Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse

[pampa14]

Follow in the link below, an extensive report and a collection of photos of this heavy fighter used by the Luftwaffe during WW2:

Avia

Hope you enjoy and I count on your visit!

[big ned]

I bet no one here has ever been in the cockpit of a 410......Except me! The colour photo's show the one at RAF Cosford where I used to do volunteer work helping maintain the airframes amongst other things, and the 410 was one of the jewels in the collection.

I believe it's the only complete example left anywhere in the world, although there is one still extant in the States in a storage hanger at the Paul Garber facility where it has been in a disassembled pile of parts since the end of the war. They plan to rebuild it.....Someday. The Cosford example is interesting if you notice the prop tips, they're 'squared off'. Apparently either when it was captured in Norway IIRC, or shortly thereafter, one of the blades was damaged by having the tip broken off. The aircraft was being used as a squadron 'hack' by the RAF over there for sometime, and was involved in a forced landing with an engine fire, so it may have occured then.Consequently the other five were squared off and shortened to enable the aircraft to fly vibration free, and it was due to thouroughly tested at Farnborough by the RAF and Air Ministry boffins in this configuration, but in the end this never occured and it was earmarked for display.

The 20 mm cannons in barbettes on the sides of the fuselage are very interesting, and they can be freely moved by hand from back to front and also directly outwards through 180 degrees I seem to remember, a very impressive and tight bit of engineering.

Thanks for showing this article.

Regards, Ned.