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Why?
2,000hp DB605D engine has just entered mass production. You would be hard pressed to find a piston engine with a better power to weight ratio during early 1945. Production cost was relatively cheap too. One could argue it would be better for Fw-190 / Ta-152 airframe then the much heavier Jumo 213 engine which required a longer nose plus rear fuselage extension.
Why?
2,000hp DB605D engine has just entered mass production. You would be hard pressed to find a piston engine with a better power to weight ratio during early 1945. Production cost was relatively cheap too. One could argue it would be better for Fw-190 / Ta-152 airframe then the much heavier Jumo 213 engine which required a longer nose plus rear fuselage extension.
Well, I'm interested in WWII aircrafts since around 40 years and during the time I read hundreds of related books and magazines but never found any hint concerning lack of propellers during the war. There was no reason because no material shortage and the VDM or Schwartz production companies were never heavily bombed. Sure the transport to the units was hindered by strafing planes a lot but Germany had and has a very tight railroad net and when one route was blocked there was always a maybe longer alternative track. Mr. GreP made this claim several times in the past, so I asked in a very credible German forum LBB « Luftwaffe Bullet Board » Forum zur deutschen LuftfahrtgeschichteHow about both of you post your sources, instead of playing a tit for tat game.
I would especially like to hear about a prop shortage. I have not read about it "too many" times...
1) The DB605 had reached the end of its development/power potential with the D series. There was far more growth potential with the Jumo 213 and its more direct equivalent the DB 603 series, both of which were considered to be more reliable than the DB 605.
2) The DB 605 was only used in the 109. No sense in building one engine type for one aircraft type when both were at the end of their development lives without a great deal of work.
I think you are wrong there. The DB 605 was way more reliable than the other two.There was far more growth potential with the Jumo 213 and its more direct equivalent the DB 603 series, both of which were considered to be more reliable than the DB 605.
I think you are wrong there. The DB 605 was way more reliable than the other two.
Kris
What does this mid 1943 report have to do with DB605 engines produced after teething problems were fixed?
Have you got any report stating that the "teething problems" were fixed and that Petrick Mankau's conclusion that the RLM regarded the 605 as a sick engine, which remained problematic to the end of the war, is wrong? Note that even the 1943 extract was written some 18 months after the DB 605 was first introduced, which means that it should have been well past "teething problems".
It's funny detractors always choose the last "problematic" report, but forget of papers mentioning the fix. The lubrication teething troubles of the DB 605 were fixed in the summer/automn of 1943. Mankau's book also reports this, but this has been missed by Aozora, unfortunately... the transprict of the relevant GL meeting has been transcribed full in kurfurst seite.
Kurfürst - Transcript of Generalluftzeugmeister meeting on 7th September, 1943.
BTW if anyone reads Mankau book, there is lot of reference and talks to DB 605 issues before September 1943 in GL meetings. Then afterwards - they cease.
Bottomline - even though the early 605 did not reach the robustness of for example, Jumo engines, it was quite sufficiently reliable even when introduced.
That's much better than early BMW 801s, or that achieved Napier Sabres achieved, like ever. The latter did not seem to last more than 20 hours even at the height of their "reliability" record.
Aozora needs to bring strong evidence to his claims into discussion to even be considered.
By 1945, DB 605 series was producing 2000 HP, and they still saw potential for ca. 2300 HP in immidiate future. Two stage superchargers were developed for them,...
...which gave outstanding (better even than Griffon 65 for exampe, which was the best of operational Allied V-12 altitude engines) altitude performance.
and most of all an oil slinger to eliminate foaming.