Destroyer (airplane)

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A destroyer is a multi-purpose combat aircraft that is primarily used as a heavy fighter aircraft for the destruction of other aircraft, but can also perform other tasks such as aerial reconnaissance or deep attacks.

German destroyer

origin

The origin of the development of destroyers lies in the tactical demands of the Reichswehr , which were passed in October 1932 and called for a single-engine, two-seat fighter, reconnaissance aircraft and light bomber as "Armaments Airplane II". This requirement was based on experiences from the First World War with aircraft types such as the Bristol F.2 Fighter and was substantiated by tests with modern designs such as the Junkers K47 .

Escort concept

In 1934 the concept of the "armaments aircraft III" was developed. The associated study by the Luftwaffe's command staff introduced the term “destroyer” for a twin-engine escort fighter with movably installed cannon armament, which should have a forward and upward-facing field of fire. The destroyer's job was to escort bombers by fighting enemy interceptors . Since, with the state of the art at the time, a heavy fighter with a long range could not compete with a light interceptor in terms of performance, the choice of mobile armament was one way of making up for the disadvantage in terms of performance. Due to the high demands on armament and range, an aircraft the size of a light bomber would have been created according to this concept.

The priorities were in detail:

1. Speed ​​(400 km / h at 6 km altitude)
2. Range (2000 km)
3. Climb performance (15 min on 6 km)
4. maneuverability

Multipurpose aircraft tender

At the beginning of 1934, the Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) approached various aircraft manufacturers (including Messerschmitt , Focke-Wulf and Henschel ) to have a multi-purpose aircraft designed according to Armaments II, which was also intended to perform the tasks of a destroyer. The official tender was issued in June 1934 and called for a "combat destroyer".

Messerschmitt responded to the RLM's invitation to tender with a family of aircraft in which the engines, wings and tail units were supposed to be identical, but the fuselage was modified for the various tasks. The destroyer, deviating from the original concept with rigid armament, was built under the designation Bf 110 , reconnaissance and bomber later under the designation Bf 161 .

Henschel criticized the tender because, due to the design of the destroyer, no performance advantage compared to the bombers to be protected could be expected. In contrast to Messerschmitt, Henschel planned to fulfill the different tasks with variants of the same aircraft type, the Henschel Hs 124 , which only differ in the design of the fuselage tip.

Focke-Wulf endeavored to cover all the requirements of the RLM with a single type of aircraft and created a large, heavy multipurpose aircraft that was not competitive with the designs of Messerschmitt and Henschel due to the limited engine power available. The Focke-Wulf Fw 57 was therefore deleted from the Luftwaffe's procurement program in November 1935, even if the construction of several prototypes was still planned.

The bomber role is temporarily canceled

When the RLM defined new requirements for a high-speed bomber in 1935 (500 km / h, 500 kg bomb load) and Junkers presented a concept that even promised a top speed of 500 km / h and 1000 kg bomb load, the "combat destroyer" was no longer envisaged to use as a bomber. Messerschmitt's Bf 162, developed from the Bf 161, and Henschel's Hs 127, developed from the Hs 124, were ultimately subject to the Junkers Ju 88 in the high-speed bomber tender . This temporarily eliminated the role of the bomber for the destroyer aircraft.

The Bf 110 becomes a hunter and fighter-bomber

In November 1936, the RLM finally decided to purchase the Messerschmitt Bf 110 as a destroyer and stopped developing the Focke-Wulf and Henschel designs as well as the Messerschmitt Bf 161 and Bf 162. In July 1937 the Messerschmitt Bf 110 no longer appeared as a destroyer , but as a heavy fighter on the Air Force's delivery schedule. In September 1938 Hermann Göring called for the development of the heavy fighter into a long-haul aircraft with sufficient range to fly over all of England. In addition, the Bf 110 was also considered as a fighter-bomber , and in April 1940 the first Bf 110 equipped with bomb locks was handed over to the Rechlin test site .

Second generation destroyer

When the tactical requirements for the successor model of the Bf 110 - the later Me 210 - were established and handed over to industry in October 1938 , the destroyer became a multi-purpose fighter again. The Me 210 was supposed to compensate for the weaknesses of the Bf 110 - low speed and weak defensive armament, especially towards the rear downwards -, had an internal bomb bay and, equipped with dive brakes, could also be used as a dive fighter aircraft.

In August 1942, the technical guidelines for combat destroyers were formulated, which indicated the intended use:

• Combat destroyer against targets on the ground and in the air
• Bad weather day hunting
• Near-night hunting
• Air reconnaissance in the main combat area.

The multi-purpose suitability was underpinned in September 1943 by the General Staff of the Luftwaffe, who described the Me 210 as a "destroyer machine that occasionally receives rapid combat missions", that is, is occasionally used as a bomber, while the Messerschmitt Me 410 , which has since been developed from the Me 210, called a "destroyer machine , which basically gets quick combat missions ".

War effort

The Bf 110 was used as a fighter against the Polish PZL fighter planes during the attack on Poland in 1939 . Although the PZL fighters were superior in terms of maneuverability and climbing performance, the Bf 110 had a higher top speed and was successful in its role as a fighter aircraft. The Bf 110 proved its worth as an interceptor, and as a destroyer of this type shot down nine British bombers in an aerial battle over the German Bight . In line with the destroyer's offensive concept, the Bf 110 was also used as an attack aircraft against ground targets, especially on enemy airfields, during the occupation of Holland, Belgium and Norway. During the occupation of France, the Luftwaffe suffered heavier losses, but the destroyers were able to keep up with the French fighter types in terms of performance and once again proved themselves in service.

In 1940 in the Battle of Britain , when the Bf 110 first encountered the Hawker Hurricane, which was enhanced by the use of 100 octane fuel, and above all the highly developed Supermarine Spitfire , it had lost the performance advantage required for its intended use as a destroyer and suffered heavy losses.

During the attack on the Soviet Union , whose air forces initially mainly used slow but agile fighters, the Bf 110 again had the necessary performance advantage to successfully fulfill the role of destroyer. Only in the further course of the war was this advantage finally lost. In the West, too, the successor to the Messerschmitt Me 410 never again achieved a performance advantage against the long-range fighter aircraft used primarily by the USAAF .

Multi-role fighter jets from other countries

In France, the concept of twin-engined BCR aircraft was developed in the early 1930s , which, like the German destroyers at the beginning, were to be designed for use as bombers, fighters and reconnaissance aircraft.