Messerschmitt Me 210
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| Me 210 | |
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| Type | Heavy fighter |
| Manufacturer | Messerschmitt |
| Maiden flight | September 1939 |
| Status | retired |
| Primary users | Germany, Luftwaffe Hungary |
| Developed from | Me 110 |
| Variants | Me 410 |
The Messerschmitt Me 210 was a German heavy fighter designed before the start of World War II to replace the Bf 110 in that role. The first examples of the Me 210 were ready in 1939 but they proved to have terrible handling, and remedying the problem took so long that everyone involved tried to distance themselves from the project. A new version finally cured the problems after two years, but was referred to as the Messerschmitt Me 410 due to the 210's bad reputation.
Messerschmitt designers had started working on an upgrade to the Bf 110 in 1937, before the production version had even flown. In late 1938 the 110 was just entering service when the RLM also started looking for its replacement. Messerschmitt sent in their modified 110 as the Me 210, and Arado responded with their all-new Arado Ar 240.
The Me 210 was a straightforward cleanup of the 110 and used many of the same parts. The main differences were a modified nose area that was much shorter and located over the center of gravity, and an all-new wing designed for higher cruise speeds. On paper the 210 looked fantastic. It could reach 385 mph (620 km/h) on two 1,350 hp (993 kW) DB 601F engines, making it about 50 mph (80 km/h) faster than the 110, and as fast as single-engine fighters of the era. It had a huge bomb-bay in the nose, which could hold up to 1000 kg of bombs, with dive brakes fitted on the tops of the wings and a Stuvi 5B bomb sight in the nose for shallow-angle dive bombing. In the fighter role the bomb bay was fitted with four 20 mm cannon instead. For defense it mounted clever remote-controlled guns in half-teardrop-shaped turrets on the side of the plane, and the rear of the cockpit canopy was bulged out to allow the gunner to see (and aim) down and to the rear.
An order for 1,000 was placed even before the prototype had flown. In time this would prove to be unwise. The first prototype 210 flew with 601B engines in September 1939 and was considered unflyable. Stability was bad in turns, and it tended to "snake" even while flying level. At first the designers concentrated on the twin-rudder arrangement that had been taken from the 110, and replaced it with a new and much larger vertical stabilizer. However this had almost no effect, and the plane continued to snake. The plane also had terrible stalls, and with the nose up or in a turn the stalls whipped into spins when the leading-edge slats opened. V2 was lost this way the next September when the pilot could not get out of the resulting spin and had to jump. The chief test pilot commented that the Me 210 had "all the least desirable attributes an aeroplane could possess." It took 16 prototypes and 94 pre-production examples to try and resolve the many problems. Nevertheless, the RLM was desperate to replace the Bf 110's currently in service, and ordered full production in the spring of 1941.
Deliveries to front-line units started in April 1942 and the plane proved to be even less popular with pilots. Production was stopped at the end of the month, by which time only 90 had been delivered. Another 320 were simply left unfinished on the factory floor. In its place the 110 went back into production, now hopelessly outclassed even when equipped with the newer DB 605B engines.
Meanwhile Hungary, satisfied with the plane in its current state, purchased a production license for the type, as well as for its DB 605 engines. Several airframes were also purchased, to be completed in the Hungarian factories for practice while the assembly lines were set up. Production started as the 210C with the DB 605B engine, under an agreement where the Luftwaffe got two of every three produced. The Luftwaffe started receiving their planes in April 1943, but the Hungarians didn't get their own until 1944; however, when they did enter service they were more than happy with them. Production ended in March 1944, when the factory switched over to produce the Messerschmitt Bf 109 G version. By that time, a total of 267 Me 210C had been built, 108 of them had been given to the Luftwaffe.
In practice, the Hungarian Me 210C were so superior to the German Me 210A that it was planned to adopt its design refinements into a new Me 210D model, that was eventually developed into the Messerschmitt Me 410.
One possible cause for the Me 210's terrible handling characteristics might have been the double-angle wing leading edge sweepback (smaller angle on the inboard wing section, with a greater angle towards the tips) that it had originally been designed with – the later Me 410 eliminated the greater angle on the outer panels, and made the entire wing leading edge the same angle from root to tip.
In last days of war, the Japanese Army ordered the design of an anti tank/strike plane. The Rikugun/Kokukosho Company used the design of Me 210A-2 (with features from the Me 410A-2 modifications) to produce the Rikugun/Kokukosho Ki-93 twin-engined anti-tank/ground attack aircraft.
[edit] Specifications (Me 210)
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General characteristics
- Crew: 2 (pilot and gunner)
- Length: 36 ft 8in (11.20 m)
- Wingspan: 53 ft 7 in (16.40 m)
- Height: 14 ft (4.30 m)
- Wing area: 390 ft² (36.2 m²)
- Empty weight: 12,000 lb (5,440 kg)
- Max takeoff weight: 17,857 lb (8,100 kg)
- Powerplant: 2× DB 601F liquid-cooled inverted V-12, 1,350 hp (993 kW) each
Performance
- Maximum speed: 385 mph (620 km/h)
- Range: 1,491 mi combat (2400 km)
- Service ceiling: 22,967 ft (7,000 m)
- Rate of climb: m/min (ft/min)
- Wing loading: kg/m² (lb/ft²)
- Power/mass: W/kg (hp/lb)
Armament
| Related content | |
|---|---|
| Related development |
Me 310 - Me 410 |
| Similar aircraft | |
| Designation series |
Fw 206 - Me 208 - Me 209/Me 209 - Me 210 - Hü 211/Ta 211 - Do 212 - Do 214 |
| Related lists | |
