Erm, are you suggesting that the He-177 was somehow in the same league as the B-29?? The He-177 was a worthless, utterly unreliable piece of junk that could barely get into the air without catching fire (it didn't even need combat for that ... in that respect it was certainly a very advanced design) ... certainly not in the same league as the B-29 - or any other of the B bombers, for that matter.
Quoted from another forum. Yeah Red Ant, looks like you know a lot about this... Now go watch Perl Harbor, Band of Brothers or any other useless propaganda pieces like that.
And then there is this: http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/he177.html and this: http://www.scalecraft.com/browseproducts/Heinkel-He-177-Greif-(Griffin).HTML more praise of this incredibly 'successful' wonder child of superior German engineering: http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/gustin_military/db/ger/HE177GRE.html and: http://www.kotfsc.com/aviation/he-177.htm Your sources against mine. Now what. Face it, except for the baby blitz against south England in early 1944, your beloved He-177 never really saw much in the way of action ... which also explains why relatively few were lost in combat. The Germans simply realized the plane was so utterly useless they rarely ever used it for anything other than sporadic maritime patrol duties. Another thing ... considering you're whining so much about how the He-177 is incapable of reaching a practical bombing alt I seem to meet an awful lot of them at 20 kft or higher. How do they get there?
You're trying to stuff the heaviest available bomb load on this thing and then expect it to perform the same as with its standard loadout. Somehow I really really doubt that 5.6 tons of bombs was seen as a normal load for a He-177. As bimbom has already hinted at, if you insist on carrying such a massive loadout, make the plane lighter by taking less gas. I tried upping a He-177 with 2 x 1800 and 2 x 1000 with 70% fuel and set my climb speed to 165 mph IAS ... the plane didn't exactly leap up into the stratosphere like a love-sick angel but it did climb steadily at around 3.something meters / sec. Which is a lot better than the B-17 does when weighed down with 6 x 1600 lbs.
Never, EVER put the biggest bombload in the He-177. And even if you pick a smaller one try to dump some ammo during the flight. Once you have gotten rid of 'excess baggage' this plane flies and climbs like a dream. For a heavy bomber that is... I have an old KG51 raid with He 177s, maybe I will upload it if I manage to find the damned thing.
He177 is one of the few planes that seems to have a back side of the power curve, so is one of the few that has a realistic FM. I don't know if it realistic for a He177, but its something.
