In Anticipation...

Autothrottle

Autothrottle

Charter Member
In anticipation of Greg's Heinkel 177 Grief being introduced into our Luftwaffe service, I just thought this little historical tidbit would serve as a reminder to all pilots who plan on getting the Griffon.

This is a historical notation by Eric Brown, one of the very few Allied pilots to fly the actual thing, I don't know if Ted's version will be 100 percent accurate, but it is some food for thought.

Well Here it is:

Its ground stance reminded me vividly of a Short Stirling which had sunk to its knees. In fact if there had been a choice between the Stirling and the He 177 as aesthetically the least appealling of bombers then I think the German contender would have won by a short head. A check of stability showed the aircraft to be positive about all axes, but the controls were all remarkably light for such a large aircraft. Indeed I had the feeling that the elevator was dangerously light and I was all too aware of the intelligence reports of He 177s breaking up in the air so I decided to treat this control very gently. I began a cautious exploration of the aircraft's diving characteristics since the permissible acceleration was 2.3 g with a flying weight of 27 tonnes it was vital to know the exact weight of the He 177 at all times. The aircraft had an automatic pull-out device and an acceleration warning apparatus fitted, but it really was nailbiting to have to treat a giant like this immense Heinkel bomber as if it was made of glass. The stalling characteristics with flaps and undercarriage lowered the aircraft buffeted violently at 140 km/h (87 mph) before the nose dropped at 135 km/h (84 mph). The buffet experienced was so violent that I had some concerns over structural damage. Somehow the He 177 always conveyed an impression of fragility despite its size.

All Luftwaffe/Yank Pilots Beware. She doesnt' seem like a walk in the park!
 
Bravo,
When I was a small hobbit, I recieved a model of this Bird.. and later in the 70's Air Classics did a detailed cover on this aircraft, even with the engine over heatings and fires and the problems they had with the turret, I was and still are impressed by the aircraft..it shall be a great joy to fly her, Bravo to all involved in this effort..
And Thanks for the chance to finally fly a Grief in CFS 3

:ernae::ernae:
 
Hard to believe that the Germans held up production on this bird just to make it capable of dive-bombing? I forget the fellow's name. He didn't last very long.
 
Hello all,

Walther Wever , Luftwaffe General and progenitor of the ambitious, but unfortunate Bomber B Programme for the Luftwaffe. The programme was handed over to Ernst Udet (I think), and Hermann Goering who criticised the project heavily:

"had told Udet from the start that I wanted this beast with four engines. This crate must have had four engines at some time! Nobody had told me anything about this hocus-pocus with welded-together engines."

Goering also stated:

"Why has this silly engine suddenly turned up, which is so idiotically welded together? They told me then, there would be two engines connected behind each other, and suddenly there appears this misbegotten monster of welded-together engines one cannot get at!"

A real Lack of vision on his part.
 
Towards the end, didn't they try one attampt to split the engines to a more standard 4 engine configuration?
 
IIRC, Udet was in charge of aircraft development and so despaired of his problems with the He177 and others that he finally committed suicide.
 
BeauBrummie said:
Towards the end, didn't they try one attampt to split the engines to a more standard 4 engine configuration?
Click to expand...

According to Luftwaffe records, if it was done, it must have been on paper.

I think this was Ernst Heinkel's final revenge on the Reich. Give them a bomber with so many problems they would waste all strategic materials just to get one flying.
 
One book on the Soviet Air Force I've read includes this attack on the B-17's in Russia as part of Operation Frantic and mentions that they used 80 Ju88s and He177s, not the He111s reported in this eyewitness version.

Finally reaching Poltava, we landed on the noisy metal strips of the runway. Russian soldiers then guided us to park next to other B-17s that were standing wing-tip-to-wing-tip -- a mistake that was to prove disastrous.Soon after we landed, several Russian Yak fighers took off. They had spotted an enemy airplane high above us. It was a German reconnaissance that had followed us into Russia and I'm sure the photos it took of the large number of B-17s on the ground must have pleased the Luftwaffe general staff very much. Of course, the Russian Yaks did not intercept the plane. It was late afternoon and I was completely exhausted from the long, noisy, cold, high altitude flight wearing the very uncomfortable oxygen mask. After a quick meal served out of large mess pots by Russian women, we attended a briefing for the next day. Again, I can't recall the target we were to bomb. After dismissal from briefing, I immediately "hit the sack", stripping down to my "long John" underwear and collapsing on a cot in the tent to which I was assigned. Within moments I was in a deep sleep.

Suddenly, at midnight, I was rudely awakened by whistles and yells of "Air Raid! Air Raid!" I stumbled out of my cot and staggered to a nearby slit trench into which I jumped. Just about then, the bombs began to fall. For the next two hours we were bombed by unopposed waves of Luftwaffe aircraft -- 80 Ju-88s and He-111s from 10,000 feet -- followed later by Ju-88s at low level, dropping anti-personnel "butterfly bombs" and straffing. The Russians fired every flak gun they had and the sky was criss-crossed with streaks of tracer bullets. I curled up into as small a ball as I could. Several times, the Germans dropped flares by parachutes that lit up the area with an ultra-bright, pure white lighst that was awesome and very frightening. I felt completely exposed and was certain my "time had come". The ground shook from the explosions of the bombs. After an hour, there was a sudden lull. I peered out of the trench and saw nothing but burning B-17s. My flight engineer got out of the trench and stood on a nearby pile of debris. Suddenly, he was thrown to the ground by a tremendous explosion. The fuel storage had blown up. The engineer was slightly injured. Then the bombs began to fall again. Finally, it came to an end and, amazingly, only two Americans were killed. I think that the casualties would have been much more if the Germans had not concentrated on the B-17s. It was three days before we were allowed to go to our plane because the ground was cluttered with the unexploded "butterfly" bombs. Squads of Russian men & women soldiers spent hours clearing paths to our planes. Periodically, a grinning Russian would hold up one of the deadly bombs for us to see. Many Russians were killed during the bombing and while clearing the area. Our B-17, "Forbidden Fruit II" was fortunate in that it suffered only minor damage and was flown back to England by another crew. I don't know why my crew wasn't allowed to fly it back. The day after the bombing there were reports of a possible second attack, so we were all transported several miles away to spend a rainy night among the bushes of a vacant field. Luckily, there were no more air raids.

The Luftwaffe did a superb job of destruction, causing the highest loss of USAAF airplanes on the ground during WWII. They dropped 110 tons of demolition, incendiary and fragmentation bombs. Their strafing and bombing destroyed 47 B-17s (24 from my group), 26 damaged, while 15 P-51 fighters, two C-47 transports and a photo-plane were also destroyed plus the loss of 450,000 gallons of gasoline. This, without a single German loss. The U.S. fighter pilots were eager to attack the Germans but the Russians (for self-pride, I guess) refused to let them take-off.
Click to expand...
 
MajorMagee said:
One book on the Soviet Air Force I've read includes this attack on the B-17's in Russia as part of Operation Frantic and mentions that they used 80 Ju88s and He177s, not the He111s reported in this eyewitness version.
Click to expand...

How could Heinkel 177's be used in a night raid? I thought the bomsite equipment was really faulty because of the unstable Yaw characteristics of the 177.
 
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