(Heinkel) He 177 Greif @·AIRCRAFTUBE

  • Heinkel He 177 Heinkel He 177
    Heinkel He 177
  • Heinkel He 177 Heinkel He 177
    Heinkel He 177
  • Heinkel He 177 A-5 - 1943 Heinkel He 177 A-5 - 1943
    Heinkel He 177 A-5 - 1943
  • Heinkel He 177 Heinkel He 177
    Heinkel He 177
  • Heinkel He 177 Heinkel He 177
    Heinkel He 177
  • He 177 A-1 He 177 A-1
    He 177 A-1
  • Heinkel He 177 Heinkel He 177
    Heinkel He 177
  • He 177 He 177
    He 177
  • Heinkel He 177 Heinkel He 177
    Heinkel He 177
  • He 177 A-2 He 177 A-2
    He 177 A-2
  • Heinkel He 177 Heinkel He 177
    Heinkel He 177
  • Heinkel He 177 Heinkel He 177
    Heinkel He 177
  • Heinkel He 177 Heinkel He 177
    Heinkel He 177
  • He 177 A-5 He 177 A-5
    He 177 A-5
  • Heinkel He 177 Heinkel He 177
    Heinkel He 177
  • Heinkel He 177 Heinkel He 177
    Heinkel He 177
  • He 177 A-2 - 1942 He 177 A-2 - 1942
    He 177 A-2 - 1942
  • Heinkel He 177 Heinkel He 177
    Heinkel He 177
  • Heinkel He 177 Heinkel He 177
    Heinkel He 177
  • He 177 A-7 He 177 A-7
    He 177 A-7

Heinkel He 177 Greif

The Greif (or Griffin) was a long-range twin engined bomber of the Luftwaffe. The troubled aircraft was the only heavy bomber built in large numbers by Germany during World War II. Aircrews nicknamed it the Reichsfeuerzeug (Cigarette Lighter of the Reich) due to the engines' tendency to catch fire in early versions.

Engines

An unusual feature of the airplane was the use of twin engines in each nacelle driving a single propeller. The insistence of this engine configuration by the Reichsluftfahrtministerium, (the German Air Ministry) stemmed directly from their determination that the aircraft should be capable of dive-bombing, a manoeuvre that is impossible in aircraft with four propellers, and also emblematic of the "Stuka mentality" pervasive in the Luftwaffe in the very late 1930s, which also badly influenced later bomber development programs, such as the ill-fated Bomber B program.

The paired engines had first been introduced on the single-propeller equipped Heinkel He 119 prototype reconaissance aircraft, to reduce drag where they worked well, but their tight installation in the He 177 led to considerable problems because of the poor packaging of the engine installations that caused oil leakage onto the hot exhaust manifolds on the two middle cylinder banks.

Starting with He 177 A-3, a slightly lengthened engine nacelle with a new choice of coupled-engine "system", the Daimler-Benz DB 610, was used to attempt to eliminate tendency for the engines to catch fire. This achieved only partial success and there were also problems with the transfer gearbox between the two engines and their shared propeller.

Wings and undercarriage

The insistence on the ability to dive-bomb also led to the need to strengthen the wing structure, leading to an increase in unloaded weight, producing the need to enlarge the undercarriage, in turn increasing further the weight and causing a decrease in speed, range and carrying capacity. The requirement to dive-bomb was never satisfactorily solved, and the He 177 was restricted to level and shallow dive attacks.

The overly ambitious design goals included an unrealistic requirement for a dive bombing capability, similar to the RAF's equally unrealistic requirement for catapult launching for the failed Avro Manchester heavy bomber. The attempt to reduce drag by coupling the engines, while theoretically sound, proved to be difficult in practice, leading to a history of engine failures not unlike that of the failed Manchester or that of the B-29, which had most of its defensive armament removed in order to lighten the burden on its engines and thus improve reliability.

Operational history

Beset by many other technical difficulties in development and service, the plane had a troubled life. This was in part due to overly optimistic design requirements of long range, high speed, a large bombload, and even as a dive bomber. Though Goering forbade Heinkel to develop a version with four separate nacelles, Heinkel nevertheless produced prototypes of the Heinkel He 277 which was not produced in numbers.

