Focke-Wulf Ta 400
The Focke-Wulf Ta 400 was a six-engined heavy bomber designed in Germany in 1943 for the Amerikabomber programme, the Reich Air Ministry's attempt to field a bomber able to strike the United States from Europe and return. Designed under Kurt Tank as both a bomber and a long-range reconnaissance aircraft, it combined six BMW 801 radial engines — later supplemented on paper by two jet engines — with a pressurized crew compartment and heavy defensive armament, and its design work was spread across German, French and Italian firms. The Air Ministry cancelled the programme in October 1943, judging it a poor use of materials and labour; no prototype was ever completed, and everything published about its performance rests on the designers' own estimates.
Why It Mattered
The Ta 400 was designed for a mission no German bomber of the Second World War could fly: a round trip of about 11,600 km (7,200 mi) from Germany to the United States and back. It was Focke-Wulf's entry in the Amerikabomber programme, an initiative of the German Ministry of Aviation to obtain a bomber capable of striking New York City from Germany. Ernst Heinkel, whose firm offered the rival He 277, remarked in October 1943 that he thought only the Ta 400 could be a worthy competitor to his own design in the contest. The programme came to nothing: the ministry cancelled the Ta 400 that same month, no prototype was ever built, and the Amerikabomber plans as a whole were eventually abandoned as too expensive and technically infeasible.
Design Notes
Kurt Tank designed the aircraft for two roles, bombing and long-range reconnaissance, around a shoulder-mounted wing with 4° dihedral and twin vertical stabilizers at the tips of the tailplane. Its most striking feature was the powerplant: six BMW 801D radial engines, to which two Junkers Jumo 004 jet engines were later added. Like the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the design gave its crew of nine a pressurized compartment connected by a pressurized tunnel to a pressurized tail turret, and further armament in remote-controlled turrets. The maximum bomb load was projected at 24 t (53,000 lb), and fuel was to be distributed across 32 tanks. Every figure published for the design, including an estimated maximum speed of 720 km/h (450 mph), rests on the designers' estimates alone: the type never progressed beyond a wind tunnel model.
Operational History
The Ta 400 never flew, so it has no operational history; this section records the programme instead. Focke-Wulf took up the design in response to the Reich Air Ministry guidelines of 22 January 1942, and design work began in 1943. French technicians on Focke-Wulf's staff did much of the design work, based at the Arsenal de l'Aéronautique in Châtillon-sous-Bagneux, outside Paris, and contracts for major components were awarded to German, French and Italian companies to speed prototype construction. Within the competition the design stood as the backup to the Messerschmitt Me 264, and its heavier demands for materials and labour counted against it. On 15 October 1943 the ministry notified Focke-Wulf that the programme would be terminated. The design nonetheless outlived its cancellation on paper: minutes of a meeting in Italy on 18 April 1944 between Tank and Italian aviation industrialists recorded that work was still ongoing and proposed cooperation with Italian industry. Two days after that meeting, the entire He 277 programme was also cancelled. No prototype was ever built, and the Amerikabomber plans as a whole were abandoned as too expensive, too dependent on matériel and production capacity that were rapidly diminishing, and technically infeasible.
Afterlife
Nothing of the Ta 400 survives: no prototype was ever built, and the design never progressed beyond a wind tunnel model. What remains is the paper record, including Focke-Wulf's own project description dated 13 October 1943. The figures attached to the type in print — its speed, range and weights — are still the designers' estimates, since no aircraft was ever completed to test them. The programme it belonged to is remembered with the rest of the Amerikabomber effort, whose plans were abandoned as too expensive and technically infeasible.