Heinkel He 274

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Heinkel He 274
Description
Role	Heavy Bomber
Crew	4
First Flight	December 5, 1945
Entered Service	Never got beyond prototype form
Manufacturer	Heinkel
Dimensions
Length	22.3 m	73 ft 0 in
Wingspan	44.2 m	145 ft 1/4 in
Height	5.50 m	18 ft 1/2 in
Wing Area	150 m²	1,616 ft²
Weights
Empty	21,300 kg	47,000 lb
Loaded	38,000 kg	83,800 lb
Maximum takeoff	kg	lb
Powerplant
Engine	4 × Daimler-Benz DB 603A inverted-vee-12 with turbochargers
Power (each)	1,287 kW	1,750 hp
Performance
Maximum speed	496 km/h @ 12,000 m	310 mph @ 39,400 ft
Combat range	4,250 km	2,640 miles
Ferry range
Service ceiling	14,300 m	46,900 ft
Rate of climb	-- m/min	-- ft/min
Wing loading
Power/Mass
Armament
Guns	5 × MG 131/13 13 mm machine guns 1 in the nose turret, 2 each in the two fuselage turrets)

The He 274 was four-engine bomber aircraft designed during World War 2 as a variant of the Heinkel He 177. The main difference was that each engine had its own nacelle on the wing, rather than using a "paired" engine in which two engines drove a common driveshaft.

Designers at Heinkel had long pushed for this modification to the original 177, who's Daimler-Benz DB 606 and DB 610 engines continued to break and burst into flame in flight. It is not entirely clear why this problem existed, Heinkel blames oil leaks in the engine for its problems, others cooling issues, so it appears there was no small amount of finger-pointing going on that may have made such a change politically difficult.

A conversion to using four normal engines seems obvious, but was difficult politically. Heinkel stated that the RLM demanded that all bombers be capable of dive bombing and this was the reason, but it also seems the Nazi establishment had rather "odd" ideas about production lines, and felt that doubling the number of engines would place more load on the industry.

It was only when the RLM asked for a new high-altitude version of the He 177 that the opportunity presented itself. The new model was originally referred to as the He 177A-4, but the 177 was garnering such a terrible reputation that it was renamed the 274 to avoid distain. Normally a major new version would be numbered by adding 100 to the original model number, but the Heinkel He 277 was actually yet another version of the 177.

The unfinished V1 and V2 prototypes were shipped to France to be finished. They were to have been built in France by SAUF at Suresnes, France but the prototypes was never completed during the French occupation. However, the V1 was just about to start flight trials when the germans pulled out in July of 1944. After the war ended, the aircraft was finished by Ateliers Aéronautiques de Suresnes and used in French Air Force service for several years as a high-altitude research plane. They were re-named the AAS 01A.

See Also:Heinkel He 277

Sources

• Hitler's Luftwaffe by Tony Wood and Bill Gunston 1977,1997 Salamander Books
• Jane's fighting aircraft of World War II 1989 Studio Books

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