See what I mean about the fan boys.
"It would have gone a long way to providing the Luftwaffe with a stunning photoeconaisance aircraft and an aircraft quite capable of intercepting photo reconaisance spitifres and mosquitos, with the relative ease a 40 mph speed advantage allows."
A short ranged photo recon plane. 90 imp gallons of fuel and not much internal room to put more. Plane is almost two feet shorter than a 109 and its wing is about 66% that of a Spitfire. Now stick in the cameras. You can put some fuel in the wings but it is going to be a lot less the the Spitfires held. Due to radiator and landing gear position a single drop tank is probably out of the question. Two is certainly possible but may mean more drag.
Yes it has more potential as an interceptor. Part of the problem is which photo reconnaissance Spitfires and mosquitoes you are talking about. Against the early with single stage engines you are probably right. against the later ones with two stage engines at high altitude the he 100 probably won't work.
"Certainly more valuable than the Me 163 which was designed for this role many years latter"
That is damning with faint praise indeed. Chinese sky rockets were almost as effective as the Me 163 and a lot less dangerous to their own side.
"High altitude interceptor vs U.S. heavy bombers.
If the DB601E / DB605 engine has a supercharger appropriate to that mission it will be fast enough to contend with P-47s @ 25,000 to 30,000 feet."
what wonder gun are you going to put in it that will take care of the bombers and the P-47s? It will only hold one Big gun so better make it a good one.
While the DB605 may fit it may also depend on
whichdb605 you are trying to use. The bigger supercharged models might be more iffy. The He 100 used a rather ingenious engine mounting arrangement in which the cowl not only covered the engine but was part of the engine mount. It helped with the small size but also meant that the cowl/mount/forward fuselage was rather closely fitted to the DB601. Like I said, the early DB605 may fit but the further along you go and the more/larger bits and pieces you hang on teh DB605 the less likely it is to fit. The Jumo 211 would not without substantial rework and an increase in drag/loss of performance.
While the He 100 is certainly low drag it has about 1/2 the power at 30,000ft that an Early model "D" P-47 has even using one of the big supercharger DB605 engines. Without GM1 they were good for about 1100hp at 30,000ft give or take 50 or so HP. The D-10 could make 2200hp at 31,000ft with water injection, using a max of 56in of boost.
So the idea is to put in a larger engine, adding 75-80kg, a Bigger prop, heavier guns and ammo and get the wing loading practically the same as the P-47, and power loading practically the same (at 30,000ft) and then depend on the lower drag to make all the difference?
Please remember that the air density at 30,000ft (and thus the drag) is 40% or under of what is is at sea level.