The Arado E.555 was a long

range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...

strategic bomber proposed by the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Arado company during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in response to the RLM's ''

Amerikabomber The ''Amerikabomber'' () project was an initiative of the German Ministry of Aviation (''Reichsluftfahrtministerium'') to obtain a long-range strategic bomber for the ''Luftwaffe'' that would be capable of striking the United States (specifical ...

'' project. The E.555 designation was applied to a series of long range jet

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an air ...

designs of various sizes,

powerplant Propulsion is the generation of force by any combination of pushing or pulling to modify the translational motion of an object, which is typically a rigid body (or an articulated rigid body) but may also concern a fluid. The term is derived from ...

crew A crew is a body or a class of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard. The word has nautical resonances: the tasks involved ...

and weapon load configurations. As design studies only, no aircraft were developed or constructed and the entire E.555 project was cancelled at the end of 1944.

Project request

In 1942, the '' Reichsluftfahrtministerium'' (Reich Air Ministry, RLM) put forward an initiative to obtain a long-range bomber for the ''

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

'' that would be capable of striking the

continental United States The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...

from Germany. Requests for designs were made to the major German aircraft manufacturers early in

, long before the U.S. had entered the war. Arado had begun its own independent project design work for a future jet flying wing bomber in late 1943; up until that time other manufacturers, such as Heinkel (by the February 1943 timeframe), Messerschmitt, Focke-Wulf and Junkers had piston-engined intercontinental bomber designs under various stages of consideration and initial prototype testing per the RLM's request. Arado had also developed its own small, shorter-range jet bomber, the Ar 234 ''Blitz'', which first flew in June 1943. By early 1944, Arado was asked to compile design studies for a long-

jet-powered bomber.

Designs

Several different E.555 design configurations were proposed and considered; the Arado team's overall goal for the project was an aircraft with high

speed In everyday use and in kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (ma ...

, long

and capable of carrying a four-ton (4,000 kg) bomb load. Perhaps the most striking was the E.555 I, a six- jet, angular flying wing design with remotely-operated defensive turrets. The

trijet A trijet is a jet aircraft powered by three jet engines. In general, passenger airline trijets are considered to be second-generation jet airliners, due to their innovative engine locations, in addition to the advancement of turbofan technolo ...

E.555 VI had the longest wingspan of all the proposals at and range (carrying supplementary

fuel tanks A fuel tank (also called a petrol tank or gas tank) is a safe container for flammable fluids. Though any storage tank for fuel may be so called, the term is typically applied to part of an engine system in which the fuel is stored and propelled ...

) of . The aircraft were to be powered using a jet engine which had not completed development as of 1944, the

thrust Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's third law. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction, the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction to be applied to that sys ...

BMW 018 The BMW 018 ( ''RLM'' designation 109-018) was an early axial-flow turbojet engine project by BMW AG in Germany. Design The 018 design was begun in 1940. It was generally similar to the BMW 003, but had a twelve-stage axial compressor and th ...

; from two to six of these powerplants in each of the proposed E.555 designs. All of the E.555 projects were abandoned, following a 22 December 1944 order by the Reich Air Ministry. ;Arado E.555 I :Six-engine flying wing bomber ;Arado E.555 II :Four-engine flying wing bomber ;Arado E.555 III :Twin-engine flying wing bomber ;Arado E.555 IV :Three-engine flying wing bomber ;Arado E.555 VI :Three-engine flying wing bomber ;Arado E.555 VII :Three-engine flying wing bomber ;Arado E.555 VIII :Three-engine flying wing bomber ;Arado E.555 IX :Three-engine flying wing bomber ;Arado E.555 X :Three-engine flying wing bomber ;Arado E.555 XI :Four-engine bomber

Specifications (E.555-6)

References

External links

Arado E 555-10

{{RLM aircraft designations E.555 Abandoned military aircraft projects of Germany Flying wings 1940s German bomber aircraft World War II heavy bombers of Germany