Germany: Luftwaffe Warplanes, 1939-1935: Arado

Axis Warplane Survivors, German Aircraft: Arado

Axis Warplane Survivors, deutsche Flugzeuge: Arado

The aim of this website is to locate, identify and document Warplanes from the Second World War that have been preserved.  Many contributors have assisted in the hunt for these aircraft to provide and update the data on this website.  Photos are as credited.  Any errors found here are by the author, and any additions, corrections or amendments to this list of Warplane Survivors of the Second World War would be most welcome and may be e-mailed to the author at hskaarup@rogers.com.

Ziel dieser Website ist es, erhaltene Kampfflugzeuge aus dem Zweiten Weltkrieg zu lokalisieren, zu identifizieren und zu dokumentieren. Viele Mitwirkende haben bei der Suche nach diesen Flugzeugen mitgewirkt, um die Daten auf dieser Website.bereitzustellen und zu aktualisieren. Fotos gelten als gutgeschrieben. Alle hier gefundenen Fehler sind vom Autor und Ergänzungen, Korrekturen oder Ergänzungen zu dieser Liste der Überlebenden des Zweiten Weltkriegs sind sehr willkommen und können per E-Mail an den Autor unter hskaarup@rogers.com gesendet werden.

Arado Ar 64, fighter biplane (prototype).  (Luftwaffe Photo)

Arado Ar 65F, fighter/trainer biplane (re-engined Ar 64), coded PF+NS.  (Luftwaffe Photo)

Arado Ar 66, trainer/night attack.  The Ar 66 entered service with the Luftwaffe in 1933, serving as a trainer until well into the Second World War.  In 1943, the Luftwaffe set up a number of night harassment groups to operate on the Russian front.  The Ar 66, along with the Gotha Go 145, formed the main equipment of these groups.  (Luftwaffe Photos)

Arado Ar 66 (Wk. Nr. unknown).  Remains of this aircraft are stored in the Flyhistorisk Museum, Stavanger Airport, Sola, Norway.

Arado Ar 67, fighter biplane (prototype).  (Luftwaffe Photo)

Arado Ar 68, fighter biplane.  (Luftwaffe Photos)

Arado Ar 69, 1933 biplane) trainer (prototype).  (Luftwaffe Photo)

Arado Ar 76, fighter/trainer biplane (prototype), coded DA+BN.  (Luftwaffe Photo)

Arado Ar 80, fighter (prototype).   (Luftwaffe Photo)

Arado Ar 95, coastal patrol and attack biplane floatplane.  (Luftwaffe Photos)

Arado Ar 96B

(Luftwaffe Photo)

Arado Ar 96, advanced trainer, coded +23.  The Ar 96 was used for advanced, night and instrument flying training.  On the evening of 28 April 1945, pilot Hanna Reitsch flew the head of the Luftwaffe Generaloberst Robert Ritter von Greim out from Berlin under Soviet fire in an Arado Ar 96 trainer from an improvised airstrip in the Tiergarten.

The Arado Ar 96B is a two-seat advanced flying trainer powered by a single Argus As 410A-1 inverted-Vee engine rated at 465 hp. It had a maximum speed of 205-mph at sea level, a cruising speed of 183-mph, a service ceiling of 23,295’, and a range of 615 miles. It had a wingspan of 36’1”, a length of 29’10”, and a height of 8’6”. It was armed with one 7.92-mm fixed forward-firing machinegun.  Paul Eden and Soph Moeng, The Complete Encyclopedia of World Aircraft, Barnes and Noble Books, New York, 2002, p. 146.

(RAF Photos)

Arado Ar 96B advanced trainer, (Wk. Nr. unknown), captured at Husum.  Designated RAF AM120, this aircraft was scrapped at Woodley, England in 1947.

Arado Ar 96B advanced trainer, (Wk. Nr. unknown), captured at Husum.  Designated RAF AM123, this aircraft was scrapped at Woodley, England in 1947.

More than 11,500 Ar 96 were built by the end of the Second World War.  RCAF Squadron Leader Joe McCarthy test flew Arado Ar 96B, (Wk. Nr. unknown), RAF AM123, after the war at Husum.

(Ra Boe Photo)

Arado Ar 96B-1, (Wk. Nr. 425462), NU+CF.  This aircraft has been restored using parts of three wrecks and is currently displayed in the Deutsches Technik Museum in Berlin.  This Ar 96B-1 has a newly minted fuselage based on a pattern made from a wreck salvaged from a lake. The wings came from an Avia C.2B, built in Czechoslovakia after the end of the Second World War. Sweden provided a number of parts to the museum from Sweden, from an Ar 96, which had been lost in 1944. This aircraft was salvaged and flown by the Swedish Air Force until 1954.

The Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin (German Museum of Technology), was founded in 1982 in Berlin, Germany.  This museum exhibits a large collection of historical technical artifacts. The museum’s main emphasis is on rail transport, but it also features exhibits of industrial, maritime and aviation technology. The museum also contains a science center called Spectrum. A Douglas C-47 Skytrain is on display on the roof within view of the Tempelhof Airport. The museum contains an enormous railway collection and a large aircraft section which includes a Messerschmitt Bf 110, Flak cannon, Junkers Ju 87 Stuka and a V-1 flying bomb.

Arado Ar 96B-1, (Wk. Nr. 4246), coded PI+OT, was lost on 13 March 1943 near Bomlo, Norway. It lay in more than 100’ of water until recovered 49 years later on 7 November 1992.  It is being restored by the Luftfartshistorik Museum in Sola for the Herdla Museum, Norway

An Arado Ar 96B-1 is on display in the Flyhistorisk Museum Sola, Norway.  The Flyhistorisk Museum, Sola (Sola Aviation Museum) is an aviation museum located in Stavanger Airport, Sola, near Stavanger, Norway.

(Jerry Pinkowski Photo)

Arado Ar 96B (Wk. Nr. unknown), captured by the USAAF, location and details unknown.  

(Karsten Palt Photo)

Arado Ar 96B-1, (Wk. Nr. unknown), Avia AG, Prague, 1943, 410a (340 hp) motor.  This aircraft is preserved in the Deutschestechnik Museum, Berlin, Germany.

Arado Ar 96B-1, (Wk. Nr. unknown).  Remains of this aircraft are preserved in the Flyhistorisk Museum, Stavanger Airport, Sola, Norway.

(Luftwaffe Photo)

Arado Ar 396, advanced trainer variant of Ar 96.

Arado Ar 196A

(Kriegsmarine Photo)

Arado Ar 196A-3 being loaded onto the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee.

The Arado Ar 196A was a Luftwaffe two-seat coastal patrol and light attack aircraft powered by one BMW 312K nine-cylinder radial air-cooled piston engine. It had a top speed of 194-mph, a cruising speed of 166-mph, service ceiling of 22,965’, and a range of 497 miles. Loaded, it had a weight of 7,282 lbs. It had a wingspan of 40’ 10”, a length of 35’ 11-1/2” and a height of 14’7”. It was armed with two wing-mounted 20-mm MG FF cannon with 60 rpg plus one 7.9-mm MG 17 machinegun in the starboard side of the forward fuselage and one 7.9-mm MG 15 on a flexible mounting with 525 rpg; plus one ETC 50/VIII rack underneath each wing for a single 110-lb SC 50 bomb.

The Ar 196A was loved by its pilots, who found it handled well both in the air and on the water. The first Arado Ar 196A to fall into allied hands was an example belonging to the German heavy cruiser KMS Admiral Hipper captured in Lyngstad by a Norwegian Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F. 11 seaplane of the Trødelag naval district on 8 April 1940 at the beginning of the Norwegian campaign. It was flown against its former owners with Norwegian markings. On 18 April 1940 it was flown to the UK by a Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service pilot. Not long afterwards the plane crashed while being flown by a British pilot while in transit to the Helensburgh naval air base for testing. At the end of the war, at least one other Ar 196A was left at a Norwegian airfield and kept in use as a liaison aircraft by the Royal Norwegian Air Force for a year on the West Coast.

(RAF Photo)

Arado Ar 196A-5 (Wk. Nr. 514), ship-borne reconnaissance/coastal patrol floatplane, captured at Schleswig.  Designated RAF AM92, this aircraft was scrapped at Felixstowe in 1947.

One of the captured Ar 196A seaplanes was flown by RCAF S/L Ian Somerville.

Arado Ar 196A, (Wk. Nr .unknown), captured at Schleswig.  Designated RAF AM90, this aircraft was scrapped at Schleswig.

Arado Ar 196A-5, (Wk. Nr. 127), captured at Schleswig.  Designated RAF AM91, this aircraft was scrapped at Felixstowe in 1947.

Arado Ar 199A-0, (Wk. Nr. unknown), captured at Schleswig.  Designated RAF AM93, this aircraft was scrapped at Schleswig.

