Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules
A Condor did not have the range to fly to the United States even one way. The Fw 200 had a ferry range of 4,440 km (2,760 mi) and that was loaded with fuel and no bomb. From France to the East Coast of the US is over 3000 mi. It would not make it.
THE GERMANY BOMBER
May I ask You about Your thoughts regarding the Lancaster and B29 successors? They have been not that frequently covered here. How much could be produced ( in which timeframe) and deployed? Did their strategic concept of transatlantic raids was sound? What do You think of them technically and how could they look in 1946 (assuming all nations uses neither nuclear, chemical or biological bombs). What is Your estimation about their potential performance?
Thanks in advance,
delc
Chris - I think the Fw200 flew diplomatic pouches and a couple of passengers from Lisbon to Montevideo during WWII - what is that range?
As a follow-on to the Amerika Bombers program, I also saw another about 1950's US Air Force plans to use an atomic-powered stategic bomber. I don't remember the experimental model name it was given, but this thing was huge. It looked like a B-36 on steroids. The concept was to design a SAC airframe that could loiter on station indefinitely way up north as a deterrent to the Soviet threat. The sheer weight alone from all of the lead plating to shield the crew from radiation in addition to the reactor... man... that's a lot of sheet metal. I suppose that the US Navy wanted one, as well, and had contracted out with the British to build a sea-plane powered by a reactor. In the end, Ike killed all of this and went with the nuclear-powered submarine fleet. I suppose the 1950's was an exciting time in aviation with all of the stuff that was being concocted, but I can see that most of this stuff was a by-product of Nazi Germany's war effort
Chris - I think the Fw200 flew diplomatic pouches and a couple of passengers from Lisbon to Montevideo during WWII - what is that range?
Chris - I think the Fw200 flew diplomatic pouches and a couple of passengers from Lisbon to Montevideo during WWII - what is that range?
Do you know the route used, and what stops were made?
Aircraft had been flying to South America from Europe since the 1920s, stopping over at the Canaries and Cape Verde islands. The longest hop on that route is from the Cape Verde islands to Brazil, about 1600 - 1700 miles.
Blue skies! -- Dan FordOn December 5, 1929, Germany launched an airmail route to compete with Aeropostale, flying mail from Germany, through Seville, Spain, to the port of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. German ships would pick up the seaplanes by crane, refuel them, then launch them again by catapult. On the other side of the Atlantic, other German fuel ships would sit at anchor. When the German airmail seaplanes landed near the ships, they would refuel and be launched again by catapult to fly into South America, where German immigrants had started continental airmail service
The Centennial of Flight website claims that the planes were re-launched by catapult, but my recollection is otherwise: I thought they were flying boats, and that they took off as they had landed.
Blue skies! -- Dan Ford
A Condor did not have the range to fly to the United States even one way. The Fw 200 had a ferry range of 4,440 km (2,760 mi) and that was loaded with fuel and no bomb. From France to the East Coast of the US is over 3000 mi. It would not make it.
Have to disagree:-
Fw 200 was the very first airplane to fly non-stop between Berlin and New York making the journey on August 10, 1938 in 24 hours and 56 minutes. The return trip on August 13 1938 took only 19 hours and 47 minutes.
Fw 200V1 was kitted out with auxilary fuel tanks enabling it to cover distances of 6000km.
Exactly. No Fw 200 with a bomb load is going to fly across the atlantic with landing to refuel.