Thumpalumpacus
Major
Doing 200 mph across Germany is some hard money to earn in 1943, yeah?
Fast bombers for 1938-42
- Thread starter tomo pauk
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Interesting, we will need to trace this.
It's worth noting that the Henschel Hs 127, a slightly lighter competitor to the Ju 88, made 357mph. It was rejected because of its lighter bomb load but would have made a much better night fighter and likely had the speed to evade allied interception, something the Ju 88 didn't have except in some of the S versions.
The Ju 88A-4 with dive brakes and bomb racks removed had a speed of 311mph. Had the aircraft had a reasonable internal bomb bay it would have been hard to catch by any Hurricane, MS.460 or D.520. (The Ju 88C-6 (heavy fighter based on the Ju 88A-4 had this 500kmh/312mph speed still with the ventral gondola.). Of course it could attack with a bomb load of 28 x 50kg/110lb bombs.
The Gondola probably cost about 6% speed to the A4 about 20mph. The Ju 88S-0 with the same canopy and still with the gondola of the Ju 88A-4 but with a smooth nose and BMW 801 engines managed 335mph and the speed raised to 370 when the gondola was removed.
So a Battle of Britain era Ju 88A1 (which had less power but also less wing area so the same speed as a Ju 88A-4) probably would have had a speed of around 330 mph with the ventral gondala, dive brakes and external bomb racks removed. Enough to evade anything but a Spitfire. It still would have had a dorsal gun and a forward firing gun.
The ideal Ju 88 would have been a mid wing aircraft, with an uninterrupted bomb bay, with a remote controlled armament like the Me 210/410 or Ar 240/440 or remote tail armament.
It would have been as fast as contemporary fighters had its had a two stage supercharged engine.
And nose section more like Ju 188? Stepless cockpits were not new.
Yes Stepless cockpits were used in early Blenheims and latter He 111. In the He 111 a pop up flat glass screen window for landing was available for the pilot for use in poor visibillity.
The Ju 188 stepless cockpit grew out of Ju 288 work. It had been run through a hydrodynamic tank to minimise drag. The stepless Dornier Do 217K and Do 217M needed anti reflective coatings to avoid internal reflections disorienting the pilot and I suspect the Ju 188/388 did the same. I suspect it wasn't entirely successful because the night fighter adaptions of the Arado 234C-7 which had side by side seating and a microwave radar nose extension were still seen as inadequate and a Arado 234P with flat windows was also seen as necessary.
This is the more streamlined Ju 88V1. Note the whole cockpit would need to be moved forward to make it a mid wing layout and receive a full sized bomb bay or the rearward facing crew member eliminated.
'Fast' meaning that their speed is at least 90% and preferably 95+ % of speed of the current fighters. Defensive guns' armament is kept at minimum. Service use is at least by the time of Munich crisis (Autumn 1938), although a new type can enter service by late 1940/early 1941 in order to use the latest aerodynamics, engines (if they make real improvement to justify a switch to a whole new aircraft), strauctures, materials etc. Obvoiusly the development will need to start a few years before service use.
Number of engines does not matter, a country can have several types and sizes of fast bombers suggested. The engines themselves are strictly historical as they are available for a country that is to make the bombers - be it from own production, or, for smaller countries, the engines one can reasonably hope to buy abroad or did so historically. A proper bomb bay is needed, so the fast bomber does not become a slow bomber. Thread includes carrier-capable bombers.
People are encouraged to look beyond Mosquito
Miles M39 Libellula was designed to be a fast long range twin engine bomber carrying a good payload for a medium bomber. It was a Canard design and it's weight and balance was such that many problems associated with shifts in CG when loaded and after the bombs had been dropped went away. According to what I've read the Miles company was tied up in manufacturing large numbers of other aircraft for the RAF and although the prototype showed promise, Miles was told not to pursue development since existing designs were up to the task.
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Ju 88 as Koopernic mentioned certainly had promise and was the fastest bomber in Europe with a useful bomb load in 1940. It also could push hard enough to get away from a pursuing Hurricane - there are combat reports that verify this. It is a bit big though. I guess it depends on what we want to do with our fast bomber. Do we want it to be used strategically, as the Ju 88, He 111 and Do 17 were against European cities, or do we want a fast tactical attack bomber like the Bf 110 was during the Battle of Britain?
