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Well, 600 rounds of modern 20 x 82 ammo is 123kg without links (205 grams per round, mine shells would be a bit lighter) I think a few people at FW were spending a little too much time in the Beer garden at lunch. Actual need for 50 seconds of firing time is pretty slim.and MG 151 with a lot of ammo (up to 600 rds each (!))
Well, you can move the radiators to the rear of the wing like they did on the 109 and 110 when they got rid of the Jumo 210s. Doesn't help the weight but it does help the balance (not entirely).Replacing Ju210s with DB601 adds >150kg/side for just the engine - not including larger radiators, propellers. More powerful engines burn fuel faster - no free lunch to go faster. And there is a balance issue with adding 400kg+ ahead of balance point (Fw.187 prototype already had outer wings pulled forward to correct balance issue (opposite of Me.210's issue)
Well, 600 rounds of modern 20 x 82 ammo is 123kg without links (205 grams per round, mine shells would be a bit lighter) I think a few people at FW were spending a little too much time in the Beer garden at lunch. Actual need for 50 seconds of firing time is pretty slim.
DB 601 engines are the only game in town.
You can stick in more fuel but the existing fuel tanks give less than a 50% increase for DB 601s over the 109.
Dietmar Hermann & Peter Pertrick book compares Fw.187 (V1) with Westland Whirlwind: The Fw.187 has a gross weight within 100kg of the Whirlwind's empty weight. You don't get that light without compromising structural robustness. (There wasn't any technology advancement that allowed massive increase in strength for same weight)
Basically you have a German P-38 without turbos.
Both have 327 sq ft of wing, the P-38 has just under 2ft more wing span and is about 1.5 ft longer.
P-38 was also carrying way too much ammo.
Estimated empty equipped weight for the Fw 187C with DB 605s was 5660kg.
Basic weight for P-38E 5770kg.
Adjust as you see fit for the lighter weight DB 601s and armament. Of course the standard DB 601 engines are going to crap out altitude wise well before the P-38 engines.
The FW 187 may be a bit faster at 5-10,000ft?
P-38E has 1135 liters of internal fuel.
As far as strength goes, I don't know if the Fw 187 was designed for DB 601 engines or not and got the Jumo 210s because of the DB engine shortage or not. First two Bf 110s got DB600 engines? then came the Jumo powered versions. Then came the 110Cs.
I was using the P-38 sort of as a Bench mark. Not a direct P-38 vs Fw 187 comparison. The Whirlwind is too small, wing is 76% of the size and fuselage is smaller than the Fw 187.
P-38 using the same size wing (different airfoil) and close to the same engines is about as good as we are going to get, Italian DB powered twins don't have lot of good data and aren't the right size either.
Unfortunatly the early P-38 data for speed tends to jump for 5,000ft to 20,000ft.
Now lets pick the missions you want it to do. Picking a performance level and then trying to find missions is bit backwards.
The Fw 187 sacrificed and bit too much for the sake of speed and that was one of the reasons the Luftwaffe could justify turning it down. The Cockpit and forward fuselage would not do some of the things they wanted it to do (like night fighter). Maybe they were wrong.
But the competition for the "new" Fw 187 is not the Bf 110. It is the Me 210 (nobody knew how much of a turkey it was in 1939).
The Fw 187 needs at least a slightly bigger cockpit area and it needs more fuel in the wing. Too much fuselage volume is taken up with the main fuel tank.
Maybe you can get the Luftwaffe to drop the bomb bay requirement
and/or the dive bomber requirement (but not if you actually want to sell planes to the Luftwaffe)
Maybe (or no maybe about it) you don't need the whole two remote control MG 131 barbette thing, but you may need something more than a single MG 81 with a rather limited field of fire.
So yes, you can do many of the missions with a smaller, lighter plane.
Me 210 also held about 2500 liters of fuel so.................................
The problem with adding defensive barbettes, is the additional weight imposed by the mechanisms as well as placing that weight aft of the CoG.
The empty equipped weight for the Fw 187 V1 was 2500kg; the Fw 187C s was 5660kg.
I note the 187C has 2 - MG 131s in remote control barbette (same one more/less as Me.210). Defensive guns might add weight but they help with balance issue too.
So. the DB 605s, the MG151s and MG131s have increased weight somewhere over 660kg. But Focke-Wulf has basically doubled the weight of the basic airframe.
Messerschmitt did it in 2 steps - Bf.109B => Bf.109E swaps engines and rebalances by moving radiators; the Bf.109E =>Me.109F replaces the fuselage (largely changes to tail) and wing. There's basically nothing left of original Bf.109B in Me.109F except pilot's seat...
Drop tanks might be a thing before Me.210, but do you have foresight to include plumbing for it in design, logistics to manufacture and supply them. A lot of ideas make perfect sense when you have 1,500hp engines and 20/20 hindsight.
Also, if Focke-Wulf is putting all its efforts into redesigning/manufacturing the Fw.187, they aren't building the Fw.190.
The Germans took forever to get the Barbettes to work right (if ever?). Yes they featured in every bomber "B" and many of the He 177s and few others but mass production seems to have either very late or not at all.Barbettes might be a thing once heavier and longer engines are installed?
Put a step in the cockpit, (drag), install a pair of MG 81s (a bit more drag), cut down the fuselage a bit (less fuel).Best bet seems to forget any upgrade over the backseter's LMG, or even to forget that weapon, too.
He did but they were rather small. Depending on version or drawings 210 or 260 liters in each wing root which is ridiculous compared the fuel in a P-38 wing root.I don't recall if Tank designed the 187 to have fuel cells in the wings