Amerika bomber escort.......

[Army of One]

I have been chatting with a few members re my idea for an Amerika bomber but one more conventional....I was thinking of a Ju290 ( I recently acquired an A7 variant for this.....) with maybe some Jumo 004 engines in pods outboard of the outer engines.....having seen on made up at the MK show....it's HUGE......I gotta find the space....anyhoo....my idea and conversation centred around them flying from South America as they wouldn't reach otherwise.....I wanted to make an escort fighter for them as well.....not saying to much yet but here is the first round of surgery.....one of the inner wings is filled n filed an the other is how I started....front of the pods have been drilled and turned upside down.....the only thing not decided yet is if they are day or night fighter escorts......as I don't know if the bombers will be day or night bombers....I did want to use the glide bombs so maybe a dusk attacker making off under cover of darkening skies......something to think about....

[tc2324]

Looking forward to this one.     

[NARSES2]

Interested to see what you do with this kit - I've a few in the stash myself

[Army of One]

Yah.....bought a load in the MZ sale.....

[lancer]

I was listening in when you were talking to Kit and remember you talking about Argentina, a damm good idea. Might I suggest you think about Mexico as well, because the Mexicans were pretty friendly with germany at the time, and I remember talk of the Luftwaffe talking with the Mexicans about the possibility of using a base there to launch an attack on the Southern states - Think L.A or any of the big cities. Also, if they did launch from Mexico, they could penetrate much deeper into the US. Just an idea

[Army of One]

Awesome stuff.....!! I never knew that.....many thanks....certainly something to think about......cheers 

[NARSES2]

I was listening in when you were talking to Kit and remember you talking about Argentina, a damm good idea. Might I suggest you think about Mexico as well, because the Mexicans were pretty friendly with germany at the time, and I remember talk of the Luftwaffe talking with the Mexicans about the possibility of using a base there to launch an attack on the Southern states - Think L.A or any of the big cities. Also, if they did launch from Mexico, they could penetrate much deeper into the US. Just an idea

Yup I have Mexico and the US going to war after the USN loses at Midway. Eventually all of S America joins in on one side or another and this distracts the US from the Pacific until late 1943. The starting point to this was a Mexican/Colombian attack on Panama after Mexico had coerced/annexed the rest of Central America into joining their "Alliance". US stayed on the Canal Zone but it all got hairy. Built a Mexican Bf 109D and the story appeared in an old SIG Newsletter. S America is a very fruitfull place for wiffery, the squabbles, alliances and small wars go back until before some were independent. One or two of the conflicts were not small and were very, very nasty. By some estimates Paraguay lost 90% of it's population http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraguayan_War

[tc2324]

And not forgetting the Football War, fought between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969. 

[Rheged]

Chile and Bolivia are currently exchanging insults about Bolivian access to the Pacific........

[NARSES2]

Chile and Bolivia are currently exchanging insults about Bolivian access to the Pacific........

Saw that the other day. Another consequence of a 19th Century War

[Army of One]

Can't say there been much progress....the engine pods been sent off to be moulded so I don't have to go through the cut n filler n whole PSR episode.....working on two types at the moment.....not sure how long that will last though.....so many ideas at the moment...a day fighter escort for the single/twin bomber flights using glide bombs....and a night fighter/escort.....would the Americans try an bomb the bases.....?? They'd need defending.......maybe an interdicter role.... Any thoughts while I wait for the pods....

[Old Wombat]

Interceptor & escort roles are, actually, quite different.

Escort fighters require a large fuel capacity for long flights & then the ability to match it in speed & agility against defending intercepors, & only require weapons sufficient for anti-fighter purposes.

Inteceptors require much less fuel, but need to have a better rate of climb to gain altitude quickly & greater weapons punch to take out bombers, while being manoeuvrable enough to mix it with the enemy escort fighters if necessary.

I'd be looking at 2 different aircraft types for the different roles but getting them right can be tricky.

2 obvious screw-ups; Me. 110 as an escort fighter had the range but not the agility required for the role, while the BP Defiant was designed as a turret-fighter interceptor & had nothing going for it (too slow, too heavy, too clumsy).

2 obvious winners; NA Mustang had the range, fire-power & agility to perfectly suit the escort fighter role, while the Me. 262 had the climb rate, fire-power &, although it lacked agility against piston engined fighters, had the speed to out-run them then come back for another pass, & was a fearsome inteceptor.



Guy

PS: Nightfighters need to be a little of both & 2 excellent exmples are the DH Mosquito & the Ju. 88 (both, as we know, based on fast light-bombers).

[tc2324]

If you go for the escort role you will seriously need to look at the endurance side of things as the distances involved are quite large. Drop tanks? Parasite fighter?

Looking forward to the first progress pics anyway. 

[Army of One]

Old Wombat.....absolutely great info there...cheers   
TC.....there will be drop tanks and bigger internal tankage.....

[NARSES2]

.....would the Americans try an bomb the bases.....?? They'd need defending.......maybe an interdicter role.... Any thoughts while I wait for the pods....

After the first attack they would be looking for the bases like crazy and once found would probably bomb them. If the country hosting the bases was officially neutral it could get interesting though. Perhaps the base was defended by German built aircraft in the national marking so of the host country ?

As for escorts. Maybe in flight refuelling ?