5 Things You Should Know About The Me 264 Amerikabomber

Did you know that Germany had a secret plan to produce a long-range bomber that could hit the USA mainland? The Messerschmitt Me 264 Amerikabomber was built to be used as Germany’s strategic bomber that would be capable of attacking the US, specifically on New York from Germany.

Here are five things that you should know about the Me 264 Amerikabomber:

1. The production of the aircraft was fueled by Hitler’s insane dream of using suicide attacks to bring the United States to its knees

The problem was Germany’s lack of strategic bombers that were capable of doing so. The East Coast of the United States was over 3,000 miles from Germany-occupied Europe.

At this point, one German aircraft designer had an interest in producing an aircraft with range and speed—Messerschmitt. In late 1941, the company worked on a design that would eventually become the Me 264.

2. The aircraft had massive trapezoid wings

The Me 264 had wings similar to the Me 261, boasting a wingspan of over 43 meters or 141 feet.

In comparison, the Allied B-17 Flying Fortress had a wing span of over 100 feet.

3. The Me 264’s final design included four engines as well as a range of approximately 7,000 miles

Eventually, though, the plane failed to compete with the performance of competitors such as the Junkers 390. This was Junker’s proposal and it had six engines.

While the Kriegsmarine planned to repurpose the plane as a reconnaissance aircraft for U-boats, it never came through as Hitler was talked out of the idea, citing the program’s failures.

4. It was a rather challenging aircraft for opponents to attack

For a bomber, the Me 264 had an impressive top speed of 519 km/h or 324 mph. It also has an impressive bomb load of two 1,800 kg bombs and three 250 kg bombs with powerful defensive capabilities, two 13 mm turrets, and three 20 mm turrets.

5. Despite its impressive performance, it would have failed to bomb America

Even with the wartime consensus, Germany agreed. In the form of the V1, the plane didn’t have the required range. More often than not, consideration was also given to rocket-assisted take-off (RATO) which was supposed to tow the plane in the air behind another aircraft.

Even in-flight refueling was taken into consideration. However, no practical work was done testing these concepts. Later in the war, after the prototypes were damaged during Allied bombing campaigns and numerous setbacks, production was halted on the Me 264.