Thanks Robbo, and Google's free...
Me 264 Pix
And from our forthcoming book on German wartime bomber projects:
http://mmpbooks.biz/books/5110/r5110.htm
Quote:
At the beginning of 1941, Messerschmitt
received an official order to build six P.1061 prototypes
under the designation Me 264. The order was
going to be increased to 24 aircraft if the prototype
trials were successful. These aircraft were intended
to be used for an attack on the USA.
The four-engined design looked likely to be
insufficient for this task, considering the weight
of the machine that would have to carry itself,
fuel and bomb load to the USA. In parallel with
the design work on the Me 264 prototypes, work
commenced on a six-engined aircraft, the P.1075.
Some of this work was subcontracted to Fokker at
Amsterdam in Holland.
On 22 January, 1941, the RLM announced a
specification for a long range anti-submarine aircraft.
It required a range of 26,400km without a bomb load
or 18,500km with bombs. In response, Messerschmitt
offered a series of solutions to increase the range
of the Me 264, including: towing by another aircraft
over part of the route, fitting additional engines, using
rocket take-off boosters, and in-flight refuelling from
another aircraft, a tanker whose design was based on
the Me 264. The RLM was rather optimistic in its
assessment of the Me 264’s capabilities and considered
it a favourite among the competition, including
the Fw 200, He 177 and Bv 222.
At the beginning of 1942, the Me 264 received
the first blow from Air Inspector General E. Milch,
who undertook a ‘purge’ of the excess of projects
prepared by various companies, cancelling or significantly
reducing most of them. In the case of the Me
264, this meant a reduction to only three prototypes.
Because the work load from current production
prevented concentration on the new bomber, it was
suggested that its development should be moved to
the Dornier or Wesser plants, but this idea came to
nothing. On 24 April, 1942, a technical committee
from the RLM (sent by Milch) visited Augsburg.
They re-calculated the project and decided that the
performance that Messerschmitt expected from the
Me 264 should be reduced by approximately 10%.
On the same day the RLM received a report from
Messerschmitt, discussing the concept of an attack
at the US coast by the Me 264. On 7 May, 1942, in
another report, the designer claimed that with four
Jumo 211 engines the range of the Me 264 would
be 13,000km, and with four BMW 801s it would
even reach 14,000km.
...
On 22 January, 1943, the prototype
was flown from Augsburg to Lechfeld,
where it made further flights.
During the landing after the fifth
of these flights, the fuselage and
undercarriage were damaged and
subsequently the latter would not
retract. In February, another
pilot, Gerhard Caroli, joined
the trials. He confirmed Karl
Baur’s reservations regarding
the forces on the controls. Subsequently
Baur made flights on
two and three engines, and variants,
and using the autopilot. The autopilot,
however, had too inadequate
servo-mechanisms that were
not strong enough to control the
heavy aircraft effectively.
...
The second prototype Me 264 V2 (W.Nr.
264000002) had Jumo 211J engines and
extended wing tips. The guns (two 13mm
MG 131 and three 20mm MG 151/20) were
(probably) mounted in remotely-controlled
turrets in the fuselage. A total of 1,000kg
of armour was added on key areas of the
airframe. The Me 264 V3 (W.Nr. 264000003)
was going to be almost identical. Both prototypes,
about 80% complete, were
destroyed during the
same raid as damaged
the Me 264 V1.
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