^* - without a tail air brake.

^** - the nose 7.9-mm twin MG 81Z machine gun was quite often replaced with 13-mm MG 131.

- no data

In the summer of 1944, five Dornier bombers appeared, designated Do 217R. The aircraft entered the III group KG 100, located in Orleans-Brisy, for field testing. Despite the designation, these bombers were in fact not just another modification of the Do 217, but five of the six prototypes of the new Do 317A heavy high-altitude bomber. During the tests preceding this event, the Do 317 VI revealed the unsuitability of pressurized cabins, and they decided to abandon them, turning the aircraft into a conventional carrier of Hs 293A radio-controlled cruise bombs. The aircraft could carry two such bombs under the wing. But in August 1944, III / KG 100 was withdrawn from combat, and its personnel were sent for retraining to fighters. Therefore, it is unlikely that the Do 217R managed to take part in the hostilities.

The development of the Do 317 went in parallel with the creation of the Do 217. Therefore, the aircraft did not differ much from each other. In 1940, it became clear that preference was given to the Arado bomber prototype, and work on the 317th bomber ceased. But Dornier's efforts were not in vain. Many of the technical and design solutions of the original Do 317 project were later used to create the Do 217P high-altitude reconnaissance bomber. In 1941, the Dornier designers returned to the abandoned project. But now the Do 317 was presented as a more advanced replacement for the serial Do 217. In 1943, a prototype of the future bomber Do 317V-1 (onboard designation VK + IY) was built and began flight tests..

And soon the first experimental series of five Do 317A appeared. Outwardly, the new aircraft differed little from its theoretical predecessors (because practically the Do 317 arose simultaneously with the Do 217). A notable difference was the triangular-shaped keel "washers" and a thickened fuselage. The rest of the "innovations" were inside the aircraft. First of all, it was a pressurized cabin, the installation of which made changes to the structure of defensive weapons. On the next modification of the Do 317B, its main part will already be placed in remotely controlled installations. In the meantime, on the Do 317A, the electromechanical turret with a 13-mm machine gun MG 131 was moved to the roof of the cabin. Everything else was left in the same places, but adapted to maintain the tightness of the cabin at high altitudes. Most likely, the weapon was simply removed from the embrasures and did not work, as it was on the Do 217Р. In the rear of the cockpit, one movable MG 131 was installed at the top and bottom. A fixed 15-mm MG 151 cannon and a movable twin 7.9-mm MG 81 machine gun were installed in front under the pilot's feet, which passed through the right half of the nose glazing.

Armament Do 317A. One front turret with two 13 mm MG-131 machine guns, one remote controlled turret in the front lower fuselage with 2 7.9 mm MG-81 machine guns, one remote controlled turret in the rear upper position with a pair of MG-131 and remotely controlled installation MG-151/20 in the tail cone; bomb load of 5600 kg in the bomb bay in combinations: 4 × 1400 kg, 2 × 1800 kg, 2 × 1400 kg + 1600-l tank in the front of the bomb bay.

Bibliography

• "Aviation of Luftwaffe" /Viktor Shunkov/
• "Encyclopedia of military engineering" /Aerospace Publising/