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The Heinkel He 274 was four-engined bomber aircraft designed during World War 2 as a high altitude variant of the Heinkel He 177 for the German Luftwaffe. Normally a major new version would be numbered by adding 100 to the original model number, but the Heinkel He 277 was yet another different version of the He 177. The main difference of the He 274 and the He 177 was the abandoning of the twin coupled engine arrangement in favor of four independent turbocharged units, an extended fuselage with a modified wingspan, and twin fins and rudders.
Originally designated He 177A-4 in 1941, the He 274 was a high-altitude development of the He 177A-3. The He 274 dispensed with coupled engines in order to provide room for the installation of DVL exhaust driven TK 11B turbo-superchargers. The He 274 featured a pressurized compartment for a crew of four, this employing double walls of heavy gauge alloy, hollow sandwich-type glazing and inflatable rubber seals, a pressure equivalent to that at 2,500 m (8,200 ft) being maintained at high altitude. Defensive armament was restricted to a single forward firing 13 mm MG 131 machine gun and remotely controlled dorsal and ventral gun turrets each containing a pair of 13 mm MG 131 machine guns and directed from a blister in the roof of the flight deck or the rear of the ventral gondola. While originally considered a version of the He 177A bomber, the growing incompatibility of parts led to the redesignation to He 274. By 1941, Heinkel was engrossed by other urgent projects that left the company seriously short of detail design capacity. The He 274 project was therefor reassigned to SAUF at Suresnes, France.
Construction of the two prototypes, the He 274 V1 and V2 did not commence until 1943. They were to have been built in France by SAUF at Suresnes, France, but the prototypes were never completed in time. The He 274 V1 was being readied for flight testing at Suresnes in July 1944 when the approach of Allied forces necessitated the evacuation of Heinkel personnel working on the project. Minor difficulties had delayed the flight testing and transfer of the aircraft to Germany, and orders were therefore given to destroy the virtually completed prototype. Only minor damage was actually done to the airframe of the He 274 V1, and repairs were begun after the Allied occupation. The He 274 V1 was repaired by Ateliers Aéronautiques de Suresnes and used by the Armée de l'Air for several years as a high-altitude research plane. It was renamed the AAS 01A. Proposals to finish the uncompleted He 274 V2 were not to see fruition. The AAS 01A was eventually broken up in late 1953.
[edit] Operators
[edit] Specifications (He 274 V1)
General characteristics
- Crew: 4
- Length: 23.80 m (78 ft 1¼ in)
- Wingspan: 44.19 m (145 ft 0 in)
- Height: 5.50 m (18 ft 0½ in)
- Wing area: 170.00 m² (1,829.86 ft²)
- Empty weight: 21,300 kg (46,958 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: 38,000 kg (83,776 lb)
- Powerplant: 4× Daimler-Benz DB 603A 12-cylinder inverted-vee engine with turbocharger, 1,305 kW (1,750 hp) each
Performance
Armament
[edit] References
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Jane's fighting aircraft of World War II. Studio Books, 1989.
- Green, William. Warplanes of the Third Reich. London: Macdonald and Jane's Publishers Ltd., 1970 (4th Impression 1979). ISBN 0-356-02382-6.
- Gunston, Bill & Wood, Tony. Hitler's Luftwaffe. London: Salamander Books Ltd., 1977. ISBN 0-86101-005-1.
[edit] See also
Related development
Comparable aircraft
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