Amerika Bomber The Amerika - Bomber project was an initiative of the German " Reichsluftfahrtministerium " , to obtain a long - range strategic bomber for the " Luftwaffe " that would be capable of striking the continental United States from Germany , a distance of about . Though the concept was raised as early as 1938 , plans for such advanced , cogent plans for a long range strategic bomber design competition did not begin to appear in " Reichsmarschall " Hermann Göring ' s offices until the spring of 1942 . Various proposals were put forward , including using it to deliver an atomic bomb , but they were all eventually abandoned as too expensive , and potentially consuming far too much of Germany ' s steadily shrinking aviation production capacity after 1942 . Background . According to Albert Speer ' s book , " " , Hitler was fascinated with the idea of New York City in flames . In 1937 , Willy Messerschmitt hoped to win a lucrative contract by showing Hitler a prototype of the Messerschmitt Me 264 that was being designed to reach North America from Europe . On July 8 , 1938 , barely two years after the death of Germany ' s main strategic bombing advocate , " Generalleutnant " Walter Wever , and eight months after the Reich Air Ministry awarded the contract for the design of Germany ' s only operational heavy bomber during the war years , the Luftwaffe ' s commander - in - chief Hermann Göring gave a speech saying , " I completely lack the bombers capable of round - trip flights to New York with a 4 . 5 - tonne bomb load . I would be extremely happy to possess such a bomber , which would at last stuff the mouth of arrogance across the sea . " Canadian historian Holger H . Herwig claims the plan started as a result of discussions by Hitler in November 1940 and May 1941 when he stated his need to " deploy long - range bombers against American cities from the Azores . " Due to their location , he thought the Portuguese Azores islands were Germany ' s " only possibility of carrying out aerial attacks from a land base against the United States . " At the time , Portuguese Prime - Minister Salazar had allowed German U - boats and navy ships to refuel there , but from 1943 onwards , he leased bases in the Azores to the British , allowing the Allies to provide aerial coverage in the middle of the Atlantic . Requests for designs , at various stages during the war , were made to the major German aircraft manufacturers ( Messerschmitt , Junkers , Heinkel , Focke - Wulf and the Horten Brothers ) early in World War II , coinciding with the passage of the Destroyers for Bases Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom in September 1940 . The plan . The Amerika - Bomber Project plan was completed on April 27 , 1942 and submitted to " Reichsmarschall " Hermann Göring on May 12 , 1942 . The 33 page long plan was discovered in Potsdam by Olaf Groehler , a German historian . Ten copies of the plan were made , with six going to different Luftwaffe offices and four held in reserve . The plan specifically mentions using the Azores as a transit airfield to reach the United States . If utilized , the Heinkel He 277 , Junkers Ju 390 , and the Messerschmitt Me 264 could reach American targets with a 3 tonne , 5 tonne , and 6 . 5 tonne payload respectively . Although it is apparent that the plan itself deals only with an attack on American soil , it is possible the Nazis saw other interrelated strategic purposes for the Amerika - Bomber project . According to military historian James P . Duffy , Hitler " saw in the Azores the . . . possibility for carrying out aerial attacks from a land base against the United States . . . [ which in turn would ] force it to build up a large antiaircraft defense . " The anticipated result would have been to force the United States to use more of its antiaircraft capabilities - i . e . guns and fighter planes - for its own defense rather than for that of Great Britain , thereby allowing the Luftwaffe to attack the latter country with less resistance . Partly as a liaison with the " Wehrmacht Heer " , in May 1942 " Generalfeldmarschall " Erhard Milch requested the opinion of then - " Generalmajor " Eccard Freiherr von Gablenz on the then - new proposal , in regards to the aircraft available to fill the needs of an " Amerika Bomber " , which had then included the Me 264 , Fw 300 and the Ju 290 . von Gablenz gave his opinion on the Me 264 , in regards to its existing form in the second half of 1942 before von Gablenz ' s own commitments in the Battle of Stalingrad occurred , that the Me 264 could not be usefully equipped for a true trans - Atlantic bomber mission from Europe , but that it would be useful for a number of very long - range maritime patrol duties in co - operation with the " Kriegsmarine ' s " U - boats off the US East Coast . Mechanisms . Conventional bombers . The most promising proposals were based on conventional principles of aircraft design , and would have yielded aircraft very similar in configuration and capability to the Allied heavy bombers of the day . Many of the developed designs , themselves first submitted during 1943 suggested tricycle landing gear for their undercarriage , a relatively new feature for large German military aircraft designs of that era . These included the following concepts : Three prototypes of the Me 264 were built , but it was the Ju 390 that was selected for production . A verified pair of the Ju 390 