Arado Ar 234 The Arado Ar 234 was the world ' s first operational jet - powered bomber , built by the German Arado company in the closing stages of World War II . Produced in very limited numbers , it was used almost entirely in the reconnaissance role , but in its few uses as a bomber it proved to be nearly impossible to intercept . It was the last Luftwaffe aircraft to fly over England during the war , in April 1945 . Design and development . Background . In late 1940 , the Reich Air Ministry ( , abbreviated RLM ) offered a tender for a jet - powered high - speed reconnaissance aircraft with a range of . Arado was the only company to respond , offering their E . 370 project , led by Professor Walter Blume . This was a high - wing conventional - looking design with a Junkers Jumo 004 engine under each wing . The projected weight for the aircraft was approximately . In order to reduce the weight of the aircraft and maximize the internal fuel , Arado did not use the typical retractable landing gear ; instead , the aircraft was to take off from a jettisonable three - wheeled , nosegear - style trolley and land on three retractable skids , one under the central section of the fuselage , and one under each engine nacelle . Arado estimated a maximum speed of at , an operating altitude of and a range of . The range was short of the RLM request , but they liked the design and ordered two prototypes as the Ar 234 . These were largely complete before the end of 1941 , but the Jumo 004 engines were not ready , and would not be ready until February 1943 . When they did arrive they were considered unreliable by Junkers for in - flight use and were cleared for static and taxi tests only . Flight - qualified engines were finally delivered , and the Ar 234 V1 made its first flight on 15 June 1943 at Rheine Airfield . By September , four prototypes were flying . The second prototype , Arado Ar 234 V2 , crashed on 2 October 1943 at Rheine near Münster after suffering a fire in its port wing , failure of both engines and various instrumentation failures . The aircraft dived into the ground from , killing pilot " Flugkapitän " Selle . The eight prototype aircraft were fitted with the original arrangement of trolley - and - skid landing gear , intended for the planned operational , but never - produced Ar 234A version . The sixth and eighth of the series were powered with four BMW 003 jet engines instead of two Jumo 004s , the sixth having four engines housed in individual nacelles , and the eighth flown with two pairs of BMW 003s installed within " twinned " nacelles underneath either wing . These were the first four - engine jet aircraft to fly . The Ar 234 V7 prototype made history on 2 August 1944 as the first jet aircraft ever to fly a reconnaissance mission , flown by Erich Sommer . Ar 234B . The RLM had already seen the promise of the design and in July had asked Arado to supply two prototypes of a " Schnellbomber " ( " fast bomber " ) version as the Ar 234B . Since the aircraft was very slender and entirely filled with fuel tanks , there was no room for an internal bomb bay and the bombload had to be carried on external racks . Since the cockpit was directly in front of the fuselage , the pilot had no direct view to the rear , so the guns were aimed through a periscope , derived from the type used on German World War II tanks , mounted on the cockpit roof . The defensive fixed rear gun system was generally considered useless and it was omitted in production examples of the Ar 234B , while still retaining the periscope for rearwards vision . The external bombload , and the presence of inactive aircraft littering the landing field after their missions were completed ( as with the similarly dolly / skid - geared Messerschmitt Me 163 ) made the skid - landing system impractical , so the B version was modified to have fully retractable tricycle landing gear , with the mid - fuselage very slightly widened to accommodate the retracted main gear units . The ninth prototype , marked with " Stammkennzeichen " ( radio code letters ) PH + SQ , was the prototype Ar 234B , and flew on 10 March 1944 . Production B - series aircraft ( like the Ar 234 V9 ) were slightly wider at mid - fuselage to house the main landing gear , with a fuel tank present in the mid - fuselage location on the eight earlier trolley / skid equipped prototype aircraft having to be deleted for the retracted main gear ' s accommodation , and with full bombload , the aircraft could reach only 668 km / h ( 415 mph ) at altitude . This was still better than any bomber the Luftwaffe had at the time , and made it the only bomber with any hope of surviving the massive Allied