MORE LUFTWAFFE SECRETS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23965, 4 June 1943, Page 9

MORE LUFTWAFFE SECRETS

» — TRANSPORT MACHINE TO CARRY 130 TROOPS LONDON. March 16. More of the Luftwaffe’s secrets have become known in this country, says the aeronautical correspondent of “The Times.” The latest information concerns a Messerschnjit| transport monoplane which can carry a load of 22.0001b or 130 troops; two versions of the new JuB6P high-altitude machine; the.Blohm and Voss 222 sixengined transport aircraft; and ths Daimler-Benz 600. engine, which is installed in the four-engined Heinkel 177 bomber, one of which was shot down over this country last week-end. The Messerschmitt transport aircraft, the Me323, is the latest and biggest of the so-called “powered gliders.” It has French-made Gnome-Rhone 14M radial engines, each developing between 700 and 800 horsepower at 10.000 ft. The Me323 has a multiwheeled undercarriage to enable it lo land bn rough ground. •? ■ 1 -■ ' •=■ There are known to be twO versions of the high-altitude' Jußop, the P-I which is a bomber capable of carrying a load of 22001b, and the P-2 which is a long-range reconnaissance machine equipped with three cameras. Both machines are developments of the old Juß6 medium-altitude bomber. An Interesting feature of this new aircraft is that it is fitted with turbo-super-charged Diesel engines, that is to say, superchargers working off the exhausts. In order to get the JuB6P up to great heights many modifications have been made. It has been stripped of armament, the crew has been reduced to two (pilot and wireless operator), the wings have been made longer, and a pressure-cabin has been installed. The Junker’s Jumo 207 A engines are a high-altitude development of the familiar Jumo 205 commercial motor. The Blohm and Voss 222 freight and troop-carrier flying-boat has a wingspan of 150 ft, with its six radial engines in line abreast. The lateral stabilising floats are partly retractable. /-The D.B. 608 engine, as installed in • the Heinkel 177 bomber, is unusual in that it is a combination of two D.B. 601 units, which are mounted Side by side and drive a single airscrew through an extension shaft.