Rocket Fighters

Prefac

he jet engine wasa‘secret project’ like no Ifirstbecame awarethatSecond Wo rldWar other.Developed forthe mostpart while aircraft designsmightgobeyond the likes of the Tthe largest airwar in history wasbeing Hurricane, Bf 109 and P-47Thunderboltin1991 with fought with piston-engined aircraft, it wasatthe therelease of LucasFilm Games’ SecretWeapons centreofatechnological arms race hidden from all of the Luftwaffegame forthe PC, which featured a but those withthe highestmilitary clearance. pair of Horton8-229 flyingwingsonthe cover. Then Oncethe first operationaljets –the Messerschmitt in 1998afriend drew my attention to Dan Johnson’s Me 262and Me 163 –had been identified by Allied Luft46.comwebsite,which opened my eyestothe intelligence (the term‘jet’ covering both turbojet and huge number and varietyofGerman ‘secret projects’. rocket propulsion), all service personnel were notified Perhaps the most striking aspect of this website of their existenceand thewordquickly spread.When wasthe incredible ‘Luft Art’section. Heremorethan jet aircraft were finally revealed to apublic brought adozentalented artists had transformed the flat up on propellers, they acquired an enduringmystique. black andwhite perioddrawings into 3D renders, Immediately after the war, when hundreds of showing howthe project aircraft might have looked thousands of capturedGermanaviation industry had theyeverbeen built.Among those artists were documents were assessed by the Allies, it became Ronnie Olsthoorn –who wouldlatergoontoprovide clear that Germanyhad pouredhugeresources the coverand contents page illustrations formy into researching jet engines and designing the Luftwaffe: Secretseries, Marek Rys, JozefGatial, aircraft that wouldbepowered by them. GarethHector and... Brazilian artistDanielUhr. In January 1946, Squadron Leader HoraceFrederick Having beenaware of Daniel’sworksince those ‘HF’King, known to his friends as Rex, produced early days of Luft46, Iwas surprised and delighted to A.I.2(g) Report No. 2383 German Aircraft: New gettoknowhim personally through working on my and Projected Types, which he introducedsaying: British Secret Projects 5: Britain’s SpaceShuttle (2016) “Although notexhaustive [this report] is believed book –heprovided such astunningcover thatIhad to give afair cross-section of German design no hesitation in commissioning him toproduce profile technique. Some of the later proposals areofspecial artworkfor my Luftwaffetitles and the coverofmy interest,particularly thefighters and supersonic RAF: Secret Jets of ColdWar Britain (2017) publication. research aircraft with turbojet, liquid rocket or The various titlesinthe Luftwaffe:Secret series athodyd propulsion.There aresomeambitious have beenillustrated primarily with drawings designs forjet-propelled long-range bombersand scanned directly from original Germandocuments multi-seat fighters, andamong the rotating-wing andfromperiod microfilmed copies of original aircraft is afighterentirely novelinconception. documents, andIalwaysfeltthatthe various ‘Mistel’composite aircraft,specialised tugs for colourprofiles commissioned to sit alongsidethem launching jet bombers, jet-propelledarmy-support received insufficientspace to reallybeappreciated. aircraft and a‘glide-fighter’ arealsoinevidence.” Nowthat imbalance can finally be corrected. The reportincludes 174 illustrations,108 of them Luftwaffe:Secret Project Profilesfeaturesmore jets, and in fact theaccompanyingtextmentions than200 of Daniel Uhr’sexcellent profiles–each one agrand total of 315 types, includingall sub-types based firmly on designdrawingsproduced during the andsome designs thataren’tillustrated –more SecondWorld Wa r. Daniel hasused genuine wartime than half of them jets. Kinghad worked for Flight camouflage and colour schemes to bring them vividly to magazine beforethe war, having joined in 1931,and life,includingexamples as they might have appearedif rejoineditafter the war, writing severalarticleson ‘captured’ by the Allies or the neutralSwiss, or operated theadvanced German designs he had seen. He and by other Axis nations. Seeing the designs fleshed out others like himhelpedtofeed the British public’s this wayprovides aunique perspective on types that curiosity about the development of ‘enemy’ jetsand have previously only everbeen seen as pure black and what types might, under different circumstances, white linedrawings and evokes thespiritand fascination have beenunleashed to battle Spitfires and of Luft46inimagining justwhat those oddities of Mustangs during thefinal stages of the war. German aircraft designmighthavereally looked like. • While interest in these German projects waned in Britain andAmerica during the1960s and1970s, in Germany it underwent arevival. Authors including Heinz JNowarraand Karl R ALSO AVAILABLE Pawlasuncovered previously unseen designs and Luftwaffe: Secret Jets of the Third Reich (2015) photographs andduring the 1990s they were joined Luftwaffe: Secret Bombers of the Third Reich (2016) by others,includingHorstLommel, Manfred Luftwaffe: Secret Wings of the Third Reich (2017) Griehl, Wa lter Schick andDieter Herwig, who each Luftwaffe: Secret Designs of the Third Reich (2018) discoveredyet morepreviously unknown designs. Visit www.classicmagazines.co.uk to order.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 003 16

20 26

30 46 50

006 Introduction 026 Arado Ar 234 versions 050 1000 x1000 x1000 bomber

016 Early jet designs at Messerschmitt 030 Rocket ﬁghters 058 Pulsejets

020 Messerschmitt Me 262 versions 046 Interim night ﬁghters 062 Ein-TL-Jäger

004 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles Contents FRONT COVER: Junkers EF 128by DanielUhr

ALL ARTWORKS: Daniel Uhr WORDS: Dan Sharp DESIGN: Lucy Carnell -atg-media.com PRODUCTION EDITOR: Pauline Hawkins PUBLISHER: Steve O’Hara ADVERTISING MANAGER: Sue Keily, [email protected] PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Dan Savage 82 MARKETING MANAGER: Charlotte Park COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR: Nigel Hole

PUBLISHED BY:Mortons Media 88 Group Ltd, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, LincolnshireLN9 6JR. Tel. 01507 529529

DANIEL UHR THANKS: Claudio Lamas, 94 Dan Sharp, DiteroSigmar Uhr,Isaac Uhr, Isis Uhr,SérgioAdriano Menezes, Veronica Carvalho

DAN SHARP THANKS: Elizabeth CBorja, Steven Coates, Olivia TGarrison, Carlos Alberto Henriques, Becky SJordan, Paul Martell-Mead, Ronnie Olsthoorn, Alexander Power,Stephen Walton and Tony Wilson

PRINTED BY:William Gibbons and Sons, Wolverhampton 108 ISBN: 978-1-911276-69-2 ©2018 Mortons Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or 118 transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

082 Volksjäger 108 Advanced night ﬁghters

088 Ramjet ﬁghters 118 Miscellaneous jets

094 Jet bombers

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 005 Introduction Development Jets in Second World WarGermany

Germany ploughed huge resources into scientificresearch during the late 1930s –resulting in massive financial and industrybacking for new forms of aircraft propulsion. This led to development programmes which would produce the world’s first fully operational jet and rocket fighters.

he turbojet wasinvented in Britain during the 1920s –but wherethe TBritish government hesitated to provide the financial support needed to develop it, the Nazi government had no qualms about taking agamble on this potentially revolutionary engine. Moneywas also made available in large quantities to pursue intensiveresearch on liquid-fuelled rocket motors and pulse jet engines forboth missiles and aircraft. It wasanage of unprecedented technological discovery and scientific progress right across Europe and the arms race that precipitated the slide into war only accelerated the rate of advancement. At the beginning of 1939, the Reichsluftministerium (RLM) issued the world’sfirst specification foraturbojet- propelled fighter aircraft and in the months leading up to the Second Wo rldWar the Germans flight-tested both the world’s first turbojet aircraft and the world’sfirst liquid-fuelled rocket-propelled aircraft. The German aeroengine industry was actively encouraged to invest in research on newturbojet and rocket motor designs ABOVE: Aradically different Me 262. This drawing shows amodel that was tested in the DVL’ swind tunnel in July 1942. Even at this stage Messerschmitt was making plans to improve the aircraft’s and companies including BMW,Bramo, aerodynamics. Daimler-Benz, Junkers and Heinkel each had GERMAN JET DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE

• November 9, 1935 Hans von Ohain is granted apatent for Germany’s firstturbojet design. • Early 1936 Dr Herbert Wagner begins developing gas turbine engines for Junkers. • April 15, 1936 VonOhain is hired by Ernst Heinkel to work on his jet engine. • Circa February28, 1937 VonOhain’s first working jet engine, the HeS 1iscompleted and installed in atest rig. • Early 1938 Design work begins at Heinkel on an aircraft thatcan be powered by von Ohain’snew engine. At Junkers, Wagner begins construction of his ownturbojet engine. • Autumn 1938 German aero engine manufacturers Daimler-Benz, BMW,Brandenburgische Motorenwerke (Bramo) and Junkers are encouraged to look at turbojet development by the RLM. • Early 1939 Junkers’ Rückstoss-Turbinen-Strahltriebwerk (RTO) or ‘Reaction Turbojet Engine’ runs up to 6500rpm on atest stand. It is designed to reach 12,900rpm. • January2,1939 Alexander Lippisch and his team transfer from the DFS to Messerschmitt AG at Augsburg. TheyformAbteilung Lor‘Department L’ and develop the DFS 39 as ‘Projekt X’ which receives the designation Me 163. • January4,1939 Heinkel and Messerschmitt each receive acontract to begin work on the design of single-seat fighter aircraft with single turbojet propulsion –‘Jagdflugzeuge mit Strahltriebwerk’. • April 1, 1939 Following preliminarystudies, Messerschmitt’smain project design team set to work in earnest on their first draft of asingle-seat twin-jet fighter,project P65–later referred to as P1065. • April 12-13, 1939 Abteilung Lproduces the firstsingle turbojet designs in whatwill become its long-running P01jet and rocket fighter series for Messerschmitt. • Circa June 1939 Heinkel begins work on two mock-ups of its projected twin-engine turbojet fighter. • June 7, 1939 The Messerschmitt P1065 design, intended to be powered by two wing-mounted BMW jet engines, is submitted to the RLM. The RLM asks Messerschmitt to produce amock-up of the design.

006 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles overload

ABOVE: During March 1943, Arado came to the conclusion that acombination of rocket and jet propulsion would be best for the ﬁghters of the future. The result was this: the K-Jäger.

The former appeared to have all the seem to have had aHeinkel competitor,was advantages, having been responsible forboth initially developed purely as aresearch ABOVE: Messerschmitt paid for the AVA to of those ‘world first’ flights in 1939 with the design that only later became ‘militarised’. conduct wind tunnel tests on models of its Me 328 with swept wings in July 1943. This drawing rocket-propelled Heinkel He 176 and turbojet- Both projects were begun during is from aFrench translation of the report. poweredHe178, but the latter caught up peacetime and neither wasintended to quickly thanks to the efforts of government- meet aspecific military need –indeed, owned Junkers in building athird-party their respectivedevelopment programmes their ownseparate jet research programmes turbojet engine that could withstand the were so protracted and fraught with under waybythe beginning of the war. rigours of operation under real-world difficulties that every time aspecific Creating aturbojet or rocket motor which conditions formorethan afew minutes. need did arise, the moment passed before worked reliably and which provided any The twin-jet Messerschmitt Me 262 arose either aircraft wasready to meet it. significant powergains over apiston engine out of that early 1939 specification fora The Me 262 might have made areal proved to be moredifficult than expected, “schnelles Jagdflugzeug /Heimatschuetzer difference had it been built specifically however. When the warbegan, only the two (Interceptor) –einsatz gegen Luftziele” –a as afighter-bomber and been available in largest privately owned aviation concerns ‘fast fighter/interceptor –for use against sufficient numbers to oppose the Allied were actively working on jet and rocket aerial targets’. And the rocket-powered landings in Normandy on D-Day, as Adolf aircraft –Heinkel and Messerschmitt. Messerschmitt Me 163, which does not Hitler had wanted. And the Me 163 B ð

• July 1939 Bramo is amalgamated into BMW.The jet engine it has been working on is renamed P3302. BMW’sown design, the P3304, is ultimately abandoned. • August 27, 1939 An aircraft powered by von Ohain’slatest jet engine design, the HeS 3b, takes flight.The Heinkel He 178 V1 is the firstjet-powered aircraft to flyanywhereinthe world. • September 1, 1939 The Second World Warbegins. • September 26, 1939 RLM representatives inspect the two completed mock-ups of Heinkel’sjet fighter design. The aircraft receives an official RLM designation –He280. • October 16, 1939 Work on fittingLippisch’sDFS 194 with aWalter rocket motor is completed and ground tests begin. It is found thatmaking the engine an integral part of the airframe is afundamentally bad idea –itisdifficult and dangerous to service and repair. • November 1, 1939 The Heinkel He 178 is demonstrated in front of RLM representatives. • December 1939 Junkers begins work on adevelopment of Wagner’sdesign, the Jumo T1 jet engine design, later known as the Jumo 004. • December 19, 1939 Messerschmitt’sP1065 mock-up is examined by the RLM. • Circa 1940 Messerschmitt’sdesigners begin work on aparallel project to the P1065 –the smaller P1070 –which has atricycleundercarriage and its engines mounted in its wings. • Circa spring 1940 The RLM asks Arado to design abomber/photo reconnaissance aircraft thatcan be powered by either Junkers or BMW jet engines. • March 1940 It is proposed that20prototypes of the P1065 should be built, to be powered by the BMW P3302. • August 1940 Alexander Lippisch’sDFS 194 fliesunder rocket power for the firsttime. • September 22, 1940 Glide tests are begun on the firstcompleted airframe of Heinkel’sHe280 design. • December 1940 The prototype BMW P3302 V1 jet engine is run for the firsttime. • Winter 1940 Work on the firstprototype of the rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me 163, adevelopment of Lippisch’sDFS 194, is completed. • February1941 Construction of the first prototype Messerschmitt P1065 begins.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 007 Introduction

could only be used to intercept enemy bombers flying close to its base because its endurance wastoo poor forordinary fighter missions or dogfighting combat. The thirdjet design to see activeservice during the Second Wo rldWar wasArado’s Ar 234. It wasdesigned from the outset as areconnaissance platform and performed this role admirably –but by the time it entered service Germany wasinnoposition to do anything useful with detailed aerial photographs of military facilities in England. At the point when these three machines were ready to enter service –early 1944 – the Luftwaffe urgently needed jet aircraft capable of intercepting the RAF’sfast high- flying de Havilland Mosquito reconnaissance aircraft, destroying Allied shipping, bombing Allied air bases, locating and destroying the RAF’snight bombers and inflicting damage on the USAAF’sdaytime bomber fleet. The Me 262 and Me 163 Bwerecertainly able to do the latter but thereweresimply too fewofthem to do the sort of damage that might result in the Americans halting their attacks or even rethinking their daylight bombing strategy all together. ABOVE: One of two different versions of the P1100 fast bomber designed by Messerschmittduring early 1944. And therewereother problems. The Me 262

ABOVE: Towards the end of 1943, Blohm &Voss submitted this design for the ABOVE: Germany desperately needed jet-powered night fighters as Allied Strahlbomber competition. There were five P188 designs and all had the same bombing intensified during 1944. Arado’s answer was the Ar 234 P-5. distinctive rotating M-wing.