(Peter Meneely Photo)

Arado Ar 196A-3, ship-borne reconnaissance/coastal patrol floatplane.  This aircraft was operated by the Bulgarian Air Force.  It is displayed at the  Bulgarski Vozdushni Voiski Muzeum (Museum of Aviation and the Air Force), Plovdiv, Bulgaria.  

Only three Ar 196A floatplanes still exist from the total production run of 526 aircraft, excluding the prototypes and pre-production aircraft. Ar 196A-3 (Werk-Nummer 75526), coded as “White 3” (Serial No. 0219), is on display in the Bulgarski Vozdushni Voiski Muzeum in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, with Bulgarian insignia. This Ar 196A-3 is one of twelve the Bulgarian Navy operated during the Second World War from Varna on the coast.

Ar 196A-5, (Wk. Nr. 623167) coded +HG, T3+BH, belongs to the National Air & Space Museum. The Allies recovered two Ar 196A-5s found on board the German battlecruiser Prinz Eugen when she surrendered at Copenhagen, Denmark.

Ar 196A-5, (Wk. Nr. 623183) coded T3+CH is the second of these two aircraft, and is being restored by the U S Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida.

The Norwegian Historical Museum in Sola, Norway, has the fuselage frame of an Ar 196A-2 raised from the sunken German battleship Blücher.

When the US Navy took custody of Prinz Eugen, they were more interested in the catapult system used to launch the floatplane rather than the Ar 196A-5 but they saved the two aircraft anyway. The Ar 196A-5, (Wk. Nr. 623167) in the NASM has only 14 hours of operational flying time and U S Navy pilots added just four more hours during testing and evaluation at the Naval Air Materiel Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The US Navy evidently repainted the airplane with markings copied from a different aircraft. That floatplane bore the code letters GA+DX (Wk. Nr. 68967). Today, the National Air & Space Museum‘s Ar 196A-5 still carries the bogus paint and markings of GA+DX. After years in storage, the Navy transferred the airplane to the Museum in 1961, where it is now preserved.

Both of the Arado Ar 196A-5 floatplanes were recovered from the German cruiser Prinz Eugen by American forces survive.  Arado Ar 196A-5 (Wk. Nr. 623167) is in storage at the Paul E. Garber Facility of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, and awaiting restoration.  Ar 196A-5 (Wk. Nr. 623183) was stored with the National Museum of Naval Aviation (NMNA) at Pensacola, Florida.  This aircraft is currently on loan to the Aeronauticum Museum at Nordholz, Germany.

(Björn Atterberg Photo)

Arado Ar 196A-3 (Wk. Nr. 1003), parts stored in a Swedish Air Force Museum.

Arado Ar 196A

(Luftwaffe Photo)

Arado Ar 196, ship-borne reconnaissance/coastal patrol floatplane.

(Luftwaffe Photos)

Arado Ar 197, designed for naval operations for the never-completed German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin.  One a few prototypes were built.

(Luftwaffe Photo)

Arado Ar 198 reconnaissance (prototype).

(Luftwaffe Photos)

Arado Ar 199, seaplane trainer (prototype).

Arado Ar 231, folding wing U-boat reconnaissance aircraft (prototype).  (Luftwaffe Photos)

Arado Ar 232 V1 & V2  twin-engine transport aircraft prototypes and research aircraft, powered by a pair of 1,193 kW (1,600 hp) BMW 801A/B engines.  (Luftwaffe Photos)

‍Arado Ar 232B-1

(Luftwaffe Photo)

Arado Ar 232B four-engine transports in Luftwaffe service.

The Arado Ar 232 Tausendfüßler (Millipede), sometimes also called Tatzelwurm, was a Luftwaffe four-engine heavy transport aircraft powered by four 1,200-hp BMW-Bramo 323R-2 radial piston engines.  The Ar 232 was the first truly modern cargo aircraft, designed and built in small numbers by the German firm Arado Flugzeugwerke during the Second World War.  The design introduced, or brought together, almost all of the features now considered to be “standard” in modern cargo transport aircraft designs, including a box-like fuselage slung beneath a high wing; a rear loading ramp (that had first appeared on the October 1941-flown Junkers Ju 252 tri-motored transport); a high tail for easy access to the hold; and various features for operating from rough fields.  Although the Luftwaffe was interested in replacing or supplementing its fleet of outdated Junkers Ju 52/3m transports, it had an abundance of types in production at the time and did not purchase large numbers of the Ar 232.

