cherry blossom
Senior Airman
- 514
- Apr 23, 2007
Since some "handwavium" powered aircraft such as a 1940 Fw 190 have been considered, it seems relatively plausible to imagine that Messerschmidt in 1937 might have been encouraged to build a bomber that could carry the Olympic Flame from Berlin to Tokyo. Let us assume that his team comes up with something very like his later Me 264 on the timescale of the Me 261's early development. However, whereas the Me 261 development was almost abandoned from August 1939, let us assume that the German Navy has already fallen in love with this early Me 264 and manages to keep development going so that the first prototype flies during the Winter of 1939-40 as planned for the original Tokyo flight.
If the Navy pushes for development to be as fast as possible, is it plausible that a few aircraft can attack ships in the South Atlantic during 1941? Might the idea of attacking the Urals also start to be attractive? Of course, flying to Tokyo is also possible and a Me 264 could carry radar sets or early jet engines.
One issue is engines. Possibly the initial design could use 6 Jumo 211s with the idea of using 4 Jumo 222 A-1s in production. Did the Jumo 222 A-1 with the 135 mm bore actually work beyond passing a 100 hour test? Did it need more tin than could be found for a limited production run? Could Navy demands have stopped Junkers abandoning the A-1 for an "improved" version with the 140 mm bore, which suffered from serious vibrations.
Another issue is whether the Me 264 had good or bad flying characteristics. Various test pilots produced apparently contradictory reports especially on issues such as flutter.
If the Navy pushes for development to be as fast as possible, is it plausible that a few aircraft can attack ships in the South Atlantic during 1941? Might the idea of attacking the Urals also start to be attractive? Of course, flying to Tokyo is also possible and a Me 264 could carry radar sets or early jet engines.
One issue is engines. Possibly the initial design could use 6 Jumo 211s with the idea of using 4 Jumo 222 A-1s in production. Did the Jumo 222 A-1 with the 135 mm bore actually work beyond passing a 100 hour test? Did it need more tin than could be found for a limited production run? Could Navy demands have stopped Junkers abandoning the A-1 for an "improved" version with the 140 mm bore, which suffered from serious vibrations.
Another issue is whether the Me 264 had good or bad flying characteristics. Various test pilots produced apparently contradictory reports especially on issues such as flutter.
