Summary
- Petlyakov Pe-8: The only four-engine heavy bomber designed by the Soviet Union has an underwhelming production of only 93 aircraft.
- Heinkel He 177 Greif: A German long-range bomber acquired the nickname "Air Force Lighter" due to in-flight fires.
- Avro Lancaster: The British heavy bomber with the highest payload involved massive production, as it mobilized 1.1 million workers.
World War 2 was a gruesome period that saw the development of some of the most extraordinary military aircraft of their time. These included the likes of the Heinkel He 219 and Morane-Saulnier MS.406, among others. You can see some of these aircraft in historical museums around the world. Among all these aircraft produced during World War 2, which was the heaviest bomber? Let's find out.
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5 Petlyakov Pe-8
The only four-engine heavy aircraft designed by the Soviet Union
Maximum take-off weight | 70,550 lbs |
|---|---|
Payload | 11,000 lbs |
Primarily used by the Soviet Air Forces (and designed by the Soviet Union), the Petlyakov Pe-8 was the only four-engine heavy aircraft designed by this nation. Compared to other countries, the Soviet Union produced more tanks and bolt action rifles, but it produced just 93 Petlyakov Pe-8s. This was an underwhelming number.
Photo: SDASM Archives | Wikimedia Commons
Andrei Tupolev, the man who designed the Tupolev Tu-95, was initially in charge of developing a better bomber than the Tupolev TB-3 series of bombers, which had been more or less antiquated in the 1930s.
Therefore, an aircraft that was heavier and could carry a payload of more than 4,400 lbs (2,000 kg) was envisioned. Early prototypes were named TB-7 but were later renamed Peltyakov in honor of the man who designed the aircraft: Vladimir Petlyakov.
Despite being one of the heaviest bombers used in World War II, the aircraft had quite a few problems, as explained by worldwar2planes.com:
" To start with, the Pe-8’s struggled with mechanical reliability, often due to its pioneering engine designs... Additionally, the Pe-8’s size made it a visible target, testing the crew’s nerve as they navigated through hostile skies. The Pe-8 crews often flew without the guidance systems modern aviators take for granted, relying on stars and maps. This rudimentary method, while ingenious, invited risk at every turn, showcasing the crew’s courage and adaptability."
Nonetheless, the aircraft was seminal in the Soviet Union's "moral raids" aimed at exposing some of the fragilities of the Axis powers.
4 Heinkel He 177 Greif
An aircraft dubbed as a "lighter".
Maximum take-off weight | 72,750 lbs |
|---|---|
Payload | 13,230 lbs |
The Germans produced more than a thousand Heinkel He 177 Greig. It also has the distinction of being the only long-range heavy aircraft bomber used by the Luftwaffe, which operated on the following occasions:
- The raids on Velikiye Luki, a town in Russia, were later dubbed a "City of Military Glory" because of the heroism displayed by soldiers there.
- "Operation Steinbock," also known as Baby Blitz. The operation was the last air raid by the Luftwaffe in World War II.
Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild | Wikimedia Commons
The aircraft wasn't as popular with the pilots of the Luftwaffe, though. There were a few problems with the aircraft as it earned curious nicknames, such as Luftwaffenfeuerzeug, which can be translated as Air Force Lighter, and Reichsfeuerzeug, which is translated as Reich's lighter. Both of these nicknames hint at the fact that the aircraft caught fire in flight due to structural and mechanical problems in the aircraft.
3 Avro Lancaster
The aircraft with the highest payload on this list
Maximum take-off weight | 72,000 lbs |
|---|---|
Payload | 22,000 lbs |
Avro Lancaster had some extraordinary performance abilities. More than 7,000 aircraft of this type were produced. The high production rate led to the mobilization of a workforce of more than 1.1 million people, as the Royal Air Force explains:
"The industrial and military organization needed to build and operate the Lancaster was huge. Six major companies built 7377 aircraft at ten factories on two continents; at the height of production over 1,100,000 men and women were employed working for over 920 companies. More service personnel were involved in flying and maintaining it than any other British aircraft in history."
Photo: Pawel Bednarski 303 | Shutterstock
Avro Lancaster necessitated a seven-person crew:
Crew members | responsibility |
|---|---|
A pilot | Flight operations |
A radioman | Controlling radio activity and communications |
A navigator | Overseeing targets and navigation |
A bombardier | Responsible for releasing bombs |
A flight engineer | Overseeing instrumentation and performing vigilance and checklists |
Two Gunners | Operating the forward and rear guns |
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A British heavy bomber that the RAF used for night-time raids over Germany.
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The Avro Lancaster was the main aircraft used by Bomber Command during the Second World War and the third-heaviest bomber used in World War II.
2 Consolidated B-32 Dominator
The last Allied aircraft to be engaged in combat during World War II
Maximum take-off weight (MToW) | 101,000 lbs |
|---|---|
Payload | 20,000 lbs |
The consolidated B-32 Dominator's payload capacity of 20,000 lbs, coupled with an MToW of 101,000 pounds, made it the second-heaviest bomber in World War II.
The first flight of this aircraft took place on September 7, 1942. Only 118 aircraft Consolidated B-32 Dominators were made, and these numbers, which are quite similar to those of the Peltyakov Pe-8, give us a hint that the aircraft (like the Peltyakov Pe-8, was rife with problems). As nationalworldwar2museum.org writes:
"The “superbomber” was incredibly advanced and, as a result, it was more complex than any other aircraft in history. As Boeing rushed to get the mammoth machine ready for service, a multitude of minor and major technical issues cropped up, including catastrophic engine cooling problems that led to the loss of a prototype aircraft in a fiery accident in early 1943."
Photo: nationalmuseum.af | Wikimedia Commons
No surviving aircraft of this type exist. The Consolidated B-32 was developed as an aircraft that would be a backup for the heaviest bomber in World War II. After the end of World War II, a reconnaissance mission involving the B-32 was attacked by Japanese fighters, and after eighteen months of operations, the production of the B-32 Dominator stopped.
1 Boeing B-29 Superfortress
The only aircraft to drop nuclear bombs during combat.
Maximum take-off weight | 140,000 lbs |
|---|---|
Payload | 20,000 lbs |
James M. Scott, in his book Black Snow: Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb, quotes General LeMay describing the heavy load of expectations showered by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress:
“Never before in the history of warfare has so much been expected of a single weapon."
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This heaviest bomber played a seminal role in defeating Japan in World War II. It was "intended to carry out firebombing raids on Tokyo to weaken Japan’s ability to fight and later played a role in mining harbors," as reported Joe Kunzler for Simple Flying.
Photo: BlueBarronPhoto | Shutterstock
The B-29 Superfortress wasn't without its problems, though. Four Wright R-3350-23 Duplex-Cyclone 18-cylinder air-cooled turbo supercharged radial piston engines had overheating problems. This led to post-assembly modifications as well.
In addition to being the heaviest bomber used in World War II, the aircraft was also the most expensive project of the war. The B-29 Superfortress project cost $3.2 billion, while deploying the aircraft in raids during the Pacific War led to the death of 800,000 people, with 100,000 perishing in a single night in Tokyo alone.
