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The Heinkel He 177 was a 4-engined long-range World War 2 bomber of the Luftwaffe. The troubled aircraft was the only heavy bomber built in large numbers by Germany during the war.
Aircrews nicknamed it the 'flying coffin' due the engines' preponderence to catching fire. A unique feature of the airplane that the two engines on each wing were grouped into a single nacelle and drove a single propeller. This feature had been introduced to reduce drag, but the added complexity led to many other problems.
Beset by many other technical diffculties in development and service, the plane had a troubled life. This was in part due to overly optimistic design requirements which in addition to long-range, high-speed, and carry a large bomb-load, was to be capable of dive bombing. Other variants of plane, the Heinkel He 274 and Heinkel He 277, produced later in the war had separate engines in the more commonly seen fashion.
Production Numbers: 1000+
Bombload: More then 6000kg
First Flight: 1939
