Alan Dicey wrote in message ...
robert arndt wrote:

Both the Do-217 and He-177 carried the SC 2500. The He-111 was limited
to the SC 2000 (which is seen in the background of many photos of that
bomb).

I can't find bomb-bay dimensions for either the Do217 or He177. He111
had small internal cells and a max load of 2000Kg - it is possible that
the photograph of the SC2500 posed in front of an He111 is just that -
posed. The only way an He111 could carry a bomb bigger than the SC250
was by external carriage IIRC. Not saying it isn't true, just that I
havent seen any evidence.

Do217 /seems/ to have a bomb-bay big enough - a single bay almost the
length of the plane. I wonder if any of the He177's three bays was long
enough for the SC2500? Of course, it could have been externally carried.

The Warbirds Resource Group site
http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/LRG/sc2500.html
has dimensions of 155" long by 32 in diameter. Thats 392 cm by 32 cm.
Too long for the He177's internal bays?

The Stirling suffered a similar problem - the MoD spec asked for small
bomb carriage only, and the bomb bay was divided into longtitudinal
cells. As bombs grew larger, the Stirling couldn't carry them, which
was one of the reasons it was quickly superseded in the bomber role.
The later Lancaster, on the other hand, had an unobstructed bomb bay 10
meteres long.

The He 177 had to devote a considerable amount of material to stress
for the dive bombing specification it had to adhere to. I suspect
this is the reason the bay was subdivided with structural members.