GERMAN JET DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE

• March 30, 1941 The Heinkel He 280 V2 flies underits ownpower for the firsttime. • April-July 1941 One of Abteilung L’sdesigns, the rocket-powered P01-114, is given the designation Me 263. • April 8, 1941 Messerschmitt’sP1065 is given an official RLMdesignation –Me262. • April 18, 1941 The Me 262 V1, PC+UA, makes its first flight,albeit powered by aJumo210G piston engine. • Spring 1941 Unpowered flight testing of theMe163 V1 prototype begins. • July 14, 1941 Following the invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler issues Führer Directive No. 32 (Supplement), restricting the allocation of non-war- essential militaryequipment development contracts. Work on new jet fightertypes for the Luftwaffe comes to ahalt. It is anticipated thatvictoryinthe East will be swift. • August 13, 1941 First rocket-powered flight of Me 163 V1. • August 27, 1941 Lippisch proposes the ‘Li P05’ interceptor,anup-scaled development of the Me 163. • October 2, 1941 Heini Dittmar becomes the firstman to flyfaster than 1000km/h, at the controls of Me 163 V4. • October 1941 The Horten brothers witness test flightsofthe Me 163 at Peenemünde. • October 24, 1941 Arado has finallycome up with aconcrete proposal for the RLM’sbomber/reconnaissance jet requirement –the E.370/IVa. It is examined by the RLM and an initial batch of 50 aircraft is ordered. • November 1941 Design details of the Me 163 Bare finalised. All existing Me 163s become Me 163 As. • November 1941 TwoBMW P3302 prototype engines are delivered to Messerschmitt for installation in the Messerschmitt Me 262 V1 prototype. • November 17, 1941 Lippisch supporter Ernst Udet commits suicide. • February1942 Arado’sE370 design is allocated the official RLMdesignation Ar 234. • Spring 1942 The Horten brothers begin designing atwin-jet flying wing, the HIX.

008 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles RLM JET REQUIREMENTS WITH COMPETING DESIGNS JAGDFLUGZEUGE MIT Focke-Wulf Nr.279 (‘Huckebein’) rocket propulsion STRAHLTRIEBWERK Blohm &Voss P209.02 As of December 19-20,1944 As of late 1939 Blohm &Voss P212.02 Bachem BP 20 Natter Messerschmitt P1065 (Me 262) Junkers EF 128 Heinkel P1077 ‘Julia’ Heinkel He 280 As of January12-16, 1945 Junkers EF 127 ‘Walli’ Heinkel P1078 8-263 (Junkers Ju 248) SCHNELLSTBOMBER Messerschmitt I(P1106) (1000 X1000 X1000) Messerschmitt II (P 1110) LANGSTRECKENBOMBER As of September 28, 1943 Focke-Wulf I(Nr.279) (TL-GROSSBOMBER) Lippisch P11 Focke-Wulf II (Nr.30) As of February 25, 1945 Horten IX Blohm &Voss P212.03 Horten XVIII As of December 19-20, 1944 Junkers EF 128 Junkers Ju 287 Lippisch P11/Delta VI As of February 27-28, 1945 Messerschmitt P1107 Horten 8-229 Heinkel P1078 Messerschmitt P1101 SCHLECHTWETTER UND STRAHLBOMBER Messerschmitt P1110 NACHTJÄGER (2-TL-JÄGER) As of January1944 Messerschmitt P1111 As of February 26, 1945 Arado E395 Focke-Wulf I(Nr.279) Blohm &VossP188 Focke-Wulf II (Nr.30) Blohm &VossP215.01 Junkers EF 122 (Ju 287) Blohm &Voss P212.03 Dornier P252/1 As of February 1944 Junkers EF 128 Dorner P254/1 Junkers EF 122 (Ju 287) Me 262 two- or three-seater Heinkel Strabo 16 to (formerly P1068, later He VOLKSJÄGER As of March 20, 1945 343) As of September 14, 1944 Arado I Arado E580 Arado II 1-TL-JÄGER COMPETITORS Blohm &VossP211 Blohm &VossP.215.02 As of September 8-10, 1944 Heinkel P1073 (simpliﬁed version) Dornier P256 Heinkel P1073 Focke-Wulf II Messerschmitt P1101 OBJEKTSCHÜTZER Focke-Wulf III Focke-Wulf Nr.280 (‘Flitzer’) As of November 21-22, 1944 Gotha P-60C Blohm &Voss(no proposal) Bachem BP 20 Natter As of December 19-21, 1944 Heinkel P1077 ‘Julia’ LORIN JÄGER Heinkel P1073 (‘He 162 development’) 8-263 (Junkers Ju 248) Heinkel P1080 Messerschmitt P1106 Messerschmitt Me 262 with supplementary Skoda P14

LEFT:Proposals were drawn up to turnboth the Ar 234 Band the Me 163 into short-range high- speed rocket-powered battleﬁeld reconnaissance machines. The Ar 234 would have had to swap its turbojets for an internal rocket engine.

wasmade almost entirely from light metal alloy–amaterial in perilously short supply in Germany by the beginning of 1944 –and it required twoexpensiveand difficult-to- build turbojet engines to fly.The Me 163 B, while somewhat morefrugal on materials, wasstill difficult to build and dangerous to operate. Carelessly handled, its volatile fuel could cause acatastrophic explosion and its skid landing gear meant every touchdown ð

• March 1942 Drawings and proposals for the Me 163 Cand Super 163 Interceptor are drafted. • March 25, 1942 A first flight of the Me 262 V1 is attempted but quickly ends after both of its BMW engines fail. • April 1942 The RLM orders six Ar 234 prototypes. Work on the firstprototype Me 163 Biscompleted. • May 29, 1942 The RLM reduces its Me 262 prototype order to just five examples. • June 26, 1942 First towed flight of the Me 163 BV1byHeini Dittmar. • July 5, 1942 Flight testing of the He 280 V3, using two of von Ohain’sHeS 8A jet engines, begins. • July 18, 1942 Me 262 V3 fliesfor the firsttime with Jumo 004 engines. It completes 25 minutes of trouble-free flying. • September 1942 Although Me 262 V3 has been wrecked in an accident, its reliable performance convinces the RLM to reinstate the type’sformerly cancelled additional prototypes. • September 13, 1942 The firstP11, atwo-seater fast bomber powered by two turbojets, is designed by Handrick. • November 5, 1942 Focke-Wulf produces drawings for ajet-engined Fw 190, using apowerplant of its owndesign. • November 6, 1942 Lippisch presents atalk on his Me 163 Atomembers of the exclusive Deutsche Akademie für Luftfahrtforschung, including Siegfried Günter of Heinkel and Hans Multhopp of Focke-Wulf. • November 18, 1942 The RLM reduces its He 280 prototype order to just six examples plus one unpowered aircraft for high speed testing. • December 2, 1942 Asecond P11twin jet bomber is designed by Handrick. He makes it asingle-seater. • December 10, 1942 With the tide of battle in the East turning against Germany, and with no imminent victoryinsight, Erhard Milch orders into effect “an urgent development and production programme under the code word Vulkan. The programme encompasses jet-propelled aircraft and guided missiles, including associated equipment and the ground organisation necessarytosupport these activities”. The aircraft given top priority for procurement of equipment are the Me 163, Me 262, He 280, Me 328 and Ar 234.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 009 Introduction

ABOVE: Messerschmitt’s ﬁrst entryfor the 1-TL-Jäger competition was the P1101 –this is how it appeared when presented at the ﬁrst comparison meeting in September 1944. ABOVE: Throughout 1944, Arado attempted to design and build acrescent-wing version of carried arisk of spinal injury forthe pilot. aviation research and development facilities the Ar 234 but it was hampered by alack of However, the Me 262 and Me 163 Bdid in history,including 63 wind tunnels plus wind tunnel capacity and the prototype was servetodemonstrate the rawpotential another 15 in occupied countries. The budget reportedly destroyed by bombing before it inherent in turbojet and rocket-propelled foraviation research and development could be completed. aircraft. Awareness of this potential grew wasRM500 million in 1945, compared to number of aircraft types in production was during the latter half of 1943, particularly RM 340 million in 1943, and the number of dramatically reduced, freeing up production as the Jumo 004 engine proved itself personnel involved in development work capacity and focusing efforts on the materials time and again to be both reliable and was8000 in 1945, compared to 7000 in 1943. and tooling required formanufacturing powerful enough to givethe Me 262 fighters, rather than bombers, seaplanes, previously undreamt-of performance. JÄGERSTAB AND EHK transports, trainers or reconnaissance types. By the end of 1943, plans were already Anew organisation wasformed in March On September 15, 1944, ultimate in place forthe development of anew jet 1944: the Jägerstab or ‘Fighter Staff’. Its goal responsibility fordecision-making on bomber that would takethe fight to the wastosignificantly increase the number newaircraft developments wastaken Allies and yetmoreproposals were being of fighter aircraft being built in Germany out of the hands of the RLM and given put forwardfor jet-propelled fighters and and in doing so it transformed the German to anew development commission –the bombers that would perform the tasks aviation industry.Production facilities were Entwicklungshauptkommission (EHK) that the existing designs could not. And decentralised, with small urban workshops under the chairmanship of Luftwaffe chief these newaircraft would need to be made as such as furnituremakers being retasked to engineer Roluf Lucht. Starting with the cheaply as possible and from ‘non-strategic’ build aircraft components, which made it Panzerkommission fortank development materials too –steel, wood and glue. much harder forthe Allies’ bomber fleets to in 1941, Albert Speer and the head of his Fortunately,Nazi Germany had already halt production by bombing the large well- ministry’stechnical department Karl- developed the greatest concentration of known aircraft factory sites. In addition, the Otto Saur had steadily established more

GERMAN JET DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE

•December 28, 1942 The RLM increases its order for Ar 234 prototypes from six to 20. • January4,1943 Focke-Wulf designer Julius Rotta sets out howthe companywillapproach future jet design and suggests an aircraft layout similar to whatwill eventually be produced as the Heinkel He 162. • March 1943 The RLM orders the Horten brothers’ Sonderkommando LIn 3tocease allwork. • March 1943 Focke-Wulf designs its ‘1. Entwurf’single jet fighter. • March 9, 1943 The RLM decides against series production of the Heinkel He 280 –primarily due to the minimal ground clearance of its low-slung engine pods. Thisisofficially confirmedinalettertoHeinkel dated March 27, 1943. • March 20, 1943 The RLM orders thatLippisch’sDepartment Lshould be effectively dissolved and absorbed into Messerschmitt. • April 28, 1943 Lippisch officially leaves Messerschmitt. He takes up his new appointment as head of the Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt Wien (LFW) in Vienna, Austria, three days later. • May 1943 Lippisch presents the RLM with his proposal for an aircraft thatcan fly1000km at 1000km/h carrying 1000kg of bombs –the P11. • May 22, 1943 General of Fighters AdolfGalland fliesthe Me 262 at Lechfeld. • May 25, 1943 Galland convinces Hermann Göring to let Messerschmitt drop its latest proposed Bf 109 replacement, the Me 209, in favour of all-out production of the Me 262. • June 1943 Focke-Wulf designs its ‘2. Entwurf’single jet fighter. • June 22, 1943 Messerschmitt’splan for series production of the Me 262 is approved. • Early summer 1943 The firstAr234 prototype is completed and taxiing trials begin. • June 7, 1943 Junkers begins wind tunnel testing its swept wing EF 116 design against thatofthe Ar 234. • June 15, 1943 Arado makes its firstreport on aseries of flying wingstudies designated E555.

010 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Profiles ABOVE: An early two-engine version of Heinkel’s P1073. Asingle engined version was entered for 1-TL-Jäger and asimplified version of that became the Volksjäger –the He 162. and morecommissions to coverall aspects no longer interchangeable. One type of of military procurement, with the EHK ammunition wasbadly tested so that at being the twelfth and almost the last. the end of 1944 half of the 12.8cm guns in a Under interrogation by the Allies in unit were useless because the ammunition June 1945, Saur explained: “The formation wastoo bad. Only from this date wasNaval of the Speer development commissions flak ammunition used forAir Force flak. arose from the necessity forcloser co- “Military requirements from the three operation wheretechnically similar armed services and other users were first problems came from different users. put through the filter of the appropriate “For example, the army places an development commission to the specialists, order with afirm forthe developing of to achieve as much unification as possible anew Pak [anti-tank gun]; the Air Force in order to limit the number of different orders the development of anew cannon; developments undertaken. It was, forexample, the Navy orders the development of a forbidden to run morethan twodevelopments cannon foruse against sea and air targets. of the same thing except in difficult cases All three sections of the forces worked in so that not morethan twofirms were different groups and in most cases against engaged on one and the same job unless it each other,and it could thus happen that wasareasonably considerate undertaking. development contracts forone and the “Two main tasks of the commission same job were placed twoorthree times. were:1)toavoid the issue of development “Then, since each engineer formulates requirements and their working out in the same matter rather differently,itcame practice without the series production about that three different equipments specialists being consulted. 2) to avoid over- ABOVE: This historically important document is a were introduced. To takeanother example, elaborate designs leading to an excessive reportofaTLR meeting on September 14, 1944, the Navy and Air Force collaborated in consumption of time and material during which refers to the three fighter programmes then the development of the same gun, namely development and in building up production. in development –1-TLVolksjäger,Hochleistungs- the 12.8cm flak; later ammunition was It wasfound in practice that if 100% of effort Otto-Jäger [high-performance piston engine developed along different lines and was wasrequired to meet aspecification 100%, fighter] and 1-TL-Jäger (Me 262 replacement).

