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Rather dry in spots, but the most in-depth book currently available on the Ar 234. Detailed descriptions of the flight test program and operations, first-hand accounts, plenty of information on unbuilt projects and "what ifs," hundreds of photographs, technical diagrams, and color profiles.
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Although many publications on the Arado Ar 234 Blitz have been published before, but this book is an empirical narrative of the history of design, development, testing, production, and operational deployment of the Ar 234. The first two chapters of this book deal with the history of the company that built the Ar 234 and the jet engine technology that would come to power the Ar 234, and the chapters that mattered dealt with flight testing, production, and operational service of the Blitz, with emphasis on basic variants of the Ar 234 and unbuilt night fighter variants plus an unrealized Mistel configuration featuring an Ar 234 piggybacking on the Arado E.377 flying bomb and a scheme to use the Blitz as a launch platform for the E.381 parasite fighter. At the end of this book is a technical description of the Ar 234B-2, an appendix describing the camouflage pattern for the Ar 234, and tables listing the Ar 234 prototypes and production aircraft, pilots' instructions for flying the Ar 234, and the squadrons that flew the Ar 234. The mention of the Arado E.395 project in Chapter 13 of this book is noteworthy, because Arado itself proposed the E.395 as a scaled-up Ar 234C for submission to the RLM tactical jet bomber that was won by the Junkers Ju 287 forward-swept wing jet bomber, and I was surprised to see the Heinkel He 343 four-engine jet bomber project included in the chapter because that aircraft arose out Heinkel's P.1068 design studies for a jet bomber and was intended as insurance in case the Ju 287 ran into developmental problems (in actuality, construction of the first two Ju 287 prototypes proceeded on time, although only the first was completed and flown). The most striking thing about the Ar 234 is that even though it was originally designed as a reconnaissance machine, it was eventually adopted for use as a bomber because Adolf Hitler, Edgar Peterson, and Hermann Goering wanted the Ar 234 Blitz to be used for additional future attempts by Hitler to smash the UK into submission and also thwarting the around-the-corner Allied invasion of Normandy. Until a few years ago, I didn't know that Arado had built an Ar 234 variant with four engines, but the Ar 234C designed with four BMW 003s proved to be a necessary interim measure by the Luftwaffe to field a multi-engine jet bomber until the more advanced Ju 287 could be cleared for series production and the He 343 flew.Read full review
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