behblc wrote:JU-390. Range of 6,000 miles.
ME-264 Range of 9,315 miles , endurance of 45 hours. (but with disappointing ceiling).
J.S>
Correct about the disappointing ceiling, but incorrect about the ranges.
Fuel consumption of the BMW-801D is well known and from other published data about gross weights, empty weight payload and endurance one can conclude the following for the Ju-390:
Ju-390 data: (including 10,000kg payload)
Fuel Weight 28,600kg ( 62,995 lb) 10,500 US gal / 39,740 Litres
Consumption Cruise 275 US gal /hour (1650 litres/hour) @ 1800 rpm & 230 Kt up to 12,000ft altitudes
Estimated Range 7,400 nautical miles (13,760 km) @ long range cruise speed (232 kt)
Regards the
Ki-77 flight from Singapore on 7 July 1943, the following ULTRA signal from Berlin dated 7 July 1943 to Kdo.d.Flughafenbereich 6/VI (Airfield Regional Command) at Sarabus, Crimea was intercepted and decrypted:
On 8/7 an allied aircraft will fly via air grid squares 3420, 2560 and 2510 to Sarabus. It is a two engined low wing monoplane, wing span 30 metres, metal fuselage, natural colour, wings grey. The aircraft must not be fired on under any circumstances.
Blechley Park appended the following note: "This presumably refers to undertaking "GOA" in which an aircraft was flying to Sarabus from Tokio via Singapore." (ULTRA signal CX/MSS 2867/T8).
On that same day (7 July 1943) a special Luftwaffe reception committee arrived at Saribus on Ju-290 T9+FK to greet the expected Japanese aircraft. The reception committee also includes an SS staff officer (in black uniform) whom I have yet to identify.
The reception team from Versuchsverband ObdL (later formed into KG200) included (then) Hauptmann Gartenfeld and Oberluetnant Wolfgang Nebel. Oblt Nebel later commanded Sonderkommando Nebel. A German POW captured in April 1944 was reported in a British intelligence report of May 1944 citing a series of Me-264 flights from Petsamo, Finland to Tokyo.
Armaments Minister Albert Speer recorded after the war in his memoirs that a
Ju-390 made at least one flight to Tokyo "via the polar route" at the hands of civil test pilots.
Nebel was connected with flights from Petsamo and had previously been closely associated with Oberst Theodor Rowhel of ObdL on long range missions.
The
Me-264 was officially retired from test flying at Lechfeld in August 1943, refitted with BMW-801D, was equipped by Flugkapitan Vogel of Eprobungskommando E-4 at Reichlin with long range navigation equipment and disappeared from Lechfeld until March 1944. During this period it was placed under Sonderkommando Nebel
After the Me-264's destruction by US bombing in April 1944, Nebel next re-appears as a Deutsch Luft Hansa Flugkapitan for Japan Kommando under command of Hauptmann Braun as a detachment of LTS.290 called 14/TG4 (Transportfliegergeschwader Nr.5) with Flugkapitan Rudolf Mayer as project pilot. Three
Ju-290 aircraft were retired from service and reconfigured as civil aircraft for Deutsch Luft Hansa at the airline's maintenance facility on Rusnye airfield Prague.
Yes the Ju-290 flights to Nigxia were very definitely under the guise of Duetsch Luft Hansa operations flown from then neutral Bulgaria to China, but actually under control of LTS.290. Bulgaria was attacked in September 1944 when presumably these flights ceased.