Development of the Ar 234 can be traced back to the latter half of 1940 and the request to tender from the Ministry of Aviation to produce a jet-powered high-speed reconnaissance aircraft.

While its range was beneath that of the Ministry's specification, an initial order for two prototypes was promptly issued to the company, designated Ar 234.

Several models were proposed, with alternative engines, cockpit improvements, and adaptations for other roles, including as a night fighter.

The Ar 234 was almost entirely used to perform such reconnaissance missions and it was in this capacity that it became the last Luftwaffe aircraft to overfly the United Kingdom during the war, in April 1945.

[1] In its capacity as a bomber, the most prominent use of the Ar 234 was the repeated attempts to destroy the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen between 7 and 17 March 1945.

During the closing months of 1940, the Nazi German Ministry of Aviation offered a tender for a jet-powered high-speed reconnaissance aircraft with a range of 2,156 km (1,340 mi).

[3][4] The design was of a high-wing mostly conventional-looking aircraft that was powered by a pair of Junkers Jumo 004 turbojet engines, one being located underneath each wing.

[7][8] That same year, the third prototype, V3, was displayed to Adolf Hitler at Insterberg, who was enthusiastic about the aircraft and authorised Arado to obtain factory personnel, raw materials, and the funds necessary to build two hundred by the end of 1944.

[2] Instead, the aircraft was to take off from a jettisonable tricycle gear-style trolley,[13][6] referred to as a nosewheel takeoff-carriage in English, as described in an Ar 234A Typenblatt factory drawing for the V8 prototype, and land on three retractable skids, one under the central section of the fuselage and one under each engine nacelle.

The main skid, beneath the fuselage, was originally intended to fully retract, and was originally shown in a 1942-dated engineering drawing, under the E 370 airframe factory development designation, as intended to be made from a three-sided channel-section component, featuring a set of nine triple-beaded wooden rollers within the channel-section main skid.

[17][18] The Ar 234's slender fuselage was largely filled with fuel tanks, leaving no room for an internal bomb bay, which was carried on external racks.

[21] During flight testing, while carrying its maximum bombload of three SC 500 bombs, the Ar 234 V9 could reach 672 km/h (418 mph) at 5,000 m (16,000 ft),[22][23] faster than any other Luftwaffe bomber at the time.

[26] Designated Ar 234B-2/N and code named Nachtigall (Nightingale), these were fitted with FuG 218 "Neptun" VHF-band radar, with a reduced-dipole length version of the standard Hirschgeweih eight-dipole element, VHF-band transceiving air interception radar antenna system, and carried a pair of forward-firing 20mm MG 151/20 autocannon within a Magirusbombe conformal gun pod on the rear fuselage hardpoint.

[citation needed] The Ar 234C was equipped with four lighter (625 kg (1,378 lb) apiece) BMW 003A engines mounted in a pair of twin-engine nacelles based on those from the eighth prototype.

An improved cockpit, with a slightly bulged outline in the upper contour, and integrating a swept-back fairing for the periscope, and a simplified window design with 13 glazed panels reduced to 8.

[29] Although an operational test squadron was being prepared, only 14 C-series airframes were completed by the end of the war, with fewer than half having engines.

Some of these would have had a pair of the higher thrust, but 950 kg (2,090 lb) heavier Heinkel HeS 011 jet engines, while others were to have swept or "crescent"-type wings.

[citation needed] By 1944, the Luftwaffe's bombing capability had been severely reduced from attrition across multiple fronts,[30] and despite the advance offered by the pending arrival of production Ar 234s, there was a shortage of experienced pilots.

The first unit-level type conversion orders were issued to III/KG 76 in May 1944 and personnel had to be pulled from the front lines and brought to central Germany for aircraft and engine familiarisation,[31] which was facilitated with two-seat Messerschmitt Me 262s.

[32] Challenges were encountered getting the Ar 234 operational, including poor quality of worksmanship, and severe shortages of certain resources, such as fuel.

[36] Accidents would often be fatal due to the lack of an ejection seat, the pilot instead having to exit via a highly impractical hatch in the floor.

[40] The type was used directly against Allied units during the Battle of the Bulge, and in January 1945, Ar 234s attacked artillery positions to the north of Bastogne.

[45] Several were destroyed by anti-aircraft guns, or "bounced" by Allied fighters during takeoff or on landing when the jets were flying slow and straight, and were most vulnerable.

Upon arrival two of the Ar 234s were reassembled (including 140312) and flown by USAAF pilots to Freeman Army Airfield, Indiana for testing and evaluation.

One of the remaining two was reassembled by the United States Navy at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, for testing, but was found to be in unflyable condition and scrapped.