Love to see the Griffon. 
Actually the He177 improved (somewhat!), the He-177 A5 (late) was much better than the terrible earlier versions. While still plague with troubles and no war winner by any means
some people have totally taken it out of portion.
Quote Heinkel He 177 From Wikipedia,
"By this time the He 177 had proved itself to be the most technically advanced bomber of the Luftwaffe. This was confirmed by postwar tests on the He 177 A-5 and the single long-range He 177 A-7, which the Royal Air Force found impressive. The He 177 can be compared with the Boeing B-29 Superfortress which also took about two years to have its problems ironed out, after which it became one of the most successful bombers of aviation history. He 177 did achieve some successes. The more experienced crews typically carried two 1,800 kg (3,970 lb) and two 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) bombs. Climbing to 7,000 m (22,965 ft) while still over German territory, the He 177s approached the target in a shallow dive, each aircraft throttled back, the pilot putting his aircraft into a gliding descent to take it across the bomb release-point at about 4,500 m (14,760 ft). After releasing the bombs the pilot re-opened the throttles, but continued the descent at approximately 200 m (656 ft) per minute. The bombers typically re-entered German airspace at an altitude of 750 m (2,460 ft), and headed back to base. By such means, the He 177s were able to keep up speeds of about 600 to 700 km/h (370 to 430 mph) during their withdrawal phase. The higher speed and constant change of altitude made the aircraft harder to intercept, increasing the survivability of the aircraft, but contrarily decreased bombing effectiveness. In fact, with an average loss rate of 60% for every type of bomber used in Operation Steinbock, the He 177s had a loss rate well below 10%, making them the most survivable bomber used in this campaign. Eric Brown a RN pilot posted to the RAE as a test pilot flew the He 177. He wrote about the in-flight handling characteristics of the He 177 A-5:"...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... 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." He said it was "one of the very few German aircraft of the period that I tested that I did not enjoy flying". You can see there is some variation of opinion. Also one must remember the same model had modifications. So not all He177 A5 was the same. From mid 1944, fuel and personnel shortages presented insurmountable difficulties, He177s were sitting on airfields all over Europe awaiting the replacement of engines or engine related modifications. That combined with the The emergency fighter program, poor effort of resources into solving problems doomed the plane. As an anti -tank weapon well that was a total desperate stupid idea. (
Any aircraft of that size and type is misuse of an aircraft.) As for showing engineering and poor manufacturing faults in aircraft (engine fires, structure weakness etc. etc.) that would be interesting. Besides the He177 there would be many an aircraft from Typhoons, Manchesters(love to see it in il2) to Ki84's and B-29s.
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Topic: He 177 greif (Read 44838 times)
