Me 410: "on a knife's edge"

[ArtieBob]

Eric Brown, IIRC, flew several HUNDRED aircraft types, many not covered in his various books. IMHO he probably had the best overview of the relative "flyability" of WWII types of any allied pilot, perhaps there were a few USSR test pilots with similar experience. It seems certain the Me 410 was relatively a better handling aircraft than the 210, but that still does not make it a very "good" aircraft to fly, just not a "death wish" experience. Many combat types during WWII were neither very easy or safe to fly, if possibly the most experienced allied pilot says it was a real handful, I personally believe that the Me 410 was much worse than the WWII "norm". It seems clear that the Luftwaffe continued production of the Bf 110 after stopping Me 410 production, not a very good advertisement for an aircraft that was to be the Bf 110s replacement three years earlier. I think the Me 410 was a neat looking aircraft, with lots of neat "gadgets", fortunately, none of us had to fly one. Last I heard, Eric was still alive, can anyone go back to him in GB at this point and see if he would comment further.

Best regards,

Artie Bob