What if the Germans had increased production of the 4 Engined Condor Aircraft and Used It as a Strat

The Focke Wulf Condor aircraft was the only real long range aircraft the Luftwaffe had throughout the war. So my question is why did the Germans not simply order an increase in production of the Condor? They wasted months and years waiting for the HE-177 that never was ready, while in the meantime they could have ramped up production of the Condor and had their heavy bomber in 1941 instead of 1945 when it was too late?

The Focke Wulfe Condor 200 aircraft first flew in 1937 as a civilian airliner. When war broke out it was refitted as a Kriegsmarine Bomber and long-range reconaisance and anti-submarine aircraft. It could carry a 2,000 pound bomb load, top speed of 224 mph, and had a range of 2,210 miles. Despite it being Germany's only real choice for a long range bomber, relatively few were built. One special high speed variant even was used as Hitler and Himmler's personal transport aircraft.

Once it became apparent that Germany needed a long range heavy bomber, Hitler ordered Heinkel to go full speed ahead on the HE-177 long range bomber. The HE-177 was meant to be Germany's long range heavy bomber. But it was plagued with problems throughout its development, including engine fires, and only a handful ever saw combat use. The Condor was not perfect either, but some serious design fixes might have ended most of its structural flaws, or am i all wrong on this idea?

 

It's maximum speed was only 360 km/h (In comparison He 177 reached 565 km/hr) and it was too fragile to be a serious long range bomber.

Also it's bomb weight was too little - again because of it's fragile airframe... it was engineered as a passenger liner , not a bomber.

 

Aye, like Leopold said, the Condor, in terms of pure performance, was lacking in many respects. Besides, there was no apparent need for a long-range German bomber. The Luftwaffe was pressed as it already was, and they could spare little effort for long-range bombardment. The excellent tactical bombers would be enough for the Battle of Britain (if handled correctly) and the Eastern Front, or at least as good as any strategic bomber could have been.

 

The Condor was also rather weak structurally for a bomber wasn't it?

 

not necessairly the bomb load was always inadequate thus a more ture 4 engine for letting off those nasty rocket to ship jobs. the LW should of produced the Ju 290A in sufficient numbers but again this 4 engine was used for Sea recon which it did admirably plus some rocket to ship cruises before FAGr 5 was removed from Sea duties and secretly made off to do some interesting stealth work over Allied covered territory over the Reich, aka KG 200 and then it's own diminion using the Ar 234.........auch du I am getting OT again.

 

Yes

 

The condor was a beautiful looking plane but the mistake was made prewar when the germans decided they didnt need a heavy bomber.
A heavy bomber should have been made a priority.

 

Btw, that photo is not a proof since it was taken just after Goering tried to board the plane.

 

actual footage of condor on bombing mission.

German Condor Bomber - Captured Fim Titled Long Range Bomber Over the Atlantic

 

I immagine that if the Germans has wanted a heavy bomber they would have evolved the Ju90 or Do19 into something useful without waiting for the overcomplex He 177, the Fw 200 was not a good choice as it's design was usuitable for the big weight increase needed for military use.
But real issue is that a bombing campaign WW2 style is very expensive in terms of fuel and other resources the Germans were short of, Gemany could possibly afford a couple of hundred better "atlantic raiders" but not the thousands of expensive fuel guzzling four engined planes a massive bombing campaign would require. Anyway targetting the shipping was a much more viable grand strategy than strategic bombing, the main Allied production centers were out of reach in the US and Canada and even the Urals factories were not that close, forward deployment of a large bombing force would have overtaxed the already weak German logistics in the East.
A small long range bomber force makes sense as it's careful employment may cause the Soviets and British to divert an inordinate amount of resources to defend a large amount of potential targets, and that's close to what existed historically though I don't know if the rationale behind it was the one I put forward (putting Goering and rational in the same sentence is always a risk ), but a strategic bombing campaign is essentially an attrition affair that Germany has no chance of winning.

 

The Condor would have made a pretty good paratrooper delivery system since it was designed as an airliner - right? Not that it would have changed much after Crete, but maybe if used early and in more numbers, who knows....

 

One of the Condor's problems as a military aircraft is that it's fuel system proved particularly vulnerable to AA fire, this would affect it's performance in Crete style opposed drops.

 

Seems that someone would've addressed that problem before pressing it into military service. So all they did was give it a paint job and voila! A military plane!

 

That was true for several models. The early production of the Do 17 & He111 was a bit wasted as both aircraft were extensively redesigned to make them usefull for real combat ops. Production for those models was low and design changes rapid so not a lot was wasted, but those early models were fairly useless by the standards of 1940. The Condor was not upgraded enough to serve efficently.

 

Thanks for all the replies. The structural flaws of the Condor were never fixed throughout the whole war but possibly could have been, since it was good enough for service to begin with. My question needs to be restated, so lets assume for sake of argument, the Condor's structural flaws were fixed and possibly even it was re-engined to increase the bomb load - how might they have gone about it, and what might the effect have been on the conduct of the war?

 

What people often forget in this 'what if' is the fact that if the Luftwaffe does decide to build up its heavy bomber force, it doesn't mean the Luftwaffe has all these extra bombers to use, but due to bottlenecks in resouces and the maximum capabity of the German aircraft industry it means that they would have had less aircraft. I have seen it calculated that for every 400 heavy bombers built it would have meant around 600 less tactical bombers (Ju 88/He111).

 

If engines are the bottle neck then it might even be 800 less tacticals (or more if you consider JU-87s) for every 400. Something the size of the Condor might also require other materials at a similar rate. Especially a "fixed" and/or uprated one. Germany would probably have been better off desiging a patrol bomber from scratch ... at least if they decided early enough. But war with Britain wasn't really on Hitlers radar scope at least in time to build a patrol bomber and have it operational.

 

Several ways to answer this. In theory yes the Condor could have had the structural problems 'fixed' and several others as well. There were better solutions. As someone posted here earlier completion of one of other heavy bomber projects could have produced a better solution. The Condor had some merit as a long range patrol vehicall & that might have been the best use of what were built.

 

the allies would of had problems shooting it down