Rudolf Hess - bf110 VJ+ OQ

[J Harris]

Has anyone come across any rumour/ mention that Hess landed enroute to scotland at one of the Northern German airfields: stormede,lippstadt or gottingen.

A new work has shown that the hess fuselage had no auxiliary oil system fitted and so would not have sensibly try to fly for 5 hours 24 minutes, the supposed flight time.

[Revi16]

Being somewhat familiar with American V-12 and radial engines from WWII it seems unlikely that a Bf-110 would need an auxiliary oil system for a 5 hour flight. Most V-12's (when compared to radials) don't use much oil during operations.

I've read that the Bf-110 had a 35 liter(9.25 us gallon) oil tank per engine. Even if using 1 gallon of oil per hour, 9.25 gallons would be sufficient for a one way flight.

[Chris Goss]

Is this as a result of the new book on the subject which has caused some similar questions on other Boards?

[Dennis Peschier]

The book concerned is:
Rudolf Hess: An new technical analysis of the Hess flight. By John Harris and Richard Wilbourn.
The member who posted this question is “ J. Harris”. Probably not one of the authors. As he would already know the answer to this question. And if he doesn’t it would have been wise to ask this question before publishing the book.
I have not read the book by the way.

Dennis

[J Harris]

Dear all

The Luftwaffe engine date sheet for the DB601N states that oil usuage was between 5 and 9 litres of oil per hour.

When an auxiliary oil tank was fitted the operator (in the rear of the cabin) was instructed to pump oil at a rate of 7.5 litres per hour, presumably being an approximation to use.

We also know that at times during the flight (take off, approach to English coast and whilst over Scotland) Hess was operating the engine at its dauerleistung (maximum continuous power) setting.

Therefore the question that we pose is simply that a prudent pilot, expecting a 5 hour 24 minutes flight would surely utilise an auxiliary oil tank?

At 7.5 litres per hour the engine tanks would be empty at 4 hours 40 minutes, at 9 litres per hour even shorter.

We have established that the Duxford fuselage does not have the auxiliary oil pipeline - it has been blanked off and wired. I will try and post a photograph of the same.

So, if there was no tank, we think it likely that a Northern German landing was sensible. It certainly 'de risked' the flight and got overt the problem of Hess having to perform the pumping task. The downside was that if discovered, the 'solo flight' story would collapse and Stalin wonder why Hess was flying to Britain, backed by the Luftwaffe.

We also have other information that certainly infers a landing - apparently after 370 -410 kms from Augsberg. Hence the original question.

[Stig Jarlevik]

All

From a purely layman opinion, the flight was not performed under operational conditions and I would say that the oil consumption would then have been rather on the low side than on the high side, so I can see no problems with Hess reaching his destination with the oil he already had. He knew from the outset it would be a one way trip and oil was probably the least of his concern.

Cheers
Stig

[J Harris]

Not as simple as that.

Operational or not the db601 would still use 5-9 litres of oil per hour.

[Denniss]

Even if equipped with 300l drop tanks the Bf 110 had no additional oil tanks, this was only required for use with 900l drop tanks.
Daimler-Benz datasheets state4-8 g/PSh as oil usage, Dauerleistung with 950 PS and 8g/PSh would result in 8.95l oil consumption. This high 8g/PSh consumption is only assumed for max power ratings. With further rpm reduction to ~22000 for most economical cruise you'd probably end up close to the lowest rating.

DB 601A/B and 601E engine manual actually state 5-12l oil usage

[udf_00]

http://kurfurst.org/Engine/DB60x/DB6...asheets_N.html

Kraftstoffverbrauch bei Dauerlestung : 205 g/PS h
Schmierstoffverbrauch : 4-8 g/PS h
Ratio 205/8 = 25

Density
gasoline : 0.71 to 0.77 kg/l
oil : 0.85 to 0.95 kg/l

Bf 110
internal fuel tanks (one wing) : 600 l
600 * 0.77 = 462 Kg
oil tank (one engine) : 35 l
35 * 0.85 = 29.75 Kg
29.75 Kg x 25 = 743 Kg

[Denniss]

Bf 1110B and various Bf 109 load plans specify oil weight as 0.91 kg/l, B4 fuel as .76 kg/l.
Internal fuel per engine should be a tad higher as Bf 110 had 1270l internal (some may be unusable in the tanks though).
Still no problem for the Bf 110 to fly with 300l drop tanks without need for extra oil.