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Nearly four years after Heinkel had unsuccessfully requested that two of the prototype He 177 V-series airframes be built with four individual powerplants, the RLM's requirement that the He 177 perform diving attacks was finally rescinded by Göring himself in September 1942,[8] and with that, Heinkel's design work on the pair of "separately" four-engined versions of the He 177A, the A-8 and A-10, collectively renamed the He 177B in August 1943, was then able to progress.
By August 1943 much of the detail work for the He 177B series aircraft was well on its way to completion, and Erhard Milch eagerly approved the creation[34]
Because flight testing had shown the 177A-style single-tailed V101 prototype having increasingly serious stability problems with higher airspeeds, the second prototype, the V102, was both the first He 177B example to fly, on 20 December 1943, with the quartet of DB 603 engines, in combination with a brand-new empennage of twin tail configuration, fitted to it during the early autumn of 1943.
The first flights of the He 177B prototypes, starting with the He 177 V102 on 20 December 1943, occurred between late December 1943 and early January 1944 in the vicinity of the Vienna-Schwechat airfield, at the firm's Heinkel-Süd southern production facility. An additional prototype, the V104, whose purpose was to be the "finalized" production prototype for the He 177B-5, and also meant to be a twin tailed prototype like the earlier V102, was being completed there by order from the RLM, converted from an early production He 177 A-5.[35]
Nearly four years after Heinkel had unsuccessfully requested that two of the prototype He 177 V-series airframes be built with four individual powerplants, the RLM's requirement that the He 177 perform diving attacks was finally rescinded by Göring himself in September 1942,[8] and with that, Heinkel's design work on the pair of "separately" four-engined versions of the He 177A, the A-8 and A-10, collectively renamed the He 177B in August 1943, was then able to progress.
It took just SIX WEEKS to convert a Manchester I air frame and wings to the Manchester III/Lancaster prototype (BT308 ) which flew on 9th January 1941.
It was a longer haul to a production Lancaster but this somewhat refutes the idea that it was a terribly difficult conversion from 2 to 4 engines. The first three Lancasters were delivered to No.44 Squadron on Xmas eve 1941. From conversion to 4 engines to delivery into service took just under ONE YEAR. It could be done, but not by the RLM/Luftwaffe.
Cheers
Steve
I was under the impression that very early on he told the RLM that the He-177 would never be capable of dive-bombing...Ernst Heinkel complained that Luftwaffe and RLM officers continued to talk about dive bombing even after rescindment of the drive bombing requirement.
What loads were they to be stressed to?Heinkel certainly made their own mistakes, such as the stress calculation mistakes in the wing.
So it could be six months to change the Warwick from 2 unobtainable engines to four production ones?
Ernst Heinkel had anticipated the engine issues and asked for permission to develop a 4 engine version as early as 1939.