Just Schmidt
Senior Airman
let me start by stating that I might as well have asked was thre anything wrong with the Do-217? Except of course that it didn't win the war.
I think realatively scant attention has been afforded this plane, and would like to hear your opinions. I myself think it looks pretty good. It had a large internal bomb bay and performance to match any mid-war medium bomber, except the mosquito. the defensive armament seem decent, though I've seen hinted that the turret wasn't a proper gun turret. There is no real blind spot, though it may have benefitted from a gun position in the tail instead of the time wasted on sophisticated dive brakes. Alternatively, it could perhaps have entered service a little earlier, if there were BMW's ready for that?
it is said to have been underpowered, but it seem it was not catastorphic. While there may have been to much aircraft for the power and wing area available, it handled well enough to be modified into a night fighter. I just don't seem to come across remarks as to high accident rates or nicknames as widow maker. Perhaps the He-177 got all the attention? As a dedicated bomb truck it looks better than both the Ju-88 and the 188.
I owned manfred griehls book on the whole family twenty years ago, but lost it. Something had gone wrong with the printing, so many pages were in the wrong place. as I remember it, it was more concerned with the numerous attempts to make it into a wunder waffe than with what the mass produced variants actually were capable at. I say mass produced, but less than 2000 fighters and prototypes excluded, is not an overwhelming number. But apart from relatively modest numbers, I think its biggest draw back was lack of escort, which is hardly a fault of the design. By the way, what it achieved with stand off weapons does get quite some attention, and did have results, even if it is not wholly clear how cost effective that was.
I think i've said before that, with what Germany had to work with, I have difficulties imagining what better medium bomber they could come up with at the time. I'm sure there was room for some improvement, but I am primarily interested in your opinions on it as it was. But the inevitable suggestions for improvements will be recieved with interest too.
I think realatively scant attention has been afforded this plane, and would like to hear your opinions. I myself think it looks pretty good. It had a large internal bomb bay and performance to match any mid-war medium bomber, except the mosquito. the defensive armament seem decent, though I've seen hinted that the turret wasn't a proper gun turret. There is no real blind spot, though it may have benefitted from a gun position in the tail instead of the time wasted on sophisticated dive brakes. Alternatively, it could perhaps have entered service a little earlier, if there were BMW's ready for that?
it is said to have been underpowered, but it seem it was not catastorphic. While there may have been to much aircraft for the power and wing area available, it handled well enough to be modified into a night fighter. I just don't seem to come across remarks as to high accident rates or nicknames as widow maker. Perhaps the He-177 got all the attention? As a dedicated bomb truck it looks better than both the Ju-88 and the 188.
I owned manfred griehls book on the whole family twenty years ago, but lost it. Something had gone wrong with the printing, so many pages were in the wrong place. as I remember it, it was more concerned with the numerous attempts to make it into a wunder waffe than with what the mass produced variants actually were capable at. I say mass produced, but less than 2000 fighters and prototypes excluded, is not an overwhelming number. But apart from relatively modest numbers, I think its biggest draw back was lack of escort, which is hardly a fault of the design. By the way, what it achieved with stand off weapons does get quite some attention, and did have results, even if it is not wholly clear how cost effective that was.
I think i've said before that, with what Germany had to work with, I have difficulties imagining what better medium bomber they could come up with at the time. I'm sure there was room for some improvement, but I am primarily interested in your opinions on it as it was. But the inevitable suggestions for improvements will be recieved with interest too.