design were constructed before the program was abandoned . After World War II , several authors claimed that the second Ju 390 actually made a trans - Atlantic flight , coming within 20 km ( 12 mi ) of the northeast U . S . coast in early 1944 . " Huckepack Projekt " ( Piggyback Project ) . One idea similar to Mistel - Gespann was to have a Heinkel He 177 bomber carry a Dornier Do 217 , powered with an additional " Lorin - Staustrahltriebwerk " ( Lorin - ramjet ) , as far as possible over the Atlantic before releasing it . For the Do 217 it would have been a one - way trip . The plane would be ditched off the east coast , and its crew would be picked up by a waiting U - boat . When plans had advanced far enough , the lack of fuel and the loss of the base at Bordeaux prevented a test . The project was abandoned after the forced move to Istres increased the distance too much . Another proposal was the Daimler - Benz Project C . This was a huge carrier aircraft , carrying either five " Project E " aircraft or six " Project F " aircraft . The smaller aircraft had jet - engines and were designed to be kamikaze - airplanes . The Huckepack Projekt was brought up again at multiple joint conferences between the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine . However , after a few weeks the plan was abandoned on August 21 , 1942 . Air Staff General Kreipe wrote in his diary that the German Navy could not supply a U - boat offshore of the United States to pick up the aircrew . The plan saw no further development , since the Kriegsmarine would not cooperate with the Luftwaffe . Flying wings . Other proposals were far more exotic jet - and rocket - powered designs , e . g . a flying wing . The Horten brothers designed the Horten Ho XVIII , a flying wing powered by six turbojets based on experiences with their existing Ho X design . The Arado company also suggested a six - jet flying wing design , the Arado E . 555 . Winged rockets . Other designs were rockets with wings . Perhaps the best - known of these today is Eugen Sänger ' s pre - war " Silbervogel ( " Silverbird " ) " sub - orbit al bomber . While the A4b rocket , winged version of the V - 2 rocket and probably its successor A9 rocket were tested several times in late 1944 / early 1945 , the A9 / A10 " Amerika - Rakete " , planned as a full 2 - staged ICBM , remained a project . Potential targets . Included in the plan was a list of 21 targets of military importance in North America . Many of these would not have been viable targets for conventional bombers of World War II , operating from bases in Europe . Of these targets , 19 were located in the United States ; one in Vancouver , Canada ( a possibly achievable target for a similar Japanese project ) and one in Greenland . Nearly all were companies that manufactured parts for aircraft , so the goal was likely to cripple US aircraft production . Feasibility . According to British Intelligence , a German prisoner of war was quoted saying that since the beginning of 1944 , " … regular air travel between Germany and Japan [ was ] established for the transport of high officials , " and took place with the Messerschmitt Me 264 . To put this into perspective , the distance from Frankfurt , Germany to Tokyo , Japan is 9 , 160 km ( 5 , 691 mi ) whereas the distance from New York City , New York to Paris , France is 5 , 840 km ( 3 , 628 mi ) ( although in the case of bombing New York City , that distance must be doubled to 11 , 680 km ( 7 , 256 mi ) as the bomber will need to make a return trip without refueling ) . < nowiki > < / nowiki > The only German World War II aircraft built that had anything close to this specified range was the Messerschmitt Me 261 " Adolfine " , with a maximum range of 11 , 025 km ( 6 , 850 mi ) . For the bomber to be an effective weapon , these engineering challenges need to be addressed . Had Hitler spent more time and resources on this project , it may have had a chance of working . However , unless Germany developed an atomic bomb , which would have taken even more time and resources , it is unlikely this aircraft would have made a big impact on the outcome of the war . Historian James P . Duffy believed that Germany had no central authority over the development and construction of advanced weaponry . Because of this , German scientists were forced to compete for resources that were already scarce due to the war . Hitler was often swayed to spend more time , money and resources on his " miracle weapons " or projects that were exciting and new , but less likely to be successful . As a result insufficient attention was given to the Amerika - Bomber project . The project failed to come to fruition , not because the transatlantic bomber was not feasible , but because the Nazis were unable to manufacture enough parts to produce the aircraft . The Allied bombing was so intense near the end of the war it disrupted the German supply chain . Also , the German war machine was running very low on supplies , particularly fuel and kept what little was left for defense . Ultimately , all of these projects were deemed too expensive and ambitious and were thus abandoned . They continued to be of interest to aerospace engineers , as the British Air Ministry considered development of the Ho XVIII for an airliner after the war . Likewise , the theoretical groundwork done on the Sänger " Silbervogel " would prove seminal to lifting body designs in the space age .