The He 177's main gear arrangement can best be described as unbelieveably complex-there were four main gear struts, each with one large wheel, with the inboard and outboard retacting sets almost "meeting" under the nacelle of each of the twin coupled-engine systems when fully extended. A more conventional single-leg twin wheel arrangement for each main gear was not designed until the later He 274 and 277 prototypes were eventually built, and actually used on the sole example of the He 274, and a few developments that only existed as drawings actually had tricycle landing gear setups eventually being fitted to the He 277.

As example for these problem most resources cite a special situation regarding a night attack on England : 20 aircraft left, two failed to take off, 10 returned with burning or damaged engines and of the few that got to their target two were destroyed by enemy action. What most resources "forget" to cite is that these aircraft were brand new, just delivered about one week before and not even properly flown-in, the air unit just moved to a new airfield the day before and was missing lots of maintenance personnel and material.

The use of the He 177 was ended by the Emergency Fighter Program, which cancelled bomber production and operations and gave priority to defensive fighters in the final stages of the war.

Variants

  • He 177 V1 : First prototype, 8 prototypes built in total.
  • He 177 A-0 : Pre-production series, 35 built.
  • He 177 A-1 : First production series, 130 built.
  • He 177 A-3 : Second production series, 170 built
  • He 177 A-3/R3 : Anti-shipping version
  • He 177 A-3/R5 : Version armed with BK 7.5 75 mm gun in ventral gondola and powered by DB 610 engines, five built.
  • He 177 A-3/R7 : Torpedo bomber version abandoned in favor of the He 177 A-5, three built.
  • He 177 A-5 : Main production version with increased maximum external bombload, 826 built.
  • He-177 A-6 : Long range bomber with increased bombload and defensive armament.

Operators

  • France : French Air Force operated at least one He 177A-3 abandoned by Germans and rebuilt by SNCASE at Blagnac.
  • German Luftwaffe : Kampfgeschwader 1, 4, 10, 40, 100, 200, Flugzeugführerschule (B) 15, (B) 16, (B) 31, Wekusta/ObdL
  • United Kingdom : RAE (Farnborough) tested one He 177A-5. Aircraft (formerly F8+AP from 6./KG 40) was captured by French Resistance in September 1944 at Toulouse-Blagnac airfield. Transferred to the UK was repainted with British roundels and serialled TS439.

— — — = = — — —

This text stays momentarily aircraftube.com©´s property, before its full or partial integration to Wikipedia.

Specifications (He 177 A-5)

  • Crew: 5.
  • Length: 22 m (72 ft 2 in).
  • Height: 6,7 m (21 ft).
  • Wingspan: 31,44 m (103 ft 1 in).
  • Wing area: 101.5 m² (or 1,092 ft²).
  • Wing loading: 320 kg/m² (or 65.6 lb/ft²).
  • Empty weight: 16,800 kg (or 37,000 lb).
  • Loaded weight: 31,000 kg (or 68,340 lb).
  • Max. speed: 565 km/h at 6,100 m (or 350 mph at 21,000 ft).
  • Combat radius: 1.540 km (or 960 mi).
  • Ferry range: 5,600 km (or 3,200 mi).
  • Service ceiling: 9,400 m (or 30,800 ft).
  • Power/mass: 110 W/kg (or 0.067 hp/lb).
  • Powerplant: Two Daimler-Benz DB 610 (twin DB 605) 24-cylinder liquid-cooled inline engines.
  • Power: 2,950 hp (or 2,170 kW) each.
  • Armament: Two 20 mm MG 151 cannon, 3 MG 131 machine guns, 3 MG 81 machine guns and up to 7,200 kg of bombs or 3 guided missiles Henschel Hs 293 or Fritz X.
Heinkel He 177 Greif : Your comments on this subject
Powered by Disqus
Top
Legal Credits FAQ Help Site Map

Terms of use for the services available on this site

By using this Website, Users agree to the following terms of use and rules :

Definitions

  • Webmaster : Head Administrator with all authority over the management and development of the Website.
  • Administrator : Anyone that was given by the Webmaster full or partial access to the Website's structure or with moderation rights on messages posted by Users.
  • User or Visitor : Any person visiting the Website pages.
  • Website : The following provisions apply to a single Website accessible via the www.aircraftube.com, www.aircraftube.org, www.aircraftube.net and www.all-aircraft.com. URL's
  • Service : All free informations and tools contained on the Website.
  • Comments : All text written by users on Blogs and comment pages available on the Website.
  • Media : All media available on or through the Website. One must distinguish the local media (photos, curves, drawings) and the external media (videos) which the Website refers.