The Ar 232B had a maximum speed of 211-mph, a cruising speed of 180-mph, a service ceiling of 26,245’, and a range of 658 miles.  It had a maximum weight of 46,595-lbs at take-off.   It had a wingspan of 109’11”, a length of 77’2”, and a height of 18’8”.  The “Millipede,” was equipped with a pod-and-boom fuselage with a hydraulically operated rear-loading door.

The most noticeable feature of the Ar 232 was the landing gear. Normal operations from prepared runways used a tricycle gear, but the struts could “break”, or kneel, after landing to place the fuselage closer to the ground and thereby reduce the ramp angle.  An additional set of ten smaller, non-retractable twinned wheels per side supported the aircraft once the primary gear was “broken”, or could be used for additional support when landing on soft or rough airfields.  The aircraft was intended to be capable of taxiing at low speeds on its small wheels, thus being able to negotiate small obstacles such as ditches up to 1.5 m (5 ft) in width.  The appearance of the row of small wheels led to the nickname “millipede”.  In flight, the main legs fully retracted into the engine nacelles, while the fixed support wheels remained exposed and the nose wheel only semi-retracted.

Normally operated by a crew of four, the pilot was the only member without two roles.  The navigator operated a 13-mm (.51 in) MG 131 in the nose, the radio operator a 20-mm MG 151 cannon in a rotating turret on the roof, and the loadmaster a 13-mm (.51 in) MG 131 firing rearward from the extreme rear of the cargo bay above the cargo doors.

(Luftwaffe Photos)

Arado Ar 232B-1 four-engine transports in Luftwaffe service.

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(RAF Photos)

Arado Ar 232B-0, (Wk. Nr. 305002), RAF AM17.  

Arado Ar 232B-0 (Wk. Nr. 305002) A3+RB, 3./KG 200 (3rd Sqn, 200th Bomb Wing, (Special Operations Wing).  The aircraft was surrendered to British forces at Eggebek, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, in 1945.  This aircraft was designated RAF AM17 and pressed into service to ferry spare parts from occupied Europe to Farnborough, often flown by Squadron Leaders McCarthy and Somerville.  It was scrapped at RAF Sealand in 1948.  One of two B-0s captured by British forces at the end of the war, it was also test flown by Capt (N) Eric “Winkle” Brown, who gave the design excellent marks.  The aircraft were part of the Royal Aircraft Establishment’s Foreign Aircraft Flight at Farnborough.  None of these aircraft have survived.  S/L McCarthy, DSO, DFC and Bar, had flown with the RAF’s famous Lancaster “Dambusters.”  After the war he chose to remain in the RCAF, finishing his service on Canadair CP-107 Argus ASW aircraft at Greenwood, Nova Scotia, in 1968.

Arado Ar 234 jet powered bombers are listed on a separate page on this website.

(Luftwaffe Photo)

Arado Ar 234B V9 prototype seen with an SC 1,000 bomb on the centreline, 15 Mar 1944.  The aircraft is equipped with a conventional undercariage.  The aircraft lacks a cockpit roof periscope fairing.  It was flown in weapons trials.

Arado Ar 234B

The Arado Ar 234B-2 Blitz was the world’s first operational jet-powered bomber, built by the German Arado company in the closing stages of the Second World War. It was powered by two Junkers Jumo 004B-1 axial-low turbojets, each with 1,984-lb thrust. The Ar 234 was produced in very limited numbers and was used almost entirely in the reconnaissance role, but in its few uses as a bomber it proved to be nearly impossible to intercept. It was the last Luftwaffe aircraft to fly over England during the war, in April 1945.

The Ar 234 was commonly known as Blitz (lightning), although this name refers only to the B-2 bomber variant] and it is not clear whether it derived from the informal term Blitz-Bomber (roughly, “very fast bomber”) or was ever formally applied. The alternate name Hecht (“pike”) is derived from one of the units equipped with this aircraft, Sonderkommando Hecht.[1]

The Blitz had a maximum speed of 461-mph, a cruising speed of 435-mph, a service ceiling of 32,810, and a range of 967 miles with a 1,100-lb bomb load. The aircraft weighed 11,464 lbs empty and 21,605 lbs with maximum bomb load. It has a wing span of 46’3”, a length of 41’5” and a height of 14’1”. It was armed with two fixed aft-firing 20-mm Mauser MG 151/20 cannon with 200 rpg.[2]

