Ar 234 C-3

Ar 234 C-3

Ar 234 B-2

◊IL-28

Ar 234 C-3

Ar 234 B-2

◊IL-28

Germany

V Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
8.0	7.3	7.3

Class:

Bomber

Jet bomber

Research:48 000

Purchase:270 000

Show in game

This page is about the aircraft Ar 234 C-3. For the other version, see Ar 234 B-2.

Description

The Ar 234 C-3 is a rank V German jet bomber with a battle rating of 8.0 (AB) and 7.3 (RB/SB). This jet bomber was introduced in Update 1.49 "Weapons of Victory".

General info

Flight Performance

The Ar 234 C-3 is all you need as a jet bomber. Acceleration is decent and maximum speed at 500 m is 850 km/h when stock. When upgraded, acceleration is great, energy retention is nice and can reach up to 900 km/h IAS at 1,000 m.

Climb rate is great even when stock. Combining the +3,500 m first spawn altitude and nice climb rate, the Arado Ar 234 C-3 is a great choice for bomber players. The dive speed is incredible and together with perfect energy retention, you can reach very high speeds in some seconds. Unfortunately, there is no WEP, but it's not that important.

How to land?

Landing is not that hard, but a little dangerous. You can land after a dive as well as when slow. Landing at low speeds is really easy, but here are the steps when landing after a dive:

1. Decrease throttle to 0%, go up at 90° and lose speed.
2. After falling down, open combat flaps, then take-off flaps. Throttle must be about 30%.
3. Open landing gear and landing flaps to lose more speed, landing with negative or 0 degrees is recommended (see the notes for why). Landing gear will extend really fast.
4. You can land at about 300 km/h as well as lower speeds, so don't worry about it.
5. Use brakes and stopping power of cannons to complete your landing!

Some notes:

• Do not power the engines off. You may need to throttle up and get more stability.
• Do not perform hard manoeuvres, you're at high speed after a dive so the pilot can lose its control and may lead to a crash.
• Flaps are really important for landing, so if you don't have them or they're damaged, decrease speed as much as possible.
• The mono-landing gear under cockpit placement is strong enough to sustain hard landing.
• Why 0 or negative degree when landing? There's no landing gear at the back. So approaching at a positive degree may cause the tail to touch the ground and cause the plane to crash.
• Don't worry about the absence of air brakes, your skill is your brakes. Do manoeuvres in low engine power and lose speed.

Characteristics	Max Speed (km/h at 0 m - sea level)		Max altitude (metres)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (metres/second)		Take-off run (metres)
	AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
Stock	847	841	13000	30.2	31.0	23.9	22.4	1,000
Upgraded	???	???		??.?	??.?	??.?	??.?

Details

Features
Combat flaps	Take-off flaps	Landing flaps	Air brakes	Arrestor gear	Drogue chute
✓	✓	✓	X	X	X

Limits
Wings (km/h)	Gear (km/h)	Flaps (km/h)			Max Static G
		Combat	Take-off	Landing	+	-
1000	400	550	550	350	~11	~5

Optimal velocities (km/h)
Ailerons	Rudder	Elevators	Radiator
< 500	< 500	< 650	N/A

Engine performance

Engine			Aircraft mass
Engine name		Number	Empty mass		Wing loading (full fuel)
BMW 003		4	6,700 kg		369 kg/m2
Engine characteristics			Mass with fuel (no weapons load)				Max Takeoff Weight
Weight (each)	Type		12m fuel	20m fuel	30m fuel	40m fuel
814 kg	Axial-flow turbojet		7,720 kg	8,340 kg	9,115 kg	9,890 kg	11,100 kg
Maximum engine thrust @ 0 m (RB / SB)			Thrust to weight ratio @ 0 m (100%)
Condition	100%	WEP	12m fuel	20m fuel	30m fuel	40m fuel	MTOW
Stationary	801 kgf	N/A	0.42	0.38	0.35	0.32	0.29
Optimal	801 kgf (0 km/h)	N/A	0.42	0.38	0.35	0.32	0.29

Survivability and armour

• No armour
• Fuel tanks in the fuselage

Armaments

Offensive armament

The Ar 234 C-3 is armed with:

• 2 x 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon, chin-mounted (250 rpg = 500 total)

Suspended armament

The Ar 234 C-3 can be outfitted with the following ordinance:

• 3 x 250 kg SC250JA bombs (750 kg total)
• 3 x 500 kg SC500K bombs (1,500 kg total)
• 1 x 1000 kg SC1000L2 bomb (1,000 kg total)
• 1 x 1000 kg SC1000L2 bomb + 2 x 250 kg SC250JA bombs (1,500 kg total)

Usage in battles

The standard bombs on the Ar 234 C-3 are 3 x 250 kg bombs and 3 x 500 kg bombs. You will have access to them even if your Arado is stock. Additionally, this variant of the Arado possesses 2 x 20 mm MG 151 cannons, so one of the best ways to use your Arado to ensure you can farm RP and SL for your modifications is:

1- Equip the 3 x 500 kg bombs and start the match at the air spawn point.

