Worst plane in its indended role(s)

[Waynos]

I disagree. You call the Manchester a product of misguided thinking. What do you think the He-177 was? They wanted a very heavy bomber to be capable of doing dive bombing...

Come on now.

The He-177 was actually a very good design, it was just plauged with stupid problems. If they had not wanted the coupled engines the fires would not have been prone. The aircraft would have developed into a very very good Heavy Bomber.

It did not do so because of misguided thinking...

I agree, the He 177 and Manchester can be directly compared. The description of a heavy bomber powered by complex coupled engines designed to be capable of dive bombing applies to both of them. They were also both developed into fine aircraft powered by four smaller engines -. It was just that Britain dropped the dive bombing requirement fairly early on and the Lancaster ended up being mass produced.

 

[Marcel]

I do not think it would have been too bad as a ground attack bomber. It certainly would have been a waste, since it was needed as an interceptor much much more.

I think Bekker in "The luftwaffe war diaries" wrote about the idea of the ME262 as a fighter bomber. He said it was very ill fitted to perform this role. Due to the high speed, the accuracy was not very good and aiming was very difficult IIRC.

 

[Negative Creep]

I would like to nominate the Blenheim IF. Intended as a heavy fighter but it was too slow to even catch the Ju 88 and barely quicker than the Do17 and He111. Not to mention it had a mere 5 .303 forward guns, was clumsy and easy prey for fighters. Compared to the Beaufighter or Havoc it looked pretty pathetic to be honest

 

[Boss Calamari]

I think the Betty did poor as a torpedo bomber because it couldn't take much damage. In one sortie out of 25 planes only 5 made it back.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I think Bekker in "The luftwaffe war diaries" wrote about the idea of the ME262 as a fighter bomber. He said it was very ill fitted to perform this role. Due to the high speed, the accuracy was not very good and aiming was very difficult IIRC.

The reason I disagree with that is that later in the 50s jet fighter aircraft that were faster turned out to be fine ground attack aircraft.

Like I said, certainly not the best in that role, but not the worst.

 

[Marcel]

The reason I disagree with that is that later in the 50s jet fighter aircraft that were faster turned out to be fine ground attack aircraft.

Like I said, certainly not the best in that role, but not the worst.

About the a/c itself, your probably right. I think in the '50ies, designers realised that ground support with jets was a different ballgame than with slower a/c. I'm no expert, but I think these jest probably had better aides for aiming then was available for the ME262. As a bomber howerver, according to mr. Bekker, the ME262 was a failure. It should have adapted much more to fulfill this role. It was designed as a fighter and that what what it could do.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

About the a/c itself, your probably right. I think in the '50ies, designers realised that ground support with jets was a different ballgame than with slower a/c. I'm no expert, but I think these jest probably had better aides for aiming then was available for the ME262.

I certainly agree with that. I think the aircraft was a waste in that role, but not the worst.

 

[KrazyKraut]

I agree that it not only was a waste to use it as a fast-bomber, it was also pretty unsuccessful in that role. Not so much because of the speed but rather because of the poor vision to the front and below and lack of proper targeting equipment. There was a project that would've moved cockpit much further to the front (and eliminate the remaining two MK 108s), which would've very likely fared much better.

However the whole thing was unneccessary as the Ar 234 could do everything the Me 262 could as a bomber and much, much better, too.

Messerschmitt himself has to be blamed to some extent for this, I was going to mention that in the "greates German designer"-poll. He himself assured Hitler that the plane could carry a bombload of up to 1000 kg. Of course he did so to save the project from becoming footnote in the programs of the blindly offensive thinking Hitler, but still: he should've made it absolutely clear what that bird was made for.

 

[merlin]

I agree with comments about the Blenheim 1F, a better choice would have been the Gloster twin.
Other British candidates are the Blackburn Botha - underpowered, and overweight. And the Armstrong Whitworth Albermarle - virtually given away to the Russians