Messerschmitt Me 264

Me 264
Me 264 V1 prototype with Jumo 211 powerplants
Role	trans-oceanic Strategic bomber/ Maritime patrol aircraft
Manufacturer	Messerschmitt
Designer	Wolfgang Degel, Paul Konrad and Woldemar Voigt
First flight	23 December 1942
Status	Cancelled, 23 September 1944
Primary user	Luftwaffe
Number built	3

The Messerschmitt Me 264 was a long-range strategic bomber developed during World War II for the German Luftwaffe. It was intended to serve as Germany's main strategic bomber. The design was later selected as Messerschmitt's competitor in the Reichsluftfahrtministerium's (the German Air Ministry) "Amerika Bomber" programme, which intended to develop a strategic bomber capable of attacking New York City from bases in France or the Azores. Three prototypes were built, but production was abandoned to allow Messerschmitt to concentrate on fighter production while another design, the Junkers Ju 390, had been selected in its place as a maritime reconnaissance aircraft.

The origin of the Me 264 design came from Messerschmitt's long-range reconnaissance aircraft project, the P.1061, of the late 1930s. A variant on the P.1061 was the P.1062 of which three prototypes were built, with only two "engines" to the P.1061's four, but they were, in fact, the more powerful Daimler-Benz DB 606 "power systems", each comprising a pair of DB 601 inverted V-12 engines, successfully used in the long-range Messerschmitt Me 261, itself originating as the Messerschmitt P.1064 design of 1937. The DB 606's later use, and badly designed engine installations in the Heinkel He 177A's airframe design managed to get them derided by Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring as "welded-together engines" in August 1942. In early 1941, six P.1061 prototypes were ordered from Messerschmitt, under the designation Me 264. This was later reduced to three prototypes.

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