Vahe Demirjian
Banned
Dan Sharp's magazine Luftwaffe Secret Bombers of the Third Reich mentions on page 15 a four-engine variant of the Heinkel He 177 called the He 179, which Ernst Heinkel saw as a backup in the event the He 177's development was plagued by its unreliable DB 606 engines. However, the RLM cancelled the He 179 on September 12, 1939 as development of the He 177 picked up pace, even though the fire-prone DB 606s would be the Achilles' heel of the He 177. This piece of info is important because the He 179 was Heinkel's first ever He 177 design with four separate engines and an RLM aircraft designations webpage lists 8-179 as allocated to Heinkel, but without providing further details. The He 179 isn't mentioned in Griehl and Dressel's book on the He 177, however.
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