Heinkel He 177

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Heinkel He 177
Type	Heavy bomber
Manufacturer	Heinkel Flugzeugwerke Arado Flugzeugwerke
Maiden flight	November 1939
Status	retired
Primary user	Luftwaffe

The Heinkel He 177 Greif (Griffin) was a four-engine long-range World War 2 bomber of the Luftwaffe. The troubled aircraft was the only heavy bomber built in large numbers by Germany during the war. Aircrews nicknamed it the Reichsfeuerzeug (lighter of the Reich) due to the engines' tendency to catch fire in early versions.

Contents 1 History of design 1.1 Engines 1.2 Wings and undercarriage 2 Operational problems 3 End of production 4 Variants 5 Specifications (He 177 A-5) 6 Related content

[edit] History of design

[edit] Engines

An unusual feature of the airplane was the use of twin engines in each nacelle driving a single propeller. The insistence of this engine configuration by the Reichsluftfahrtministerium, (the German Air Ministry) stemmed directly from their determination that the aircraft should be capable of dive-bombing, (a manoeuvre manifestly impossible in craft with four propellers).

The paired engine nacelles had first been introduced on the Heinkel He 119 to reduce drag where they worked well, but their tight installation in the He 177 led to considerable problems because of the poor packaging of the engine installations that caused oil leakage onto the hot exhaust manifolds on the two middle cylinder banks.

Starting with He 177 A-3, a modified engine nacelle with a new engine (DB 610, each containing two DB 605s) was used to attempt to eliminate tendency for the engines to catch fire. This achieved only partial success and there were also problems with the transfer gearbox between the two engines and their separate propellor.

[edit] Wings and undercarriage

The insistence on the ability to dive-bomb also led to the need to strengthen the wing structure, leading to an increase in unloaded weight, producing the need to enlarge the undercarriage, in turn increasing further the weight and causing a decrease in speed, range and carrying capacity. The requirement to dive-bomb was never satisfactorily solved, and the He 177 was never able to do this.

[edit] Operational problems

In one case 20 aircraft left, two failed to take off, 10 returned with burning or damaged engines and of the few that got to their target two were destroyed by enemy action.

Beset by many other technical difficulties in development and service, the plane had a troubled life. This was in part due to overly optimistic design requirements of long range, high speed, a large bombload, and even as a dive bomber. Though Goering forbade Heinkel to develop a version with four separate nacelles, Heinkel nevertheless produced prototypes of the Heinkel He 274 and the Heinkel He 277. Neither of these entered production.

[edit] End of production

The use of the He 177 was ended by the Fighter Emergency Program, which cancelled bomber production and operations and gave priority to defensive fighters in the final stages of the war.

The overly ambitious design goals included an unrealistic requirement for a dive bombing capability, similar to the RAF's equally unrealistic requirement for catapult launching for the failed Avro Manchester heavy bomber. The attempt to reduce drag by coupling the engines, while theoretically sound, proved to be difficult in practice, leading to a history of engine failures not unlike that of the failed Manchester or that of the B-29, which had most of its defensive armament removed in order to lighten the burden on its engines and thus improve reliability.

[edit] Variants

• He 177 V1 - First prototype
• He 177 A-1
• He 177 A-3
  • He 177 A-3/R3 - Anti-shipping version
  • He 177 A-3/R5 - 75 mm gun in ventral gondola
  • He 177 A-3/R7 - Torpedo Bomber
• He 177 A-5 - Increased maximum external bombload
• He-177 A-6 long range bomber with increased bombload and armament(defensive)

[edit] Specifications (He 177 A-5)

General characteristics

• Crew: 5
• Length: 22 m (72 ft 2 in)
• Wingspan: 31,44 m (103 ft 1 in)
• Height: 6,7 m (21 ft)
• Wing area: 101.5 m² (1,092 ft²)
• Empty weight: 16,800 kg (37,000 lb)
• Loaded weight: 31,000 kg (68,340 lb)
• Powerplant: 2× Daimler-Benz DB 610 (twin DB 605) 24-cylinder liquid-cooled inline engines, 2,950 hp (2,170 kW) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 565 km/h at 6,100 m (350 mph at 21,000 ft)
• Combat radius: 1.540 km (960 mi)
• Ferry range: 5,600 km (3,200 mi)
• Service ceiling: 9,400 m (30,800 ft)
• Wing loading: 319.9 kg/m² (65.6 lb/ft²)
• Power/mass: 110 W/kg (0.067 hp/lb)

Armament

• 2 x 20 mm MG 151 cannon
• 3 x MG 131 machine gun
• 3 x MG 81 machine gun
• up to 7,200 kg of bombs or two guided missiles Henschel Hs 293 or Fritz X

[edit] Related content

Related development

He 274 - He 277

 

Designation sequence

He 172 - He 176 - He 177 - He 178 - Bü 180 - Bü 181

Related lists

List of military aircraft of Germany