#300
Post
by paulrward » 31 May 2022, 20:35
Hello All :
There has been a great deal of back and forth regarding the Messerschmitt 210 - most of it
apparently by people who do not know the entire story of this aircraft.
Following the debacle in the Battle of Britain with the Me 110, the Luftwaffe realized that
it was not capable of defending itself, and thus could not fulfill the role of the 'Heavy Fighter'.
The design and prototyping of the Me 210 was well underway, and on that basis, the Luftwaffe
ordered it into production. It was at this point that the problems began with the aircraft,
primarily in the areas of Stability and Control. The 210 was unstable in the Pitch Axis, and
was very cranky at low speeds. Like Take-off and Landing......
After some delay, Messerschmitt finally resolved the issues with the 210 by modifying the
fuselage, increasing it's length aft of the wing by about one meter - this immediately resolved
the handling issues, and the revised aircraft, designated the Me 210 C, was accepted for
production. The problem was, the Reputation of the Me 210 had been so muddied by the
problems with the early versions that flight crews objected to flying it. In addition, several
of the Versuchs aircraft were tested with the DB 603 instead of the DB 605, as well as having
been fitted with a new wing with a revised planform that was intended to further improve
the handling characteristics ( the new wing had a reduced sweep-back, and was similar in
planform to an Me 110 wing, but with a shorter wing span )
As a result, the now completely revised aircraft was designated the Me 410 , and went into
production with good effect - the Luftwaffe crews liked it, and it did sterling service on the
Eastern Front.
But, the Messerschmitt Plant had a full set of jigs and fixtures, and a lot of parts and sub-
assemblies for the aborted Me 210 C. What to do........ Well, the Hungarians need a fighter,
they are on the Eastern Front, and the whole kit and kaboodle was sold to Hungary, who set
up a production line, and began assembling Me 210 C's - a quite serviceable aircraft, which
the Hungarian Crews liked. And, to fill the gap in Luftwaffe numbers until the Me 410 was
in full production, the Luftwaffe re-purchased some of the Me 210 C's from Hungary, and
put them into Luftwaffe service. Where they were a very useful stop-gap until the more
powerful Me 410 became available, after which they served at the Zerstorerschulen to allow
the new pilots to get some ' stick time' on an aircraft that was very similar to the Me 410.
So, it cannot be said that the Germans gave the Hungarians ' a crap weapon ' - in fact, they
gave them the production capability of making what was a state-of-the-art aircraft that,
had the Hungarians wished, might even have been upgraded to the latest -410 standard.
Respectfully ;
Paul R. Ward
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