Single long-range twin-engine reconnaissance Arado Ag234
The project of a single-seater long-range twin-engine reconnaissance Ar 234A was completed at the end of 1941 (the initial designation of the project is Ar E.370). The RLM technical specification did not provide for the group launch of these aircraft, therefore, for the convenience of placing fuel and reducing the weight of the machine, the designers of the company refused to use a normal landing gear. Instead, a retractable ski was installed under the fuselage, to ensure stability when landing under the engine nacelles provided for a small support. For take-off, the aircraft was mounted on a drop off starting trolley, landing was carried out on the ventral ski.
The prototypes of this series were the first eight experimental machines (Ar 234V1 - Ar 234V8). For the first time, the plane was flown into the air by test pilot Captain Zelle 15 June 1943, later the car was lost. The second copy of Ar 234V2 took off on July 27 1943, but crashed during further tests. The third car Ar 234V3 was used for testing take-off with additional HWK 501 accelerators, the pressurized cabin was equipped with an ejection cross, and the aircraft received heavy damage during testing. The fourth and fifth aircraft were in reserve. The first four copies were installed TRD Jumo 004A 840 kgf, the fifth car had engines Jumo 004B-0 with the same strain, but lighter on 100 kg.
On the sixth and eighth machines, 4 TRD was installed on the BMW 003A 800 kgf, which were tested for use on the C-series machines. On the sixth machine, the engines were placed in separate gondolas, on the eighth - in twin gondolas.
The first flight of the sixth vehicle took place on 8 on April 1944, later it went
military trials at the front. The seventh car that first took off on July 10 1944,
The main technical characteristics of the Ar 234: crew - one person, weight - 7750 kg, [actual ceiling - 11700 m, maximum speed at a height of 6000 m - 765 km / h, range-1940 km. Dimensions: aircraft length - 12,64 m, height - 4,3 and, wingspan - 14.41 m. Rifle armament was not installed, there were compartments of photographic equipment and a brake parachute in the rear part of the fuselage. In connection with the decision on the construction of machines of series B, further work on series A was stopped.
Series B (prototype Ag 234V9) - the design of this series of aircraft began in December 1942, i.e. even before the flight tests of the A-series cars began. The technical assignment was changed: the plane had to be multi-purpose and take off from any airfield, including in the group. Therefore, instead of the starting carriage and skis, the designers provided for a normal three-wheeled chassis, which was used in all subsequent series; two Jumo 004B-2 engines were used as a power plant: Ag 234В-1 - individual reconnaissance with photographic equipment; kg, maximum speed - 9200 km / h, radius of action - 780 km, practical ceiling - 1950 11 m.
A fighter version of this machine was also developed without photographic equipment, and under the fuselage two fixed MG 151 cannons were mounted in special fairings.
Ag 234B-2 - the first single-seat serial jet bomber. Armament - two fixed guns MG 151. shot parallel to the axis of the fuselage back, with 250 ammunition shots at the barrel. The bomb load could be taken in three versions: one 1000 kg bomb - under the fuselage, 2 bombs on 500 kg - under the engine nacelles, one 500 kg bomb - under the fuselage, and two 250 kg bombs - under the engine nacelles.
He became the first production aircraft with a fixed weapons for firing back. This was caused by the appearance in the last years of the war of high-speed, but low-maneuverable jet fighters, in connection with which the line of pursuit in aerial combat approached the direct one and the most likely for the fighter was an attack from a tail bomber.
Aiming when shooting was carried out through the periscope sight PV-1B, mounted in the upper part of the cockpit. The eyepiece of the sight was in front of the pilot's eyes, and the upper part with two lenses (front and rear) stood for the dimensions of the flashlight. To prevent icing under the protective glasses lenses were heaters. The front objective of the sight was used during dive bombing, switching the direction of aiming (forward or backward) was carried out by appropriately rearranging the optical prism of the sight.
For aiming during the bombing from horizontal flight, an automated synchronous bomber sight Lotfe-7k was used, in which data on the flight altitude and speed of the aircraft were entered. In addition, before the flight, data on the speed and direction of the wind, as well as the ballistic coefficient of the bomb, were manually entered into the scope.
