pressurized
Recruit
- 5
- Dec 13, 2009
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Wrong my friend. Siegfried Gunter used the coupled configuration to reduce frontal area and therby reduce overall drag. He felt that the combination of four engines driving two propellers would result in greatly improved performance. The RLM shortsidedly added the dive bombing role only after the initial design was conceived, thereby adding weight and complexity to the design. The crippling problem of engine fires was mainly caused by the close proximity of the two engines, and was exacerbated by the fact that the external oil cooler lines were run between the two cylinder blocks. The added heat did not help, but when a line ruptured,the fire was usually catastrophic.The whole reason behind the coupled engines was to allow the aircraft to be perform Dive Bombing duties.
Wrong my friend. Siegfried Gunter used the coupled configuration to reduce frontal area and therby reduce overall drag. He felt that the combination of four engines driving two propellers would result in greatly improved performance. The RLM shortsidedly added the dive bombing role only after the initial design was conceived, thereby adding weight and complexity to the design. The crippling problem of engine fires was mainly caused by the close proximity of the two engines, and was exacerbated by the fact that the external oil cooler lines were run between the two cylinder blocks. The added heat did not help, but when a line ruptured,the fire was usually catastrophic.
Wrong my friend. Siegfried Gunter used the coupled configuration to reduce frontal area and therby reduce overall drag. He felt that the combination of four engines driving two propellers would result in greatly improved performance. The RLM shortsidedly added the dive bombing role only after the initial design was conceived, thereby adding weight and complexity to the design. The crippling problem of engine fires was mainly caused by the close proximity of the two engines, and was exacerbated by the fact that the external oil cooler lines were run between the two cylinder blocks. The added heat did not help, but when a line ruptured,the fire was usually catastrophic.
Heinkel was basically, by matters of circumstance, attempting to do what Roy Chadwick had ALREADY done with the seriously deficient Avro Manchester in comverting IT into the all-conquering Lancaster heavy bomber...but Heinkel wasn't allowed to do it, by creating the Berta-series He 177B, until some 30-plus moths after Chadwick had given the Manchester a quartet of smooth-running Merlins, and a bit more wingspan, in creating the Lancaster.
All the while, amazingly enough until the late summer of 1942, Fat Hermann HAD thought that the He 177A WAS a truly four engined heavy bomber...and when he had found out about the "power system" format, twinned-up DB 601 pairs of engines (as the DB 606, of course) in each of the 177A's two nacelles, he IMMEDIATELY deemed them to be "welded-together engines", and demanded that a full-blown "truly four engined" new version of the He 177 be created that DID abandon the "coupled" engine format of the A-series. By September of 1942, Goering had not only rescinded the diving attack demands of the "Stuka-dummkopfen" at the RLM, but Heinkel had started the design of what was ALWAYS called the He 177B, using four independent DB 603 powerplants, with each one residing behind the very same annular radiator that his firm had already created for that firm's Heinkel He 219 night fighter.
So, "there you have it"...the He 277 was NEVER completed past a few parts, but there WERE...FOUR...He 177B prototype aircraft approved, and the first three of those were built and FLOWN...and NONE, of those aircraft EVER bore the "He 277" monicker at any time, FOR REAL, which is what the post-war aviation book "urban legend" WOULD have us believing...and I'm very glad to have a copy of it.
Wrong my friend. Siegfried Gunter used the coupled configuration to reduce frontal area and therby reduce overall drag. He felt that the combination of four engines driving two propellers would result in greatly improved performance. The RLM shortsidedly added the dive bombing role only after the initial design was conceived, thereby adding weight and complexity to the design. The crippling problem of engine fires was mainly caused by the close proximity of the two engines, and was exacerbated by the fact that the external oil cooler lines were run between the two cylinder blocks. The added heat did not help, but when a line ruptured,the fire was usually catastrophic.
Dear DerAdleristGelandet Njaco:
The PIPE Here again...it's at page 53 of the Griehl-Dressel book on the Gruesome Griffin that the mention of ol'Fat Hermann THINKING that the Griffin WAS actually a "seperately engined" four-engined heavy, with the folliwing text in the book...
The first flights of the He 177B prototypes occurred between late December 1943 and early January 1944 in the vicinity of the Vienna-Schwechat airfield, at Heinkel's southern production facility, where an additional prototype, the V104, whose purpose was to be the "finalized" production prototype for the He 177 B-5, was being completed by order from the RLM, converted from an early production He 177 A-5.
However, from late April through July 1944, repeated Fifteenth Air Force bombing raids on German aircraft production facilities in Vienna destroyed the airworthy V103 and the incomplete V104, setting back any plans of producing He 177 B-5. The adoption of the Emergency Fighter Program dealt the final blow to the entire He 177B development program, with the Heinkel He 162 jet fighter being the only new Heinkel aircraft design that would be allowed into production."[/COLOR][/SIZE]
So, "there you have it"...the He 277 was NEVER completed past a few parts, but there WERE...FOUR...He 177B prototype aircraft approved, and the first three of those were built and FLOWN...and NONE, of those aircraft EVER bore the "He 277" monicker at any time, FOR REAL, which is what the post-war aviation book "urban legend" WOULD have us believing...and I'm very glad to have a copy of it.
Thank You and Yours Sincerely,
The PIPE...!
If true then why didn't RLM just continue funding Ju-89 / Ju-90 / Ju-290 development? The Ju-90 was powered by 4 x 820 hp BMW132 radial engines. Replace them with 4 x 1,200 hp Jumo211 V12 engines and you've got a decent heavy bomber ready for mass production by 1940.RLM asked Heinkel to prepare four H-177 B aircraft in late November 1938 as an insurance policy against failure of the tandem DB606 engine from the he-177A. RLM specified the He-177B to be fitted with four Jumo 211 engines each comparable to a DB601 in power.
If true then why didn't RLM just continue funding Ju-89 / Ju-90 / Ju-290 development? The Ju-90 was powered by 4 x 820 hp BMW132 radial engines. Replace them with 4 x 1,200 hp Jumo211 V12 engines and you've got a decent heavy bomber ready for mass production by 1940.
The Ju-89 was a heavy bomber. The Ju-90 would still be a heavy bomber (rather then the historical wide body airliner) if RLM had continued funding for the Ural Bomber program.The Ju 90 was a little dated aerodynamically, being a wide body JU 89 bomber for the most part.
I agree. However that makes no difference as historically 1930s Germany was committed to building heavy bombers. So why not proceed with the Ural Bomber program rather then building a He-177 variant powered by 4 x Jumo 211 engines?You could build two medium bombers for every 4 engine heavy and the Germans couldn't build enough aircraft as it was.