air forces . The normal bombload consisted of two 500 kg ( 1 , 100 lb ) bombs suspended from the engines or one large 1 , 000 kg ( 2 , 200 lb ) bomb semi - recessed in the underside of the fuselage with maximum bombload being 1 , 500 kg ( 3 , 310 lb ) . If the war had continued it is possible that the aircraft would have been converted to use examples of the FuG 203 " Kehl " MCLOS radio guidance system to deploy and control the Fritz X guided bombs or Henschel Hs 293 air - to - surface missiles . Production lines were already being set up , and 20 B - 0 pre - production aircraft were delivered by the end of June . Later production was slow , as the Arado plants were given the task of producing aircraft from other bombed - out factories hit during the USAAF ' s Big Week , and the ongoing license - building and nascent phasing - out of the Heinkel heavy He 177A bomber , even as the Arado firm was intended to be the sole subcontractor for the He 177B - series aircraft , meant to start construction at Arado as early as October 1944 . Meanwhile , several of the Ar 234 prototypes - including a few of the surviving eight " trolley - and - skids " Ar 234A - series prototypes - were sent forward in the reconnaissance role . In most cases , it appears they were never even detected , cruising at about at over , with the seventh prototype achieving the first - ever wartime reconnaissance mission over the United Kingdom by a Luftwaffe - used jet aircraft . The few 234Bs entered service in the autumn and impressed their pilots . They were fairly fast and completely aerobatic . The long takeoff runs led to several accidents ; a search for a solution led to improved training as well as the use of rocket - assisted takeoff . The engines were always the real problem ; they suffered constant flameout s and required overhaul or replacement after about 10 hours of operation . The most notable use of the Ar 234 in the bomber role was the attempt to destroy the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen . Between 7 March , when it was captured by the Allies , and 17 March , when it finally collapsed , the bridge was continually attacked by Ar 234s of III / KG 76 carrying bombs . The aircraft continued to fight in a scattered fashion until Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945 . Some were shot down in air combat , destroyed by flak , or " bounced " by Allied fighter s during takeoff or on the landing approach , as was already happening to Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighters . Most simply sat on the airfields awaiting fuel that never arrived . Overall from mid - 1944 until the end of the war a total of 210 aircraft were built . In February 1945 , production was switched to the C variant . It was hoped that by November 1945 production would reach 500 per month . In addition , it was intended to modify upwards of 30 Ar 234B - 2 airframes for the night - fighting role , from a proposal dated September 12 , 1944 between Arado director Walter Blume and Goering ' s top aviation technologist , Siegfried Knemeyer . These so - called " Nachtigall " ( Nightingale ) aircraft were fitted with FuG 218 " Neptun " VHF - band radar and carried a pair of forward - firing MG 151 / 20 autocannon within a " Magirusbombe " conformal gun pod on the ventral fuselage hardpoint . A second crewmember , who operated the radar systems , was accommodated in a very cramped compartment in the rear fuselage . Two of these jury - rigged night fighters served with " Kommando Bonow " , an experimental test unit attached to Luftflotte Reich . Operations commenced with the pair of 234s in March 1945 , but Bonow ' s team soon found the aircraft to be unsuited for night fighting and no kills were recorded during the unit ' s very brief life . Ar 234C . The Ar 234C was equipped with four BMW 003 A engines , mounted in a pair of twin - engine nacelles based on those from the eighth Ar 234 prototype . The primary reason for this switch was to free up Junkers Jumo 004s for use by the Me 262 , but the change improved overall thrust , especially in takeoff and climb - to - altitude performance . An improved cockpit design , with a slightly bulged outline for the upper contour , also used a much - simplified window design for ease of production . Airspeed was found to be about 20 % higher than the B series and the faster climb to altitude meant more efficient flight and increased range . Although " Hauptmann " Diether Lukesch was preparing to form an operational test squadron , only 14 C - series airframes had been completed by the war ' s end , and of that number fewer than half had been fitted with engines , with a few of them