WWII Luftwaffe/RLM Number of Prototypes

[Artie Bob]

Please comment if you have any valid data. During WWII it appears the German manufactureres made an inordinate number of prototypes. IIRC, the Fw 190 had over 80, the Ju 88 over 100, the Me 262 quite a few. How does this compare with the development process in other countries during that period. For examples , the Mosquito, which was adapted for mutiple roles, or the B-29, a very complex ircraft for its day? Any solid data appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Best Regards,
Artie Bob

 

[Stargazer]

I can speak mostly of American aircraft, which I know best. In most cases there were only one, two or three prototypes. Aircraft like the Curtiss Hawk 75 had a little more. One exception was the Douglas BT2D Destroyer II (later produced as the AD Skyraider), which had no less than 25 prototypes. However, the Martin Marauder was mass-produced during the war, and there never was ANY prototype before the first production batch. I'm not saying either of these was the norm, but several dozens of prototypes for one single type certainly wasn't either... so I think the German situation was pretty much an exception.

 

[Jemiba]

I think, an answer (or at least a part of it) was given in Ralf Schabels book "Die Illusion der Wunderwaffen",
were the author explained, that one of the most severe shortcomings of the German aviation industry was
a constant shortage of engineers. In the end, that meant , that for most types series production was plagued
with constant design changes. To counter this the number of prototypes and pre-series aircraft was
increased in an attempt to speed up flight testing and getting rid of all those bugs.
Apart from that, the installation of another engine, a new weapon, another system or rather small changes,
like an enlarged span in most cases resulted resulted in a new sub-variant, tested with a "new" prototype.
As an example: The Fw 190 V5 and V6 got two sets of wings with different span, changing their designations
into V5g/V6g (big wing) and V5k/V6k (small wing). For the (later cancelled) C-series, five prototypes were
built, the V28, V29, V30, V32 and V33. So it's really hard to keep track of those German prototypes !