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Codename Amerikabomber was more than just a top secret nazi aircraft, but infact the first stage in a plan to assult and conqure the united states of america.
The inital strategy was to harrasle the population centers of the east coast, diverting US resources to home defence, and distilling the appitite for war of the american public.
The plan also included a list of 21 targets, mostly aircraft manfactores in the eastern seaboard, in an effort to ground the American airforce.
But its origins actually can be traced back before the USA was even involved in conflict, to even before the war.
According to the book Spandau, the secret diaries of Hitler by Albert Speer, the furuer was obsessed with the idea of new york in flames.
In 1937, Messerschmitt hoped to win a huge contract with the nazi government by showcasinga new plane that could reach america, the Messerchimitt ME 264.
In 1938, the luftwaffes commander Hermann Goring gave a speech highlight the lack of bomber power:
"I completely lack the bombers capable of round-trip flights to New York with a 4.5-tonne bomb load. I would be extremely happy to possess such a bomber, which would at last stuff the mouth of arrogance across the sea."
But it would only be by 1942 that the project would pick up speed.
In april of that year, a project plan called Amerikabomber was written and issued to several high ranking officers. At the time, they believed that Heinkel He 277,[5] Junkers Ju 390, and the Messerschmitt Me 264 derivative would be fine, if launched from the Azore Islands.
ut in turn, each of these aircraft was proven to be unsuitable.
The ME 264 couldn't be equipped with the required arnaments, and the other aircraft lacked the range. Although it was rumoured that the Ju 390 did actually do a test flight to america, this has never been proven.
In 1944, the RLM issued a requirement for a new type of aircraft, a stragetic bomber that had a range of 11,000 kilometers, or 6835 miles for my north america viewers, and a bombload of 4000 kg, or 8818 pounds.
This would be the perfect range for a bombing run from Berlin to say.... New York, without stopping and without refueling.
The top five germany aircraft companies got to work and submitted designs.
Unfortunately, none of these new design met the strick requirements needed,
and would force the nazis to secure the Azore Islands, stock them with a battalian and then use it as a forwarding base. A requirement that was looking increasingly more troubling with the state of the war changing under their feet.
There was a second round of revisions to come up with solutions,
but apart from flying to America, ditching the bomber and returning via submarine, there was little improvement.
But there was one team that was omitted from the selection. The horten brothers and their flying wings.
They had been omitted only because the powers that be didn't think they would be interested in bomber aircraft, focusing soley on smaller fighter planes. The german command couldn't have been more wrong.
The Hortenrs knew that they could overcome these design falires, and got to work over Christmas of 1944 concepting their new transatlandic bomber.
They cooked upa rough draft with weight calculations, fuel, crew, armaments, landing gear and bombload.
Some of these concepts had up to eight new jet engines, but they settled on six as a nice middle ground.
it would be a flying wing design, based of the engineers previous works.
Flying wings had several advantages over previous types of planes. With the entire surface area dedicated to generating lift, the aircraft could be 20-30% more fuel efficent and have a greater range. Because of its smaller cross section, the flying wing would also have a smaller radar profile, making it a world first stealth bomber. But it isn't without flaws, such as handling issues and requiring new types of engineering.
This is the brothers final design: