Almost as soon as the Bf 110 (p.W:IC00) entered service, plans for a replacement began to be made. Unfortunately the result, the Me 210, was an unmitigated disaster, having horrible handling and stability characteristics. Although 200 were eventually produced, they were unsuitable for service and work on a fix was put in the background as more Bf 110’s were produced. In the end, by lengthening the fuselage and adding leading-edge slats to the wings, the Me 410 (redesignated due to the poor reputation of the Me 210) entered service in 1943. There is no technical reason these solutions could not have been introduced much earlier (such as in an alternate WWII).
By the time the Me 410’s began entering service in early 1943, the high performance of 1939 was easily surpassed by Allied fighters such as the Mustang (p.W00) and Thunderbolt (p.W:DF00). However, the Me 410 was still useful as a reconnaissance platform and bomber destroyer. Some of the heavy fighter versions were given radar to use as night fighters. However, despite being superior to the Bf 110, the Me 410 was considered unsuccessful and production ended in late 1944.
Some 1,160 Me 410’s were built and the plane was unofficially known as the “Hornet.” The pilot operates the forward guns and drops any carried bombs. The gunner operates the two MG 131’s in barbettes, navigates and operates the radio. The Me 410A-1/U2 uses 117 gallons of aviation gas at routine usage.
Me 410A-1/U2 “Hornet”
Subassemblies: Light Fighter-Bomber Body +3, Medium Fighter-Bomber
Wings +3, two Small AFV pods [Wings:F], three retractable wheels +1.
Powertrain: two 1,304-kW HP supercharged aerial gasoline
engine with two 1,304-kW props and 1,321-gallon self-sealing fuel tanks
[Wings].
Occupancy: 2 CS Cargo: 7.5 Body, 1.8 each
Pod
| Armor | F | R/L | B | T | U |
| Body | 2/3 | 2/3 | 2/3 | 2/3 | 2/3 |
| Wings | 2/3 | 2/3 | 2/3 | 2/3 | 2/3 |
| Pods | 2/3 | 2/3 | 2/3 | 2/3 | 2/3 |
| Cockpit | 0/+10 | 0/+10 | 0/+20 | 0/0 | 0/+10 |
Weaponry
2¥ Aircraft LMG/7.92mm MG 17 [Body:F] (1000 rounds each)*
2¥ 20mm Medium AC/20mm MG 151/20 [Body:F] (350 rounds each)*
2¥ 20mm Medium AC/20mm MG 151/20 [Body:F] (250 rounds each)*
2¥ Medium Aircraft HMG/13mm MG 131 [Body:R] (500 rounds each)*
* Linked to fire in pairs, plus additional link can fire all Forward
guns
Equipment
Body: Medium range radio transmitter and receiver, IFF, navigation
instruments, bombsight, autopilot, bomb bay (2,205 lb capacity). Wings:
Two 110-lb hardpoints each
Statistics
| Size: 40'x54'x14' | Payload: xx tons | Lwt: 12.3 tons |
| Volume: 312 | Maint.: 21 hours | Price: $89,000 |
HT: 7.
HPs: 330 Body, 330 each Wing, 150 each Pod, 30 each Wheel
| aSpeed: 388 | aAccel: 14 | aDecel: 19 | aMR: 4.75 | aSR: 2 |
Design Notes
Design top speed was 381 mph; the historical value has been substituted,
as well as the actual wing surface area (390 square feet). The design purchased
1320 gallons of fuel tanks but the historical value was used. Design weight
was reduced 5% to match historical weight.
The body cost, weight and HPs were doubled to improve HT, although this added a bot of extra weight. Although the wings only have 20% of the volume available under MVDS rules (p.W142), this design needed a great deal more space (about 65% of the VE2 total) to fit the wing tanks it historically carried.
The bomb bay is unloaded, as the second pair of 20mm MG 151/20’s are located in a tray under the bay doors. These tray guns were only present on the heavy fighter versions.
To simplify the design, the two MG 131 barbettes used volume from the body. They can angle outward at 45 degrees and can rotate 90 degrees up or down. The rear gunner operates both.
Variants
There were a large number of variants of the Me 410. Fortunately, there
was a pattern to most of them.
The A-1 series were mostly designed to serve as fast bombers.
A-1/U1: A recon version with a camera in the bomb bay.
A-1/U4: A bomber destroyer with all of the nose armament removed and a 50mm BK 5 cannon (treat as a 50mm MTG with RoF 1 and no loader) and 21 rounds of ammo, partially in the bomb bay.
The A-2 series lacked the wing hardpoints and bombsight. They had the same subvariants are the A-1 series. However, in the A-2/U4, the nose armament was retained with the 50mm cannon.
The A-3 replaced the two MG 17’s and their ammo with two recon cameras.
The B series upgraded to 1,417-kW engines, although speed increased to only 392 mph. The B-1’s were similar to the A-1’s, the B-2’s to the A-2’s and B-3’s to A-3’s. For the B-2/U2 (heavy fighter version), field kits were available to add additional cannons. The R2 added two 30mm MK 108 cannons, the R3 added two 30mm MK 103 cannons, the R4 added two 20mm MG 151/20 cannons and the R5 added four 20mm MG 151/20 cannons.