Anyone familiar with He 177 anatomy?

[Panzerfaust60]

Is anyone familiar enough with the He 177 to tell me whether those are the flaps, or just the trailing edges, drooping down from the back of the wing in this photo? I'm interested in whether they are flaps because they have obviously had "Wellenmuster" camo applied.



I found this photo in an album posted by a Reddit used a long time ago, http://imgur.com/a/BsUI0?gallery, with no clues that I could see as to where the photos were taken (presumably somewhere in France), except perhaps for this areal shot of the bombed out hangars http://i.imgur.com/1njZ7KU.jpg, can anyone identify them?

[Snautzer05]

Those are the Fowler flaps. See here http://www.aviastar.org/gallery/picture.php?dir=234&p=3

He 177 of II./KG 40 The airfield is at Bordeaux/Merignac. See here http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LR ... story.html

[Panzerfaust60]

Thanks a lot, I guess I should have guessed this was one of the Bordeaux/Merignac Greifs.
It's interesting that they would have bothered to apply the "Wellenmuster" to the flaps, since their upper surface would have been hidden at all times except for at takeoff and landing, but if you look at the photo in full resolution, then I think it's quite clear that they have.

[Snautzer05]

I have to disagree with myself I found another shot of this He 177. In writing on the picture it says "Chauteaudun France, JT Whitacker on tail He 177"

some wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teaudun_Air_Base

[Panzerfaust60]

Well, the other photos in the gallery seem to be from the Paris area. According to Wikipedia, no He-177 equipped Kampfgeschwader was stationed there during August 1944, although KG 100 had been there a couple of months earlier, during Operation Steinbock, so perhaps it was a damaged aircraft left there by them? Did you find the photo in a book, or online, would it be possible for you to post it or is it the same photo as the one I posted?

[Barrett]

You might check Capt. Eric Brown's "Wings of the Luftwaffe" in which he described flying the 177. In the 80s he said that he provided considerable technical info to a novelist who wanted to get the 177 details right. When Eric received a copy of the book he noted that the primary "technical" details were, um, romantic....

[Snautzer05]

[Panzerfaust60]

Fantastic! Great pic, shows all the mottling very well, seems there was both RLM 76 mottling on the upper surfaces, as well as 70 or 71 mottling on the sides, this must have taken the ground-crews quite a bit of time to apply.

Also, I guess applying mottling or other custom camouflage to the flaps too must have been the done thing, I just found this shot, probably of a 4./KG100 machine at Chateaudun, that shows blotches applied to the flaps as well.



Cheers