    • Purpose of this site

    The purpose of this non-commercial site is purely educational. Reflecting a passion, it is also there to preserve the memory of all those who gave their lives, their health or energy in the name of freedom, aviation safety or simply our passenger comfort.

    Copyright

    Some media may have escaped the vigilance of Administrators with regard to copyrights. If a user reports copyright infringement, he will be asked to prove that he is indeed the rights's owner for the concerned media. If so, his decision on the Administrator's next action will be respected: A total suppression of the Media on the Website, or the addition of some owner's reference. The publication of a media on the internet normally having as a goal to make it visible to many people, the Administrators expect in any case that the second option will be most often chosen.

    Pursuant to the Law on copyright and related rights, the user has the right to download and reproduce information on the Website for personal use and provided that the source is mentionned. They cannot however be used for commercial or advertising purposes.

    Using Blogs and filing comments

  • Moderator : The Administrator reserves the right to prevent the publication of comments that are not directly related to the Service without providing any explanation. Similarly, all insults, out of scope or unethical material will be banned.
  • Identification : Persons wishing to post a comment or use any form of contact are required to provide identification by the means of a valid e-mail address.
  • Responsibilities : Comments are posted on the Website under the unique responsability of their authors and the Administrators may in no case be liable for any statements or claims that the users might have issued.

    • As the comment system is hosted and maintained on servers external to the Website, the Administrators may in no circumstances be held responsible for the use that administrators of these servers or other third parties may have with those comments or filed data.

    Content Liability

    The Administrators carefully check the reliability of the sources used. They cannot, however, guarantee the accuracy of any information contained on the Website, partly because of the multiple sources from which they come.

    JavaScript and cookies - Storing information

    This Website imperatively uses JavaScript and cookies to function properly. Neither of these technologies, or other means shall in no case be used on the Website for the retention or disclosure of personal information about Visitors. Exceptions to this rule will involve storing the Users banned for inappropriate comments they might have given as well as contact information for Users wishing to subscribe to future newsletters.

    When a user accesses the Website, the corresponding servers may automatically collect certain data, such as IP address, date and time of Website access, viewed pages and the type of browser used. This information is kept only for the purpose of measuring the number of visitors to the different sections of the site and make improvements.

    Donations - Advertising

    To continue providing the Service for free, the Webmaster reserves the right to insert advertising or promotional messages on any page of the Site. In the same idea, any donations will only by used to cover the running costs of the site, such as hosting, connection fees, hardware and software necessary for the development and maintenance of the Website.

    Links and other websites

    Administrators shall in no case be liable for the non-availability of websites operated by third parties to which users would access through the Website.

    Administrators assume no liability for any content, advertising, products and/or services available on such third party websites. It is reminded that those sites are governed by their own terms of use.

    Placing a link to third party sites or authorize a third party to include a link on their website refering to this Website does not mean that the Administrators recommend in any way the products or services offered by these websites.

    Modifications

    The Webmaster reserves the right to modify at any time without notification the present terms of use as well as all content or specific functionality that the Website offers.

    The modified terms and conditions immediately apply to the using Visitor when changes come online. Visitors are invited to consult the site regularly on the most current version of the terms and conditions

    Governing Law and Jurisdiction

    These general conditions are governed by Belgian law.

    In case of dispute regarding the interpretation and/or execution of the above terms, the parties agree that the courts of the district of Nivelles, Belgium shall have exclusive jurisdiction power.

    Credits page

    Wikipedia.org

    Wikipedia is a collaboratively edited, multilingual, free Internet encyclopedia.

    Youtube

    YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, view and share videos.

    Special thanks to all Youtube quality aviation vids providers, specially (Those I forgot, please excuse me or report) :

    Airboyd
    Andys Video
    Aviation videos archives
    Bomberguy
    Classic Aviation TV
    Historical Aviation Film Unit
    Horsemoney
    Jaglavaksoldier
    Joluqa Malta
    Just Planes
    Koksy
    Classic Airliners & Vintage Pop Culture
    Memorial Flight
    Octane130
    Okrajoe
    SDASM archives
    Spottydog4477
    The Aviators TV
    Valentin Izagirre Bengoetxea
    Vexed123
    VonBerlich
    Zenos Warbirds

    Bundesarchiv

    The German Federal Archives or Bundesarchiv are the National Archives of Germany.

    FAQ

    I don't see my comments any more!