In July 1944 the fifth and seventh prototypes of the Ar 234 were subjected to operational evaluation in the reconnaissance role by 1/Versuchsverband Oberbefehishaber der Luftwaffe at Juvincourt, near Reims. Fitted with Walter RATO equipment, they defied interception during numerous sorties over Allied territory and were joined later by some Ar 234B-ls which, in small detachments, equipped experimental reconnaissance units designated Sonderkommandos Gotz, Hecht, Sperling and Sommer. Two other units, 1.(F)/33 and 1.(F)/100, were still operational at the war’s end. The bomber version first became operational with the Stabstaffel of KG 76, deployed during the Ardennes offensive, but at that stage of the war the number of sorties that could be mounted was limited severely by fuel shortage. Among the most noted bomber operations were attempts to destroy the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine at Remagen, which was held by US troops. For 10 days from 7 March 1945 almost continuous attacks were made on this target until finally the bridge collapsed, but within two more weeks bomber operations had virtually come to an end for lack of fuel. The Ar 234 was also flown by Kommando Bonow, an experimental night-fighter unit which operated until the end of the war under the control of Luftflotte Reich.

Total construction of the Arado Ar 234 amounted to 274 aircraft, of which 30 were prototypes and 244 production aircraft.[3] A total of 210 Ar-234Bs and 14 Ar-234Cs were delivered to the Luftwaffe, but with Germany in chaos, only a handful ever got into combat. A final inventory taken on 10 April 1945 listed 38 in service, including 12 bombers, 24 reconnaissance aircraft, and 2 night fighters.[4]

On 24 February, an Ar-234B suffered a flameout in one of its engines and was forced down to a hard landing by an American Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter near the village of Segelsdorf. The jet was captured by the advancing Allies the next day. It was the first example of the type to fall into Allied hands largely intact.   Ar 234s “continued to fight in a scattered and ineffective fashion until Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945. Some were shot down in air combat, destroyed by flak, sometimes their own, or bounced by Allied fighters when they came in to land. Others performed their missions and then fled too fast for enemy fighters to follow, to land and then wait for scarce fuel to be found so they could fly other missions.”[5]

(USAAF Photos)

Arado Ar 234 and Junkers Ju 88G in a bombed out hangar, Manching, Bavaria, Germany, May 1945.

(Luftwaffe Photo)

Arado Ar 234B V9 prototype seen with an SC 1,000 bomb on the centreline, 15 Mar 1944.  The aircraft is equipped with a conventional undercariage.  The aircraft lacks a cockpit roof periscope fairing.  It was flown in weapons trials.

(Kogo Photo)

This aircraft and three others were collected by the famous “Watson’s Whizzers” of the USAAF to be shipped back to the United States for flight testing. Two aircraft were given freely but a further two had been traded to Watson by Eric “Winkle” Brown (test pilot and CO of the Enemy Aircraft Flight at the RAE) in exchange for an interview with Hermann Göring who was then being held by the Americans.

The aircraft was flown from Sola to Cherbourg, France on 24 June 1945 where it joined 34 other advanced German aircraft shipped back to the USA aboard the British aircraft carrier HMS Reaper. Reaper departed from Cherbourg on 20 July, arriving at Newark, New Jersey eight days later. Upon arrival two of the Ar 234s were reassembled (including 140312) and flown by USAAF pilots to Freeman Field, Seymour, Indiana Indiana for testing and evaluation. 140312 was assigned the foreign equipment number FE-1010. The fate of the second Ar 234 flown to Freeman Field remains a mystery. One of the remaining two was reassembled by the United States Navy at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, for testing, but was found to be in unflyable condition and was scrapped.

After receiving new engines, radio and oxygen equipment, 140312 was transferred to Wright Field near Dayton, Ohio and delivered to the Accelerated Service Test Maintenance Squadron (ASTMS) of the Flight Test Division in July 1946. Flight testing was completed on 16 October 1946 though the aircraft remained at Wright Field until 1947. It was then transferred to Orchard Place Airport in Park Ridge, Illinois, and remained there until 1 May 1949 when it, and several other aircraft stored at the airport were transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. During the early 1950s the Ar 234 was moved to the Smithsonian’s Paul Garber Restoration Facility at Suitland, Maryland for storage and eventual restoration.

The Smithsonian began restoration of 140312 in 1984 and completed it in February 1989. All paint had been stripped from the aircraft before the Smithsonian received it, so the aircraft was painted with the markings of an aircraft of 8./KG 76, the first operational unit to fly the “Blitz”. The restored aircraft was first displayed at the Smithsonian’s main museum building in downtown Washington D.C. in 1993 as part of a display titled “Wonder Weapon? The Arado Ar 234”. In 2005 it became one of the first aircraft moved to the new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles International Airport.  Today, (Wk. Nr. 140312) is displayed next to the last surviving Dornier Do 335, an aircraft that had accompanied it on its voyage across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Reaper over 60 years earlier.

