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The Focke-Wulf Ta 400 was a design for a six-engined long range bomber capable of reaching the United States from Continental Europe. A wind tunnel model was produced, but the design never reached the prototype stage.
In mid 1943 the RLM gave Junkers, Messerschmitt and Focke-Wulf contracts to develop strategic bombers capable of carrying a 22,040lb bomb load to the United States.
The Ta 400 was a cantilevered mid-wing bomber. The wings had a level, straight edged centre section, carrying the inner four engines. The outer panel had a slight dihedral and was tapered on both leading and trailing edges. This section carried the outer two engines. The Ta 400 was to be powered by six 1,750hp BMW 9-801D piston engines, while the outer engines were supplemented by Jumo 109-004 turbojets.
The fuselage resembles that of the Boeing B-29, with a similar glazed nose. The crew would have been carried in the pressurized cabin and the front with one man in the rear turret.
The Ta 400 would have been very heavily armed. It would have had two dorsal and two ventral barbettes (one of each in front of and behind the wings) as well as a tail turret. It could have carried the 22,040lb bomb load in an internal bomb bay or Hs 293 or Hs 294 glide bombs externally.
Work on the Ta 400 continued into 1944, but by the middle of the year the project had been abandoned in favour of the emergency fighter programme. Focke-Wulf had produced a wind-tunnel model of the Ta 400, but work never began on a prototype.
Engine: Six BMW 9-801D piston engines plus two Junkers Jumo 109-004B turbojets
Power: 1,750hp each for BMW, 2,314lb thrust each for jets
Crew: 6-9
Wing span: 150ft 3in
Length: 94ft 1.5in
Loaded Weight: 132,240lb
Range: 5,589 miles
Aircraft of the Luftwaffe 1935-1945, Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage.
Combines a good background history of the Luftwaffe with a comprehensive examination of its aircraft, from the biplanes of the mid 1930s to the main wartime aircraft and on to the seemingly unending range of experimental designs that wasted so much effort towards the end of the war. A useful general guide that provides an impressively wide range of information on almost every element of the Luftwaffe
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