Ar 240 article by Heinz Mankau

[Pawel Burchard]

Hi all, I happen to have Flugzeug Nr. 5/1997 with the first part of article by H. Mankau on Ar 240/440, also accompanying text on Revell kit (built by author). Does anybody have access to further parts of this article? I'd be very interested in scans.

regards,
Pawel

[Graham Boak]

I have these, but not the spare time at the moment. If you have no other success, can you contact me offline sometime next week?

[Pawel Burchard]

Thanks Graham, I already received the scans. Very interesting stuff. Was anything new published on Ar 240 since then (besides chapter in 110/210 book)?
Any new photos after ebay auction some time ago?

regards,
Pawel

[Graham Boak]

Not that I've seen. The ebay photo being the one shown on LEMB, with A-01 (probably) on the Eastern Front?

I would like to point out that I think Herr Mankau's work is magnificent, but I think in the modelling pages he is wrong where he deepens the nacelle to take the DB603 engine. I think the photos of A-04 in the Schiffer Profile show that the engine nacelle is increased in height over the top of the wing. Also, for the A-03/04 hybrids, there is a new extension between the nacelle and the outer wing panel, with an additional flap not seen on other variants.

In engineering terms, deepening the nacelle (including the undercarriage mounting) is a much more serious endeavour, and in my opinion not compatible with the general apporach to these two aircraft. Make your own decision: the truth may be out there but has not yet been revealed!

[Pawel Burchard]

Well... I wonder if anyone noticed strange way in which balkenkreuz was painted on upper wing surface? This is evident on blurry in-flight photo at Luftarchiv.de and a also on third ebay photo posted on LEMB. The cross is parallel to trailing rather than leading edge...

p.

[Graham Boak]

The photo of V-3 is odd in another way - note that there is part of another cross painted, parallel to the leading edge. I have wondered whether the V-3 was assemble with parts built to the earlier wing standard, and this angled marking illustrates the change in wing angles. This seems unlikely. However, that wouldn't explain the angle on the flying photo, which is new to me and might help produce a better idea of the uppersurface camouflage. Or it would if it was clearer.

[Pawel Burchard]

Same photograph (blurry) is reproduced in the book 'Luftwaffe. The Allied Intelligence Files' and the references are given as AIR 40/120 and 121. Caption reads that three photographs of the a/c were captured during the invasion of Sicily in July 1943.

p.

[Graham Boak]

I do have a copy of the US equivalent of that report, but don't remember the in-flight photo being among them. It is some years since I used it: perhaps I need to go digging in my working files.

[Revi16]

Book by Gerhard Lang on the Ar 240.
http://www.pilots-station.com/photo....=livre_282.jpg

[Graham Boak]

A good introduction to the type but a fair (unfair?) number of errors carried over from older, lesser, works and the text is a poor guide to the later variants. It is an excellent source of photographs, but as a history has been totally superseded by the work of H. Mankau.