Germany: Luftwaffe Warplanes, 1939-1945: Arado Ar 234

‍German warplanes of the Second World War: Arado Ar 234

Deutsche Flugzeuge aus dem Zweiten Weltkrieg: Arado Ar 234

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.

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(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.

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(USAAF Photo)

Arado Ar 234B-2, (Wk. Nr. 140173), F1+MT, III./KG76, brought down near Segelsdorf, Germany on 24 Feb 1945. This was the first of its type to be captured by the Allies. Fate unknown.

(RAF Photos)

Arado Ar 234B-1 (Wk. Nr. 140476), 8H+HH, captured at Grove, Denmark.  This aircraft was designated RAF AM26, later VK877.  It was scrapped at Farnborough.

Arado Ar 234B-2 (Wk. Nr. 140466), captured at Grove, Denmark.  This aircraft was designated RAF AM24.  It crashed at Farnborough on 27 Aug 1945.

Arado Ar 234B (Wk. Nr. 140608), captured at Grove, Denmark.  This aircraft was designated RAF AM25, later VK880.  It was scrapped at Brize Norton in 1948.

Arado Ar 234B (Wk. Nr. 140113), captured at Schlesweg.  This aircraft was designated RAF AM54, later VH530.  It was scrapped at Brize Norton in 1948.

Arado Ar 234B (Wk. Nr. 140356), captured at Stavanger, Norway.  Designated RAF AM226, this aircraft was scrapped at Farnboough, England.

Arado Ar 234B (Wk. Nr. 140141), captured at Stavanger, Norway.  Designated RAF AM227, this aircraft was scrapped at Brize Norton, England.

(RAF Photo)

Arado Ar 234B (Wk. Nr. 140493), captured at Stavanger, Norway.  Designated RAF AM228, this aircraft was scrapped at Brize Norton, England.

Arado Ar 234B (Wk. Nr. 140581), captured at Stavanger, Norway.  Designated RAF AM229, this aircraft was scrapped at Brize Norton, England.

Arado Ar 234B (Wk. Nr. 140107), captured at Schleswig.  Shipped to Oxfordness, England this aircraft was used as a ballistic target at Oxfordness, England.

(RAF Photo)

Arado Ar 234B, (Wk. Nr. 140581) captured at Sola Airfield, Stavanger, Norway, still wearing Luftwaffe markings, being examined by RAF personnel.  

(RAF Photo)

Arado Ar 234B, (Wk. Nr. 140581) 8H+CH captured at Sola Airfield, Stavanger, Norway, being ground run.  The aircraft wears RAF markings and was one of ten Ar 234Bs surrendered at Stavanger, Norway.  Two of these went to the USAAF and one survives in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Museum, Chantilly, Virginia.  Four of the remaining Ar 234s were flown to Farnborough.

Arado Ar 234B, (Wk. Nr. 140486), captured at Grove, Denmark.  Designated RAF USA 7, this aircraft may have been sent to France.

(USAAF Photo)

Arado Ar 234B, (Wk. Nr. 140311), USA 40, FE-1011, Wright Field, Oct 1945.

(USN Photos)

Arado Ar 234B-1, (Wk. Nr. 140489), Watson’s Whizzers 202, USA 5, USN (Bu No. 121445), Jane I.  This aircraft was scrapped at the Naval Air Test Center (NATC) Patuxent River, Maryland.

(USAAF Photos)

Arado Ar 234B-2, (Wk. Nr. 140312), allocated to the USA by the RAF as USA 50, redesignated FE-1010, later T2-1010.

(USAAF Photos)

Arado Ar 234B-1, (Wk. Nr. 140312), coded F1+DR, USA 50, FE-1010, T2-1010, Wright Field, Ohio, ca 1945. This aircraft is now on display in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.  This Ar 234 B-2 was F1+DR, a detail not known when it was restored and painted as F1+GS.

After the war ended, a race began to collect advanced technology. Ar 234s were scattered all over Western Europe, and the British obtained about a dozen of them. The Soviets apparently only recovered one. For whatever reasons, the Ar 234 had been primarily used in the west.

The Ar 234C was equipped with four BMW 003A engines to free up Junkers Jumo 004s from use by the Me 262. The utilization of four engines improved overall thrust, especially in take-off and climb-to-altitude performance. 15 prototypes of the AR 234C were completed before the end of the conflict. Although Hauptmann Dieter Lukesch was preparing to form an operational test squadron, the Ar 234C was not developed in time to participate in actual combat operations.[6]

Four Ar 234s along with an assortment of other advanced Luftwaffe aircraft and shipped to the USA on the “jeep” carrier HMS Reaper. Three were given to the US Army Air Force and one to the US Navy, though the Navy’s aircraft turned out to be in permanently unflyable condition. One of the three obtained by the USAAF, (Wk. Nr. 140312), was put through intensive tests at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and ultimately handed on to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air & Space Museum, where it is now prominently on display.[7]

(USAAF Photo)

Arado Ar 234B-2, (Wk. Nr. 140312), USA 50, FE-1010, later T2-1010.

Only one Ar 234 survives today. The National Air & Space Museum‘s Arado Ar 234B-2 Blitz bomber (US Navy Bu 140312), and coded F1+GS, is on display in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Virginia.[8] The aircraft is an Ar 234B-2 bomber variant carrying Werknummer (manufacturer’s serial number) 140312, and was one of nine Ar 234s surrendered to British forces at Sola Airfield near Stavanger, Norway. The aircraft had been operating with 9. Staffel III./Kampfgeschwader 76 (later reorganised as Einsatzstaffel) during the final weeks of the war, having operated previously with the 8th squadron, carrying the full-four-character Geschwaderkennung military code of “F1+GS” on the fuselage sides.

(Kogo Photos)

Arado Ar 234B-2, (Wk. Nr. 140312), USA 50, FE-1010, T2-1010, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.  This Ar 234 B-2 was F1+DR, a detail not known when it was restored as F1+GS.

(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 234B-2, (Wk. Nr. 140355) captured by the Soviet Union during the first stage of  test flights at Puetnitz.  One aircraft Arado-234C and two Heinkel-162 were also shipped to Moscow for testing.  (Soviet Air Force Photo)

The Soviet Air Force tested Arado Ar 234, (Wk. Nr. 140355) in Germany in March 1945.  This aircraft's landing gear, wing, and some primary members of the fuselage had been damaged during a forced landing.  The aircraft was rebuilt at a repair plant in the town of Ribnitz, but one of its Junkers engines malfunctioned during its first flight in June 1945.  An Air Forces Scientific Research Institute brigade again repaired the aircraft and performed the first stage of flight-testing in Germany.  In January-February 1946, Major A G. Kubyshkin flew five Arado sorties.  During that time, two engines malfunctioned.  On 26 January, a port engine failed during climb-out and, exactly one month later, the starboard engine flamed out during the takeoff roll.  Fires occurred both times, but the aircraft were rescued.  Having had the opportunity to compare the German Jets, Soviet Engineer-Lieutenant Colonel A. G. Kochetkov thought that the Arado was more difficult to handle than the Me 262.

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.  

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