German workshops specialized in British & American radial engines?

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Any salvageable parts from downed Allied aircraft were either reused as mentioned above or went to Reichlin or KG200 for keeping their captured allied types in service.

Only briefly, did Messerschmitt consider installing a Merlin into a Bf109 back in May of '42, and it wasn't because of the engine itself, but rather to explore it's cooling system. That notion never got past a brief discussion.

Otherwise, the only "Allied" engines used on German aircraft, would be the Kestral in the Bf109 prototype (V1) and later, a P&W R-1830 in Bf109 V21 (WkNmr 1770) as a potential export version.
 
Otherwise, the only "Allied" engines used on German aircraft, would be the Kestral in the Bf109 prototype (V1)

I suspect you've forgotten to mention it given your extensive knowledge, Dave, but for the peeps out there who aren't aware, the Ju 87 prototype was also powered by a Kestrel, but these were supplied directly by Rolls-Royce before the war rather than being captured in wartime.
 
My two cents.
I would have assumed when an allied four engine bomber goes down in Axis territory, its parts are melted down to make Bf-109s and FW-190s.
I would think the radial engines used on the B-17s and B-24s would not be powerful enough for use on German fighter and two engine bombers.
And if an allied fighter, with it's Merlin (running on 130 or 150 octane) crashes in Axia territory, they would have to detune the Merlin to run on axis 89 octane, which I guess offers no worthwhile advantages over something like the DB605.
The Germans did salvage many wrecks, mainly for aluminum, and had a pretty robust recycling program but the process to recycle aluminum can be a bit complicated as you're going to have to match up material alloys to get the correct material properties without any impurities. Once the aluminum was melted down and depending on the alloy, it could have been made into sheet stock, extrusion, bar stock or forgings and used on a multitude of aircraft.

Salvaging engines to install on an existing airframe is very impractical (as you mentioned) but more from a design and operation standpoint.

Now you have the case of the Junkers 287 - the aircraft used 2 salvaged B-24 nose landing gears.

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I suspect you've forgotten to mention it given your extensive knowledge, Dave, but for the peeps out there who aren't aware, the Ju 87 prototype was also powered by a Kestrel, but these were supplied directly by Rolls-Royce before the war rather than being captured in wartime.
Yes, you're right, Grant - I suppose I was being more focused on the fighter aspect.
 
The Germans did salvage many wrecks, mainly for aluminum, and had a pretty robust recycling program but the process to recycle aluminum can be a bit complicated as you're going to have to match up material alloys to get the correct material properties without any impurities. Once the aluminum was melted down and depending on the alloy, it could have been made into sheet stock, extrusion, bar stock or forgings and used on a multitude of aircraft.

Salvaging engines to install on an existing airframe is very impractical (as you mentioned) but more from a design and operation standpoint.

Now you have the case of the Junkers 287 - the aircraft used 2 salvaged B-24 nose landing gears.

View attachment 685105
That's an interesting bit of info. I never knew B-24 components were used in the Ju-287. I looked it up and it seems like only about a dozen or so of these were built. Were all of them built with "pre-owned" used landing gear? My exhaustive research was a few seconds on Wiki.
 
That's an interesting bit of info. I never knew B-24 components were used in the Ju-287. I looked it up and it seems like only about a dozen or so of these were built. Were all of them built with "pre-owned" used landing gear? My exhaustive research was a few seconds on Wiki.
I'm not sure but I think the prototype was the only one to have B-24 landing gear
 
Only briefly, did Messerschmitt consider installing a Merlin into a Bf109 back in May of '42, and it wasn't because of the engine itself, but rather to explore it's cooling system. That notion never got past a brief discussion.

Otherwise, the only "Allied" engines used on German aircraft, would be the Kestral in the Bf109 prototype (V1) and later, a P&W R-1830 in Bf109 V21 (WkNmr 1770) as a potential export version.
Supermarine Spitfire Messerspit testing.
 
When I started this thread I was thinking about all the civilian airliner-cargo aircraft that ended up in German hands in 1940. I likely falsely assumed the Germans captured more of these aircraft than they did. But clearly planes like the DC-2 & DC-3 were valued and kept flying during the occupation. I'm also curious if the same was true for the Dutch and French types. I have read about the German army network of repair depots that handled beute panzers and I was wondering if something like that existed on the Luftwaffe side. It would be interesting to find what happened to the airline repair facilities in Prague, Paris, Warsaw, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam. Were these taken over by Lufthansa who did a considerable amount of Luftwaffe repair work? Daniel Uziel's book "Arming the Luftwaffe: The German Aviation Industry in World War II" is on my list, but don't yet have it. If anyone can recommend another book I would be grateful.

Outside of the Gnome-Rhône 14 cylinder radial engines, was there another foreign engine used in a series production German aircraft (excluding the Italian aircraft built after September 1943)?
 
When I started this thread I was thinking about all the civilian airliner-cargo aircraft that ended up in German hands in 1940. I likely falsely assumed the Germans captured more of these aircraft than they did. But clearly planes like the DC-2 & DC-3 were valued and kept flying during the occupation. I'm also curious if the same was true for the Dutch and French types. I have read about the German army network of repair depots that handled beute panzers and I was wondering if something like that existed on the Luftwaffe side. It would be interesting to find what happened to the airline repair facilities in Prague, Paris, Warsaw, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam. Were these taken over by Lufthansa who did a considerable amount of Luftwaffe repair work? Daniel Uziel's book "Arming the Luftwaffe: The German Aviation Industry in World War II" is on my list, but don't yet have it. If anyone can recommend another book I would be grateful.

Outside of the Gnome-Rhône 14 cylinder radial engines, was there another foreign engine used in a series production German aircraft (excluding the Italian aircraft built after September 1943)?
 
That's an interesting bit of info. I never knew B-24 components were used in the Ju-287. I looked it up and it seems like only about a dozen or so of these were built. Were all of them built with "pre-owned" used landing gear? My exhaustive research was a few seconds on Wiki.

That first one with the B-24 gear is often quoted as being the first prototype, but in the scheme of things was a concept demonstrator and was not specifically as production examples of what the Ju 287 was gonna be, despite the common designation. The Ju 287V1 had fixed undercarriage for starters and the fuselage of an He 177, as well as the wheels pilfered from a B-24. The Soviets completed the prototypes after secreting the German scientists away, but the aircraft were not a huge success and little was done with them, from what I've read. There are very few photographs of the actual Ju 287s built in Russia, the first one was designated EF 131 with six engines, the only known photograph of it published supplied by a banned forum member:


And the twin engined EF 140, as seen in this post by another thoughtful forum member:


The Ju 287 thread is a good staring point. Ju-287
 

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