight from
Mont de Marsan on the Atlantic coast of France, near
Bordeaux, it once approached to within 20km (12.4
miles) of New York before returning safely to base,
thus validating the operational concept. A third prototype,
this time a version able to carry 1800kg (39701b)
of bombs, was begun but never completed.
In fact, certain individuals at the RLM had begun
to contemplate the possibility of bombing New York
long before the United States entered the war, and
Willy Messerschmitt for one had begun to think about
a design for a suitable aircraft. His company was thus
well placed to satisfy the requirement when it was
issued in December 1941, and the prototype Me 264
made its first flight just 12 months later. With enough
fuel to reach New York and return safely (a flight of
anything up to 30 hours!), it could carry 3000kg
(66001b) of bombs, and still had enough capacity to
carry 1000kg (22001b) of armour plating. It had two
complete three-man crews with a sleeping area and
galley, and an elaborate defensive armament of four
13mm machine guns and two 20mm cannon. Under
overload conditions, the aircraft could be fitted with
up to six solid fuel rockets to assist it to take off. A
3 n
bewildering array of variants and variations were suggested,
including one to tow an Me 328 glider fighter
for protection, and another which would have been
the flying testbed for a steam turbine powerplant. Two
prototypes were begun; the first was destroyed in an
air raid just as it was about to begin ground tests, but
the second was completed and flew, being allocated to
Transportstaffel 5, which operated other large aircraft
types in the transport role. A version with greater
wingspan and six engines was contemplated, but
never produced. Thus the first round of the 'Amerikabomber'
contest made no more than a token impact,
but there was to be a second, as we shall see.
THE '3x1000' BOMBERS
Focke-Wulf, which produced the best German pistonengined
single-seater fighter-bomber of the war, the
Fw 190, had a genius in its Technical Director, Kurt
Tank, but a very conservative one. As a result, the
company was a latecomer to jet propulsion; too late,
indeed, to see any Focke-Wulf jet fly in other than
prototype form. One of those jets - the Fw Ta 183
(qv) - was to prove to be very influential indeed to
post-war development. In 1943, however, the company
did produce a series of designs to an in-house
requirement known as '3x1000' for an aircraft to
deliver a 1000kg (22001b) bombload to a target
1000km (620 miles) away at a speed of 1000km/h
(620mph). The first two designs had swept wings, one
of variable chord and one of fixed chord, and a conventional
tail assembly, but the third, which was much
more radical in nature, was for a tailless 'flying wing',
and shows very clearly the influence of Alexander
Lippisch, who acted as a consultant to Tank from time
to time. None of the designs was ever realised.
Messerschmitt proposed a design to meet the same
requirement, the P. 1107, which had moderately
swept-back wings and a butterfly tail. Two basically
similar designs were projected, the second of them
with much greater range, but neither was realised.
THE HORTEN BROTHERS
The second of those two aircraft, the P. 1107B, would
probably never have had trans-Atlantic range, but during
the plan's currency the prospect of bombing the
United States - which was now heavily involved in
the war against Germany, on the ground in Italy and
in the air from bases in the UK - reared up again.
Once again, design proposals for an appropriate aircraft
were solicited; this time a very different profile
emerged, and one which shows just how far aerody-