Unidentified four-engine aircraft

[Vahe Demirjian]

I found this photo at the LuftArchive link regarding the Heinkel He 177 and it appears to show a wrecked four-engine aircraft. The website identifies it as an "He 177 B-0, blown up in the Czech Republic", but it's unclear if it's the first He 177B prototype or another four-engine aircraft because the He 177B prototypes used Daimler Benz DB 603s with 3-blade propellers, and the piston engines in the photo have four propeller blades, making them look similar to the Junkers Jumo 211.

 

[Graeme]

Have a look here....

The urban legend of the "He 277" being a "cover designation". It REALLY existed!

 

[stona]

I found this photo at the LuftArchive link regarding the Heinkel He 177 and it appears to show a wrecked four-engine aircraft. The website identifies it as an "He 177 B-0, blown up in the Czech Republic", but it's unclear if it's the first He 177B prototype or another four-engine aircraft because the He 177B prototypes used Daimler Benz DB 603s with 3-blade propellers, and the piston engines in the photo have four propeller blades, making them look similar to the Junkers Jumo 211.

View attachment 564347

The photograph is of the remains of the He 177 V101, taken at Cheb in what was then Czechoslovakia.

It is not an He 277. It had been fitted by Flugzeugwerke Eger with four Jumo 222 engines driving four bladed propellers (obvious in the image). It is likely that this was done as part of the Ju 277 development programme.

This aircraft (W.Nr. 5550) had originally been converted as a prototype for the He 177 B-5. It was converted from a standard A-3 with four DB 603 A engines. These did indeed drive three blade propellers. There is a series of three good photographs of it in this guise, probably taken in December 1943, with the code NE+OD clearly visible.

 

[Vahe Demirjian]

The photograph is of the remains of the He 177 V101, taken at Cheb in what was then Czechoslovakia.

It is not an He 277. It had been fitted by Flugzeugwerke Eger with four Jumo 222 engines driving four bladed propellers (obvious in the image). It is likely that this was done as part of the Ju 277 development programme.

This aircraft (W.Nr. 5550) had originally been converted as a prototype for the He 177 B-5. It was converted from a standard A-3 with four DB 603 A engines. These did indeed drive three blade propellers. There is a series of three good photographs of it in this guise, probably taken in December 1943, with the code NE+OD clearly visible.

We all know that the He 177 V101 was the first He 177B prototype and that the He 277 was a different plane than the He 177B, but all historical records make no mention of the He 177B V101 being fitted with Jumo 222s. Photos of the He 177B V101 at Cheb only show He 219-pattern Kraftei nacelles, with twin exhaust stack sets fitted per nacelle as with He 219, and hinged upper-flank nacelle panels identical in outline to those on an He 219 Kraftei nacelle, which is totally incongruent with the description of the exhaust stacks of the Jumo 222.

 

[fubar57]

The last known official accounts of the whereabouts of the two He 177B prototypes that escaped heavy bombing had the V101 still at the Heinkel-Süd plant's airfield at Schwechat near Vienna, and the V102 also there at Schwechat as late as February 1945, after damage sustained from a bad landing in April 1944 while evading one of the initial USAAF 15th Air Force raids on the area, which had kept it from being flown north to Luftwaffe's well-known central Erprobungstelle test facility at Rechlin for safety.[41] It is possible, from some accounts, that the V101 prototype might have survived until at least February 1945 (as the V102 had) before it was scrapped, as at least a pair of photos of what is stated as the wrecked V101 place it at Cheb in May 1945, and allegedly showing that the V101 had even been test-fitted with a quartet of Junkers Jumo 222 engines, if verified, would conflict with Heinkel records as to the V101 having been scrapped. One of the Czech photographs,[42] does show what is thought to be the V101 with four bladed propellers instead of its earlier three-blade units used with its four DB 603 engines, a combination of prop type and powerplant also used for the Fw 190C fighter prototype, and on closer examination the forward areas of the V101 engine nacelles' hinged upper cowling access panels themselves just behind the annular radiators as revealed in the Czech photos appear to be very close in appearance, and especially from their outlines — as possible Kraftei unitized engine installations — to those used on the He 219 night fighter.,[43] whose own earlier prototypes also used four-blade propellers on their DB 603 powerplants.[44]

Heinkel He 177​

 

[Vahe Demirjian]

The photograph is of the remains of the He 177 V101, taken at Cheb in what was then Czechoslovakia.

It is not an He 277. It had been fitted by Flugzeugwerke Eger with four Jumo 222 engines driving four bladed propellers (obvious in the image). It is likely that this was done as part of the Ju 277 development programme.

This aircraft (W.Nr. 5550) had originally been converted as a prototype for the He 177 B-5. It was converted from a standard A-3 with four DB 603 A engines. These did indeed drive three blade propellers. There is a series of three good photographs of it in this guise, probably taken in December 1943, with the code NE+OD clearly visible.

As noted on Wikipedia, the "NE+Ox" code block was apparently used for a number of Heinkel He 177A-3 aircraft. It's therefore possible that the side view of He 177B V101 was partly doctored to alter the code to NE+OD because the first He 177B prototype was converted from an He 177A-3. Also, the four-blade props fitted to the He 177B V101 at the time it was destroyed by the Germans at Cheb, despite being similar to those driven by Jumo 222s, actually were driven by DB 603s because the engine nacelles in photos of V101 at Cheb had twin exhaust stack sets fitted and hinged upper-flank nacelle panels as seen on the first five He 219 prototypes and the Fw 190C prototypes. Any rumor that the first He 177B prototype was re-engines with Jumo 222s is untrue because the He 277 was cancelled in July 1944 and Heinkel was so aware of the Jumo 222's developmental troubles that the Jumo 222 was ruled out as a powerplant option for the He 277.