The Dornier Do 417 was a twin-engine
multirole combat aircraft
A multirole combat aircraft (MRCA) is a combat aircraft intended to perform different roles in combat. These roles can include air to air combat, air support,
aerial bombing, reconnaissance, electronic warfare, and suppression of air defens ...
. Developed in 1942, it resulted from the
Luftwaffe's request for a medium bomber, a contest in which
Dornier Dornier may refer to:
* Claudius Dornier (1884–1969), German aircraft designer and builder
** Dornier Flugzeugwerke, German aircraft manufacturer founded in 1914 by Claudius Dornier
* Dornier Consulting, international consulting and project mana ...
,
Junkers
Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG (JFM, earlier JCO or JKO in World War I, English: Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works) more commonly Junkers , was a major German aircraft and aircraft engine manufacturer. It was founded there in Dessau, Germ ...
,
Heinkel
Heinkel Flugzeugwerke () was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight, with ...
, and
Blohm & Voss
Blohm+Voss (B+V), also written historically as Blohm & Voss, Blohm und Voß etc., is a German shipbuilding and engineering company. Founded in Hamburg in 1877 to specialise in steel-hulled ships, its most famous product was the World War II battle ...
competed. In the end, the
Junkers Ju 188 was chosen by the Luftwaffe, and the Do 417 never entered production.
Design and development
The plans for the Do 417 were first presented to the
RLM on January 22, 1943 in response to the
Bomber B competition. It was intended to fill both the bomber and reconnaissance roles. It was to have a stepless cockpit housing three of the four crew, and was to be fitted with Kuto-Nase cable-cutters on the nose and along the leading edge of the wing to defend against
barrage balloon
A barrage balloon is a large uncrewed tethered balloon used to defend ground targets against aircraft attack, by raising aloft steel cables which pose a severe collision risk to aircraft, making the attacker's approach more difficult. Early barra ...
s. Dive brakes were to be positioned over and under the wings between the engine nacelles, similar to the
Do 217. The pilot's seat and tail gunner's positions were to be armored, and although
unpressurized, the crew would have been able to operate at high altitude with oxygen masks. The glazed nose and the propellers would have had
de-icers, and inflatable one-man
dinghies would have been provided in case the aircraft ditched in the sea.
Defensive armament was originally to have consisted of an
MG 151 cannon in the nose, an
HD 151 turret in the dorsal position, and another HD 151 in the tail. The nose-mounted MG 151 was later changed to a small turret, and an
MG 131Z machine gun was added to the underside of the nose. It would have been fitted with a
''Lotfernrohr'' 7D bombsight. The internal bomb load was limited to fifteen 50 kg bombs, but provisions were to be provided for two 2,000 kg bombs carried under the fuselage. The aircraft was originally to be powered by two
Junkers Jumo 222 engines, but problems with these led them to be substituted with the
Daimler-Benz DB 603A inverted V12 engines, later changed to the DB 603G model.
However, the Do 417's performance was estimated to be worse than that of the competing
Junkers Ju 188, and the Do 417 was rejected so the aircraft was never built.
Variants
;Do 417 V1
:Unbuilt first prototype, to be powered by two DB 603A-2 engines.
;Do 417A
:Proposed production variant to be powered by two DB 603G engines.
Specifications (Do 417A)
See also
References
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Dornier aircraft
1940s German bomber aircraft
Abandoned military aircraft projects of Germany
Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft