Heinkel He 177
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| Heinkel He 177 | ||
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| Description | ||
| Role | Heavy bomber | |
| Crew | 5 | |
| First flight | November 1939 | |
| Entered service | 1942/1943 | |
| Manufacturer | Heinkel, also built by Arado | |
| Dimensions | ||
| Length | 22 m | 72 ft 2 in |
| Wingspan | 31,4 m | 103 ft 1 in |
| Height | 6,4 m | 21 ft |
| Wing Area | 101.5 m² | 1,092 ft² |
| Weights | ||
| Empty | 15,870 kg | 35,000 lb |
| Loaded | 32,470 kg | 71,600 lb |
| Maximum takeoff | kg | lb |
| Powerplant | ||
| Engine | 2x Daimler-Benz DB 606 units (contains 2x DB601G each) | |
| Power (each unit) | 1,985 kW | 2,700 hp |
| Performance | ||
| Maximum speed | 472 km/h @ 6,400 m | 295 mph @ 21,000 ft |
| Combat range | 1.540 km | 960 miles |
| Ferry range | 5.000 km | 3.100 miles |
| Service ceiling | 9,300 m | 30,500 ft |
| Rate of climb | m/min | ft/min |
| Wing loading | 319.9 kg/m² | 65.6 lb/ft² |
| Power/mass | 110 W/kg | 0.067 hp/lb |
| Armament | ||
| Guns | six to eight MG/cannons | |
| Bombs | 7,200 kg | 15,900 lb |
The Heinkel He 177 was a 4-engined 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 the engines' tendency to catch fire in early versions of the type. An unusual feature of the airplane were the twin-engines in each nacelle that drove a single propeller. The twin-engines had first been introduced on the Heinkel He 119 to reduce drag where they worked trouble-free, but their tight installation in the He 177 led to considerable problems. Starting with He 177A-3 a modified engine nacelle with a new engine (DB610, each containing two DB605) was used to eliminate this tendency.
Beset by many other technical diffculties in development and service, the plane had a troubled life. This was in part due to overly optimistic design requirements which in addition to long-range, high-speed, and carry a large bomb-load, was to be capable of dive bombing. Though Goering forbade Heinkel to develop a four engine version, Heinkel did anyways, leading to the development of the Heinkel He 274 and the Heinkel He 277 which had separate engines in the more commonly seen fashion.
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 equally unrealistic requirement for catapault-launching issued by the RAF for their 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 reliabilility).
Production Numbers: 1000+
| Related content | |
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| Related development | |
| Similar aircraft | |
| Designation series |
He 172 - Bloch M.B.175 - He 176 - He 177 - He 178 - Bü 180 - Bü 181 |
| Related lists | |
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