    Please note that each page has it's own comment entry. So, if you enter a comment i.e. on the B-747, you will only see it on that related page.

    General comments are accessed via the "BLOG En" button.

    Comments are moderated, so please allow some delay before they appear, specially if you are outside Europe.

    Menus are developing below the page, because they are too long!

    But they remain accessible, for example by scrolling the mouse wheel, or with your finger (on the menu) on a smartphone or tablet.

    I see adds on all videos.

    Use a good free add remover software.

    The site is loading random pages at startup.

    We think it is a good way to bring back the memory of aircraft, persons or events sometimes quite forgotten.

    HELP PAGE

    Why this site?

    Discovery

    This website is dedicated to one's aeronautical passion (which I hope we share) and was realised mainly as an educationnal tool. Knowing that, you'll notice that each new visit brings random topics for the purpose of making new discoveries, some achievements or characters certainly not deserving the oblivion into which they have sometimes fallen.

    By these pages, we also want to pay tribute to all those who gave at one time or another, their lives or health in the name of freedom, aeronautical security or simply our comfort.

    Centralisation

    Internet is full of websites dedicated to aviation, but most are dedicated to subjects or periods that are very limited in space or time. The purpose of this site is to be as general as possible and thus treats all events as well as characters of all stripes and times while putting much emphasis on the most significant achievements.

    The same years saw birth of technologies like photography and cinema, thus permitting illustration of a large part of important aeronautical events from the start. Countless (and sometimes rare) media recently put online by enthousiasts finally give us access to these treasures, but the huge amount of information often makes things a little messy. A centralization effort is obviously most needed at this level.

    All persons who directly or indirectly contributed to the achievement or posting of such documents are here gratefully acknowledged.

    General

    Fluid website

    This site automatically fits the dimensions of your screen, whether you are on a desktop computer, a tablet or a smartphone.

    Bilingual website

    You can change the language by clicking on the flag in the upper left or via "Options" in the central menu. Of course, the videos remain in the language in which they were posted ...

    Browser compatibility

    The site is not optimized, or even designed to run on older browsers or those deliberately deviating from standards. You will most probably encounter display issues with Internet Explorer. In this case, it is strongly recommended installing a modern (and free!) browser that's respecting the standards, like Firefox, Opera, Chrome or Safari.

    Cookies and Javascript

    This site uses cookies and JavaScript to function properly. Please ensure that your browser is configured accordingly. Neither of these technologies, or other means shall in no case be used on the Site for the retention or disclosure of personal information about its Visitors. See the "Legal" page for more on this subject.

    Website layout

    Left menus

    Because of the lack of space on smartphones and small tablets, these menus are hidden. Everything is nevertheless accessible via the main menu option, located between the video and photo sections. This menu is placed there for compatibility reasons with some browsers, which play the videos over the menus.

    "Search" and "Latest" :
    The link "In Titles" restricts the search to the titles of different forms. Use this option if you are looking for a plane, a constructor, a pilot or a particular event that could have been treated as a subject.

    The link "In Stories" will bring you to a search in all texts (the "Story" tab) and will take more time. The search term will appear highlighted in green when opening the corresponding story.

    Would you believe, "Timeline" will show all subjects in chronological order.

    "Random" will reload the entire page with a new random topic.

    The bottom section keeps you abreast of the latest five entries. New topics are added regularly. Don't hesitate to come visit us often : add bookmark.

    Blogs and Comments central section

    Under the photos section comes the comments tabs window :

    You can enter general comments in your own language via one of the two buttons on the left (BLOG EN and BLOG FR). Note that these buttons are accessible regardless of the language to allow some participation in the other language.

    All comments are subject to moderation and will be published only if they comply with the basic rules of decorum, while remaining relevant to the purpose of this site.

    The third tab allows you to enter comments on the shown topic and is bilingual. Personal anecdotes, supplements and other information questions will take place here.

    The "Story" tab shows the explanatory texts. They are most often taken from Wikipedia, a site where we participate regularly.

    The "Data" tab is reserved for list of features and specifications.

    Right menus

    On a smartphone, the lack of space is growing and this menu is moved to the bottom of the page to give priority to videos and pictures.

    The top right icons are links to videos posted by third parties (on their own responsabilities) or by ourselves. The link below these icons will take you to the channel of the one who posted the video. Feel free to suggest other videos if you think they are of some interest (Use the BLOG button or the "Contact" link).