• June 24, 1943 First rocket-powered flight of the Me 163 BV1prototype. • July 1943 Lippisch receives aRM30,000 development contract for his P11, effectively making it alow-priority project. • July 30, 1943 The Ar 234 V1 is successfully flownfor the firsttime. • August 1943 The Horten brothers, Walter and Reimar,send their proposal for a1000 x1000 x1000 jet bomber based on their Horten IX design to Göring. • August 11, 1943 Arado produces areport outlining the possibilities for building atwo-seatjet bomber. • August 17, 1943 Me 262 production is delayed when aUSbombing raid destroys fuselage construction jigs at Messerschmitt’sRegensburg plant, prompting the firm to move key departments to Oberammergau in the Bavarian Alps. • September 28, 1943 Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring increases Lippisch’sP11contract to RM 500,000 and commissions the Horten brothers with the same sum to build the Horten IX. • September 30, 1943 Wind tunnel testing of the EF 122 swept wing bomber design begins at Junkers. • November 1943 Focke-Wulf designs its ‘3. Entwurf’single jet fighter. • December 1943 Focke-Wulf designs its ‘4. Entwurf’single jet fighter. • January1944 The firstproduction batches of Me 163 B-0 and B-1 airframes are completed but no engines are available. • January1944 Focke-Wulf designs its ‘5. Entwurf’single jet fighter. • January1944 Junkers is awarded acontract to build at least one prototype of its EF 122 fast bomber design under the designation Ju 287. Heinkel is ordered to develop its P1068 jet bomber design as amatter of the utmost urgencysothatitcan be rushed into production, combining it with the work alreadycarried out by Arado on its E395 to ultimately create the He 343. • February1944 Focke-Wulf designs its ‘6. Entwurf’single jet fighter.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 011 Introduction

ABOVE:The Bachem Ba 349 A-1 Natter was an entrant for the ABOVE: Blohm &Voss’s Volksjäger contender was the P211. ‘Objektschützer’competition, which commenced during the autumn of 1944 –toﬁnd amore effective replacement for the Me 163 B. Flight or Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für only 30% of effort wasneeded to meet 90%.” NINE COMPETITIONS Segelflug (DFS). The project forHeinkel’s The EHK subdivided into nine special The first jet competition had been a rejected Strahlbomber entry wasrevived and commissions, each directed by amajor straight contest between Messerschmitt’s continued in development as the DFS P1068. ‘specialist’ in the German aviation industry: P1065/Me 262 and Heinkel’sHe280. The fifth jet competition, beginning Willy Messerschmitt wasdirector for Development of Arado’sAr234 commenced in September 1944, wastocreate a dayfighters, Kurt Tank –night fighters, in 1940 without acompetitivetender. cheap and easy to build and fly single- Heinrich Hertel from Junkers –bombers, In May1943, the RLM gave jet ‘Volksjäger’or ‘people’sfighter’. The Friedrich Fecher from Siebel –training Me 163-designer Alexander Lippisch an sixth, also starting in September,was aircraft, Robert Lusser from Fieseler – RM 30,000 contract to develop his P11 to develop an ‘Objektschützer’ point special aircraft, Günther Bock from the twin-jet design, which became asecond defence fighter to replace the Me 163. DVL (Deutschen Ve rsuchsanstalt für jet competition in September 1943 when The seventh waseffectively are-run of Luftfahrt) –airframe construction, Wa lter Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring ‘Strahlbomber’ but under the designation Schilo from BMW –engines, planning and upped the contract to RM 500,000 and ‘TL-Grossbomber’ or ‘Langstreckenbomber’, installation of equipment –Rolf Stüssel from commissioned the Horten brothers, Wa lter with the Ju 287 again in the running, while Lufthansa, and planning and installation and Reimar,with the same sum to also the eighth jet competition wastobuild atwin- of armament –Walter Blume from Arado. build atwin-jet flying-wing type aircraft. jet night fighter to replace the various piston Having so many specialists on boardought Shortly thereafter,athirdcompetition engine types then in service. Details of the to have gone some waytowards achieving wasbegun: to design afour-engined ninth competition –todesign afighter that Speer’sgoal of avoiding wasteful overlapping ‘Strahlbomber’ fast jet bomber which would use ramjet propulsion –are sketchy but of effort but in practice it seems to have made resulted in the construction of aJu287 evidence suggests that Heinkel and Skoda- little difference. The usual practice of aircraft flying mock-up. The fourth competition Korbawereeach commissioned to design requirements resulting in acompetition wasfor a‘1-TL-Jäger’ single-jet fighter rival ramjet fighters in the spring of 1945. between manufacturers continued –only to replace the Me 262, begun in July nowsome of those competing manufacturers 1944. At this time, another uncontested JET OR PISTONS? had been set in positions of seniority over jet project wasbegun, to develop an Even as all this work wasproceeding, there their rivals, which made it increasingly experimental turbojet aircraft forthe were still serious doubts about whether difficult foranyone to makeafirm decision. German Research Institute forSailplane it waspreferable to switch entirely to jet

GERMAN JET DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE

•March 1, 1944 The Jägerstab (Fighter Staff), acommittee of industrialists and RLM officials, is established with the goal of reinvigorating Germany’s flagging aviation industry. This effectivelyendsthe RLM’sdirect involvement in aircraft production, allowing it to focus on research and development. • March 1, 1944 The unpowered HIXV1glider is readyfor its first flight,which it makes four days later. • June 1944 The first20pre-production Arado Ar 234 B-0 aircraft are delivered. • Late June 1944 Construction of the Horten IX V2 begins at Göttingen. • July 1944 Focke-Wulf designs its ‘7. Entwurf’single jet (turboprop) fighter,alsoknown as ‘Peterle’. • July 11, 1944 The RLM issues aspecification for anew single jet fighter aircraft, a‘1-TL-Jäger’. The aircraft must be powered by asingle HeS 011 turbojet, take-off weight should be 3500kg, fuel tanks in the fuselage must be protected from 13mm rounds (.50 calibre) and it must be readytoflyonMarch 1, 1945. • August 8, 1944 The Ju 287 V1 is flownfor the firsttime. • September 1944 Dr Rudolf Göthert at Gotha begins work on a flying wingdesignwith the intention of supplanting the Horten brothers’ 8-229, which Gotha has been charged with building. • September 8-10, 1944 Ameeting is held at the Messerschmitt facility in Oberammergau where the four firmsinvited to tender for the RLM ‘1-TL-Jäger’ requirement of July are supposed to present their initial designs for assessment. Messerschmitt, Heinkel and Focke-Wulf make presentations but the Blohm &Vosssubmission is deferred since it is not yet ready. • September 10, 1944 Just as the ‘1-TL-Jäger’ meeting draws to aclose, the RLM invites Arado, Blohm &Voss, Fieseler,Focke-Wulf, Heinkel, Junkers, Messerschmitt and Siebel to tender submissions for anew requirement designated ‘Volksjäger’ or ‘People’sFighter’. Thiscalls for a lightweight fighter built from existing components and powered by asingle BMW 003 jet engine.

012 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles ABOVE:The Messerschmitt P1106 was alater entryfor 1-TL-Jäger,submitted during December 1944.

is the type most suited to protecting any Arado director Wa lter Blume wrote on ABOVE: Focke-Wulf’s Volksjäger entry, pictured on given area of airspace. And due to its November 2, 1944: “Toincrease the speed the leftofthis pamphlet, was submitted too late for serious consideration. Previously published versions economical cruise capability,the Otto of Otto-engined aircraft requires more of this document have always leftoff the little fighter performs better at all heights in time and expense in every way. This is ‘Peterle’ design on the right. bad weather and blind-flying conditions because, with Otto engines, it is amatter than would ajet-poweredaircraft. of fighting forapercentage increase in the aircraft production or to continue with “Furthermore, it is the most suitable output and performance of every one of piston or ‘Otto’ engines –Otto being the fighter foroperation in greater numbers their component parts, with very little end contemporary German wayofreferring when circumstances call formassed result to showfor all the work involved.” to the piston engine, after pioneering formations. In our opinion, and in the light According to the minutes of the EHK German inventor Nikolaus Otto. of the above,the Otto fighter at its most meeting on December 19-20, 1944, opening At ameeting three days after the advanced stage of development with pusher the first item up fordiscussion ‘piston formation of the EHK, Lucht stated: “On the propeller is indispensable foraerial defence or jet fighter?’ Willy Messerschmitt basis of the aforementioned advantages and duties above and behind the front lines. “refuses the Otto fighter,without giving disadvantages, the single-engined pusher- “And thanks to its being less susceptible details, only with reference to speed propeller Otto fighter,which can perform to ground fire, it also lends itself to use in the superiority,also with regardtobombers the role of the Do 335 at approximately fighter-bomber and ground-attack roles.” whereheconsiders aspeed of 1100km/h half the cost, is very economical for But this wasnot aviewlikely to is possible, because we could do it now”. use against bombers at all heights. gain much support from the aircraft It is often stated that Germany worked “It is equally suitable fordeployment manufacturers themselves, who realised that on too many jet designs, particularly against enemy Otto fighters at all altitudes. therewas little left to gain from continued during the final year of the war, and that Thanks to its endurance the Otto fighter development of piston engine aircraft. it would have been better to simply build

• September 14-15, 1944 Ameeting is held at the RLM’sofficesinBerlin and three of the seven firmsinvitedtotender for the ‘Volksjäger’ requirement present their designs –Arado, Blohm &Vossand Heinkel. • September 15, 1944 Anew main development committee, the Entwicklungshauptkommission (EHK), led by Luftwaffe chief engineer Roluf Lucht, is established by Germany’sminister for war production, Albert Speer,tooversee work on new aircraft types. • September 17, 1944 Another meeting is held to discuss the two most promising ‘Volksjäger’ entries –Heinkel’sP1073 and Blohm &Voss’sP211. No decision is reached. • September 19, 1944 Yetanother meeting is held to discuss the ‘Volksjäger’ finalistsand all the original entries are reviewed –along with new entries from Fieseler,Focke-Wulf, Junkers and Siebel. • September 23, 1944 Hitler orders Heinkel’sP1073 design into mass production. • September 28, 1944 Final flight test of theJu287 V1. • October 1944 Lippisch works intensively on his ramjet-powered P13rammer aircraft design. • October 3, 1944 Heinkel’sP1073 is given the official RLMdesignation He 162. • October 21, 1944 Junkers is given acontract to begin development of the Ju 248. • October 25, 1944 Work begins on the first He 162 prototypes. • November 1944 Willy Messerschmitt proposes afour-turbojet bomber design, sparking anew long distance bomber competition –TL-Grossbomber aka Langstreckenbomber. • November 21-22, 1944 Ameeting of the Entwicklungshauptkommission is told thatthe Ho 229 is to be developed in conjunction with Gotha and three prototypes of the HVII are to be completed. It is also stated thatLippisch’sP11istobedeveloped in collaboration with Henschel. His P13isalsobrieflymentioned. It is also mentioned thatthe Henschel Hs 132 jet dive bomber “was to be subject to adecision

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 013 Introduction

ABOVE: The final production version of the Horten 8-229 twin-jet flying-wing fighter was to be atwo-seater,as shown in this drawing from February15, 1945.

ABOVE: Junkers put forward the pulsejet-powered EF 126 Elli during December 1944 as aground-attack aircraft. Likeits rocket-engined ‘Objektschützer’sibling, the EF 127 Walli, it was based on the V-1 ﬂying bomb. moreMe262s. Thereisalso the view begin rolling up outside their factories. that German aircraft designers were Similarly,theyhad no wayofknowing merely making work forthemselves to whether the V-1and V-2werehaving any avoid being sent to the Eastern Front. effect on the Allies, whether some other Both of these views arestrongly coloured branch of the military had some secret by hindsight. Even at the beginning of weapon in preparation that might just turn 1945, the Allies had yettopenetrate the the tide of the war, evenwhether Hitler borders of Germany itself –the final might somehownegotiate apeace settlement. collapse came swiftly.And the overall Many Germans believedthat the ABOVE: The last German aircraftdesign state of the Reich’sground defences was We stern Allies would, sooner rather than competition of the war was for aramjet-powered largely unknown to the aircraft firms in later,realise that the Soviet Union wasthe ﬁghter.Entries were produced by Heinkel –the P 1944. Theyhad no wayofknowing when real threat and join forces with them to 1080 –and Skoda, which tendered this: the P14. It or even if Allied tanks were likely to oppose the Red Tide sweeping in from the is essentially an aircraftwrapped around asingle enormous ramjet.

GERMAN JET DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE

on the quantity to be produced”. Submitted designs for the ‘Objektschützer’ requirement are reviewed. None of the four finalistsare rejected but they are ranked in the following order: Messerschmitt’srocket-enhanced Me 262, Heinkel’s‘Julia’, the Junkers Ju 248/ Messerschmitt 8-263 and Bachem’sNatter. • December 1, 1944 The He 162 M1 (V1) is finished and readytofly. • December 6, 1944 He 162 M1 fliesfor the first time. • Early December,1944 Junkers submits anew design for the ‘Objektschützer’ requirement, the EF 127 ‘Walli’. • December 10, 1944 The He 162 M1 is destroyed during testing, killing its pilot. • December 15, 1944 Discussions take place at the RLM in Berlin regarding the five companies’ submissions to the ‘1-TL-Jäger’ requirement. The companies present their updated designs –Junkers presents its EF 128 for the firsttime–but no agreement can be reached on the system of calculation thatwill be used to compare their projected performances. • December 19-20, 1944 Meeting of the Entwicklungshauptkommission discusses the ‘Objektschützer’ competition. • December 22, 1944 The He 162 M2 is flownfor the firsttime. The EHK issues astatement following the December 19-20 meeting which indicates thatthe Ju 248/Me 263 is chosen for further development. Development of the rocket-enhanced Me 262 is to continue, work on Junkers’ EF 127 ‘Walli’ is to be suspended and both Bachem’sNatter and Heinkel’s‘Julia’ are to be cancelled. • January11, 1945 The requirement for the new ‘1-TL-Jäger’ is altered. • January12-15, 1945 Further discussions take place at the RLM in Berlin regarding the five companies’ submissions to the ‘1-TL-Jäger’ requirement. A mathematical formula for comparing the submitted designs has nowbeen agreed but none of the submitted designs nowcomes close to meeting the amended requirements. • January26, 1945 Messerschmitt issues abrochurefor the P1107 jet bomber.The specification contained within is then assessed using data gathered from the Ju 287 test programme. Adateisset for afull comparison between the two types and in the meantime the Horten XVIII is added to the comparison. • January27, 1945 Technical specifications are issued for the ‘Schlechtwetter-und Nachtjäger’or‘Bad Weather Day- and Night-fighter’ requirement. • February2,1945 The Horten IX V2 makes its first flight. • February8,1945 The Ju 248 V1 makes its first gliding test flight.

014 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles ABOVE: One of six advanced night ﬁghter designs drafted by Focke-Wulf’s designers during early spring 1945. This version, EntwurfIV, had three turbojets –one under the forward fuselage and one under each wing.

