wiking85
Staff Sergeant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_210
Historically the Me 210 was disaster of a project that resulted in the Bf110 having to be reintroduced until it successor could be fixed in late 1943. This cost German lots of aircraft lost in production time and as a result of having to constantly retool between types. Having an obsolete aircraft in service from 1942 on (the Bf110) also didn't help. So what if whatever the issue was with the Me210 could have been worked out in time to get it as functional as the historical Me 410 later was...but in April 1942 when it was supposed to have been in service?
What would it mean for the night fighter, figher-bomber/ground attack, bomber destroyer, and various other roles is was to fill?
For one thing there would be at least 1000 more total aircraft available by 1943 than there was historically available without the historical setbacks of this type; there would be overall more of this type of aircraft by the end of the war than just the historical Bf110+Me210/410 models by several thousand IMHO. It would also be much more effective in its roles than the Bf110 was and would appear before it had lost its usefulness, saving a number of pilots that would otherwise be lost flying less useful aircraft past 1941 like the Bf110.
Thoughts?
Edit:
From another post on this aircraft by Stona:
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/technical/me-210a-1-article-10723.html
Historically the Me 210 was disaster of a project that resulted in the Bf110 having to be reintroduced until it successor could be fixed in late 1943. This cost German lots of aircraft lost in production time and as a result of having to constantly retool between types. Having an obsolete aircraft in service from 1942 on (the Bf110) also didn't help. So what if whatever the issue was with the Me210 could have been worked out in time to get it as functional as the historical Me 410 later was...but in April 1942 when it was supposed to have been in service?
What would it mean for the night fighter, figher-bomber/ground attack, bomber destroyer, and various other roles is was to fill?
For one thing there would be at least 1000 more total aircraft available by 1943 than there was historically available without the historical setbacks of this type; there would be overall more of this type of aircraft by the end of the war than just the historical Bf110+Me210/410 models by several thousand IMHO. It would also be much more effective in its roles than the Bf110 was and would appear before it had lost its usefulness, saving a number of pilots that would otherwise be lost flying less useful aircraft past 1941 like the Bf110.
Thoughts?
Edit:
From another post on this aircraft by Stona:
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/technical/me-210a-1-article-10723.html
The scramble to fix the Me 210,finally resulting in the Me 410 cost Messerschmitt AG 38,000,000 Reich Marks. There was a period,at the height of the war,when more than 4,000 Messeschmitt workers were literally standing around with nothing to do. The initial modifications,slats,fuselage extension etc cost 3,400 man hours per aircraft. The debacle even cost Willi Messerschmitt his job. After the Me210 fiasco he was only responsible for design and development.
Truly an awful aeroplane,but they did fix it.
The initial Me210 was awful. It was cancelled and only revived at great expense by Messerschmitt AG who were facing a financial catastrophe. Even in wartime business goes on. At the time of the cancellation Regensburg and Augsburg had several hundred airframes in various states of construction and parts already delivered to build them up. Willi Messerschmitt himself conceded it was not fit for operational service. He made various undeliverable promises about production of the modified version in his desperation to keep the project alive. The initial Me210 simply didn't fly very well. It would be a step back from the Bf110 as it was considered virtually un-flyable by service pilots.The revised design was much better and eventually morphed into the Me410.
Cheers
Steve
Last edited: