My top 5

[stona]

I'm not sure if the Dornier looks like a Catalina or vice versa! I'd need to check some dates.

You really need to know what you are looking for to tell an Me410 from an Me210. They are externally essentially the same aircraft.

I agree that Heinkel made some good looking aircraft.

Cheers

Steve

[AlanG]

You really need to know what you are looking for to tell an Me410 from an Me210. They are externally essentially the same aircraft.

Thought the Me410 had a longer fuselage and leading edge slats to increase stability? Also had uprated engines from what i remember

[Andy2035]

List of mine...: -

Messerschmitt Me 323 Gigant

Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A5

Me 109AK /desert camouflage

Junkers Ju 390

Heinkel He 111

[saguy]

the ju390 and the me323 gigant are very very big aeroplanes ... did they ever see service in ww11 and if so where and when .... this is the first time i have seen them ....

[BarryW]

Some interesting stuff on these two on Wiki. The Me323 did enter service and suffered losses in action while the JU390 appears not to though there are claims that one made a flight to New York.

Messerschmitt Me 323 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Junkers Ju 390 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[stona]

Thought the Me410 had a longer fuselage and leading edge slats to increase stability? Also had uprated engines from what i remember

Yes indeed. On 9/3/1942 Milch,Goering and Vorvald cancelled production of the Me 210.On 12/3/1942,at a conference in Berlin,Willi Messerschmitt conceded that the Me 210 was not fit to enter operational service and,looking at losses of millions,proposed to rebuild the Me 210 with a longer fuselage and slats. The first ten aircraft were to be ready by 1/4/42,an impossible timescale.

All sub contractors and the entire plants in Augsburg and Regensburg as well as three licence firms had converted to Me 210 production. This was a disaster for Messerschmitt, the RLM and Luftwaffe which is often overlooked. At Augsburg and Regensburg there were 540 Me 210s in an advanced state of production,materials for further production had been delivered and 4,000 employees were standing around with their hands in their pockets.

The first ten Me 210s with the lengthened fuselage were finally delivered to the Luftwaffe in early August 1942. It was not a simple fix. The work took 3,400 man hours per aircraft.

Delivery of the Me 210 C version with the DB 605 C engines was delayed until November. This version was built under licence in Hungary.

The completely modified version,complete with more powerful engines,was introduced in 1943 and was redesignated as the Me 410.

The debacle cost Willi Messerschmitt his job,he was henceforth responsible only for design and development. It is estimated to have cost Messerschmitt AG 38,000,000 Reich Marks.

The Me 323 had a maximum flying weight of 43 tonnes so big it was! It's performance wasn't stellar. For example with the Ratier variable pitch airscrew it could stagger up to 4,500m but with the wooden Heine fixed pitch airscrews it could only make 3,600m. It's ideal maximum range was around 900Kms and in reality it would never achieve this. It also needed an 800m take off run.

It wasn't just a transport either. The Me 323 WT was a heavily armed version equipped with nine MG 151/20s and three MG 131s. The plan was to use them to ward off fighter attacks on its brethren. I've seen a picture of one of these versions (RL+UE ) but as far as I know the Luftwaffe never tried this hair brained scheme in practice.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but nothing has convinced me that a Ju 390 ever flew anywhere near New York. Without going into the minutiae this is one of those stories that gathers momentum with repetition. The proposed flight,from Bordeaux,may just about have been possible. The biggest problem is that the aircraft alleged to have made the flight was certainly,and documented,in Prague at the time!

Cheers

Steve