East. If some sort of deal to oppose Stalin could not have been guessed at the time. newconstruction processes, than was wasworkedout, the Luftwaffe would need In addition, although multiple spent actually putting pen to paper and newaircraft to oppose the communists. advanced designs were worked on, very drawing pictures of potential aeroplanes. As forthe designers’ work,throughout fewactually reached the stage where After the war, it certainly seemed as 1943 and 1944 it wasconsidered entirely any significant amount of manpower though Germany had been working on possible that abreakthrough in engine would be required to makethem a aridiculously large number of different design and production might finally deliver fully functioning reality.Surviving projects –but had every British, American the powerplants necessary forreliable documents suggest that alot moretime or Soviet aircraft manufacturer’svaults been high performance jet aircraft. It always wasspent working through complicated emptied in 1945 and the contents piled up in a seemed as though such abreakthrough equations relating to aerodynamics and heap forexamination, it seems unlikely that wasimminent, and the fact that it wasn’t performance, and conducting tests on fewer‘secret projects’ would be discovered. •

• February9,1945 The first five production He 162s are completed. • February16, 1945 The Horten 8-229 and Gotha P60are compared at aDVL conference in Berlin. • February18, 1945 The Horten IX V2 is destroyed in acrash, killing test pilot Erwin Ziller. • February19, 1945 Final gliding flight of theJu248 V1. • February20-23, 1945 Aconference is held at Dessau to compare the Langstreckenbomber designs. • February22, 1945 Hermann Göring rules thatnofurther piston-engined fighters are to be developed. • February26, 1945 Further discussions take place regarding the Arado, Blohm &Voss, Dornier,Focke-Wulf and Gotha submissions to the ‘Schlechtwetter- und Nachtjäger’ requirement. • February27, 1945 Technical specifications for the ‘Schlechtwetter-und Nachtjäger’requirement are altered, making the designs submitted so far inadequate. On the same day,the Luftwaffe pilots flyaHe162 for the first time –He162 M19. • February27-28, 1945 Further discussions take place at the RLM in Berlin regarding the five companies’ submissions to the ‘1-TL-Jäger’ requirement. • March 8-17, 1945 Arado drafts nine different configurations for its entries to the night and bad weather fighter requirement, seven of them tailless. One tailless and one conventional design are chosen to enter. • March 20-21, 1945 Twin-jet night and bad weather fighter designs by Arado, Blohm &Voss, Dornier,Focke-Wulf and Gotha are compared but the only decision made is thatthe latest requirement is too severe and thatitshould be reverted back to the January27spec. • March 22-23, 1945 A finaldiscussion takes place at Focke-Wulf’s Bad Eilsen facility regarding the five companies’ submissions to the ‘1-TL-Jäger’ requirement. Junkers receives adevelopment contract for its EF 128 design. • March 31, 1945 Heinkel’stechnical design department is evacuated from Vienna. • April 8, 1945 British forces overrun Focke-Wulf’s Bad Eilsen design facilities. • April 24, 1945 American forces overrun Junkers’ Dessau headquarters. • April 29, 1945 American forces overrun Messerschmitt’sOberammergau design facilities. • Early May 1945 Arado’sBrandenburg facility is overrun by Soviet troops, ending work on all projects. • May 3, 1945 British forces overrun Blohm &Voss’sheadquarters in Hamburg.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 015 Early jet designs at Messerschmitt

In the beginning Early jet designs at Messerschmitt

Heinkel and Messerschmitt were rivals in Germany’s first jet fighter design competition but where nearly all of Heinkel’s documents are lost, much remains to show how Messerschmitt approached the RLM’s specifications.

lider designer Alexander Lippisch central position to the nose and arocket created aseries of successful sporting motor installed in the rear fuselage. It Gsailplanes at the DFS during the 1930s would eventually become the Me 163. but his real passion wastailless aircraft – Morethan adozen of Lippisch’sco-workers aircraftwithfins but no tailplanes, rather decided to go with himandformed thenucleus than finless all-wing designs. When hefelt of anew department within Messerschmitt himself at risk of being sidelined within the AG’sAugsburg-Haunstetten headquarters DFS in 1938, he quickly jumped ship and known as Abteilung Lor‘Department L’. thanks to an earlier friendship with Theo According to Lippisch himself, writing in Croneiss joined the Messerschmitt organ- his autobiography Erinnerungen or‘Memories’: isation, of which Croneiss wasadirector. “Nowwewereasort of secret department, He brought an RLM work-in-progress because we weresupposed to build and test the design with him from the DFS, which the RLM wasmorethan happytosee developed using Messerschmitt’sconsiderable resources –Project X. This wasessentially aredeveloped version of Lippisch’sDFS 39 glider with the cockpit movedfrom a

016 Luftwaffe: Secret Project Proﬁles The Messerschmitt Me 262 with ‘arrow wing’ as it appears in AVA wind tunnel test reports in July 1942. Although it is recognisable as an Me262, everyaspect of the design at this stage differs from the ﬁnal production model.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 017 Early jet designs at Messerschmitt

rocket-driven experimental aircraft, whose engine. The concept designated ABOVE: During November 1939, Messerschmitt’s aerodynamics we had already worked on at P01-111 wasalso asingle-seat, single turbojet Abteilung Lsignificantly refined its approach to DFS. Of course the rocket propulsion was fighter but work started with 116 –which designing asingle jet fighter with the P01-111. The rudder is much enlarged, the cockpit is set strictly secret, so that the whole department might have been seen as the concept most back and the wings are swept. had to be housed in aspecial part of the closely matching the January 4specification. building and secured by appropriate positions The P01-116 of April 12 and April 13, at the doors. Since no other room wasavailable 1939, wasaremarkably small tailless aircraft P01-111 being designed in November 1939. at the moment, we movedinto alarge screening –measuring just 5.48m long and with a This wasalarger development of the room on the top floor of the main building.” wingspan of 6m. Alarge tailfin gave it a P01-116, being 6.6m long with a7.5m wingspan. The arrival of awhole newteam at height of 2.715m. By wayofcomparison, the The pilot sat higher up in alarger cockpit Messerschmitt, dedicated to working diminutiveMe163 B-1 was5.98m long with a with anose intakefor the single jet engine. on tailless aircraft designs, meant the 9.33m wingspan and aheight of 2.75m. The The P01-111’sskid wasimproved and apair company nowhad twoseparate project P01-116’sfuselage wascylindrical and its of cannon were buried in its wing roots. The departments –the other being the company’s wings were broad and almost rectangular in wings were moresharply swept, including existing projects team headed by Robert shape, with only aslight sweepback to the aswept trailing edge, the tailfin wasalso Lusser,who left the following month leading edge. Take-offwould have presumably moreswept while the rudder wasenlarged. to be replaced by Wa ldemar Vo igt. involved awheeled dolly and landing wasto ElsewhereinMesserschmitt, the P65 Lippisch initially had three tasks: firstly be accomplished on along skid with asmall had reached the mock-up inspection stage by to redesign Project X, which wasnow to additional skid at the extreme end of its tail. December 1939. It would seem that further have greater rocket thrust; secondly to Precisely which turbojet Lippisch had data on the early jet engines wasreceived convert another aircraft brought from the received data on forthis project is unknown. around this time, since the next Abteilung DFS, the DFS 194, into aProject Xengine While Lippisch got started on asingle-jet Ldesign, the P01-112, featured apair of test-bed; and finally to begin design work design, so did Vo igt’sdepartment under turbojets within its fuselage. Afull brochure on the RLM specification Messerschmitt the designation P65. Their first drawings on this design wasissued in February 1940. received on January 4, 1939, forasingle-seat evidently showedtwin-boom layout similar As the brochureforewordnotes: “The fighter poweredbyasingle turbojet engine. to that of the de Havilland Va mpirebut driveiscarried out by twojet engines (Jumo), It appears that Lippisch began by writing by June 1939 it had been abandoned in which arearranged in the fuselage under the ououtt aalliistst o off potentialpotential con configurations,figurations, engineengine favour of a twinengine design – what options and other features and allocating each would eventually become the Me 262. one adifferent number from 111 to 119. Then, The first towedgliding flights of the DFS rather than having his department work 194 took place on July 28, 1939, with further through the different concepts in numerical flights taking place in August. During the order,hestarted work on the design designated remainder of 1939, Abteilung L workedona P01-116. Wheremany of the other ideas twinpiston-engined tailless fighter-bomber/ featured rocket engines in one wayoranother, bomber known as the P 04,and continued the initial concept of P01-116 wasthat of a on with the P01sequence, going back to the single-seat fighter poweredbyasingle turbojet startofLippisch’slist of concepts with the

BELOW:Messerschmitt’s earliest known jet ﬁghter design –the P01-116 from April 1939.

018 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles wing. This eliminates any negativeinfluence 4325kg forthe P65. To pspeed at 4000m of Abteilung L’sworkonturbojet designs – of the engines on the flowonthe wing. The was1080km/h (671mph) compared to whereas the other team’sP65, re-designated pilot’sseat, arranged in front of the wing and 975km/h (606mph) at 3000m. Landing the P1065, then given the official RLM number the engines, offers the best visibility and speed was125km/h compared to 150km/h. Me 262, progressed rapidly towardsprototype allows the formation of an armoured pressure While the first half of 1940 wasspent construction. The Me 262 V1 first flewon booth which can be designed independently working on the Me 163 and DFS 194, Abteilung April 18, 1941, with apiston engine in its nose of the static structureofthe fuselage. Lreturned to the P01series in July –designing because its jet engines were not yetready.Yet “A central runner and spur,both retractable, twomoreconcepts which each featured rocket despite this somewhat inauspicious beginning, areprovided as the main landing gear.The propulsion –the P01-113 with asingle turbojet Messerschmitt had ambitious plans forthe take-offtakes place on ajettisonable trolley. For plus arocket engine, and the P01-114 which Me 262. In July 1942, areport wasproduced on the initial unarmed version without equipment, had the same wings as the 113 but anew wind tunnel tests of an Me 262 with asharply fuel is provided forhalf an hour’sflight time. slender fuselage housing only arocket engine. swept ‘arrow wing’ and engine nacelles built The space forarmament and fuel tanks forone In fact, according to the design brochure, into its wings rather than slung beneath hour flight time will be available however.” the P01-114 wasintended simply as an them –and this wasjust the beginning. • Four weapons were to be fitted –two experimental vehicle to assess the features of MG 151s under the pressure cabin and the P01-112 and P01-113 designs –rather than twoMG17s, one in each wing root. being aprototype foraproduction aircraft The performance figures provided suggest in its ownright. The P01series wasthen aclear advantage over those provided in shelved for11months beforerecommencing alate September 1939 report on the P65– with asecond P01-116 in June 1941. albeit poweredbyJunkers engines rather Despite all this effort, however, little came than the BMW ones then bein considered forthat design. Maximum all- pweight of BELOW:The P01-113,dated July 17, 1940, was the P01-112 wastobe3840kg compared to amixed propulsion design incorporating both turbojet and rocket powerplants, reﬂecting Abteilung L’ sshifttowards working primarily on rocket-propelled projects.

BELOW:The second P01-116, of June 12, 1941, was asingle-jet ﬁghter and recommenced the P01series after nearly ayear on the shelf.Itwas, perhaps, intended as an update of the original P01-116 –the very ﬁrst P01.

BELOW:The twin-jet P01-112 of January1940 was worked on in parallel with thettwin-jet P65, making it effectively atailless alternative to what would become the Me 262.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 019 Messerschmitt Me 262 versions

Sustained success Messerschmitt Me 262 versions The basic Me 262 design underwent ahuge number of revisions before ﬁnally entering series production. It reached acrossroads during the summer of 1943 when even the basic layout of the aircraftwas reassessed...

series of 20 BMW P3302-powered testing four months earlier –albeit under prototypes of the P1065 was tow–whereas the P1065, by nowredesignated Aproposed on March 1, 1940, though Me 262, did not evenexist as aprototype. the production model wasintended to get Messerschmitt thereforeproposed the tthe e much uc ssmaller a e aand d mor o eea addvanced a ced BMW use of a Jumo 210 G piston engine, fitted P3304. The first full project brochure, in the P1065 V1’snose, bolstered by apair issued in March 1940, shows the aircraft of Wa lter RII211 rocket engines. This as atail sitter poweredbyapair of P3304s, plan, with four other prototypes to follow, each mounted mid-wing rather than slung wasapproved and the P1065 V1 wasbuilt Perhaps the most radical Me 262 variant underneath. Armament is atrio of MG 151s between February and March 1941. was the high-speed HG III, with its two in the nose with 250 rounds each, and the The P1065 received the official RLM HeS 011 engines buried in its wing roots. whole nose tip could be swung upwards designation Me 262 on April 8and 10 days Original drawings show it with anormal on hinges to allowaccess forreloading. later the newly renamed Me 262 V1 flewfor cockpit canopy and unswept Unfortunately,BMW wasstruggling to get tail surfaces. the P3304 to apoint whereitcould reliably poweranaircraft in flight and by January 1941 the situation wasbecoming desperate. The rival He 280 had already begun flight

020 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 021 Messerschmitt Me 262 versions

ABOVE: Putting the Me 262’s pilot into its nose made good sense, since his ﬁeld of vision would be signiﬁcantly improved. This was possible with the Aufklärer Ia since it did not require heavyarmament –just cameras in the rear fuselage.

BELOW:The deep forward fuselage of the Aufklärer II housed its cameras. Otherwise it was similar to the standard Me 262 ﬁghter.

the first time –though only poweredbyits over the next six weekstheywerefitted to Jumo piston engine. The He 280 V2 had flown the Me 262 V3. On July 18, We ndel flewthe with jet engines nearly three weeks earlier. aircraft for12minutes without problems in the The RLM confirmed the Me 262 V1-V5 morning, then flewitfor another 13 minutes at series and also approved the building of 20 around midday, managing to reach 342mph. BELOW:Powered by BMW 003R pre-production machines on July 21, 1941. Two The Me 262 V3’ssustained success with combination jet and rocket motors, BMW P3302 prototype engines were delivered its Jumo 004s wasthe first real evidence that the Interzeptor II was built as the C-2. to Messerschmitt in September 1941 and it all the time, effort and moneyinvested in jet took until December to get them fitted. Having fighters wasgoing to pay off. The Me 262’s taken off47times on its piston engine alone, series of pre-productionaircraft the V1 took offagain on March 25, 1942, this wasreinstated and it was time with the P3302 prototypes under its decided that the wings. All eyeswereonMesserschmitt test Me 262 V2, which had pilot Fritz We ndel as he lifted the aircraft off been built forBMW the runway at Augsberg–only forboth jet P3302 engines, should engines to suffercompressor blade failure. be converted to Jumo We ndel managed to get back on the ground 004s by the end of September. safely with just the Jumo piston engine but the The V3 wastobeput back together damage to the Me 262’sreputation wasalready and the V4 and V5, alsoonJumos, would need done. The RLM scrapped the order for20 to be ready by January and March of 1943. pre-production Me 262s on May29, 1942, only On March 25, 1943, anew brochurefor keeping the initial order forfiveprototypes. the Me 262 wasproduced –stating in its Just three days later,apair of Jumo 004 introduction that it supersedes the P 1065 engines were delivered to Messerschmitt and brochureofMarch 1940. This appears to be

022 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles BELOW:The reconnaissance version of the Me 262 which actually saw service was the Aufklärer I–outwardly very similar to the standard ﬁghter except for bulges over the camera gear in the nose.

BELOW:The Interzeptor Ihad a rocket engine in its rear fuselage, exhausting under the tailﬁn. This would be built as the Me 262 C-1.

