Hi Joy,
>did the germans ever have any 4 engine bombers in service, i mean heavy bombers , the condor could you say it was a heavy bomber , i dont think it can . but could you ? and would it have made a impact like the b-17 b -24 b-29 lanc aster . thanks for your imput
The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 could be considered a heavy bomber, though it was only used in the patrol bomber role (in which the Allies used their heavy bombers, too). It was relatively slow though, and did only have low-altitude rated engines, so it wouldn't have been possible to fly the same missions as with the Heinkel He 111 or the Junkers Ju 88 with the Fw 200.
The great advantage of the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 over the twin-engined types was its long range.
This is typical if you compare four-engined to twin-engined designs ... the B-17 and B-24 of the 8th Air Force carried an average load of 2300 kg per sortie to their targets in Germany and occupied Europe. That's well within the capability of a twin-engined design like the Junkers Ju 88 (see
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/te...ividual-bomb-sizes-makes-9040.html#post267080 ), but the Ju 88 couldn't have flown the same missions since it was not capable of achieving the range required for these missions.
The Luftwaffe's four-engined bomber was the Heinkel He 177 - it had only two propellers, but featured two engines in each of the nacelles. Each engine could be de-coupled from the propeller and be shut down individually in the case of a failure.
However, looking at the numerical strength the Allied bomber arm had to be built up to in order to make a major impact on the German war effort, it's unlikely that the Luftwaffe bombers, which were built in much smaller numbers, could have made a similar impact on the western Allied war effort - especially as for daylight raids, which would have maximized the effect of a small force, it would have been necessary to escort the bombers with long-range fighters and to achieve temporary air superiority over Great Britain.
However, long-range bombers might have proven useful for attacks on strategic targets in the Soviet Union, where resistance probably would have been less intense. Some raids on Soviet power plants were actually considered, but they were never implemented for a variety of reasons.
(Another four-engined bomber of the Luftwaffe was the Ju 288C - the type had been designed as a twin-engined bomber, but when the Jumo 222 engine couldn't deliver the required power the Ju 288 was redesigned to use twin-engine nacelles like the He 177. It was not an exact counterpart to the He 177, though - it was quite a bit smaller and faster.)
Regards,
Henning (HoHun)