Ar 240

[SKurj]

Wouldn't this thing make a nice addition to the Luftwabble stable?

419 mph at 19,680ft, ceiling 34.5k, range 1162 miles
Armaments ranged from 4 81's and 2 17's
4 151 cannon
night fighter 6 cannon
light bomber, 2 151 cannon and 4000lb bombs

SKurj

[hazed-]

i cant find any mention of this plane...only 234 blitz...got me looking now  
hazed

[Suave1]

The Arado 240c,pressurized cabin, remote controlled gun turrets, two DB 603A engines, max speed of 647km/h, the 240c2night fighter had radar and four mg151 20mm's, an upper and a lower turrret with dual mg131 13mm's. A contract for 40 planes had been made but was canceled in 1942 when it was decided that the me110, I beleive, was better suited for the part . The ar240 never saw service . I used to have a scale model of one .

[GRUNHERZ]

240s fought but not in any really big numbers. Good looking plane tho.

[PJ_Godzilla]

I doubt it was much of a turn and burn ac, given the wing loading of 40-60 lbf/sf empty/full. Consider the 410 as a comp at more like 37 on the empty side - itself no yank and bank bird. OTOH, given the armament, it'd probably be a nice bomber hunter. It's also possible, given this Arado "traveling flap" thingie, that you could significantly improve your low speed turn performance by deploying the thing. Apparently, they were shooting for low profile drag at the expense of having to use a higher CL (and consequently induced drag - goes like CL^2/AR).

Still, a cool bird - and one that saw service.



<snip from wiki>
Technical specifications were first published in October 1938, followed by detailed plans later that year. In May 1939, the RLM ordered a batch of six prototypes. The first Ar 240 V1 prototype, DD+QL, took to the air on 25 June 1940, and immediately proved to have poor handling in all axes, and it also tended to overheat during taxiing.

The handling was thought to be the result of the ailerons being too small given the thick wing, so the second prototype was modified to have larger ones, as well as additional vertical fin area on the dive brakes to reduce yaw. In addition small radiators were added to the gear legs to improve cooling at low speeds, when the gear would normally be opened. Ar 240 V2, KK+CD, first flew on 6 April 1941, and spent most of its life at the factory as a test plane.

Ar 240 V3 followed, the first to be equipped with the FA 9 rear-firing armament system, developed jointly by Arado and DVL, armed with a 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 81Z machine gun. Ar 240 V4 was the first to include an operational dive brake, and flew on 19 June 1941. Ar 240 V5 and V6 followed in December and January, including the upgraded FA 13 system using two 13 mm (.51 in) MG 131 machine guns in place of the MG 81Z for a considerable boost in firepower.

The Ar 240's excellent performance quickly led to the V3, V5 and V6 being stripped of their armament, including the defensive guns, and used as reconnaissance aircraft over England, where no other two-seater could venture by 1942.

[Karnak]

PJ_Godzilla,

Check the post dates on threads you find through a search.  In this case the last post before yours was on October 23, 2000, almost nine years ago.

[TonyJoey]

 

[Ack-Ack]

240s fought but not in any really big numbers. Good looking plane tho.

None of the Ar 240s ever fired a shot an enemy plane.  The only Ar 240s ever to see any action were the few recce versions (stripped of all guns) that flew over England during the BoB.


ack-ack

[MiloMorai]

Testing and evaluation

Technical specifications were first published in October 1938, followed by detailed plans later that year. In May 1939, the RLM ordered a batch of six prototypes. The first Ar 240 V1 prototype, DD+QL, took to the air on 25 June 1940, and immediately proved to have poor handling in all axes, and it also tended to overheat during taxiing.

The handling was thought to be the result of the ailerons being too small given the thick wing, so the second prototype was modified to have larger ones, as well as additional vertical fin area on the dive brakes to reduce yaw. In addition small radiators were added to the gear legs to improve cooling at low speeds, when the gear would normally be opened. Ar 240 V2, KK+CD, first flew on 6 April 1941, and spent most of its life at the factory as a test plane.

Ar 240 V3 followed, the first to be equipped with the FA 9 rear-firing armament system, developed jointly by Arado and DVL, armed with a 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 81Z machine gun. Ar 240 V4 was the first to include an operational dive brake, and flew on 19 June 1941. Ar 240 V5 and V6 followed in December and January, including the upgraded FA 13 system using two 13 mm (.51 in) MG 131 machine guns in place of the MG 81Z for a considerable boost in firepower.

The Ar 240's excellent performance quickly led to the V3, V5 and V6 being stripped of their armament, including the defensive guns, and used as reconnaissance aircraft over England, where no other two-seater could venture by 1942.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arado_Ar_240

[TwinBoom]

[33Vortex]

A contract for 40 planes had been made but was canceled in 1942 when it was decided that the me110, I beleive, was better suited for the part.

Almost anything would have been better than the Me110. Messerschmitt was just getting his way with the politicians and bureaucrats. I believe the FW187 Falke would have outperformed both the Me110 and Ar240. It did during trials, and it did in operational flying too. Messerschmitt just copied some of the features of these two aircraft into his own design later on, the Me210/410. I'd argue that the 410 was never as good as the FW187 potentially could have been.

[PJ_Godzilla]

Politics rears it's ugly head. Messerschmitt was a favorite of the procurement office, depending on who was in office. I guess Milch had it in for Ernst Heinkel - an issue that did not obtain after Milch's death.

I'm not sure of Arado's status.

As for the rest, YES, I'm aware this post originated in 2000. That didn't matter to me, nor does it appear to matter to those who responded.

Also, the comment about recon only is correct, according to my sources, but in no way negates my statement, "some of them saw service". For, last I checked, reconnaissance is still service.

The line between being keen and being pedantic is a fine one.

All that aside, this thing looks, as do both the 410 and 219, like a badassed twin.

Not to hijack the thread, but has there ever been any talk of a night arena? The topic is relevant to this thread, given the type and likelihood that it and many of the other wishlist twins (P-61, 217, 388, 219, etc) would thrive in a night arena but be hangar queens in the daylight MA's.

[33Vortex]

The aircraft that wiped the floor with Messerschmitt's 110, yet it never saw production. A 1938 design of Kurt Tank at Focke Wulf. The 110 was a toad in comparison, both visually and aerodynamically.

[PJ_Godzilla]

Speaking of hijacked threads, this looks like none other than the 187.

All that talent and they consistently picked the wrong horse...

I always wondered about the contention that the mixed-phase cooling system developed by Ernst Heinkel for the HE100 was "unsuitable for combat". This was purportedly due to the fact that steam tubes were run just behind the wing leading edge in order to provide cooling to the steam portion of the coolant. How is such a thing any more vulnerable than the radiator it replaced? Less draggy, certainly, but any more or less susceptible to the golden BB? I think not.

Otherwise, it's like I always say (and, in at least a couple of cases, have made use of here at Ford) - if you want to find an interesting approach to the solution of an engineering problem, do some research on Nazi weaponry.

[33Vortex]

You are absolutely right. These two aircraft, the He100 & FW187, if procured and fielded by 1939 instead of the 109/110 combo, would have been more damaging to the allied war effort than all the late-war super wapons combined ever could be. Due to high level corruption it was never to be.