The aircraft is also clearly shown with anosewheel in the accompanying drawing. Wingspan is 12.56m compared to the production version’s12.6m andlength is 10.55m compared to the production version’s 10.6m. Wing area is 21.68sqm compared to 21.7sqm forthe finished product. Adolf Galland, General of Fighters, test-flewthe Me 262 V4 on May22, 1943, and quickly became the type’s most ardent supporter.Hefamously reported to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring that: “It flies as if thereisan angel pushing.” Nine days later,Göring officiallydeclared that production of the Me the first formal proposal to 209 was to be suspended in favour of the Me 262. use the Me 262 as afighter-bomber,since the Me 262 V5, the first prototype to be fitted brochurepresents the Me 262asboth Jäger with a tricycle undercarriage, first flewon ‘fighter’ and Jabo ‘fighter-bomber’, the latter June 6, 1943, and demonstrated amarked capable of carrying an SC500500kg bomb. improvement in take-offperformance compared Armament otherwise remained three MG to the earlier ‘tail dragger’ versions. 151s although options fortwo, four or even Messerschmitt drew up aproduction six MK 108sare mentioned. Theengines plan on June 17 showing production of were to be twoJumo 004 Bs and later 004 Cs. the Me 262 beginning in January 1944

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 023 Messerschmitt Me 262 versions

BELOW:The most radical of the three rocket-boosted Me 262s was the Interzeptor III, whichhad no turbojets at all – only Walter rocket engines underits wings.

RIGHT: The ﬁghter- bomber version of the Me 262, known as the Jabo.

but Generalfeldmarschall ErhardMilch, fuel tanks filling the rest of the fuselage. Apair desperate forthe Me 262 to reach front line of MK 108s could be positioned beneath the service, ordered that the first 100 aircraft pilot and bomb load possibilities were the same. should be ready by the end of 1943. For the Schnellbomber II, the aircraft’s Even at this late stage, however, during forwardfuselage wasmade deeper to create July and August 1943, Messerschmitt’s an aerodynamic fairing over the bomb load. engineers and draftsmen worked on an array Again, therewas no provision fordefensive of designs showing howthe basic Me 262 armament and the same payload options were platform might be significantly altered to available. Each undercarriage mainwheel improveperformance in avariety of different had asecond wheel on it,giving the aircraft roles. The resulting report published on atotal of fivewheels on three legs. September 11, 1943, shows the standardMe The layouts of the threeAufklärer 262 A-1 fighter compared against afighter- ‘reconnaissance’ versionsfollowedthe bomber ‘Jabo’ version as before, but nowwith same pattern. The Aufklärer three additional ‘Schnellbomber’ fast bomber Iwas outwardly identical versions, three new‘Aufklärer’ reconnaissance to an A-1 but had a versions and three ‘Interzeptor’ interceptors 500-litrefuel tank plus a‘Schulflugzeug’ trainer version. inside its nose and apair The Schulflugzeug had an extended of cameras immediately fuselage enabling the instructor and pupil behind that –either an to sit in tandem with dual controls. Aballast Rb 75/30 and an Rb 20/30 weight of 150kg wasinstalled in the nose or twoRb75/30s. The Aufklärer Ia, like in place of armament. The Jäger u. Jabo its Schnellbomber counterpart, had its ‘fighter-bomber’ version wassimilar to the pilot sitting in its nose with the option of normal fighter but with four MK 108s in twoMK108s. The cameras, twoRb75/30s, the nose rather than six, an extra750-litre would be housed in the rear fuselage. fuel tank in the rear fuselage and the option The Aufklärer II had the same to carry either asingle SC500 bomb or two undercarriage arrangemment and expanded RIGHT:The deep SC250 bombs under its forwardfuselage. fuselage as the Schnellbomber II, allowing fuselage made The Schnellbomber Ilooked likethe A-1 it to carry atrio of cameras –anRb20/30 another appearance fighter but had no weapons other than its and twoRb75/30s in the end of its nose. The for the Schnellbomber bomb load –one SC1000 bomb, twoSC500s, underhanging section of the fuselage would II. This time, the or twoSC250s. Afourth option wasasingle be used to house a1450-litrefuel tank. extra metal formed BT 700 torpedo bomb. In place of the fighter None of the Interzeptor designs featured an aerodynamic fairing over the bomb version’scannon its nose wasfitted with a the radical layout alterations of the load –reducing 1000-litrefuel tank. Asecond tank of equal bomber and reconnaissance versions but aerodynamic drag. capacity wasinstalled in the rear fuselage. The each wassubtly different to the A-1, being The type remained Schnellbomber Ia had its cockpit in its nose and configured formaximum speed and rate of unbuilt, however.

024 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles climb with the inclusion of rocket engines. The pfeilflügel or ‘arrow wing’ wind tunnel Each had four MK 108s in the nose. work of 1942 wascontinued into 1943 and then Interzeptor Ihad the Me 262’susual 1944 when aseries of three experimental high- Jumo 004s supplemented by aWalter R speed versions of the Me 262 wasproposed. The II/211/3 rocket motor mounted inside its first, HG I, wastohaveaswept tailplane, alow tail. Interzeptor II had apair of BMW 003R profile cockpit canopyand triangular sections engines in place of the Jumo 004s in its wings. inserted ahead of the wing on either side of the The BMW 003R wasessentially anormal nose. HG II would have afully swept wing and BMW 003 turbojet with aBMW P3395 rocket tailplane plus lowcanopy, and most radical of engine attached to it, the latter running all the HG III would have its engines fitted into on concentrated nitric acid (SV-Stoff) and its wing roots. Drawings showthis latter stage, monoxylidene oxide/triethylamine (R-Stoff), however, without the swept tailplane or the low rather than the methanol-hydrazine-water canopy–just the altered engine arrangement. mixture(C-Stoff) and hydrogen peroxide These designs were aworkinprogress (T-Stoff) used forWalter-type rockets. when Messerschmitt wascalled upon Lastly,the Interzeptor III wastobeapure to further expand the Me 262’sCV rocketplane –powered by aWalter HWK with anight fighter version... • 509rocket engine under each wing. In addition to the normal Me 262 A-1 fighter,the Jäger u. Jabo wasbuilt as the Me BELOW:Messerschmitt’s Schnellbomber Iwas 262 A-2, the Schulflugzeug as the Me 262 completely unarmed except for its bomb load. B-1, the Interzeptor Iasthe Me 262 C-1 and Once that was dropped, it would need to make the Interzeptor II as the Me 262 D-1, later averyquick exit. redesignated Me 262 C-2. But this wasn’t wheredevelopment of the Me 262 ended.

LEFT:The Schnellbomber Ia saw the pilot positioned in the aircraft’s nose again. There was an option to ﬁta pair of MK 108s but this artwork shows it unarmed.

Luftwaffe: Secret Project Proﬁles 025 Arado Ar 234 versions

Complicating simplicity Arado Ar 234 versions Designed as asimple high-speed camera platform, the Ar 234 was such asuccess that Arado went on to propose bomber,day ﬁghter,night ﬁghter, multirole and even rocket-propelled versions of it...

hile Heinkel and Messerschmitt controlled Arado meant therewas no need fora The AradoArado design team became increasinglyeasingly convinced that the next step were busy working on their lengthy tendering process with uncooperative in thee Ar 234’s evolution should be to ﬁtit Wcompeting designs forGermany’s private companies –design and development with swept wings and pioneered the new first jet fighter,athirdcompany quietly commenced immediately and alimited ‘crescent’scent’ wing-forminthe process. got on with the business of designing and production run of just 50 aircraft wasenvisaged. building amuch less ambitious jet aircraft. The company’sproject designation When Oberstleutnant Theodor Rowehl of wasE370 and nine simple layouts with the Aufklärungsgruppe Oberbefehlshaber straight wings, cigar-shaped fuselages and der Luftwaffe –the reconnaissance wing of the conventional tails were studied beforeE370/ commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe –became IVawas chosen in October 1941. According awareofjet technology in 1940, he quickly to the E370 brochureofOctober 18: “Task: It realisedsed that aj a jetet-po-powweeredredr reconnaissanceeconnaissance is to design and ininvestigatevestigate aar reconnaissanceeconnaissance platformform might be fast enough to easily aircraft capable of achieving the highest evadee interception by enemy fighters. speeds and having arange of 2000km. HeHet thereforhereforeapproached the RLM with a The speed should be so great that this requestest forajet that would have the range to aircraft can no longer be attacked by the overflyfly any part of Britain, up to and including present or expected in the near future ScapapaF Flolow, and the ministry agreed to have one fighters. Accordingly,amaximum speed madee forhim. Giving the job to government- of about 750km/h must be achieved, the

026 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 027 Arado Ar 234 versions

BELOW:Duringthe spring of 1944, Arado workedonaversion of the Ar 234 powered solely by rockets for short-rangehigh-altitude reconnaissance.

cruising speed should not be below700km/h. small wheels, similar to that used by the Ar 232 early the following year with the finished “Asengines, jet engines of the company transport. Its dimensions had grownto12.5m aircraft being larger in every dimension than Bramo BMW 600 TL V11-V14 areprovided. long, 3.35m tall and with awingspan of 14.2m. the E370: 12.64m long and 3.75m tall, with a According to its task, the aircraft should With the project progressing smoothly, wingspan of 14.41m. Difficulties getting the be equipped with twocameradevices Rb construction of six prototypes with metal skids necessary engines, and further difficulties 75-50/30. The equipment with radio devices wasapproved in April. For take-off, the aircraft getting the aircraft offthe ground resulted is limited to the minimum permissible. sat on abasic three-wheeled trolleywhich in delays, during which time the Arado “The installation of defensivearmament remained attached until just after design team continued to work on different wasomitted, however, an MG 131 can be take-off, when it wasdetached and potential modifications fortheir newaircraft. temporarily installed. The restriction of the descended on parachutes. The earliest proposal to use the Ar 234 equipment is enforced by exceptionally high Attachment points forrocket-assisted as abomber seems to have been drawnup fuel volume in relation to the total aircraft take-offunits were also included in the in January 1943, along with aproposal to volume. For the same reason, the arrangement design, just outboardofthe aircraft’s introduce atricycle wheeled undercarriage ofan undercarriageundercarriage must be omitted.omitted.” engengines.ines. Construction wo workrk on the Ar 234 VV11 arrarrangement.angement. OnOnlyly one bomb wouldwould be TThehe ‘Bramo BMW 600 TL’was the BMW commenced in the autumn of 1942, during carried at atime though, an SC250, SC500 P3302,302, which would later be renamed BMW which time Arado’sdesigners switched their or an SC1000, which would be housed 003,3,a andnd the lack of undercarriage meant the attention to potential upgrades of the design. semi-recessed under the fuselage. aircraftcraft had to land on askid. It wastobe12.2m Akey concern wasthe aircraft’sstraight Afighter version with asolid armoured longg and 3.1m tall, with awingspan of 13m. wings –essential forgetting the design nose and stepped canopywas drawnupduring Therereew waassnop no particulararticular need forthe aircraft completed and built quickly but unlikely to May1943. This aircraft wastobeheavily to bebem manoeuvrableanoeuvrable or capable of carrying a provide the best performance at high speed. armed, with three MK 108 30mm cannon missionssion payload heavier than cameragear –it An increasing amount of data wasbecoming fitted beneath its fuselage, an MG 151 under simplymply had to get airborne then fly as farand available from Germany’svarious research each engine and another twoMG151s firing as ffaastst as possible beforereturning to base. institutions on the advantages of swept rearwards. It would be poweredbyeither a WWhenhen it became clear that BMW was wings in high-speed aircraft design, so Arado pair of HeS 011s or twoJumo 004 Cs and would strugglinguggling with the P3302, Arado switched launched anew project under the designation have aconventional wheeled undercarriage. to thehe Jumo 004 and on February 3, 1942, E560 in November 1942 to assess this data The Ar 234 V1 finally made its first shortlyortly beforeitreceived the official RLM and work out whether swept wings would flight on July 30, 1943. Twodayslater, designationignation Ar 234, the E370 wasdepicted indeed result in improved performance. the aircraft managed to reach 404mph withhanu an undercarriagendercarriage consisting of multiple The Ar 234 V1 wasfinally completed during 54 minutes of test manoeuvres and

028 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles although the V1 wasdestroyedduring a showing them sitting atop amodified The Arado design team’sattention wasnow landing accident after its thirdflight, the upper fuselage –resulting in amost largely focused on the Ar 234 Cseries, with V2 wassoon ready and testing continued. unusual forwardand side profile. plans to fit the aircraft with abulbous pressure As the reconnaissance type Ar 234 took The first Ar 234 to featurethe newwheeled cabin, an under-fuselage weapons gondola and shape, the RLM’sinterest in the potential undercarriage wasV9and this first flewon under-nacelle drop tanks. Other ideas included of the aircraft as abomber increased. The March 10, 1944. The following month another using the Ar 234 as an airborne launcher for former would become the Ar 234 Aand radical version of the type wasproposed – V-1flying bombs, air-to-ground guided weapons the latter the Ar 234 B, while the Ar 234 the Ar 234 Bmit R-Gerät, aka the Ar 234 R. and even the E381 midget fighter.The Cwas to be another bomber but powered This wastobeashort-range high-altitude final version of the Ar 234 wasthe P-series, by apair of BMW 003s under each wing. reconnaissance type but its only source of detailed elsewhereinthis publication. • As time went on however, Ar 234 Acame propulsion wastobearocket motor fitted into to denote simply the skid undercarriage the rear fuselage, with the wings entirely version, Ar 234 Bthe wheeled undercarriage devoid of their usual bulky engine nacelles. BELOW:The heavily armed and version whether used forreconnaissance or Landing would be accomplished with the armoured ﬁghter version of the bombinbombing,g, and Ar 234 CCam a multiroleultirole versionversion nownow-standar standarddw wheeledheeled undercarrundercarriage.iage. Ar 234 designed in May 1943. that could be adapted on the production line The first pre-production Ar 234 B-0 was to night fighter,fighter-bomber,bomber completed in early June and first flewonJune or reconnaissance duties as required. 8, 1944. Serial production of the Ar 234 B-2, With project E560 having been under way the first full production type, began in July forayear,itwas decided in late 1943 to build 1944 –following the completion of the first an Ar 234 prototype with swept wings or 20 pre-production Ar 234 B-0s. Ar 234 B-1 ‘pfeilflügel’. However, rather than featuring reconnaissance versions were straight leading edges, the E560 wing had Ar 234 B-2s retrofitted with acrescent shape with the innermost section cameraequipment. being moresharply swept than the outer section. It wasalso proposed to raise the wings’ mounting point, with contemporary drawings and photographs of wind tunnel models

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 029 Rocket fighters

Blazing a trail Rocket fighters The only role that the Me 163 could fulfilwas that of point defence –and it wasn’t particularly goododa atti it.t. Designer Alexander Lippisch realised this earlylyo onna andnd attempted to design something better.Afterthis came to nothing, and as the bombing of Germany intensified, the Objektschützer competition was launcheddtoc to createreate anew rocket-powered interceptor.

030 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Profiles HeinkHeinkel’sel’s Julia rockrocketet fifighterghter was intended as an Me 163 replacement and was to be launched from aramp inclined at 40-degrees.

place at AugsburgonFebruary 13, 1941, with esserschmitt’sAbteilung Abteilung L’sown test pilot Heini Dittmar at Lhad continued work the controls. Twomonths later,inApril, the Mon its P01series during Aerodynamische Ve rsuchsanstalt (AVA )at July 1940 but the P1065 from the Göttingen, working as acontractor,commenced main project office wasincreasingly awide-ranging series of wind tunnel tests on coming to represent the company’s Messerschmitt P01designs with avariety official response to the jet fighter of different fuselage and wing forms, taking requirement of January 1939. the P01-114 as astarting point. These tests Alexander Lippisch’steam were kept lasted from around April 21, 1941 to at least busy with work on propeller-driven tailless October 6, 1942, and generated avast amount designs, such as the P04–analternative of aerodynamics data forAbteilung L. to the conventional Me 210 –and the P06, At some point between the commencement atractor prop tailless trainer.And at the of the tests in April and July 7, 1941, what same time, the P01-114 rocket-propelled had been the P01-114 wasgiven the official testbedbddi design hadhdb become the hbif basis fora RLM designationd i i MeM 263 –copies i of f the h newseries in its ownright, the P03. Some original P01-114 report dated August 1940 thought had also been given to howrocket had ‘263’ retrospectively written on them in motors could powersomething other than pen. Lippisch himself later refers to it as both abasic point defence aircraft, with the new the P03and the Me 263, although the AVA P05fighter design being the result. reports go from being markedsimply ‘P 01’ The final flight tests of the experimental briefly to ‘Me 263 (P 01)’ then finally to ‘Me 263’ DFS 194 were conducted at Peenemünde on without P03appearing. The aircraft which November 30, 1940, and the first towedflight eventually borethe designation Me 263 in late test of the newly completed Me 163 took 1944 –itself originally designated Ju 248 –was

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 031 Rocket fighters

unrelated to the P01-derived 1941 design. speed and climb performancermance compared Having previously been suspended, the to normal combat andfighter aircraft.” P01series nowrecommenced with the first The P05was to bethe ultimate point design drawing to emerge, on June 12, 1941, defence fighter.Ithadd four engines –three being given the designation P01-116. Likeits of them, the ‘climb engines’,gines’, producing the namesakeofmorethan twoyears earlier,it same 1500kg thrust ass that of the Me 163. wasasingle jet fighter.This out-of-numerical- The fourth 200kg-750kg0kg thrust engine was sequence reboot of the series left agap at forlevelflying and woould givethe P05much P01-115 which wasfilled on July 2with the greater endurance thanant thehe Me 163. Armament creation of amixed propulsion single turbojet wasfour MG 151/20sw withith 100 rounds each. and rocket-propelled design –the same daythat Lippisch’sattemptt to have his department’s Dittmar made his last unpoweredflight in the creations branded withhh hisis ownname naturally Me 163 V4 beforeitwas movedtoPeenemünde caused some heated discussioniscussion about his future so that its Wa lter rocket engine could be within Messerschmittta andnd the company’s fitted. On July 16, another newP01-116 was main project office seemsems to have drafted –another purerocket-propelled design taken adim viewofAbbteilungteilung that is the only one of the three P01-116s to L’sefforts in general; itsits fit correctly with the numerical sequence. leader Wo ldemar Vo igtgt Afinal trio of P01designs were produced attempted to have his in the space of three weeks –the P01-117 team’sP1079 built on July 22, the P01-118 on August 3and the in place of the P05. P01-119 on August 4. The first featured a The latter was cockpit wherethe pilot layonacouch, chin up discussed during and head forward, the second boasted anovel September 1941 and tilting seat arrangement to imprmprovethe pilot’s the project appears to ha ve visibility during asteep near-verticalr-vertical climb, then been split in twotwo–r–rather and the thirdhad apressureccabin forhigh than have alarge rocrocketket fighter that could altitude operations. Each oft themhem wastobe climb extremely rapipidlydly and then retain poweredbyaWalter rocket enginengine but only sufficient endurance ffoorrd dogfighting,ogfighting, it was the P01-118 also had asecondd rocket engine decided to workwork on aas smallmallll rocketrocket k fighterf h to provide greater endurancee forlevel flight. with the fast climb but little endurance From this point on, all mentiononoft of thehe P01 and alarge fighter that would climb slowly ceased and the project continuednued as the Me 263. but have fargreater endurance. The latter BELOW:Following on from the P01-114 rocket- Then, on August 13, 1941,Dittmar made the wastobepowerereded by twoturbojets. powered design was the P01-115 mixed rocket first poweredflight in Messerschmitterschmitt In his book Ein Dreieck Fliegt, Lippisch and jet propulsion ﬁghter,dated July 2, 1941. Me 163 V4. This demonstratededt thathat the wrote that the Li P05“wasatrue-to-scale concept of ahighly manoeuvrablevrable rocket- enlargement of the Me 163 V4 to ensurethe poweredinterceptor wassoundnda andnd also freed design of an aircraft of known characteristics, up Abteilung L’sdesign staffff foorrn neewwpprojects.rojects. good weaponry (four machine guns), and Lippisch himself believeddtthathat a combination of the practicalMe 163 tests and the theoretical and wind tunnel-tested P01series would produce thee engineering data needed to design and buildild asingle seat rocket-poweredcombat aircraft.aft. However, it would not necessarily need too embody the features of the Me 163 orany of the P01s up to that point. With this in mind, on August 27, 1941, Lippisch finally unveiled his first proposal foramilitary design based on Me 163 flight experience –the P05 Interceptor.The title page off the P05brochure, bearing Lippisch’sippisch’s signature, is revealing: “If, duringuring the course of the further flight testingo offt thehe Li 163, comparativeengine changes arenecessary, the manufacturer reserves theher rightight to carry them out. Messerschmitt AG, Augsburg.” Lippisch is nowreferring to ‘his’ creation as the Li 163. The brochureisevenheaded ‘Projektbaubeschreibung Li P05 Interceptor’ though it is printed on a standardMesserschmitt-headed form. The forewordstates: “On the basis of the flight experiences and characteristics test of the Me 163 V4 the present project wasdeveloped as amassiveenlargement of the tried and tested pattern. In accordance with the intended use, the rocket engine propulsion interceptor achievesthe shortest climbing time at the application altitude and on the other hand ensures superior

032 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles BELOW: The Messerschmitt P01-114, drafted on July 19, 1940, was originally intended as arocket-powered vehicle to test airframe components for ajet ﬁghter but instead formed the basis of anew project. It is shown here as though ‘captured’ by the Soviets.

BELOW:During June 1941 the P01-114 became the Messerschmitt P03, which then received the ofﬁcial RLM designation Me 263. The aircraftwas never built and the number went unused until it was reapplied to adifferent project in 1944.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 033 Rocket fighters

BELOW:The last of Lippisch’s three P01-116s and the only one to fall correctly into the numerical sequence was this rocket ﬁghter drawnuponJuly 16, 1941.

ABOVE: Following quickly on from the P01-116 was the new P 01-117, dated July 22, 1941. This rocket-powered ﬁghter featured aprone great range. However, since it wasfeared Me 163 B, retrospectively making all position for the pilot, who looked out through a that in this aircraft of 12.8m wingspan the existing examples of the type Me 163 As. blister of bulletproof glass. control forces would be too high, it was decided to return to the smaller size. BACHEM’S FI 166 “On September 14, 1941, we produced In areport dated December 4, 1941, Erich asmaller design, the Li 163 S(Sfor series Bachem, chief designer at Fieseler,put forward production) with awingspan of 9.2m that was aproposal fortwo types of rocket-powered to be armed with four machine cannons”. high-altitude fighter –aturbojet-powered As Abteilung Lbegan working out how fighter launched vertically on top of arocket to produce atwin-jet fighter that would offer and apurerocket fighter.The former was some appreciable advantage over the Me 262, to have aflight time of 45 minutes thanks on October 2, 1941, Dittmar became the first to its assisted take-off, although it could not man to fly faster than 1000km/h in the Me 163. be guaranteed that the launch rocket, once The official first draft of the twin-jet detached and hopefully floating back to fighter,designated P09, wasfinally produced earth on abuilt-in parachute, wouldn’tland on on October 28, 1941. It was50cm shorter in somebody’shouse or on high-voltage power length than the P05and its wingspan was lines. The latter would have aflight time of 1.2m narrower.The Li 163 S, meanwhile, had only fiveminutes and would thereforeonly evolved into amorerounded aerodynamic be able to makeone attack beforehaving form and been given the designation to break offand land on abelly skid.

034 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles Neither concept seems to have gone simple modification of the newMe163 B, any further but Bachem remained with apressurecabin being installed and the interested in the potential of avertical- fuselage being lengthened to accommodate launch rocket-propelled interceptor. an FK 50/30 camera. Asmall second rocket Abteilung Lspent the first four months motor wasalso fitted to provide alittle of 1942 fully engaged in design work on the moreflight time at altitude. The aircraft’s Me 163 B, nowalmost acompletely different wings and tail remained the same. aircraft from its predecessor despite the Messerschmitt wasthrowninto turmoil name. Lippisch himself, who wasincreasingly when the Bf 110’ssuccessor,the Me 210, was being called upon to undertakemanagement cancelled on April 14, 1942. The aircraft’s levelactivities, seems to have had little direct development had been adisaster and Willy involvement in this work but he did begin to Messerschmitt himself wasforced to consider what the successor to the Me 163 personally shoulder some of the responsibility Bmight look like. In anotebook bearing his forits failure, being removedfromoffice signatureand dated January to February as chairman of the company.However, his 1942, he penned drawings of what he called personal relationship with the firm’spowerful the ‘Super 163’ –alow aspect ratio interceptor financial backers made this little more based on the Me 163 with ashort and wide delta than atemporary setback in his career. wing, alonger,flatter canopyand asharply In the short term, however, he went swept tail fin with substantial under-fin. ‘back to the floor’ as Messerschmitt AG’s Alongside this, he jotted down calculations chief designer and thereforeLippisch’sline on what he referred to as the Me 163 C. manager.Lippisch, who wasused to operating It wasthe latter that became the subject independently,was suddenly forced to operate of afull report on March 23, 1942 –the Super within the bounds of the firm’sown rules 163 evidently proceeding no further than and quickly fell out with Messerschmitt over ahandful of calculations and sketches. the design of the P10, ahigh-speed bomber. The Me 163 C(Nahaufklärer) or ‘Me 163 Messerschmitt wasparticularly annoyedthat C(Close reconnaissance)’ wasarelatively Lippisch had completely changed the project’s

BELOW:The P01-118 of August 3, 1941, had anovel swivel seat for the pilot and aheavily glazed cockpit canopy.

BELOW:The ﬁnal P01, the P01-119, was drawn up just aday after its predecessor on August 4, 1941. It was well armed with four cannon –ttwoofthem housed in fairings on the wing roots.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 035 Rocket fighters

design without consulting him –and lost an RLM dedevelopmentvelopment contract in the process.process While Abteilung Lcontinued to work on predominantly turbojet-poweredtailless projects, Messerschmitt and Lippisch engaged in apower struggle which could have only one outcome. In March 1943, it was agreed that Abteilung Lwould be dissolved and its remaining staffreincorporated into the rest of the company.Lippisch himself officially left Messerschmitt on April 28.

OBJEKTSCHÜTZER Even as all this wasgoing on, Arado was making its owneffortstodesign apotential successor to the Me 163 –eventhough designs went no further, the type wasstill morethan ayear away but this would not be the last time ABOVE: Erich Bachem at Fieseler putforward a from entering service with the Luftwaffe. Arado dabbled with rocket propulsion. reportonDecember 4, 1941, suggesting two Areport published by the company on Meanwhile, back at Messerschmitt, there designs for arocket-powered interceptor.They August 11, 1943, entitled Vo rschlag für die wasareal reluctance to pursue any further were both presented under the designation We iterentwicklung schneller Zweisitzer or work on tailless manned aircraft designs Fi 166 and this is the ﬁrst –apure rocket ﬁghter. ‘Proposal forthe development of afast two- following the departureofLippisch, which seater’ detailed three potential fighter types. meant further development of the Me 163 These were referred to as the TL-Jäger, beyond the Me 163 Bwas stalled. The company R-Jäger and K-Jäger –the turbojet-powered had decided on July 27, 1943, to conduct further TL-Jäger appearing in drawing TEW work on the extended-fuselage Me 163 C 16/43-23 of June 3, 1943, the rocket-powered with asecond rocket engine forcruising at R-Jäger in drawing TEW 16/43-13 of March altitude, but this made little progress. 18, 1943, and the K-Jäger,powered by a At the beginning of 1944, Messerschmitt ‘Kombination’ of rocket and jet propulsion, began to consider anew concept –atiny rocket in TEW 16/43-15 of March 20, 1943. fighter that could be towedaloft behind The report suggested that while the an Me 262. Wo rk on the P1104, awooden turbojet lacked climbing speed, and the rocket machine with short straight wings and lackedac ed eendurance, du a ce, puttputting g botboth togethertoget e armed with a single 30mm MK 108 cannon, in asingle Kombination-Jäger would offer appears to have begun in April 1944. Four the best of both worlds. The company’s months later,anew competitionwas begun to

BELOW:While the Me 163 Bwas taking shape largely withouthis input, Lippisch drew up what he called the Super 163 –anaerodynamically advanced version of the design.

036 Luftwaffe:Secret ProjectProﬁles LEFT:The second Fi 166 was actually aturbojet-propelled ﬁghter but was launched with the aid of arocket with the appearance of aminiature V-2.

BELOW:Alexander Lippisch’s intention was always to follow up the experimental Me 163 with alarger and more powerful aircraft. This was the P05with no fewer than four rocket motors –three 1500kg thrust units and asingle much smaller unit for cruising. The original drawing and report are dated August 27, 1941.

design adirect replacement forthe Me 163: an After avertical launch, the rocket would time fitted with aheavily armoured front Objektschützer or ‘target defence aircraft’. reach aspeed of 1789mph or alittle over end shaped likeaspeartip. The idea, it would Mach 2atanaltitude of 164,000ft. It would seem, wastocrash through enemy aircraft STÖCKEL then be steered downwardfor adescent on to and cause as much damage as possible before This timing coincides neatly with the drafting the target 300km away,with the tiny aircraft the aircraft waswrecked, whereupon asmall of some unusual concepts by DVL employee breaking away at the last moment to enter a explosivecharge would separate the armoured Karl Stöckel. On August 23, 1944, he produced climbing turn beforeflying back to base under cockpit from the rest of the fuselage and the adrawing showing a‘Manuell gesteuerites the powerofits ownsmall ramjet engine. pilot could parachute safely to the ground. Raketenprojektil’ or ‘MGRP’. Similar in concept This would no doubt have been just about The Rammrakete measured 17ft from to Bachem’sFi166, this involved alarge missile, the most terrifying or perhaps thrilling ride end to end and had awingspan of just 13ft. nearly the size of aV-2, with avery small of the pilot’slife, assuming he survived it. It seems that the aircraft could be fitted parasite aircraft attached at its base, barely Asecond design showedasmaller rocket with apair of bombs too, although how large enough forone man. The missile would attached to asomewhat larger fighter.Two it would have used these is uncertain. weigh fivetonnes, the aircraft 0.5 tonnes and days later,Stöckel drew up apair of rocket the remaining 4.5 tonnes of the combination’s fighters poweredbyaform of ramjet and THE CONTEST all-up weight would be rocket fuel. Adiagram the following month he came up with a Whether Stöckel’sdesigns were produced and notes on the same sheet indicate how ‘Rammrakete’ or ramrocket. This wasanother very rapidly in response to the Objektschützer the MGRP wasintended to operate. vertical launch one-man aircraft but this requirement, or even prompted it, is unclear.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 037 Rocket fighters

However, during August and September wings than its short-winged competitors, 11, 1944, Junkers produced adescription of its Messerschmitt continued to refine its P1104 aprone pilot position and atwin tail. ownObjektschützer design, the Ju 248, which with the option to equip it with apair of solid Junkers took over responsibility forbuilding used many of the same components as the powder rockets forextraspeed. Erich Bachem, and developing the Me 163 on September 1, Me 163, particularly the wings, but also having left Fieseler and started his own 1944, and in doing so, implemented its own featured alengthened fuselage incorporating company,now developed his earlier concept design changes to makeproduction quicker afully retractable tricycle undercarriage. Just into what he called the BP-20 Natter –asmall and easier.Bythis point, Messerschmitt 10 days later Junkers wasawarded acontract fighter not unlikethe P1104 but launched seems to have abandoned the P1104. to develop the Ju 248, though not forseries vertically using four external booster rockets Willy Messerschmitt sent Erich Bachem production. The firm began by creating two as well as an internal rocket motor.Heinkel aletter on October 4, 1944, advising him development aircraft, dubbed Me 163 D, out of also worked on anear-vertical launch fighter to makehis project morelikethe P1104 existing Me 163 Bs –the V13 and V18. These under the designation P1077 and later simply and appended abrief description of the were given newfuselage sections in front ‘Julia’. The reason forHeinkel’schoice of this project entitled “Kurzbaubeschreibung of and behind the wing plus afixed tricycle particular name has neverbeen adequately P1104 II. Ausf. v. 25.9.44”. undercarriage that could be shifted to different explained although it almost certainly comes Bachem presumably ignored this, having positions on the airframe to determine which from the Germanmanve versionrsion of Romeo and Juliet already made significant progress towards worked best. The Ju 248 designation was –Romeo and Julia.ulia. Julia itself had eveveenns shorterhorter finalising the design of his Natter.OnOctober contentious, given the origin of most of its

ABOVE: Another Lippisch design from early 1942 was the original Me 163 C–essentially an Me 163 Bwith alonger fuselage and, crucially, asmall additional rocket motor for cruising.

038 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles BELOW:The Arado R-Jäger rocket ﬁghter from areport dated August 11, 1943. The company concluded that in fact acombination of jet and rocket power would be better.

ABOVE: After Lippisch leftMesserschmitt, the main project ofﬁce under Woldemar Voigt designed this replacement for the Me 163 B, the Me 163 C–averydifferent 163 C to that previously envisioned by Lippisch himself.

BELOW:Having worked on a number of turbojet high-speed bombers during early to mid-1942, Abteilung Lproduced the P09–a large rocketplane with an internal bomb bay for doing the same job.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 039 Rocket fighters

components, and Messerschmitt appears to the P1104 or Stöckel’sdesigns? have successfully lobbied to have the old In any case, Junkers putforwardanother Me 263 designation reused forthis newdesign. design in December,which it called the Messerschmitt also offeredarocket-boosted EF 127 ‘Walli’.This would be simpler and version of the Me 262 itself, presumably the C-1 cheaper to build than the Ju248/Me 263, or C-2. According to the British report German utilising the wings and tailplanes of a Aircraft: Newand Projected Types, discussing Fi 103 flying bomb. During ameeting of minutes of an EHK meeting on November the EHK at Arado’sBrandenburgoffices 21-22, 1944, under the heading ‘target defence on December 19-20, 1944, the entries aircraft’: “The importance of target defence was forthe competition were discussed. emphasised and consideration wasnarrowed down to the 8-248 (8-263), adevelopment of BLUME’S MIDGET the Me 163 B; the Heinkel ‘Julia’; Bachem According to the minutes, signed offby ‘Natter’; and the Me 262 interceptor with Arado chief executiveWalter Blume supplementary rocket propulsion. on December 22, the chairman “It wasdecided that since these of the commission, Roluf developments were in an advanced state it Lucht “discusses Natter, wasnot expedient to abandon any of them. Julia, Wa lli; rejects Aproposal by the Special Commission for Natter”. He also “rejects Jet Aircraft and Special Aircraft to defer prone pilot arrangement, or reject the 8-263 in favour of the He 162 since during acceleration wasopposed on the ground that further head pressed on chin rest development and series production of the and no longer rotatable”. 263 could be based on the work already General discussion undertaken in connection with the 163. followed, during which it “The four types of target defence aircraft wasstated that both range already enumerated were to be developed and flight duration were tooshort. in thefo followingllowing priority: 1.1. Me 262 with Then Willy Messerschmitt “suddenly supplementary rocket propulsion. 2. Heinkel says that he had consideredthat it would ‘Julia’. 3. 8-248. 4. Bachem ‘Natter’.” be possible to quickly bring the jet fighter It is interesting that “consideration up to scratch with cheap means and to throw wasnarrowed down” to those fivedesigns in additional material, so that the task would –itisunknown which other designs already be solved”. General Ulrich Diesing said were rejected at this stage. Perhaps he “welcomes this and expects further details”.

RIGHT:Karl Stöckel’s ‘Manuell gesteueriteseuerites Raketenprojektil’ (MGRP) from adrrawingawing dated August 23, 1944.

040 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles BELOW:During early 1944 Messerschmitt began work on asmall rocket ﬁghter that could be towed into the air behind an Me 262 –the P1104.

Blume then showedthe meeting an “anhängejäger” or ‘attached fighter’ and “range made an appropriate impression”. The ratio of the “number necessary” compared to Wa lli was500 to 5000. However, “return organisation is strongly criticised”. It would appear that what Blume showed his fellowcommission members wasthe Arado E381 Kleinstjäger ‘midget fighter’. This was asmall rocket-powered‘parasite’ fighter with aprone pilot position designed to be taken LEFT:Stöckel’s alternative MGRP with aless aloft attached to the belly of an Ar 234 Cand extreme difference in the proportions of the the official Arado report describing it is dated launch rocket and glide-ﬁghter. December 5, 1944. It states: “The parent aircraft flies to within sight of the hostile formation, as faraspossible above it, in order to increase the effectiverange of the midget as faras possible. Upon recognition of the adversary,the midget slips the connection with the carrier, goes into aglide and switches on the rocket

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 041 Rocket fighters

unit, which, when developing its meann thrust, gives the fighter aspeed about 200km/hm/h in excess of the speed of the enemy formation.mation. “It is so protected by armour,that itith hasas every chance of penetrating the enemymyf fireire barrage without serious damage, andd opening fireatclosest range from its MK 108 guns.”guns.” However, regarding landing and reecovery (‘return organisation’) –itislittle wonnderder that the other members of the EHK raraisedised concerns. The Arado report goes on: “WhenWhen the ammunition is expended, the rocketket unit is stopped, to have an available reserveeofof fuel on landing, and the fighter glidess down. Alanding parachute brakeis provided to enable abelly landing on arelatively confined space, a carefully designed shock-absorber skid and springing of the pilot’s supportpp mitigatingg g the landingg shock.k. “Tofacilitate towing-offafter landing, the midget should be brougbroughtht down near some main road, airfield, oorr the like, which should easily be possible ininv vieiewof the considerable gliding range of the aircraft. Meanwhile, the parent aircraft will be in a position to attack the enemy in the capacity of an escort fighter.Ifthe operational situation permits, it will endeavour to spot the landing place of its midget beforereturning to base, whereone or morefurther midgets should be available foroperational use.

RIGHT:The fourth Stöckel ﬁghter with rocket and ramjet propulsion.

RIGHT:Asmall rocket ﬁghter designed by Karl Stöckel on August 25, 1944.

042 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles LEFT:Erich Bachem’s BP-20 Natter as it was built. This is usually regarded as the Ba 349 A-1 but for some reason the drawing is only labelled ‘BP-20’.

“Collection and return of the landed midgets is amatter forthe ground services. The ideal organisation is approximately as follows: each twoparent aircraft areserved by one special motor truck, on which twomidgets can be accommodated. These trucks aredirected to the landing points, either determined by the parent aircraft, or reported by telephone. At the landing point the midget is disassembled into wing unit, fuselage, tail unit. These components aresodesigned that their individual weight can be handled manually without difficulty.” In other words, having landed on aroad in the middle of nowhere, the midget’spilot LEFT:The drawing this design is would have to extract himself from the aircraft based on is labelled Ba 349 A-1 but beforewaiting forarecovery lorry.When clearly has some marked design this arrived, the ground crew would have to differences to the aircraftasbuilt – completely disassemble the midget, load it up, such as the different nose shape. then attempt to find asecond midget to make the trip worthwhile beforetaking that to bits too and finally hauling both back to base. The only further note on the E381 was“Arado to continue work on attached projects” but permission to build a mock-up wasnot yetgranted. The decision of the EHK meeting was“to put Julia and Wa lli back, in order to makeafinal statement on the basis of testing Ju 248. Natter: Series of 100 examples under construction. Lock out”. The latter comment appears to suggest that therewas nothing that could be done about the 100 Natters already under construction at this point –since Erich Bachem had personally approached Heinrich Himmler forhis support and the Wa ffen SS had nowtaken control of the project.

THE JULIA SAGA The Ju 248/Me 263 wasnow the front runner of the contest and Junkers wasalready hard at work building the first prototypes of the aircraft. Ju 248 V1 wascompleted and flown 13

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 043 Rocket fighters

times beforethe war’send. Fourteen production on Julia after the December meeting and the mock-up has been closed down. model Ba 349 A-1 Natters were completed, four been told that Julia wasnot cancelled. Finally,adocument dated March 6, of them fortests, though none of them flew. On February 15, Heinkel technical director states that Frydag had received aphone Wa lli appears to have been quickly abandoned, CarlFranckecontacted Hans-Martin Antz call the previous dayonbehalf of the EHK as does the E381. However, Heinkel persisted at the RLM about Julia and Antz advised ordering that work on Julia be continued. witwithh JJuliaulia almost until the end of the warwar.. him to continue with development. Another Whether any further work actually took Lucht believedthat he had cancelled Julia Heinkel director,KarlFrydag, had also place is not known but it seems doubtful. • in December 1944 but aHeinkel document decided that daythat work on Julia should BELOW:Arado chief executive Walter Blume dated February 14, 1945, shows he was continue in order to safeguardthe Heinkel offered the E381 midget ﬁghterasan astonished to discoverthat the company had employees working on the project. On February Objektschützer at the EHK meeting in late disobeyedthis instruction. Heinkel argued 21, in another document, Franckeadmits December 1944. Concerns about recovering that it had contacted another member of the that work on Julia has actually stopped and the aircraftafter a ﬂight seem to have killed EHK, Robert Lusser,toclarify the position that the workshop tasked with building the project.

RIGHT:Junkers took over responsibility for the Me 163 BonSeptember 1, 1944, and set about redesigning it. The result was the Ju 248, aka the Me 263. The Ju 248 V1 was ﬂown 13 times.

044 Luftwaffe: Secret Project Proﬁles BELOW:Asthe war reached its end, and with resources increasingly scarce, Junkers came up with the EF 127 ‘Walli’ –aramp-launched rocket ﬁghter based on the Fi 103.

Luftwaffe: Secret Project Proﬁles 045 Interim night fighters

Make do and mend Interim night ﬁghters The Luftwaffe urgently needed modernnight ﬁghters in 1944 and set about developing them from existing advanced designs...

046 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles Confusingly,period drawings show the straightforward Me 262 A-1 two-seater conversion night ﬁghter labelled ‘Me 262 B-2’ but Messerschmitt also applied the same label to areworked two- seater with asomewhat different silhouette to the standard 262 conversion. This is the drawing board B-2without radar antlers.

hile numerous plans were wooden and metal parts together.During the in hand to tackle the summer of 1944 it wasdecided to modify the WUSAAF’sdaytime bomber most advanced German aircraft in production fleets as theywreaked havoc across foruse as interim night fighters while a Germany during mid-1944, it was definitivetwin-jet night fighter wasdeveloped. proving moredifficult to find ameans Messerschmitt, Aradoand Dornier were asked of effectively stopping theRAF’s to put forwardproposals fortheir Me 262, Ar devastating night-time raids. 234 and Do 335 designsrespectively.These The Luftwaffe’s night fighter fleet were followed, in December 1944-January 1945, consisted entirely of existingday fighter by improved and updated proposals from all and bomber types such as theBf110, three companies. Ju 88 and Do 217 that had been modified forthe particular requirements of the MESSERSCHMITT ME 262 B-2 role –with larger fuel capacity forgreater Proposals foranMe262 night fighter with endurance and an arrayofradar equipment twoseats and radar equipment were drawnup forseeking out targets. shortly beforeSeptember 1, 1944. The aircraft Dedicated piston-engined night fighters wastobebased on thetrainer version of the had been developed, Heinkel’s He 219 Uhu type, which already had twoseats. The dual and Focke-Wulf’sTa154, but while the controls were to be removedand replaced with former had entered service despite engine twonew 140-litrefuel tanks, one on either difficulties, the latter had fallen victim to side of the rear seat. The seat itself would be its ownunusual construction, which required occupied by the operator of aFuG 218 Neptun the use of aparticular glue tobond its Vairborne interception radar.Itwas intended

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 047 Interim night fighters

ABOVE: The Ar 234 PP--55w wasas the most advanced ﬁghterﬁghteer versionversion of the 234 designdesign conceived during wartime. The type’s rotating radardish was concealed within its armoured nose and with two crew seated side-by-side-side up front, the third crewman sat in the rear fuselage under asmall Perspepexxccanopy.anopy.

