Arado Ar 240

The Arado Ar 240 is a heavy hunter multi-roles twin-engine allemenand, developed by Arado Flugzeugwerke during the Second world war, in order to compete with the Messerschmitt Me 210 and Heinkel He 219. Its first flight took place in 1940, but of the problems of design slowed down its development and the project was finally cancelled.

Design

Thanks to an innovative development, Arado Ar 240 could have been regarded as one of the hunters with the most frightening propellers of these times, because of the following characteristics:

Cabin pressurized for the pilot and his observer
Plexiglass of the cockpit allowing a horizontal and vertical vision widened
Positioning optimal of the seats of the crew to support G extreme
Thermodégivrage of the panes
offensive Armament: air-to-ground and air-to-air rockets & 2 machine-guns of 7,92 mm
defensive Armament: 2 machine-guns of 7,92 mm out of turret independent (Periscope of aiming) controlled remotely
revolutionary Shutters for the phases of flight at low speed
Top speed bordering 700 km/h

Development

Ar 240 comes in answer to an invitation to tender from the Reichsluftfahrtministerium from 1938, concerning a second generation of Heavy Hunter or Zerstorer to replace the Messerschmitt Me 110. Only the firms Arado and Messerschmitt answered. The Messerschmitt Me 210, although having a innovating design, was implemented more quickly thanks to preceding work of Messerschmitt, on the concept of hunter destroyer. The design of Arado was considerably more ambitious for a small firm, but remained a project of dream for the designer as a chief of Arado, Walter Blume, since the medium the years 1930. Although Arado takes time to deliver its outline, the RLM was interested enough to launch the production of the two prototypes as from 1939.

Although on plans, the Ar 240 competed with without sorrow the British Mosquitos and the P-38 Lightning American, the Arado firm could not undertake its development correctly. The engines Daimler-Benz 603 of 1700 cv which were to confer the absolute superiority to him, had delays of delivery, Arado of folding back itself on of Daimler-Benz 601 of 1200 cv.

One can suspect there above a conflict with the firm Messerschmitt which had the preference of Adolf Hitler and Goering. Moreover, the engines with high performances Daimler-Benz 603 appeared dangerous because of their mixture of fuel. Their design was blocked by the ministry for the armament until Luftwaffe does not record an obvious deficit vis-a-vis the American hunters.

Ar 240 undergoes another delay, this time concerning its armament: the turrets directed by periscope were too heavy without electronic transmission of the image and difficult of use. The air-to-air rockets were available only to at the end of 1944, when the German airspace was dominated for a long time by the North American P-51 Mustang and the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt the US one.

Test

The Ar 240 v1 , took the air on June 25th, 1940, by immediately presenting difficulties of pilotings and a tendency to overheating at the time of the phase of rolling. Arado thought that this catch in difficult hand resulted from too small ailerons. The second prototype was modified to have some larger, as well as an additional vertical surface on the air-brakes to reduce the deviation. Concerning overheating, small radiators were fixed on was landing gear, to improve cooling at low speed, when the wheels are normally sorties.
The Ar 240 v2 stole on April 6th, 1941 and passed its career to the factory as a plane of essai.
The Ar 240 v3 was the first with being equipped with the system with defensive shooting FA9 , developed jointly by Arado and DVL, armed by a MG 81Z with 7,92mm jumelée.
The version v4 stole on June 19th, 1941 to test a more functional air-brake. The prototypes v5 and v6 followed in December and January, by including a considerable rise of the firepower by the replacement of the MG 81Z of 7,92mm by two MG 131s of 13mm.

The performances in flight excellent of the v3, v5 and v6, led them to be to use like reconnaissance aircraft (once the offensive and defensive armament withdrawn) to the top of England.

Engagement

Only one Ar preproduction 240 A-0, including/understanding 6 apparatuses, was delivered in 1942. Five were assigned to the flotilla of the North Atlantic and an apparatus with the 2. /Aufkl. Gr. 122 in Italy. Ar 240 could have had same success as legendary the De Havilland Mosquito, so only its engines had been available in time and its optimized armament…

Sources

Smith, J.R. and Kay, Antony L. German Aircraft off the Second World War . London: Putnam, 1972. ISBN 0-85177-836-4.

External bonds

Arado Ar 240 profile

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