My final one for the luftwaffe challenge… the E.500 was a proposed design put forth by Arado Flugzeugwerke in 1936, following a request by the luftwaffe for a light bomber-sized, seriously armed heavy fighter. The Arado proposal featured a rather large plane with a crew of four consisting of a pilot, co-pilot, dorsal turret gunner and ventral turret gunner, and the capability to carry a few bombs. The project advanced beyond the design stage as a full scale mock-up was created, but the project was then cancelled because the luftwaffe wasn’t really convinced of the powered gun turrets.
Design-wise, the E.500 was to be built around a twin-boom philosophy. The wings were high-mounted, running through each engine nacelle and spanning across the top of the gondola-style fuselage. The pilot and co-pilot were afforded good views outside their aircraft - particularly to the front, above and left and right sides thanks to the position of the cockpit at the extreme front of the fuselage. The dorsal gunner sat in a seat directly behind the cockpit cabin and controlled a pair of 20mm Rh LB 202 series cannons; the fourth crewmember would have managed a ventral gun position in the lower part of the gondola. This gunner would lay in the prone position and utilize a periscope for aiming and firing.
The tail booms were not joined but instead given independent elevators and vertical tail surfaces, to afford the gunners a clear shot. The engines were envisioned as a pair of Daimler-Benz DB 603 series engines.
In any case, the design was quite ambitious by 1930's standards. It remains to be seen whether this system would have performed well in the intended role of heavy fighter; with four crew members, heavy armament, an oversized fuselage and large wing area, the E.500 design would have a decent enough time against Allied bombers but would suffer greatly against the more agile fighter types designed in the 1940's.
Controls;
• VTOL Flaps or turret control (with AG1 activated)
• Trim Trim or turret control (with AG1 activated)
• AG1 Activate turrets & freeze flaps/trim
• AG2 Lights
• AG3 Tail wheel unlock (taxi only)
• AG4 Drop all 4 bombs simultaneously
• AG8 Toggle engine smoke effect
Specifications
Spotlights
- This craft has been featured
- Spikerya 4.0 years ago
- Mustang51 4.0 years ago
- RussianAce 4.0 years ago
- Leehopard 4.0 years ago
General Characteristics
- Predecessor Luftwaffe Challenge (Closed)
- Created On Windows
- Wingspan 56.9ft (17.3m)
- Length 42.7ft (13.0m)
- Height 12.6ft (3.9m)
- Empty Weight 17,310lbs (7,851kg)
- Loaded Weight 20,855lbs (9,459kg)
Performance
- Power/Weight Ratio 0.646
- Horse Power/Weight Ratio 0.143
- Wing Loading 27.0lbs/ft2 (131.7kg/m2)
- Wing Area 773.0ft2 (71.8m2)
- Drag Points 2749
Parts
- Number of Parts 1228
- Control Surfaces 0
- Performance Cost 4,061
It would be really cool if you remade this to having an interior and all that, this aircraft is really cool.
RATING
Looks : 8.5/10 pts.
Performance : 8.75/10 pts.
Details : 9/10 pts.
Weaponry : 9/10 pts.
Bonus : 9/10 (Turrets)
OVERALL RATING : 8.85/10
That is very nice looking, love it, i was kinda thinking about that "light bomber-heavy fighter" part, i know this is a real plane (and might even comment the lutwaffe)
I have made some good light bomber-medium fighter, which i designed it like a proper WW2 aircraft (never uploaded) it can perform both bombing and fighter as well, the bomb payload can vary between 1-4 bombs, and still handled good, if they say (lutwaffe) they need a light bomber that can alsoworks as a fighter then why don't they put bombs on their Bf-109 (i think they have but im not sure), it might slow the plane a little bit and sacrifice agility for arnament but if they made a new plane that can do all of that without sacrificing agility for arnament then why do they went with 4 crew, why not just make a new plane that can carry 2-3 people, one pilot, one navigator, one gunner, or one pilot and one navigator+gunner, that would be much more cheaper and not as demanding as the "radical" plane that lutwaffe has come up, on the brighter side they also reduce the amount of crewmen that lost or captured when shot down, if they can make a plane that do all of that then maybe just maybe lutwaffe will have a more promising future, some of the plane is radical in theory but works in the battlefield, the Komet and the Natter were one of the very few plane that actually perform quite good, the komet just got setback from its dangerous flying characteristic and its human eating fuel, and the natter just never seen the light ever again since their main airbase were destroyed along with the plane
Well just rambling at this point, but aside from that nicely done plane, love the smoke effect
Thanks all! I was also brewing another luftwaffe-thing, unfortunately not suitable for the challenge cuz it's a jet. I'll just finish up on that one now...
Very nice design. 👍
this is gonna be one hard challenge for me to judge
This is good and all, but why am I never featured 😅😅😅🤣🤣🤣😂
Yeah this probably would have transitioned to a light or frontline bomber
Looks like a german black widow
Beautiful aircraft. I love a good German heavy fighter! The level of detail on the landing gear is awesome. Good job!
Big fan of the design.
Great looking build! The cockpit and engines are fantastic!
amazing as always!