Romantic Technofreak
5th April 2004, 06:02
The Scourges of the Seas – A Ficticious Story by Romantic Technofreak in Four Parts
Part II: The Messerschmitt Me 264/364
The Messerschmitt Me 264 was designed for a unique purpose: to cross an entire ocean for to drop a bomb load AND come back on its own wings. For this, Messerschmitt constructed a special wing to take the main amount of the tremendous fuel storage necessary for that. The result was a range of 14.000 km, enough to make it to New York and back. The fuselage design is also very elegant, giving the machine a good speed performance of 565 kph, and, hope you enjoy the pictures,
http://www.msc-hansgrade-berlin.de/bauberichtmesserschmitt264BauerJ.htm
making it a candidate for the „Prettiest Airplane“ contest. And it is not a joke that the machine was originally planned as fast transport for to carry quickly perishable citrus and tropical fruit to Germany (remeber our cheerful „Citrus Conspiracy“ controversy in the „Worst Bomber“ thread). For this, the Messerschmitt workers called the Me 264 „Banana airplane“.
But the „bananas“ to be carried over the Ocean were ment to be an 1.800 kg bomb load. Not too much for a target like New York. Other variants were meant to be sea reconoissaters and ship hunters. For this purpose, the Me 264 could have had its season – if it had went to service at an appropriate point of time. Göring ordered an „America Bomber“ already in 1938, this is reported sometimes, but the Me 264 made its maiden flight not before December 1942. Giving some more time until entering service, the Me 264 would have to encounter the Allied high-performance fighters of 1943/44, and, being not much faster than a normal bomber, without having fighter cover itself would become a relatively easy prey for them.
So, the Me 264 needed to be in service at least at the beginning of 1942. But it is highly questionable if it ever had been possible for Germany to complete the development of such an airplane. When the program was given up in middle 1944, because Germany stopped all bomber development, the difficulties in development of the Me 264 prototypes were not surmounted, see link:
http://www.luft46.com/prototyp/me264.html
In class, the Me 264 is a mate of the Boeing B-29. We already had a discussion about the development of airplanes of that class, and the B-29, development being the most expensive American project in WWII, had to go through a “Kansas war“ before bringing the plane into service was possible. Germany did not have the American resources, not in material and not in personal, so there is a big “?“ after the question of the Me 264 ever being possible to see action.
And its purpose? Harassment attacks on New York, more would not have been possible, were only good as propaganda success to be a slight retalliation for attacks on Germany, but no way crucial to the war. Ship spotting and hunting would have been the better idea – as long as the losses would not grow too high.
So, with the war proceeding, further development of the Me 264 would have been required. The six- engined variation, the Me 364, would have been faster and could have carried a bigger load. And the first German jets might have been not mounted in fighters, but, to give additional thrust, under the outer wings of the Me 364, if Germany were in a serious fight for control of the Atlantic at that point of time (1943). Having an engine configuration like the Convair B-36, the Me 364 might have run 730 kph, thus being faster than any Allied fighter of that time, and having the ability to carry the most modern German guided bombs to every point between Reykyavik and Miami.
Of course, this is only a dream. But if you neglect resource and development difficulties, it is not too hard to imagine.
Part II: The Messerschmitt Me 264/364
The Messerschmitt Me 264 was designed for a unique purpose: to cross an entire ocean for to drop a bomb load AND come back on its own wings. For this, Messerschmitt constructed a special wing to take the main amount of the tremendous fuel storage necessary for that. The result was a range of 14.000 km, enough to make it to New York and back. The fuselage design is also very elegant, giving the machine a good speed performance of 565 kph, and, hope you enjoy the pictures,
http://www.msc-hansgrade-berlin.de/bauberichtmesserschmitt264BauerJ.htm
making it a candidate for the „Prettiest Airplane“ contest. And it is not a joke that the machine was originally planned as fast transport for to carry quickly perishable citrus and tropical fruit to Germany (remeber our cheerful „Citrus Conspiracy“ controversy in the „Worst Bomber“ thread). For this, the Messerschmitt workers called the Me 264 „Banana airplane“.
But the „bananas“ to be carried over the Ocean were ment to be an 1.800 kg bomb load. Not too much for a target like New York. Other variants were meant to be sea reconoissaters and ship hunters. For this purpose, the Me 264 could have had its season – if it had went to service at an appropriate point of time. Göring ordered an „America Bomber“ already in 1938, this is reported sometimes, but the Me 264 made its maiden flight not before December 1942. Giving some more time until entering service, the Me 264 would have to encounter the Allied high-performance fighters of 1943/44, and, being not much faster than a normal bomber, without having fighter cover itself would become a relatively easy prey for them.
So, the Me 264 needed to be in service at least at the beginning of 1942. But it is highly questionable if it ever had been possible for Germany to complete the development of such an airplane. When the program was given up in middle 1944, because Germany stopped all bomber development, the difficulties in development of the Me 264 prototypes were not surmounted, see link:
http://www.luft46.com/prototyp/me264.html
In class, the Me 264 is a mate of the Boeing B-29. We already had a discussion about the development of airplanes of that class, and the B-29, development being the most expensive American project in WWII, had to go through a “Kansas war“ before bringing the plane into service was possible. Germany did not have the American resources, not in material and not in personal, so there is a big “?“ after the question of the Me 264 ever being possible to see action.
And its purpose? Harassment attacks on New York, more would not have been possible, were only good as propaganda success to be a slight retalliation for attacks on Germany, but no way crucial to the war. Ship spotting and hunting would have been the better idea – as long as the losses would not grow too high.
So, with the war proceeding, further development of the Me 264 would have been required. The six- engined variation, the Me 364, would have been faster and could have carried a bigger load. And the first German jets might have been not mounted in fighters, but, to give additional thrust, under the outer wings of the Me 364, if Germany were in a serious fight for control of the Atlantic at that point of time (1943). Having an engine configuration like the Convair B-36, the Me 364 might have run 730 kph, thus being faster than any Allied fighter of that time, and having the ability to carry the most modern German guided bombs to every point between Reykyavik and Miami.
Of course, this is only a dream. But if you neglect resource and development difficulties, it is not too hard to imagine.