BMW Strahlbomber I / P.1

History

In the years leading up to World War II (1939-1945), the Luftwaffe mistakenly ignored the heavy bomber type, while their future enemies imposed several classic designs. When the war reached Europe, the Luftwaffe was forced to field a series of medium-range bombers such as the Dornier Do 17, Junkers Ju 88 and Heinkel He 111 (detailed elsewhere on this page).

The push for heavy bomber platforms came too late for the service, especially as air superiority tilted toward the Allies and Germany's focus fell directly on defensive fighters and interceptors.

In 1944, BMW began work on a completely new in-house turbojet that would receive significant service from the all-jet bomber unit planned by the Luftwaffe in 1947. To support the sale of aeronautical engineers to take advantage of the new, more powerful and more reliable engines, the company's employees have arranged for four heavy bomber concept designs based on the system of the outgoing BMW 018.

In theory, the combined capabilities of these engines allow greater effectiveness over longer distances compared to conventional propeller-driven bombers such as the American Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, the Joint B-24 Liberator and the British Avro Lancaster load. BMW's intention was not to supply the Air Force with a new bomber itself, but to sell a design that relied on the engine it would make.

One of the four designs specified by BMW engineers was the "Jet Bomber I". It uses a swept wing plane form (wing shoulders mounted on the fuselage), a single vertical stabilizer, and no horizontal stabilizer.

The cockpitthe seats for the two crew members (assuming back-to-back)was mounted at the very forward end of the fuselage, with fuel, avionics, bomb storage, etc. mounted in the middle of the rear of the fuselage. The fuselage tapers towards the stern as usual, and the proposed armament includes 2 x 30mm MK 108 rear-firing guns designed to counter the threat of trailing interceptors.

It is usually aimed using a periscope or similar indirect method and fired from a distance by a rear crew.

The original Jet Bomber I design called for no less than 6 BMW 003 turbojets with 1,764 pounds of thrust each, later intended to replace them with 4 BMW 018 turbojets, which were quoted at over 7,500 pounds of thrust each indivual. Large numbers of turbojets of a single design were a common feature of early jets - the engines were thirsty and generally considered unreliable, despite their promise of improved performance.

For a jet bomber I had to fit all six engines into the design, so two were paired in each wing and inhaled through a common air intake built into the leading edge of the wing. The engine pops off the trailing edge of the wing with a separate exhaust ring.

The remaining set of turbojets are then placed forward, spanning the nose/cockpit section of the aircraft, which will improve the survivability of the aircraft and crew.

Aside from the proposed defensive weapons plan, my jet bomber maintained speed only faster than optimistically intercepting the enemy - the bomber had an estimated top speed of 510 mph with the original 003 engine set, and it did It is said to be faster once the more powerful 018 units are in service. Range is another quality to value, it can reach 1,600 miles or more, with moderate traction and service ceilings in excess of 30,000 feethence the need for a pressurized cabin for the crew.

Internally, the bomber would carry up to 8,000 pounds of conventionally dropped bombs. This can be reduced a bit to improve the range. In any case, the aircraft was significantly better than its propeller bomber, and then also had some advantages in terms of ammunition load and Vietnam capability.

Having said that, the jet bomber never made it into usable model or prototype form. It worked as intended - a sales pitch for a BMW product.

The 018 was never completed until the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, and in the months that followed, existing work on the engine was captured and dissected by the Americans.

The other three entries suffered the same fate: "Jet Bomber II" was more of a true flying wing, as it lacked any form of tail and attempted to achieve the important wing-body fusion. The BMW "High Speed ??Bomber" used a unique gull-wing main aircraft with the engine nacelles mounted above and below the root of the wing. In this design, the cockpit, main aircraft and engines should be located forward amidships. The final form, the BMW '02B', featured a very unique arrangement, with the main aircraft swept forward with a pair of turbojets mounted above and away from the cockpit in the nose.

This could be one of the more dubious entries in the series, given the aeronautical challenges it will face in the test.

Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes