Now add to this the fact that the Germans thought you needed tonnes of Uranium for critical mass, and it takes a lot longer to actually get enough material, then to try putting it into a bomb, *then* to try building a plane to carry it...
There's nothing to add to Shangrila's misinformation about Spitfire performance except pity.
He was not even aware the He-277 had been in production at Vienna with sixteen built and at least eight flown and tested by mid 1944. If you want to hang your credibility on that Jimbob be my guest.
Also you too are wrong on every count too because you think you know more than you actually do.
Heisenberg was a buffoon at best and liar at worst. At the infamous Harneck Haus conference in 1942 he was right on the money about a nuclear warhead being the size of a pineapple and you cannot say anything to explain that away.
Nor can you explain how come historian Margaret Gowing wrote in her book “Niels Bohr and Nuclear Weapons” Niels Bohr A Centenary Edition, edited by A P French & J P Kennedy (Cambridge Massachussets 1985) P.267 notes that in 1941, Houtermanns’ paper not only calculated critical mass for Plutonium but also the critical mass for U235.
If you think Gowing just made this up then perhaps you need to go to the archive library at Oak ridge and consult Houtermanns, “Zer Frage der Auslosung” (Nov 1941) pp 31,33 (Oak Ridge G-94, pp.139) 1944 reprint of this report with omissions is (Oak Ridge G-267, pp.33).
What you completely lack any insight of Jimbob is that Heisenberg was not the be all and end all of German Nuclear research.
During 1943-44 Heisenberg's entire funding from the nazis was 8,500 Reichsmarks. Manfred von Ardenne and his accolyte Fritz Houtermanns had funding of 780,000 RM whilst Dr Paul Harteck with his centrifuges had a 600,000 RM contract in April 1944 tyo build his second Uranium enrichment plant at Kandern. Dr Erich Bagge at the same time had a 265,000 RM contract to mass produce the isotope sluice. These figures tell the relative lack of importance of Heisenberg's efforts. Prof Kurt Diebner was the real genius behind Nazi Germany's nuclear bomb.
That is why an idiot like Heisenberg was rehabilitated and allowed to return to the laboratory after the war and why Diebner was virtually stricken from the history books.
German enrichment technologies were far in advance of what the Manhattan Project developed. You want proof?
Go read NARA report G371 at Oak Ridge. This was a report by Monsanto scientists Weinberg and Nordheim to A.H Compton of Manhattan project on state of Nazi nuclear science in WW2. Dated Nov 8 1945. Knock yourself out. Maybe you'll learn something?
The reports authors posed themselves several questions and then answered these for the benefit of the reader. After sifting through countless scientific reports from Nazi scientists Weinberg and Nordheim commented at page two:
“Point III. What was the state of German theory of the chain reaction?
[Answer] (C) Generally we would say their approach was in no wise inferior to ours; in some respects it was superior.”
Later they said:
VI. What bearing does this have on publication of the parts of the PPR dealing with principles of the chain reaction?
Answer: the Germans know how to design a lattice which will work. From the practical standpoint this is all that matters. The details of elegant perturbation theory or transport theory (which would be contained in Vol. III) or the details of heat transfer calculations (Vol. IV) would tell them nothing essential to the determination of lattice dimensions. They already knew how to calculate the optimum dimensions.
A question of ethics is raised by the existence of the German reports. In many cases, useful information is contained therein.
In otherwords Nazi nuclear theory was too accurate and too sensitive to be declassified for public consumption.
I could quote much more but you guys are having enough trouble comprehending the facts given to you already.
It was not lack of know how, or incorrect science which prevented Germany using the Bomb. The Manhattan Project was in many ways inferior, but better resourced. Even that imbalance of resources was not enough to prevent Germany acquiring the bomb.
And no I am neither a Nazi, nor an apologist for Nazi Germany. People who underestimate Germany's abilities are just like those who today underestimate Ahmedinejad's abilities.
Though seriously, how the Nazis would have used a bomb if they had one was already mentioned. Buried in Berlin and going off as the Red Army takes it, fits in perfectly with late war Hitler and that it didn't happen...
