Arado Ar-240

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

"The Ar-240. A seemingly good plane, but why isnt it more well known?"



Too many problems, too much development time.


Also, Arado made good planes, but as far as I know, they weren't held that high in Nazi hierarchy, like Heinkel.

And that was the main reason for the Ar-240. It was never accepted and was never developed to its full potential. The Nazi hierarchy prefered Heinkel, Tank, and Messerschmitt's designs and gave them the most attention.

 

[Chocks away!]

well there's a whole lot of relatively unknown german designs that are fascinating nonetheless. I don't see what's so special about the particular aircraft.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

The Arado Ar-234 Blitz was the first aircraft of the world of its type. It was an excellent design and had it been built and used properly it could have made a large impact.

 

[cheddar cheese]

Yes, the Blitz was a great plane. Reasonable payload and armament, fast, good range for a jet of that era.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

but no ammount of numbers could have saved it.............

 

[cheddar cheese]

Probably not. Certainly wouldnt have helped us though...

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

cirtainly not..........

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I dont think it ever would have been built in large numbers, not with the need for more fighters to combat the allied bombers. Fortunatly Hitler did not see this before hand and abandon the ground attack program and get the fighter program into full capacity.

 

[Vahe Demirjian]

I read on Wikipedia that Arado built an improved version of the Ar 240, the Ar 440, which would have had a fuselage stretched by 3 feet and two Daimler-Benz DB 603G engines. Production aircraft would have had 2 DB 627 engines. Just four Ar 440s were built, and the Ar 440 was not ordered into production.

 

[Denniss]

No Ar 440 was ever built, just some conversion of Ar 240 prototypes. Neither DB 603G nor DB 627 went into production so it would have to rely on DB 603E engines.

 

[fubar57]

That's the problem with using Wiki as a source. One of the references was the Schiffer book "Ar 240" and the Ar 440 isn't mentioned. The book "German Aircraft of the Second World War" mentions two prototype Ar 440s using the DB603G but as Denniss says, this engine production never came about. The DB 627 was a prototype DB 603E fitted with a two-stage supercharger and after-cooler