The Strahlbomber I had to fit all six of its engines into the design so two were paired within each wing and aspirated through a shared intake built into the wing leading edges. The engines exhausted from the wing trailing edges in individual exhaust rings. The remaining set of turbojets were then positioned well-forward, straddling the nose / cockpit section of the aircraft, which was thought to improve aircraft and crew survivability.
Beyond its proposed defensive armament scheme, the Strahlbomber I held little beyond its speed to escape an optimistic intercepting enemy - the bomber was estimated a maximum speed of 510 miles per hour with the original 003 engine set, and this was assumed to be faster once the more powerful 018 units were in play. Range was another estimated quality, this reaching out to 1,600 miles or more with a modest bomb load in tow and a service ceiling going beyond 30,000 feet was envisioned - necessitating a pressurized cabin for the crew.
Internally, the bomber was to hold provision for up to 8,000 lb of conventional drop bombs. This could be reduced some to improve operational range. At any rate, the aircraft would have clearly outclassed its prop-driven Allied bomber counterparts and then some through both bombload and over-battlefield capability.
With that said, the Strahlbomber I never materialized into any viable mockup or prototype form. It served as intended - a selling measure for a BMW product. The 018 was never readied before the end of the war in Europe came during May of 1945 and the existing work on the engine was captured and dissected by the Americans in the months following.
The other three submissions encountered the same fate: "Strahlbomber II" was more of a true flying wing in that it lacked any sort of tailplanes and attempted considerable wing-body blending. The BMW "High-Speed Bomber" utilized a unique gull-wing style mainplane with over-under engine nacelles carried just outboard of the wingroots. the cockpit, mainplane and engines were all to be situated well ahead of midships in this design. The final form, the BMW "02B", took on a most unique arrangement in that it had swept-forward wing mainplanes and held a pair of turbojet engines over and away from the cockpit by the nose. This was perhaps one of the more doubtful entries in the series considering the aeronautical challenges that would have laid ahead in testing.
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