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Dornier Do 417

1943 WORLD WAR 2 X-PLANE

History of the Dornier Do 417

The Dornier Do 417 of 1942, planned as the next standard twin-engine medium bomber of the Luftwaffe during World War II (1939-1945), never made it past the paper stage. The service took the route of the Junkers Ju 188 (originally "Ju 88E"), making Dornier's attempt a footnote in the history of war aviation.

Other competing designs from Blohm & Voss (who advertised their "Bv P. 163") and Heinkel ("He P. 1065") were also eliminated in this competition.

The Do 417 will be powered by two BMW 801G Series air-cooled piston engines, each producing 1,770 hp, driving a three-blade propeller unit in a conventional arrangement. The entire aircraft was fairly conventional by wartime standards, with a rounded fuselage, board edges, straight wings on the main aircraft, and a traditional single-tail vertical stabilizer.

The main aircraft were mounted along the shoulders on both sides of the fuselage, forward of the midship, each supporting an engine nacelle projecting from the leading edge and terminating aft of the trailing edge. The wings have rounded tips, and this design quality carries over to each of the three tail attachments.

A "trail" landing gear is provided for ground operations, with all three outriggers retracted into the aircraft - the main leg on each engine nacelle and the tail wheel below the empennage.

The cockpit is integrated into the fuselage (as in the late production form of the Heinkel He 111), rather than stepped (as in the Focke-Wulf Fw 200). This provides excellent visibility outside the cockpit thanks to the proposed large greenhouse frame with windows. Weapon locations are planned on the fuselage dorsal line, fuselage ventral line and stern - all locations included.

The dorsal and ventral stations will be fully functional turrets (the ventral position can be remotely controlled) with 360-degree traversal, while the aft position will have a pair of flexible gun mounts to deter attacks from the aircraft's vulnerable tail . All in all, the proposed bomber has two guns in the dorsal position, two in the belly, and two in the stern - a total of six automatic-firing guns in any direction for almost complete coverage.

While technically designed for a medium bomber, the airframe should be capable of performing a variety of missions on the battlefield, including rapid medium- and long-range reconnaissance, torpedo bombardment, and possibly as a missile carrieressentially a multi-tasking Purpose design.

Solutions such as torpedoes will be kept in internal bomb bays with externally-carrying missiles. For reconnaissance roles, the bomb bay will be modified to carry a plethora of camera gear.

While exact performance statistics for the bomber have not been recorded (as it was never built and flown), its creators estimated it had a top speed of 373 mph.

The German authorities thought enough about the promising Do 417 that they opted for the Dornier design over other designs by the end of 1942. Its purpose was to build and test a prototype car (Do 417 V1) at high speed, with samples obtained in August 1943.

The first prototype was powered by the BMW 801G engine, and the second (V2) was the proven Daimler-Benz DB-type engine 603A. Barring catastrophic delays, the plane would enter serial production as early as April 1944 to ensure German victory.

However, all this fell through when it was argued that further development of the existing design made more sense in the context of the war situation that burdened Germany. Within the confines of Total War, the financial and production commitments required to create an entirely new bomber design had little hope.

So the Junkers Ju 88E took its place, and subsequent work on this aircraft resulted in the Ju 188 (detailed elsewhere on this page).

Specification

BASICS

Year of Service

1943

Origins

Nazi Germany

Status

Cancel

Development ended.

Crew

Production

Manufacturer

Dornier - Nazi Germany

Carrier

Nazi Germany (removed, unchecked)

Roles

Ground attack (bombing, strafing)

The ability to conduct air strikes against ground targets using (but not limited to) artillery, bombs, rockets, rockets, etc.

Special Mission: Anti-ship

Equipped to find, track, and attack enemy surface elements through visual acquisition, radar support, and ship-based weapons.

Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (ISR), reconnaissance

Monitor ground targets/target areas to assess surrounding threat levels, enemy strength, or enemy movement.

X-Plane (development, prototype, tech demo)

Aircraft designed for prototyping, technology demonstration, or research/data collection.

Notable Features

Strong Aircraft Frame

The inherent ability of the airframe to take significant damage.

inner bay

Hull volume includes space for internal weapons or special mission equipment.

High-speed performance

Can accelerate to higher speeds than the average aircraft at the time.

High performance

The ability to fly and operate at higher altitudes than the average aircraft of the day.

Extended range performance

Ability to travel long distances using on-board fuel supplies.

Super performance

The design covers the three key performance categories of speed, altitude and range.

Seaport

Able to operate over the ocean and survive certain harsh marine environments.

Rescue process

A manual process to allow the pilot and/or crew to exit in the event of an onboard emergency.

Depression in crew members

Support the pressurization required for crew survival at higher operating altitudes.

Crew management

In addition to the pilot, the aircraft also employs additional crew members who specialize in specific functions on the aircraft.

Rifle positions

Defensive weapon location for attack/suppression.

Scalable

Has retractable/retractable landing gear to maintain aerodynamic efficiency.

torpedo weapons

Ability to launch/release torpedoes against maritime threats/targets.

Camera equipment

Payload supports photographic devices that provide still and/or live image/video results.

Dimensions and Weight

Length

48.4 feet

(14.75m)

Width/span

68.9 feet

(21.00m)

Height

15.3 feet

(4.65m)

Cured weight

30,865 lbs

(14,000 kg)

MTOW

47,917 lbs

(21,735 kg)

Wgt Difference

+?17,053

(+7,735 kg)

Main aircraft structure

monoplane/shoulder mount/monoplane

Monoplane

Designed to use a single main wing main aircraft; this is the most popular arrangement of main aircraft.

Shoulder

The main aircraft is mounted on the upper part of the fuselage, usually on an imaginary line that intersects the pilot's shoulders.

(structural descriptors refer to the base production variant Dornier Do 417)

Performance

Installed:

2 x BMW 801G air-cooled piston engines, 1,770 hp each driving a three-blade propeller unit.

Maximum speed

373 km/h

(600 km/h | 324 knots)

Cruising speed

311 km/h

(500 km/h | 270 knots)

Maximum speed difference

+62 km/h

(+100 km/h | 54 kn)

Maximum

31,168 feet

(9,500 m | 6 km)

Area

1,118 km

(1,800 km | 3,334 nautical miles)

rate of climb

1,000 ft/min

(305 m/min)

Weapons

Assumption: 2 13mm heavy machine guns on the back turret. 2 x 13mm heavy machine guns mounted on the belly turret (possibly remote). 2 x 13mm heavy machine guns in flexible rear positions. Internal bomb bay for conventionally dropped bombs, aerial torpedoes or the like.