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Air Power |
The Messerschmitt Me 210 was a heavy fighter designed before the start of World War II to replace the Bf 110 in that role. The first examples of the Me 210 were ready in 1939 but they proved to have terrible handling, and remedying the problem took so long that everyone involved tried to distance themselves from it. An improved version was eventually ready years later, but the 210 had garnered such a bad reputation that it was renamed the Me 410 to avoid disdain.
Messerschmitt designers had started working on an upgrade to the Bf 110 in 1937, before the production version had even flown. In late 1938 the 110 was just entering service when the RLM also started looking for its replacement. Messerschmitt sent in their modifed 110 as the Me 210, and Arado responded with their all-new Arado Ar 240.
The Me 210 was a straightforward cleanup of the 110 and used many of the same parts. The main differences were a modified nose area that was much shorter and located over the center of gravity, and an all-new wing designed for higher cruise speeds. On paper the 210 looked fantastic. It could reach 385mph on two 1,395hp Dailmer-Benz DB 601F engines, making it about 50mph faster than the 110, and as fast as single-engine fighters of the era. It had a huge bomb-bay in the nose, which could hold up to 1000kg of bombs, or alternately up to six 20mm cannon, with dive breaks were fitted on the tops of the wings and a Stuvi 5B bomb sight in the nose for dive bombing. For defense it mounted clever remote-controlled guns in well-faired barbettes on the side of the plane, and the cockpit had a "bulged" canopy to allow the gunner to see (and aim) down and to the rear.
An order for 1,000 was placed even before the prototype had flown. In time this would prove to be unwise. The first prototype 210 flew with 601A engines in September 1939 and was considered unflyable. Stability was bad in turns, and it tended to "snake" even while flying level. At first the designers concentrated on the twin-rudder arrangement that had been taken from the 110, and replaced it with a new and much larger vertical stabilizer. However this had almost no real effect, and the plane continued to snake. The plane also had terrible stalls, and with the nose up or in a turn the stalls whipped into spins when the leading-edge slats opened. V2 was lost this way the next September when the pilot could not get out of the resulting spin and had to jump. The chief test pilot commented that the Me 210 had "all the least desirable attributes an aeroplane could possess." Nevertheless, the RLM was desperate to replace the 6,000 110's currently in service, and ordered full production in the spring of 1941.
Deliveries to front-line units started in April 1942 and the plane proved to be even less popular with pilots. Production was stopped at the end of the month, by which time only 90 had been delivered. Another 320 were simply left unfinished on the factory floor. In its place the 110 went back into production, now hopelessly outclassed even when equipped with the newer DB 605 engines.
Meanwhile the various German allies were more than happy with the plane in its current state, and Hungary purchased several of the unfinished airframes and completed them in their own factories. They then went on to start production of their own, known as the 210C with the DB 605B engine, under an agreement where the Luftwaffe got two of every three produced. The Luftwaffe started receiving their planes in April 1943, but the Hungarians didn't get their own until 1944, but when they did enter service they were more than happy with them. Production ended in March 1944, when the factory switched over the produce Messerschmitt Bf 109G's. By that time, a total of 267 Me 210Cs had been built, 108 of them had been given to the Luftwaffe.
The C models were so much better than the A's that there was talk of producing a 210D in Germany, identical to the Hungarian C's. However by this time a complete detail redesign the plane resulted in the "new" Me 410 Hornisse (Hornet).
Specifications:
Manufacturer: Messerschmitt
Role: Heavy fighter
Crew: two, pilot and gunner
Powerplant: 2 Daimler-Benz DB 601F 1,395hp each
Dimensions:
Length: 40 ft 3in
Wingspan: 53 ft 1 1/4in
Height: 14 ft 1/2in
Wing area: 390 sq ft
Weights: Empty 12,000 lb / Maximum take-off 17,857 lb
Performance :
Maximum speed: 385 mph
Combat range: 1,491 mi
Service ceiling: 22,967 ft
Armaments:
Guns 2x 13mm MG131 for defense,
additional forward firing guns typically included 2x 7.9mm MG17 and 2x 20mm MG151/20
Bombs load up to 2,200 lb
All photos Copyright of Rod's Warbirds