The sight was connected to the autopilot. When approaching the target, the pilot turned on the autopilot and turned the sight, directing the vertical axis of the grid at the target. The turn of sight was transmitted to autopilot, and the plane went to the combat course. After that, the pilot turned the tracking prism of the sight, throwing the sighting beam forward and directing the crosshairs of the reticle into the target, and included a synchronous mechanism. The synchronous mechanism turned the sighting beam (prism of the sight) back with an angular velocity equal to the angular velocity of the aircraft relative to the target, thanks to which the crosshairs of the grid continued to cover the target until the bombs dropped. The sight was also connected to the ASK-234 electric spreader, therefore, the dropping of bombs (salvo or single) occurred automatically when the sighting beam of the sight was with the vertical the desired angle of sight.
The cabin of the aircraft was heated with air taken from the power plants. On the day of the entrance to the cabin on the left side of the fuselage there were a retractable ladder, steps and handles. The cover of the entrance hatch to the cabin in emergency cases could be discharged using a special mechanism. The main advantage of the cockpit layout is a good view of the pilot ahead, sideways and down, since most of the cockpit was sheathed with plexiglass.
To facilitate the take-off of a heavily loaded car, under the wing, from the outer sides of the engines, starting accelerators could be hung up on 500 kgf each, which almost doubled the run-up.
The fuel was placed in two soft tanks: the front tank 1800 l and the rear tank 2000 l. For each engine, the Coupling Test from Ag 234 and Pi 103 provided for the possibility of supplying fuel from any tank using cross supply valves.
If necessary, two outboard tanks of 300 l each could be installed, which were hung under the engines. In flight, fuel was pumped from the left outboard tank to the rear main tank, and from the right outboard tank to the front main tank.
A total of 210 B-series aircraft were built by the end of the war, and they equipped the reconnaissance Sonderkommandos Hecht and Sperling (Ag 234B-1) and the bomber squadron KG 76 (Ag 234B-2). It was intended to use the Ag 234B as a tug for the winged missiles The Fi 103, which was equipped with a jettisonable two-wheel chassis and a towing mount, was tested at Rechlin.
The C series (prototype Ar 234V19) was a bomber that could simultaneously carry up to 1500 kg of bombs. To achieve higher speeds, four BMW 004A turbojet engines were installed instead of two Jumo 2B-003 turbojet engines, paired under each wing console. The overall dimensions of the machines in this series are Analo-2™ (similar to the B series. Ar 234C-1) — single-seat reconnaissance aircraft, armament — four fixed MG 151 cannons (two in the nose of the fuselage for forward firing and two in the tail of the fuselage, directed backwards), takeoff weight — 9900 kg, maximum speed — 870 km/h, range — 1475 km, service ceiling — 11 m;
Ag 234-2 - single bomber, similar to the previous version, take-off weight - 10 100 kg, maximum speed - 895 km / h, range - 1600 km, practical ceiling - 11 530 m. with four MG 234 guns (in the fighter version, two guns were located in the forward fuselage, and two in the fairing under the fuselage forward), take-off weight - 3 151 kg, maximum speed - 11 km / h, radius - 555 km, practical ceiling - 892 1230 m, in the nose of the fuselage to FuG 11 "Neptun" radar was installed.
Ar 234S-4 - Single scout with engines BMW 003C, armament - four guns MG 151 (two in the fuselage nose, two in the fairing under the fuselage for shooting ago - trunks to tail), take-off weight - 9YU0 kg, maximum speed - 880 km / h, practical ceiling - 11 530 m.
AG 234-5 - Double bomber with BMW 003C engines.
Ag 234-6 - single reconnaissance based on the previous version.
Ag 234-7 - double night fighter, equipped with four HeS 011A engines using 1350 kgf radar and FuG 245 "Bremen" radar in the front of the fuselage, armament - two 108 mm MK 30 guns and a full-sized pink gun X-mmX gun and a drawing gun. .
Ag 234-8 - single bomber with two engines Jumo 004D 1050 kgf, take-off weight - 9800 kg, maximum speed - 755 km / h.
In total, until the end of the war, 10 experimental machines and 14 serials were built from this series.
Ag 234 was also tested as a rocket towing vehicle Hs 294, in addition to this, the launch method of the cruise missile Fi 103 from the back of Ag 234С was tested, for which MG 151 was used, take-off weight - 11700 kg, maximum speed - 850 km / h, radius of action - 1125 km
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