WIX Archives
Re: The German engine situation
Posted by Jim on Wed Jul 24, 2002 02:23:02 PM
In reply top The German engine situation posted by Cees on Wed Jul 24, 2002 10:21:31 AM
Here are my thoughts, some of which I've said before....
There already was discussion some time ago about the underground production facilities and storage areas in Germany. Some were known and have been sealed-off and others are mainly just rumor. Others are said to be on military or government property where you can't get to them--just like the recent engine discovery made by explosive disposal teams. Does anyone have infomation on whether German *engine* production was moved underground in the latter days of the war or were these desperate measures only made for Me262 and V2 rocket production? Looking in these locations my prove fruitful if anyone can ever get permission to do so.
One can always hold out for unknown or forgotten engine spares in Russia and surrounding territories. The Russians had captured ALOT of aircraft by the end of the war. Here's a quote from Carl-Fredrik Geust's "Under the Red Star":
"Captured German aircraft types already well-known to the Soviets were taken over by the engineering units of the fighting formations. For instance, in the 16th Air Army commanded by Col.-Gen. Sergey I. Rudenko, 446 aircraft were evacuated during September-December 1942, this number increasing to 685 for the period July-August 1943, rising to a total of 2371 aircraft evacuated during 1944. The aircraft were repaired or dismantled for spares."
With so many captured aircraft, there must have been alot of engine spares to go with them. Stalin's later orders to destroy all foreign-made equipment probably doomed most of it, though. Some places to check might be areas where the Russians captured factory-new aircraft, such as the new Fw190Ds captured near Malbork, Poland and new Me109s and Fw190s captured in Austria. Is it possible that they had too much captured material at the end of war and may have possibly buried or discarded the material they didn't want?
This has me thinking something, though. If late-war German production suffered from poor manufacturing and poor quality-control, would anyone want to risk flying with an engine made at that time if some are ever found? (Even if it's rebuilt and gone-through from top to bottom?) Allied engine makers were cranking-out quality engines until the end of the war, but I don't believe that the Germans were. This opens up the same old can-of-worms that new/replica engines might have to made to meet the demand for any airworthy projects.
: Hi all,
:
: Today seems a bit slow. Here's something to get you starte
: d:
:
: The number of German warbirds are increasing with new airf
: rames being built or recovered from Russia etc. Some of th
: ese will also be made airworthy. The number of newfound en
: gines which turn up always surprise me.
:
: To build a static airframe of say a Me109, the condition o
: f a DB601/603/605 is less important that an airworthy exam
: ple. But as we know the number of these engines are limite
: d. Where would we find the engines needed for the increasi
: ng number of static/airworthy rebuilds, and I am not talki
: ng about using license built Chinese/Russian engines.
:
: Are there still unknown engines lurking somewhere (such as
: the cache of engines recently found at some German airpor
: t, or bricked up in an Italian factory)?
:
: What are your vieuws.
:
: Cees