2- On maps such as Berlin, move to one of the enemy bases and drop your 3 x 500 kg bombs. 1.5 tonnes worth of bombs are enough to destroy a base, so from there you have two options to choose from:

2.1 - Go back to the airfield and get new bombs
If you choose to go back to the airfield to get new bombs, be aware that unfortunately, the Arado does not have any air brakes, which is a problem as it has particularly good energy retention and some pilots may find it hard to safely land.

When landing the Arado, decrease speed by turning before you reach the airfield (aim to be at 400 km/h or less) then align with the landing strip, activate your flaps and proceed with the landing. If using the landing gear, ensure that you are at extremely low speed before landing or that the landing strip is long enough to stop on. The Arado has extremely good energy retention and is very heavy, so it does take a long time to stop. You can land without gear, which, while obviously dangerous, offers a much better chance to stop in time on shorter landing strips. To do this, land flat on the belly and avoid allowing the wings to touch the ground before you stop moving.

2.2 - Search for enemy targets
Once you have dropped your bombs, you can turn your sights to enemy aircraft; the Arado C-3 is quite capable as a fighter, especially in comparison to other German BR 7.0 jets. It doesn't suffer from the same issues as the Me 262, which lacks in power and once it loses energy, often struggles to regain it, or the Ho 229, which can rip its wings very easily in high-G manoeuvres. With the Arado, you won't encounter these kinds of problems, providing you don't attempt to turn fight. The Arado C-3 has the best climb rate of any BR 7.0 German jet. It also possesses a roll rate to rival the Me 262, so with your 4 powerful engines, you have everything you need to take on other jets. As such, once you've finished your bombing run, turn and climb towards the battlefield, and try to maintain altitude above other jets. Once you're reasonably high, pick vulnerable targets and dive in for a pass, taking a shot at them and then moving away to retain your energy. Avoid exceeding 750km/h when stock, as past that the dive can be hard to arrest. Once all modifications have been researched, however, the aircraft gains a reasonable amount of additional leeway before you encounter issues. If everything falls apart, and you gain fighters on your tail, try to keep accelerating if possible and try to bait the enemies near your own team so they can assist you.

Baiting:

The Ar 234 C-3 is a great jet bomber. With its 3,500 m spawn altitude, nice acceleration, energy retention and dive speed, you can easily become bait and set up enemies to be downed by your allies. To do so, climb to 4,000 m, en route to the enemy location, drop your bombs to lighten your load. Once in the vicinity of the enemy start to dive on them. The goal is to keep the enemy aircraft busy chasing you, however, if you happen to get behind one, don't be shy about introducing them to your cannons.

You can use cockpit periscope to check the type of enemy planes from a very high distance.

Manual Engine Control

MEC elements
Mixer	Pitch	Radiator			Supercharger	Turbocharger
		Oil	Water	Type
Not controllable	Not controllable	Not controllable	Not controllable	Separate	Not controllable	Not controllable

Modules

Tier	Flight performance	Survivability	Weaponry
I	Fuselage Repair, Compressor
II		Airframe	ETC 1001 I
III	Wing Repair, Engine		Offensive 20 mm
IV		Cover	New 20 mm Cannons

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Incredibly fast with good acceleration
• Stock payload is very versatile
• Can destroy up to 3 medium tank/4 armored vehicles / 1 Pillbox + a strategic base with 2 x 250kg and 1000kg
• Very good at destroying individual ground units in AB
• 2 x MG 151 20 mm cannons provide decent air to air performance with Air target belts as cannons take a while to jam and have a good rate of fire
• Very good climb rate
• Durable flaps that can be used at speeds lower than 550 km/h, even in the landing flap configuration
• Four engines provides the much-needed speed increase from the previous model
• Air spawn at 3,500 meters
• Very good energy retention
• Has periscope gunsight at top-right of the cockpit, aids in more effective targeting
• Periscope gunsight helps you identify enemy aircraft types sooner
• Small target compared to American (B-57s) and British (Canberra) competitors.

Cons:

• While stock, is hard to recover from dives in speeds beyond 750 km/h
• Pilot can be easily knocked out
• Can't carry many bombs, which means that you only can destroy 1 enemy base per bomb load
• Doesn't have air brakes, which when combined with the plane's very good energy retention can make landing potentially very dangerous
• No gunsight in the non-scoped cockpit, you have to rely on perception to aim
• Stock build aircraft handling feels heavy at high altitudes
• Worse turn rate than the previous model

History

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In-game description

"The Arado Ar 234 Blitz (Lightning) was the world's first operational jet bomber, built by Arado in Germany during WWII. It was used by the Luftwaffe for reconnaissance from November 1944 and as a fast bomber against Allied targets from December of that year. Despite the fact that late in the war the plane was used only sporadically due to a fuel shortage, it remained a very difficult target to intercept because of its high speed.

As a bomber, the Ar-234B-2 could carry a payload of up to 2,000 kg and could also be used for reconnaissance."

See also

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• reference to the series of the aircraft;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

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• topic on the official game forum;
• encyclopedia page on the aircraft;
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Arado Aircraft Corporation (Arado Flugzeugwerke)
Bombers	Ar 196 A-3
Jet Bombers	Ar 234 B-2 · Ar 234 C-3
Export	▄Ar 196 A-5