Arado E.500
| Arado E.500 | |
|---|---|
| Role | Heavy fighter |
| National origin | German Reich (Nazi period) Deutsches Reich |
| Manufacturer | Arado Flugzeugwerke |
| First flight | – |
| Introduction | – |
| Produced | – |
| Number built | Not produced |
The Arado E.500 was an aircraft designed by Arado Flugzeugwerke in 1936 as a heavy fighter and ground attack aircraft. Although a full-scale mockup was produced, no units were ever produced.
Description
The Arado E.500 was a four-man heavy fighter and ground attack fighter that was designed by prominent aircraft designer Walter Blume and Kurt Bornemann.[1] It was originally designed in 1935 and development continued as far as the construction of a full-scale mockup, but never entered mass-scale production.[1]
The design called for a twin boom design, with each of the booms housing a Daimler-Benz DB 600 series liquid-cooled piston engine as well as the rear-facing retractable main landing gear wheels and a tail surface mounted on the outboard section.[1] The short center-mounted fuselage housed four crew members, including a pilot, copilot/gunner/observer, and two turret gunners.[2] It had two gun turrets, one on the dorsal surface and one on the ventral surface, each with a pair of 20 mm Rheinmetall-Borsig 202 cannons.[1] Each of the turrets had a complete 360-degree range of motion, and could aim the guns from horizontal to a full vertical position.[1] The bottom turret was operated by a gunner lying prone in an under-fuselage trough and using a periscope to aim.[2] A third gunner operated fixed forward-facing guns in the nose of the aircraft.[1] Fuel tanks were located in the rear of the fuselage and at least one variant was designed with an internal bomb bay with a capacity of two 250kg bombs.[1]
Arado developed a 1:1 mock-up; however, it did not find the interest of the Technical Office of the Ministry of Aviation. The project was subsequently discontinued.[3]
Specifications
General characteristics
- Crew: Four
- Powerplant: 2 × DB 603
Performance
Armament
- Guns:
- Two Rh-LB-202 20 mm cannons in dorsal turret
- Two Rh-LB-202 20 mm cannons in ventral gun position controlled by periscope
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Herwig, Dieter; Rode, Heinz (2003). Luftwaffe Secret Projects: Ground Attack & Special Purpose Aircraft. Translated by Oliver, Ted. Hinckley, England: Midland Publishing. p. 86. ISBN 1857801504.
- ^ a b Lepage, Jean-Denis G.G. (2009). Aircraft of the Luftwaffe, 1935-1945. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-7864-3937-9.
- ^ Jörg Armin Kranzhoff (1997). "Arado+E.500"&dq="Arado+E.500" Arado: History of an Aircraft Company. Schiffer Book for Collectors. pp. 105, 107. ISBN 9780764302930.
- ^ Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage (2009), Aircraft of the Luftwaffe, 1935–1945: An Illustrated Guide, Koblenz: McFarland, ISBN 978-0-7864-5280-4