Me410

[cav58d]

Nation: Germany Manufacturer:
Messerschmitt AGType: 2 Seat Heavy Fighter-BomberYear: 1943

Engine: (2) Daimler Benz DB 603A 12 cylinder liquid cooled inline V, 1,750 hp each

Specifications
Span: 53 ft 8 in (16.3 M)
Length: 40 ft 11.5 in (12.48 M)
Height: 14 ft (4.3 M)
Loaded Weight: 21,276 lb (9650 Kg)
Max Speed: 388 mph at 21,980 ft (625 km/hr at 6.6 Km)
Ceiling: 22,965 ft (7000 M)
Range: 1,050 miles (1689 Km)
Crew: 2
Armament: (2) 20mm cannon, (4) 7.92 mm machine guns, 2,205 lb of bombs


Also saw some info on it on the Military channel's show about the 110.....looks like a pretty sweet plane

[Krusty]

The 210 and 410 were so plagued with problems, meaning design problems, that they didn't show up in any numbers nor did they have any impact on the war whatsoever. They were too little too late and not that great at the end when they showed up.


The 210 was deemed so poor that the project was scrapped and they went back to the drawing board, and redesigned it, started all over again, and came back with the 410.

[Tails]

Still, I think it's a damned ice plane, and I want one badly. (That, among other twin-engine fighter types)

[DiabloTX]

Originally posted by Tails
it's a damned ice plane

Well, you certainly nailed it's FM with that description.

[Kurfürst]

Originally posted by Krusty
The 210 and 410 were so plagued with problems, meaning design problems, that they didn't show up in any numbers nor did they have any impact on the war whatsoever.

Quite wrong. The early 210A had handling problems. These were corrected, by lenghtening the fuselage and adding leading edge slats to the wings, giving life the 210C, which was produced mainy in Hungary with DB 605A engines. It was fairly well liked with its advanced features. The 410 saw action from early 1943 onwards with DB 603A and E engines.

Right of the top of my head, of the two types there were some 1500-2000 built, but certainly well over 1000.

Oh, and BTW, according to the creator of the Il2 Sturmovik sim, the Russians compared the 210 to the British Mosquito, and overall they preferred the Me 210 over the Mossie. Its wasnt a bad plane, quite the contrary, it had a bad start, but was a very advanced and cool looking plane for its time. Its real speciality was that its rear guns covered a very large defensive arc, making it very hard to attack from blind spots.

[Charge]

AFAIK the 210 had a slightly swept back wing but 410 had a straight leading edge making it resemble Mossie pretty much.

-C+

[hogenbor]

Eric Brown called the Me410 a 'knife edger', but I really don't know what he meant by that, Any clues?

[GScholz]

As a daylight bomber-interceptor the 410 was a failure (this doesn't surprise anyone). However in the ground attack and low-medium altitude fighter-bomber role it was very successful. Perhaps the only LW plane to rival the Mossie in that role.

[Karnak]

I have never read anything positive about the Me210.

The Me410 would have been very useful if the Germans had still needed an aircraft of that type when they got it in numbers.

I'd like to see the Me410 added.

[Krusty]

I agree with Karnak. Every source I've ever read has said the 210 was a flop. The wing was redesigned in the 410 to correct design flaws in the 210 design. Off the top of my head it had completely unstable flight characteristics, bad landing gear, might have had engine problems (?), and as for those rear guns -- they were remotely controlled so good luck implementing remote control in AH.

[Angus]

I always read they were a disaster.
Looking at the armament and the speeds however, makes one wonder why.
Handling? Being slower than the allied single engined fighters that opposed them?
Then the armament, - rearward facing barbettes, - as other fixed backwards defensive armament just added weight and practically no threat. (Well, the B29 had this mastered)
And climb rates? Roll rates?
Also makes you wonder about the 110's roll rate. Why should the 1940 110 roll better than a 109????

[Kurfürst]

Originally posted by Krusty
I agree with Karnak. Every source I've ever read has said the 210 was a flop. The wing was redesigned in the 410 to correct design flaws in the 210 design.

Perhaps you and Karnak should read some serious source on the 210/410, not just the William Green and co. stuff...  ie. read Patrick/Mankau, by far the best source. Anyway, as for Karnak every single LW was a 'catasptrope' without exception, with such amount of bias I would not give much weight to his words. He is just playing his usual tunes.



FYI, the original 210A series (354 built, but only 183 was accepted) was indeed troublesome, but was called back, and redesigned, and rebuilt into Me 210A-1(lang) standard with lenghtened fuselage, and leading edge slats. Same airframe as the 410, but with the different engines (DB 601s). There were 182 of the early, troublesome Me 210A-1s accepted by the LW - followed by the 212 redesigned Me 210A-1(lang) which corrected these flaws; 169 of them were rebuilt A-1s. The 'long' 210As were followed by 272 210Ca-1s, 'corrected' airframe but with DB 605As.

So, basically, out of the 838 Me 210s built, only 354 were 'troublesome/catashropic(TM of Karnak)'.. ca 40%, but half of that 40% was re-built and corrected.

Many 210As were then re-engined with DB 603, and along with the newly produced planes, they become the Me 410 A and B, a total of 1010 Me 410s were accepted by the LW.

BTW, the 210/410 was no longer intended to the same multirole heavy fighter ('Zestorer') as the 110. The concept was changed, and the 210/410 was intended as a 'Kampfzestorer', a plane primarly for fast bomber roles, but with mulitrole capabilities.
So, basically, the 110 was a fighter in the 1st place and a bomber only as 2nd, the 210/410 was a bomber in the first place that could also be employed as a heavy fighter. As in the latter role, with it`s heavy armament it was rather successfull and well suited against heavy bombers - that is, until escort fighters appeared which outmatched this larger plane.

[Angus]

Ahemm
"So, basically, out of the 838 Me 210s built, only 354 were 'troublesome/catashropic"

That's pretty bad.....

[bunch]

Klaus Haberlen had 1 mission in a 410 & suggested it was worthless for bomber interception due to poor powerplant design.  He was relieved of his command for this & sent to Italy (not much of a pinishment if you ask me)

[MiloMorai]

Don't worry Karnak, every LW a/c  to someone here was the ultimate.   With bias like that we know someone is wearing heavily tinted rose colored glasses, never mind the tunnel vision.

[The fuselage guns of the 210/410 had a vertical range from 80* up to 40* down, with a horizontal arc of ~45*.