Messerschmitt Me 210

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_210

The Messerschmitt Me 210 was a German heavy fighter and ground-attack aircraft
of World War II. The Me 210 was designed to replace the Bf 110; design started
before the opening of World War II. The first examples of the Me 210 were ready
in 1939, but they proved to have unacceptably poor flight characteristics from
serious wing planform and fuselage design flaws. A large-scale operational
testing program throughout 1941 and early 1942 did not cure the aircraft's
problems. The design entered limited service in 1943, but was almost immediately
replaced by the Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse ("Hornet"). The Me 410 was a
further development of the Me 210, renamed so as to avoid the 210's notoriety.
The failure of the Me 210's development program meant the Luftwaffe was forced
to continue operating the outdated Bf 110, despite mounting losses.

The Me 210 was a considerable departure from the 110, but used many of the same
parts. The main differences were a modified nose area that was much shorter and
located over the center of gravity, an internal bomb bay, an all-new wing
designed for higher cruise speeds and a highly advanced remote-control defensive
armament system that gave the gunner a far wider field of fire. On paper, the Me
210's performance was impressive. It could reach 620 km/h (390 mph) on two 1,350
PS (1,330 hp, 990 kW) Daimler-Benz DB 601F engines, making it about 80 km/h (50
mph) faster than the Bf 110, and nearly as fast as single-engine fighters of
that era.

The Me 210's main landing gear followed some of the design philosophies that had
resulted from the main change in the earlier Ju 88's main landing gear design,
where each main gear had a single gear strut that twisted through 90° during
retraction, to bring the main gear wheel resting atop the lower end of the main
strut when retracted rearwards into the wing. Unlike the Ju 88, however, the Me
210's main gear wheels were inboard of the main gear struts when fully extended,
while the Ju 88's were outboard of the struts.

The Bf 110 carried its ordnance externally on the wings and fuselage, but this
created drag; the Me 210 avoided this problem by housing the bombs in an
enclosed bomb bay, in the nose of the aircraft. The Me 210 could carry up to two
500 kg (1,100 lb) bombs. The Me 210 had dive brakes fitted on the tops of the
wings, and a Stuvi 5B bombsight ("Stuvi"-Sturzkampfvisier, dive-bombing sight)
in the nose, for shallow-angle dive bombing. In the fighter role, the bomb bay
was fitted with four 20 mm cannons.

For defence, the Me 210's rear gunner was armed with two 13 mm (.51 in) MG 131
machine guns. Each of these was fitted into half-teardrop-shaped Ferngerichtete
Drehringseitenlafette FDSL 131/1B turrets mounted on each side of the aircraft,
and was remote-controlled from the gunner's position in the rear of the glazed
cockpit area with a unique gun-aiming setup. This unit had a pivoting
handgun-style grip, trigger and gunsight at its center, to aim the guns
vertically - with both turrets elevating and depressing together when operated -
and horizontally, in pivoting each gun separately, outward away from the
fuselage side when aimed to one side or the other. The rear of the cockpit
canopy's lower side glazing panels were bulged out to allow the gunner to see in
almost any rearward-facing direction. The guns were electrically fired, and an
electrical contact breaker acted as a form of "interrupter" as used on many
forms of multi-engined, turret-armed WW II aircraft, preventing the gunner from
shooting off the Me 210's tailplane.


Role
Heavy fighter, ground-attack aircraft, fighter-bomber, dive bomber

Manufacturer
Messerschmitt, Dunai Repülogépgyár Rt.

First flight
2 September 1939

Introduction
1943

Retired
1945

Primary users
Luftwaffe
Hungary

Number built
90 finished and 320 partially completed in Germany, 272 in Hungary

Developed from
Bf 110

Variants
Me 410

Deliveries to frontline units started in April 1942, and the plane proved to be
even less popular with pilots. Production was stopped at the end of the month,
by which time only 90 had been delivered. Another 320 partially completed models
were placed in storage. In its place, the Bf 110 was put back into production.
Although the Bf 110 was now equipped with the newer DB 605B engines and greater
firepower, it was still an outdated design.

The Luftwaffe started receiving their Hungarian-built planes in April 1943, and
the Hungarians in 1944; when they entered service they were more than satisfied
with them. Production ended in March 1944, when the factory switched over to
produce the Bf 109G. By that time, a total of 267 Me 210C had been built, 108 of
which had been given to the Luftwaffe. They operated mostly in Tunisia and
Sardinia, and were quickly replaced by the Me 410.

Specifications (Me 210 - original fuselage)

General characteristics
Crew: two (pilot and gunner)
Length: 11.2 m (36 ft 9-7/8 in)
Wingspan: 16.34 m (53 ft 7? in)
Height: 3.7 m (12 ft 1-5/8 in)
Wing area: 36.20 m² (389.7 ft²)
Empty weight: 7,070 kg (15,586 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 9,706 kg (21,398 lb)
Powerplant: 2 × Daimler-Benz DB 601F liquid-cooled inverted V12 engine, 1,350 PS
(1,332 hp, 993 kW) each

Performance
Maximum speed: 564 km/h (304 knots, 350 mph) at 5,400 m (17,800 ft)
Range: 1,820 km (983 nmi, 1,130 mi)
Service ceiling: 8,900 m (29,200 ft)
Climb to 6,000 m (19,680 ft): 12.5 min

Armament

Guns:
2 × 20 mm MG 151/20 cannons
2 × 7.92 mm (0.312 in) MG 17 machine guns
2 × 13 mm (0.512 in) MG 131 machine guns (rear armament), one each in FDSL
131/1B remotely operated turret

Bombs: 2 × 500 kg (1,100 lb) or 250 kg (550 lb) or 8× 50 kg (110 lb) internal




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