Luftwaffe Whif - He 111 and Ju88

[JohnT]

An odd thought flitted through my piggy brain when looking at a build on here

 

We have a He111 Zwilling but no Ju88 version.  I wonder why?  Cargo capacity perhaps though I would have guessed the Ju88 was as capable of towing the gliders as the He 111.  Maybe they thought the He 111 more obsolescent and therefor more willing to use He 111 airframes and production capacity for that reason?

 

And while on it - why no He 111 Mistel based on the same considerations?  And no Ju 88 V1 carrier?

 

Those who know will no doubt be along to enlighten me

 

 

[Black Knight]

Although the He111 was relatively obsolete its wide wing meant it was good cargo carrier. The Ju88 was built for speed. By the time of the Zwillings the Ju88 had evolved into the 188, more useful as a night fighter.

Old retired 88s were used in Mistel combos. The wide high lift wing of the 111 would have been awkward for a piggyback fighter to control.

[vppelt68]

All seriousness cast far away, that'd be a nice and quite easy whif build. I fondled some Airfix Ju 88 wings a while ago, and the inner section of the wing is almost straight before it starts to taper, a little outboard of the engines. I think it'd be quite easy to craft the three engined center section. Of course you'd need three kits... V-P

[bil]

Not sure about the Ju88 as a V1 carrier, but the Ju188 was used for air-launching trials:

 

 

[Work In Progress]

22 hours ago, JohnT said:

 I would have guessed the Ju88 was as capable of towing the gliders as the He 111.

 

 

 

No, it wouldn't. It would have had more than enough power to weight ratio, but it has a much higher wing loading than the He 111 and just works in a much higher speed range generally. When you are towing gliders what matters is your ability to deliver take-off and climb performance at a low speed that works for the gliders. The glider in question is an Me.321, that's what the He.11Z was built to tow. it is a very low-speed affair.

 

When you make a Zwilling type arrangement the wing loading goes up anyway because you are adding weight (engines, fuselages) faster than you are adding wing area. A Zwilling 88 would be a real hot ship, with a very high take-off and landing speed.

 

This really just builds out Black Knight's basic point. The same is true of the Mistel. It's mostly to do with wing loading and the natural speed ranges of the aircraft involved. The Ju-88 and a late-war fighter work well because they have a broad overlap in their natural speed ranges. For a sacrificial attack profile, high speed into the target is what you want, to stop the thing being detonated by AA fire before it reaches the target. Both elements in the composite need to be comfortable in that speed range. Imagine the reductio ad absurdam of strapping a Tempest V to a Whitley or a Fairey Hendon.and you'll get the idea of why a fighter / He.111 combo  would have been pretty lousy.

Edited November 3, 2016 by Work In Progress

[JohnT]

Great responses chaps and much obliged.