found at the end of the war sitting out in the open , otherwise complete but with empty engine nacelles . Comprehensive flight testing of the new sub - type had yet to begin when Germany surrendered . Three basic variants of the C - series were planned for initial construction , with several more laid out as detailed proposals . Some of these would have had different powerplants , while others were intended to feature swept or " crescent " - type wings . Ar 234D . The D model was a two - seat aircraft based on the B - series fuselage , but with a new , enlarged two - seat cockpit possessing fewer glazing panels than the C version , intended to be powered by a pair of more powerful Heinkel HeS 011 turbojet engines . The HeS 011 powerplant never reached quantity production , with only 19 examples of the new powerplants ever created for test purposes , and no 234D was produced . Ar 234P . The P model was a two - seat night fighter version with a variant of the D - series cockpit , differing in powerplant options and several options of radar . Several were in the planning stage , but none made it into production . Variants . " Data from : " Aircraft of the Third Reich Vol . 1 Survivor . Only one Ar 234 survives today . The aircraft is an Ar 234 B - 2 bomber variant carrying " Werknummer " ( manufacturer ' s serial number ) 140312 , and was one of nine Ar 234s surrendered to British forces at Sola Airfield near Stavanger , Norway . The aircraft had been operating with " 9 . Staffel " III . / " Kampfgeschwader 76 " ( later reorganised as " Einsatzstaffel " ) during the final weeks of the war , having operated previously with the 8th squadron , carrying the full - four - character " Geschwaderkennung " military code of " F1 + GS " on the fuselage sides . This aircraft and three others were collected by the " Watson ' s Whizzers " of the USAAF to be shipped back to the United States for flight testing . Two aircraft were given freely but a further two had been traded to Watson by Eric " Winkle " Brown ( test pilot and CO of the Enemy Aircraft Flight at the RAE ) in exchange for an interview with Hermann Göring who was then being held by the Americans . The aircraft was flown from Sola to Cherbourg on 24 June 1945 where it joined 34 other advanced German aircraft shipped back to the U . S . aboard the British aircraft carrier . " Reaper " departed from Cherbourg on 20 July , arriving at Newark , New Jersey eight days later . Upon arrival two of the Ar 234s were reassembled ( including 140312 ) and flown by USAAF pilots to Freeman Field , Indiana for testing and evaluation . 140312 was assigned the foreign equipment number FE - 1010 . The fate of the second Ar 234 flown to Freeman Field remains a mystery . One of the remaining two was reassembled by the United States Navy at Naval Air Station Patuxent River , Maryland , for testing , but was found to be in unflyable condition and was scrapped . After receiving new engines , radio and oxygen equipment , 140312 was transferred to Wright Field near Dayton , Ohio and delivered to the Accelerated Service Test Maintenance Squadron ( ASTMS ) of the Flight Test Division in July 1946 . Flight testing was completed on 16 October 1946 though the aircraft remained at Wright Field until 1947 . It was then transferred to Orchard Place Airport in Park Ridge , Illinois , and remained there until 1 May 1949 when it , and several other aircraft stored at the airport were transferred to the Smithsonian Institution . During the early 1950s , the Ar 234 was moved to the Smithsonian ' s Paul Garber Restoration Facility at Suitland , Maryland for storage and eventual restoration . The Smithsonian began restoration of 140312 in 1984 and completed it in February 1989 . All paint had been stripped from the aircraft before the Smithsonian received it , so the aircraft was painted with the markings of an aircraft of 8 . / KG 76 , the first operational unit to fly the " Blitz " . The restored aircraft was first displayed at the Smithsonian ' s main museum building in downtown Washington D . C . in 1993 as part of a display titled " Wonder Weapon ? The Arado Ar 234 " . In 2005 it became one of the first aircraft moved to the new Steven F . Udvar - Hazy Center near Dulles International Airport . Today , 140312 is displayed next to the last surviving Dornier Do 335 , an aircraft that accompanied it on its voyage across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the " Reaper " over 60 years earlier . This aircraft is displayed with a pair of Hellmuth Walter designed , liquid - fueled RATO units mounted under its wings . These RATO units may be the only surviving examples to be mounted on an aircraft .