help with Do-217p

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Paul Lakowski
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help with Do-217p

#1

Post by Paul Lakowski » 07 Apr 2005, 07:36

The Do-217 medium bomber looks like a decent german medium bomber with speeds upto 350mph and 32000ft altitude. Then theirs the Do-217p , which its claimed got upto 488mph and altitudes of 53,000 feet.

Stupid me thinks well why not build them all as P models! But only 6 prototype were built, Why so few if it performed so well?

How did it get these stellar performance figures. All I can figure is some report that this plane actually carried a third engine in the bays that was 1475 hp. How did this work? I see a picture of this plane and there are only two props. Was this third engine linked to the other two by a gearshaft. Help me understand how this was supposed to work!

Huck
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Re: help with Do-217p

#2

Post by Huck » 07 Apr 2005, 08:38

Paul Lakowski wrote:The Do-217 medium bomber looks like a decent german medium bomber with speeds upto 350mph and 32000ft altitude. Then theirs the Do-217p , which its claimed got upto 488mph and altitudes of 53,000 feet.

Stupid me thinks well why not build them all as P models! But only 6 prototype were built, Why so few if it performed so well?

How did it get these stellar performance figures. All I can figure is some report that this plane actually carried a third engine in the bays that was 1475 hp. How did this work? I see a picture of this plane and there are only two props. Was this third engine linked to the other two by a gearshaft. Help me understand how this was supposed to work!
The third engine (DB 605T) located in the fuselage drove only the superchargers for the two DB 603 that powered the aircraft. This arrangement was used for other prototypes, like Hs-130 for instance. Do-217P performance at altitude was very good (though not 488mph!), at expense of payload, but at low altitudes it was the same as regular models. As bombing accuracy from high altitude was depressingly poor, and practical use of guided glide bombs/missiles against ground targets was a couple of years away, the interest in these high altitude planes was mostly for reconnaissance role (where Luftwaffe used quite a diverse fleet of bombers converted to high altitude requirements).

This is DB 605T (one of the large number of supercharging arrangements DB has tried during the war), note the large supercharger:
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Huck
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#3

Post by Huck » 07 Apr 2005, 08:57

This is Do-217P, unfortunatelly it is difficult to see the supercharger intake below the fuselage in this picture:
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Huck
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#4

Post by Huck » 07 Apr 2005, 08:58

Hs-130 used the same arrangement and it is easier to see the supercharger intake here:

Image

Paul Lakowski
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Re: help with Do-217p

#5

Post by Paul Lakowski » 07 Apr 2005, 16:51

Huck wrote:
The third engine (DB 605T) located in the fuselage drove only the superchargers for the two DB 603 that powered the aircraft. This arrangement was used for other prototypes, like Hs-130 for instance. Do-217P performance at altitude was very good (though not 488mph!), at expense of payload, but at low altitudes it was the same as regular models. As bombing accuracy from high altitude was depressingly poor, and practical use of guided glide bombs/missiles against ground targets was a couple of years away, the interest in these high altitude planes was mostly for reconnaissance role (where Luftwaffe used quite a diverse fleet of bombers converted to high altitude requirements).

This is DB 605T (one of the large number of supercharging arrangements DB has tried during the war), note the large supercharger:
Thanks Huck, but if it didn't do 488mph and 53,000 ft ceiling, what where the figures at altitude?

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Cantankerous
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Re: Do 217P

#6

Post by Cantankerous » 12 Jun 2022, 23:19

Huck wrote:
07 Apr 2005, 08:57
This is Do-217P, unfortunatelly it is difficult to see the supercharger intake below the fuselage in this picture:
There's better images of the Do 217P in which the supercharger intake can be clearly seen:
http://www.airwar.ru/image/idop/bww2/do ... 217p-3.jpg
http://www.airwar.ru/image/idop/bww2/do ... 217p-1.jpg

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