The Ar-234В-2 was the first production version of this aircraft, but the decision was quickly made to curtail its production. The Jumo 004 engines turned out to be too weak for the aircraft to be considered quite successful. With a full bomb load, it became necessary to use launching rocket boosters, which in combat conditions significantly hampered the operation of these machines. Therefore, after the release of about 220 Ar-234B-2 aircraft. it was decided to abandon the construction of this modification in favor of the next one, which received the designation Ar-234C.

Ave "Caesar". Kosin and his team of designers already in the summer of 1943 made sure that the BMW 003 engines, which were originally planned to be used for the Ar-234 power plant. could not be used because of their lower thrust compared to the Jumo 004. However, in their favor was the fact that they were lighter and smaller than the Junkers engines. Obviously, a return to the original design, in which there were two engines under the wings, was unpromising. Therefore, the designers suggested installing four BMW 003s on the plane.

Two concepts have been proposed for their installation. The first one, the airframe design optimal from the point of view of manufacturability, involved the installation of each engine in a separate engine nacelle. Two of them were to be installed in the same places in which the Jumo 004 engines were previously installed, and two more - at the junction of the center section with the outer parts of the wings. where in their design there was already a power unit. It was previously used to suspend launch rocket boosters. With this arrangement of engines, it was possible to avoid changes in the design of the wings. However, this solution also had many disadvantages, of which not the least was a significant decrease in the lateral controllability of the aircraft.

The second solution consisted in blocking the engines in packages of two and hanging them to the fasteners on which the engines were installed until that time. With this solution, the flight characteristics and controllability of the aircraft were preserved, but its aerodynamics deteriorated somewhat. The wings also did not require major structural changes. In general, from the very beginning, Kosin was consciously forced to avoid such changes at any cost, since any modifications to the wing led to significant production delays, and the company could not agree to this. The first draft version "C" (Caeser) in this configuration was developed on August 26, 1943. The fuselage was taken unchanged from the Ar-234 B-2. and the power plant was four BMW 003 A-1 engines, each with a thrust of 800 kg, placed in double nacelles. According to the calculations, the aircraft was supposed to reach a speed of 882 km / h at an altitude of 4000 m, but the range dropped to 555 km. In the version proposed on November 22, 1943, the aircraft was armed with two MG 151 rear-firing cannons, located at the rear of the fuselage, in place of the cameras. Under the fuselage and gondolas, the engines could hang bombs.

The next calculations also showed that the Ar-234C equipped with four BMW 003 engines will have much higher flight characteristics than its twin-engine predecessor. The maximum speed at an altitude of 4000 m was supposed to reach 860 km / h, the range when flying at an altitude of 4000 m was to be 860 km. and when flying at an altitude of 12000 m - already 1470 km. This last characteristic was worse than the corresponding parameter for Ar-234B. but this was offset by an increase in speed of 120 km / h!

Construction. The Arado Аr-234 С-3 was a single-seat, four-engine, bomber and reconnaissance jet aircraft, built according to the scheme of a cantilever high-wing aircraft with a tricycle landing gear with a front wheel retracted in flight.

The fuselage was the same as on the Ar 234 B-2. The sealed cabin had rubber seals. The air for the appropriate pressure was taken from the engine compressors.

The chassis is the same as on the Ar 234 B-2. the front wheel had a tire measuring 630 × 220 mm. The fighter variant, the Ar 234P, was supposed to have tires for the main struts with dimensions of 740 × 210 mm, and in the case of wide rims, 770 × 270 mm.

Serial production of Ar-234 C-3 and C-4 began only at the end of February 1945 in Alt Lonnewitz. A second assembly line in Brandenburg was to be launched shortly thereafter. The Arado factories received an order for 1,795 bomber Ar-234 C-3 and 330 reconnaissance Ar-234 C-4. It was also planned to build 1395 Ar-234 C-3. A version of the C-5 with a two-seater cockpit was also planned, as well as 290 new Ar-234 C-7 fighters. In fact, until the end of the war, only about 19 pieces of Ar-234 C-3 (W. Nr 250001-250019) were built, as well as several Ar-234 C-4. The largest known serial number is 250012 (the number of the wreckage of the aircraft found at the Prague-Ruzun airfield). In addition to him, only four aircraft numbers are known, about which there is only information that they existed. W. Nr 250001 - first production Ar-234 C-3 (first flown on January 30, 1945). W. Nr 250002 - This aircraft with Eichem at the helm took off from Alt Lonnewitz on March 27, 1945, as well as W. Nr 250004. W. Nr 250006 was captured by American forces at Monachim-Reim airfield in May 1945.

One copy of "Arado-234s" - with 4 "BMW-003" was sent to Moscow for testing. The fate of the remaining vehicles is unknown. Some of the planes were destroyed by the Germans themselves. Several Ar-234 C-3s hit III EKG 1 and KG 76. The Ar-234 C-4 from 1 (F) / 123 was shot down on 4 April 1945 in the Boblingem area.

Photo	Description
	Drawing Ar 234 C-3
	The Ar-234 V13 with BMW-003 engines.
	The Ar-234 V19.

Bibliography

• "Aviation of Luftwaffe" /Viktor Shunkov/
• "The German Imprint on the History of Russian Aviation " /D.A. Sobolev, D.B. Khazanov/
• "Encyclopedia of military engineering" /Aerospace Publising/