This aircraft is displayed with a pair of Hellmuth Walter designed, liquid-fueled RATO units mounted under its wings. These RATO units may be the only surviving examples to be mounted on an aircraft.

‍Arado Ar 234C

Arado Ar 234C four-engine variant.  The Soviet Union shipped one Arado-234C and two Heinkel-162 to Moscow for testing.  (Luftwaffe Photos)

(USAAF Photo)

The Arado Ar 234C was designed as a multipurpose variant.  Shown here at München-Riem airfield is the four-engined Ar 234 V13, which had numerous improvements over the B-2.  It used four BMW 003 A-1 engines, two under each wing, which produced a combined thrust of 3200kg, compared to the B-2's two Jumo 004 engines which produced 1800kg of thrust.  This offered a ~20% increase in speed, and slightly better rate of climb.  Another improvement was the raised cockpit, which offered increased visibilty.  It was also armed with two MG151/20 fixed forward-firing cannons in the nose section.  This aircraft was first flown in Sep 1944.

(USAAF Photo)

Arado Ar-234 V19 (Wk. Nr. 130 029), one of the Ar 234C variants, powered by four BMW 003A engines

(USAAF Photo)

Arado Ar-234 V13 with BMW-003 engines, four-engine variant.  At least one four-engined Ar 234 (possibly the V15) made the first-ever four-jet-engined combat sortie over England late in 1944 and early Jam 1945.

(USAAF Photo)

Arado Ar-234 V13 with BMW-003 engines, four-engine variant.

(Luftwaffe Photos)

Arado E.381 Kleinstjäger (smallest fighter), a proposed parasite fighter aircraft.  Conceived by Arado Flugzeugwerke in December 1944, the E.381 was to have been carried aloft by and launched from an Arado Ar 234 "mother" aircraft.  It would then have activated its rocket engine, which would have propelled it to attack Allied bombers. Development was cancelled due to lack of funds and official support.  There were three proposed variants; each had fuel capacity for only two target runs, after which the pilot would have been required to glide without power to a landing on under-belly skids.  To survive close pursuits, the E.381 was designed with the narrowest frontal cross section possible to increase its chances of surviving shots from the front.  This also forced the pilot to lie in a prone position.  The cross-section was 0.45 square meters (4.8 sq ft), or approximately a quarter of the cross section of the Messerschmitt Bf 109.  

Arado E.555, (model) bomber proposed by the Arado company in response to the Amerika Bomber project.  This was an initiative of the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (Germany Air Ministry), RLM, to obtain a long-range bomber for the Luftwaffe that would be capable of striking the continental United States from Germany.  Requests for designs were made to the major German aircraft manufacturers early in the Second World War, long before the US had entered the war.  There were a several different configurations of the design considered, the most striking being the E.555-1.  This was a six-jet, angular flying wing design, with remotely operated turrets, and capable of carrying a large payload.  All of these projects were deemed too expensive and plans for development were abandoned in late 1944.  (Juergen Kleuser Photo)

Arado E.560, a series of multi-enginedmedium-range tactical bombers projected during the Second World War.  The  E.560 designs were part of the propaganda-based Wunderwaffeconcept.  None of the projected bombers were built as the project took place near the end of the Third Reich and was terminated by the end of the war in Europe.  The Arado E.560 designs were a development based on the Arado 234 and they share some characteristics with that plane.  Only five designs of Ar E.560 variants have survived; the remaining are unknown. Except for two variants which were propeller-driven aircraft, the other three E.560 designs were to be powered by turbojets.  The Ar E.560 2 was a four-engined bomber project powered by four-row radial propeller engines.  The Ar E.560 4 was to be a turbo-powered four engine jet with swept back wings.  The Ar E.560 7 was a smaller twin engine turboprop bomber with swept back wings.  The Ar E.560 8 was a six engine turboprop bomber with swept back wings.  The Ar E.560 11 was a four engine turbojet bomber with swept back wings.  They were all equipped with retractable tricycle undercarriage.  All of the Arado E.560 variants had a pressurized cockpit for a crew of two located at the front end of the fuselage.

Arado Ar 240, heavy fighter/attack (prototype) in Luftwaffe service.  (Luftwaffe Photos)

Arado Ar 440 heavy fighter/attack derived from Ar 240 (prototype).  (Luftwaffe Photo)

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