The WW2 Messerschmitt Me-264 Amerika Bomber has a propaganda history. It started off as a private venture by Messerschmitt for an ultra-long-range bomber. Messerschmitt, who was ordered to concentrate on fighters, mainly the Bf 109, started in 1940.. So, by 1942 the V1 flew. The German Air Ministry then used it as propaganda giving the impression that it favored the Me-264 as a weapon against the US eastern seaboard. Intel gathered from trading US companies before Dec 1941 was used to make up the first target list for the Me-262 which would have a top speed of 351 mph to a range of over 9300 miles carrying 4400 lbs of bombs. But in reality, it would have to travel at only 217 mph to make that range unarmed and return to base; otherwise, it would have to ditch in the Atlantic with the crew being picked-up by U-boat or seaplane. A second prototype was built with the third planned for major engine upgrades, more fuel storage, and additional armament of 4x 20 mm cannon + 6x 13mm MGs. But the planes were delayed and destroyed in an Allied bombing raid in '44. Messerschmitt could not rebuild them b/c by that time the Reich needed all the fighters it could produce to fight the day and night bombing campaigns of the USAAF and RAF. Next-generation Amerika Bombers in 1945 ranged from the futuristic Horten Ho XVIII flying wing bomber to spaceplanes built by EMW which were manned A-4 and A-9 rockets!!! No time for conversions. Sanger & Bredt also had been working on their own space bomber, but no way that could be built along with its miles-long launch monorail track and 660 ton thrust rocket sled pusher. Only the tubular steel center section of the Horten flying wing was found when Germany surrendered. Other designs for the Me-264 were to use higher hp engines and even jet engines to carry a heavier load farther. Germany never got anywhere near bombing the US. Italy almost did with the S.M.95 in 1943 and the Japanese almost did in 1945 with the Seiran aircraft to be launched from the massive I-400 submarine aircraft carriers, but they were recalled from the Panama Canal strike mission to protect the home islands. Germany had the He-277 and 274 aircraft, but they had much shorter range and the preferred Ju-390 conversions were not allowed b/c the SS controlled those aircraft for their own purposes!!! Not even the Fuhrer's pilot could get his hands on the Ju-390! It was planned to launch V-2s from containers in the mid-Atlantic towed by Type XXI U-boats (Prufstand XII) but the subs were not ready and the three containers were not ready either.

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