that aFuG 350 Zc Naxos homing device should faacing forwards directly behind thethep pilot,ilot, with also be fitted. thehef fuselageuselage fuel tank accordinglaccordinglyy reduced By late January or early February 1945 work inn size to accommodate it. LikethetheeArado began on creating the first examples of the ‘back-seater’,back-seater’, the Do 335’sradar manmanb benefitedenefited Me 262 B-2 at the Berlin-Staaken workshops of fromrom asmall glazed panel above hihissh headead that Deutsche Lufthansa. Anumber of Lechfeld- wasflush against the line of the built Me 262 A-1as were delivered to the facility fuselage. The standardaircraft’s and underwent significant modifications. The armament of one 30mm MK 103 radar operator’sposition wasput together and two20mm MG 151s waskept using roughly finished sheets of plywood to but additional fuel tanks were to house the equipment and instruments and it is be fitted into the aircraft’swings likely that the Naxos device wasneverfitted to makeupfor the capacity to any of the small number of examples built – lost in allowing forthe radar most likely between six and 12. operator’sposition. At around the same time, ARADO AR 234 B-2/N Dornier also worked on another The first proposal forArado’sinterim night night fighter based on the Do 335 fighter is dated September 12, 1944. It was airframe but with mixed piston decided that 30 Ar 234 B-2 bomber airframes engine and jet propulsion under should be modified under the designation the designation P254. This wastohhaaveve Ar 234 B-2/N. Likethe Me 262 B-2, the Arado either aDaimler-Benz DB 603 IA ororaJaJumo aircraft wasfitted with acompartment fora 213J engine in its nose, with aHeS011 turbojet second crew member who operated aFuG 218 mounted in the rear engine position, with large Naxos Zc homing device scanner and the radar Neptun Vradar.Unlikethe Messerschmitt intakes on either side of the rear fuselage to operator waseventobegiven blackout curtains design, the Arado’sradar man had to sit in a feed it. In addition to apair of fixed forward- so that it could be read more easily. very cramped compartment built into the rear firing MG 151s, the P254/1 also had at least one Radar aerials would naturally fuselage with asmall windowabove his head. MK 108 positioned to fireupwards at an oblique be fitted to the aircraft’snose Armament wastwo MG 151 20mm cannon. angle forattacking enemy bombers from below. unit too. It is believedthat just twoofthese interim Another,far more machines were produced but it wasquickly MESSERSCHMITT THREE-SEATER radical, design of February found that the Ar 234 B-2’sextensively glazed NIGHT FIGHTER 1945 featured the possible cockpit did not suit night-time operations. With work either under wayorabout to inclusion of athirdcrewman commence on the serial production of its –anavigator –within the DORNIER DO 335 A-6 AND P254 Me 262 B-2 interim night fighter design, stretched fuselage and apair of The Do 335 production process had suffered Messerschmitt put forwardseveralproposals HeS 011 engines but buried in the horrendous delays as aresult of Allied bombing foramorecomplete development of the Me 262 aircraft’swingroots. The wings –particularly an American raid in March 1944 to fulfil this role. themselves would also have a which destroyedall the tooling and carefully The first of these, published on January 18, 45-degree sweepback, compared to prepared jigs needed forits manufacture. Ye t 1945, involved relatively small modifications to the standardMe262’ssweep ofjust Dornier’sdesigners nevertheless drew up a the design. The fuselage wastobelengthened 18.5 degrees. In March, moretwo- newinterim night fighter version, the A-6, in by 1.5m to provide room forthe radar operator and three-seater designs followed, one with less September 1944. behind the pilot without reducing internal fuel swept back but morethickly corded wings and As with the Messerschmitt and Arado tank capacity. with the engines underslung, and another with designs, arear compartment wastobecreated The canopyoverthe men’sheads wasto asimilar layout but with the engines once more foraradar operator.This wastobepositioned be made taller to accommodate the FuG 350 buried in the wingroots.

048 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles BELOW:Messerschmitt’s three-seater night ﬁghter stretched the base Me 262 design even further than the B-2, with the third crewman facing to the rear.

BELOW:The drawing board Me 262 B-2also appears with radar antennae in place.

BELOW:Dornier’s P254. The company had toyed with the idea of fitting aturbojet in the rear of its push-pull Do 335 almost since the design’s inception and this was only the latest iteration –reworked as ananiightght fighter.fig hter.

ARADO AR 234 P-5 promising as a night fighter.This design crew member too, the radar operator,who With the Arado Ar 234 B-2/N night fighter featured alengthened nose, providing room for still had to sit in asmall compartment at the being found, at best, to be of lesser value than the pilot and a second crewman to sit side by rear of the aircraft. Armament was three the Me 262 B-2 and at worst to becompletely side. The full vision cockpit wasnolonger a fixed, forward-firing guns –anMG151and unsuited to night fighting, the company set feature, with an unglazed armoured nose and a twoMK108s –and twoMK108s positioned about rapidly amending the design. morefighter-likecanopyabove the crew –not to fireupwards at an oblique angle. The still-in-development Ar 234 Cseries dissimilar to that seen on the much earlier Beyond the P-5, Arado wastodesign a wasused as the basis foranew sub-type, Ar 234 fighter design. whole series of dedicated advanced twin-jet the P-series, of which the P-5 wasthe most The P-5 had twoHeS 011 engines and athird night fighters. • Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 049 1000 x1000 x1000 bomber Hundreds thousands 1000 x1000 x1000 bomber

Presented with two separate designs for atwin-jet bomber supposedly capable of carrying 1000kg of bombs for 1000km at 1000km/h, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring gave each designer RM 500,000 and told them to get on with prototype construction...

he Schnellbomber requirement innovation and among the most promising that the idea originated with him. The P10 of spring 1942, which ultimately projects –though theywould taketoo wastobeunarmoured and unarmed except for Tresulted in the Dornier Do 335 long to develop to meet the requirement its payload, sacrificing defensivecapability for defeating the twin-fuselage Messerschmitt in time –werethe jet Schnellbombers. purespeed, and waspowered by asingle DB 606. Me 109 Zw to become the Luftwaffe’s new At Messerschmitt, Alexander Lippisch’s Lippisch appears to have taken this fast bomber,gaverise to amultitude of Abteilung Lhad considered creating alarge design directly to Hermann Göring in different projects and design proposals. tailless twin-jet heavy fighter as early as June 1942 and received acontract to build Akey featureofthe competition wasa October 28, 1941, in the form of the P09, an experimental version of the aircraft as complete lack of restrictions on airframe drafted by Rudolf Rentel. Nearly amonth aresult. However, Lippisch later decided design or evenengine choice. The aircraft later,onNovember 26, 1941, Rentel created to scrap this design and apply the P10 manufacturers were free to decide howthey asimilarly configured twin-jet ground- designation to acompletely different aircraft wanted to meet the necessary specification. attack aircraft designated the P010 but this instead –atailless version of the Me 210/410. During the early stages of the competition brief twin-jet series wasthen shelved. This change resulted in the development Blohm &Voss, forexample, had come up When the Schnellbomber requirement contract forthe original design being lost and with the highly unorthodoxtriple-engined came along, Abteilung Lcame up with anew incurring the wrath of Willy Messerschmitt, P170 while both Heinkel and Junkers had piston engine design –the P10. This was who had to explain to his boardofdirectors each come up with numerous different nominally designed by Dr Hermann Wurster howthis contract had been squandered. designs, some of them poweredbyturbojets. on May20, 1942, but asketch exists dated May The friction generated by this episode, This unrestrained approach invited 17, 1942, in Lippisch’sown hand, suggesting combined with the death of Messerschmitt

050 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles and

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 051 1000 x1000 x1000 bomber

director Theo Croneiss, Lippisch’sstrongest showedthe aircraft equipped with asingle advocate at the firm, on November 7, SC1000 bomb but other loads were possible. 1942, would result in Lippisch leaving the Unlikethe earlier P11designs, the single- company the following year as previously seater May1943 design had almost no fuselage related. However, in the meantime, Lippisch’s to speak of. The pilot sat in atiny cockpit which mercurial approach to drawing board protruded from the leading edge of an enormous projects sawhim shift his attention to flying wing. Therewas asingle tail fin to the another completely different Schnellbomber rear and both turbojets were positioned close –the P11tailless twin-jet two-seater of together in the central part of the wing behind September 13, 1942, which amounted to a the cockpit and above the huge faired-overbomb return to the previous P09/P 010 layout. bay. Their intakes were positioned either side While the company’smain project office of the cockpit in the leading edge of the 10.6m focused its attention on the Me 109 Zw,which span wing. The aircraft’slength was6.8m. used as many parts of existing aircraft as The undercarriage wasatricycle possible, Abteilung Lcontinued to rapidly arrangement, with the nosewheel withdrawing evolveits entirely newdesign. Asecond P11 to aposition between the pilot’sfeet. The drawing, of December 2, 1942, shows an mainwheels went almost directly upwards into aerodynamically cleaner arrangement, with the wing. And within the wing itself were a the aircraft becoming alarger single-seater. pair of 1200kg fuel tanks, one on either side. When the final design meeting forthe While the report mayhavebeen ready Schnellbomber competition took place on in May, it took Lippisch until September January 19, 1943, Willy Messerschmitt declined 28, 1943, to get another audience with to offerany of Lippisch’swork, and presented Göring to present it personally. the Me 109 Zw instead. Therethen followed Lippisch’sdeparturefromMesserschmitt THE HORTENS at the end of April and his subsequent Meanwhile, tailless aircraft enthusiast siblings move to the Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt Wa lter and Reimar Horten had been working RIGHT:Abteilung L’ sP09ﬁghter Wien (LFW) or ‘Aeronautical Research on their owntailless twin-jet aircraft. Without of October 28, 1941, marks the Institute Vienna’, wherehewas put in official sanction, using only their contacts, ﬁrst appearance of what was to become Alexander Lippisch’s charge of a100-strong workforce. personal charm and creativity with paperwork, distinctive tailless twin-jet layout. Having taken four trusted colleagues the pair had managed to set up their owntiny ‘off with him from Messerschmitt –DrFriedrich the books’ organisation within the labyrinthine Ringleb, Handrick, Sanders and Dr Vo lker bureaucracyofthe Luftwaffe,Sonderkommando –heset about continuing his work on LIn 3, forthe sole purpose of designing and the P11. Less than amonth after leaving building their ownflying-wing type aircraft. Messerschmitt, in May1943, he produced a13- During the winter of 1941-42, Wa lter had page report entitled Projektbaubeschreibung presented his brother Reimar with rough copies Ve rsuchsflugzeug für Hochgeschwindigkeit he had made of documents showing the projected BELOW:The P09and 010 or ‘Project construction description of an performance and physical dimensions of the may have established experimental aircraft forhigh-speed’. Junkers Jumo 004 turbojet being developed the form, but the two- The aircraft it outlined, poweredbytwo by Dr Anselm Franz at Dessau. And what seater P11ofSeptember Jumo 004 jet engines, wasintended to fly at wasmore, Wa lter believedhemight be able 13, 1942, began the series that would 1000k1000km/hm/h whilewhilec carryingarryingab a bomombb lloadoad ofof ttoo lalayyhhiiss h handsandsons on someome ofof ththeseese engengines.ines. become the original 1000kg forarange of 1000km –the original The pair considered what sort of aircraft ‘1000 x1000 x1000’ 1000 x1000 x1000 aircraft. The drawings might be propelled by these engines and bomber.

RIGHT:The P11of December 2, 1942, considerably reﬁned the design –with the cockpit now projecting ahead of the aircraft rather than being mounted within it.

052 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Profiles LEFT:The Messerschmitt P010 ofNovember 26, 1941, sees the Abteilung Ltwin-jet layout used as the basis of abomber for the first time. Note the two fixedrearward- firing cannon.

initially thought about putting asingle Thinking quickly,the brothers managed to distance [1000km to the target, 1000km back, turbojet into their piston-engined HVII flying givethe impression that the order had been with a1000km margin formanoeuvring and wing design. However, it soon became clear obeyedby‘dispersing’ rather than actually safety]. V1 should fly in June 1944. Apart that an entirely newaircraft wasneeded. disbanding Sonderkommando LIn 3. from normal teething troubles Lippisch The brothers thereforebegan work on what In March 1943, Wa lter attended aspeech does not expect major difficulties despite the theydesignated the HIX. This would be a made to aviation industry leaders by Hermann three fundamental innovations (jet engine, flying wing, likemost of the brothers’ other Göring wherehecalled foranaircraft that all-wing design, plastic-wood construction). designs, but the question remained –where could carry 1000kg of bombs 1000km with a If the levelofurgency, which is currently set to put the engines? Eventually it wasdecided maximum speed of 1000km/h. This appeared at RM 30,000, is increased to approximately that theyshould be entirely buried within to be the opportunity that the brothers had RM 500,000, Lippisch believesthat the test the wing, with their intakes on the leading been hoping for. If theycould massage the pattern can fly as early as February.Apart edge and exhausting over thetrailing edge. HIXdesign alittle to meet this specification, from the increased extent of urgency, Prof The HIXdesign evolvedduring the course at least in part, theymight have an opportunity Lippisch has no wishes at the moment. of 1942 and into 1943 but disaster struck in to secureadevelopment contract. “When questioned by Herr Reichsmarschall spring 1943 when the RLM evidently realised Unable to meet the 1000/1000/1000 why his project did not come to fruition earlier, something fishy wasgoing on and ordered spec, theymanaged to come up with Lippisch reports that in earlier times therewas that Sonderkommando LIn 3 be disbanded. calculations showing aspeed of 950km/h, strong resistance to all-wing projects, especially arange of 700km and apayload of 2000kg. by General-Ing. Reidenbach and Stabs-Ing. Wa lter worked his contacts once again and Friebel. Lippisch traces these resistances managed to get a20-page design proposal ideologically back partly to the old rivalry of to General Diesing. Diesing apparently the Akaflieg against the Rhönflieger.Herr passed this on to Göring and ameeting Reichsmarschall shows an extraordinary wasarranged forSeptember 28, 1943. interest in the project of Prof Lippisch and gives his full support to Prof Lippisch forthe THE BIG MEETINGS construction of his test samples. He wishes TLR documentation shows that Göring met that the urgent request of Prof Lippisch be met Lippisch concerning the P11from3.45pm to by the Generalluftzeugmeister [ErhardMilch] 4pm on the 28th, then met the Hortons about after afactual examination as soon as possible.” their HIXfrom4pm to 4.20pm on the same day. It is unknown whether Lippisch crossed During the first meeting, according to the paths with the Hortens on the wayout but minutes, “Prof Lippisch reports that he left the next meeting then started. The minutes the Messerschmitt company and that he is state: “Herr Reichsmarschall has Hauptmann currently working on anew project on behalf [Walter]Horten present his work on the of the research leadership of the Luftwaffe in basis of photographic material and asks the Vienna Research Institute. Task: Lippisch about the newprojects. Hauptmann Horten fast-attack aircraft, shell construction, two reports that he has an arrangement with the Jumo jet engines. Project capabilities: 1000kg Peschkecompany,wherethereare currently bombs, 1000km/h speed, 3000km flight three twin-engine propeller-driven trainer

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 053 1000 x1000 x1000 bomber

aircraft of all-wing construction running. Aw ia and the local designer Kaupa has been included on the orders of the general. “In the opinion of Hauptmann Horten, however, neither this company nor the designer Kaupa is suitable forcooperation, since the construction system Kaupa (crosswise welded tubular spar) is not suitable fora shell construction of ahigh-speed aircraft.” Horten told Göring that he would rather CENTRE RIGHT:Having leftMesserschmitt in have the construction work done at Peschke. April 1943, Lippisch produced this design in Then “at the request of Herr Reichsmarschall, May 1943 –anew P11with an enormous aerodynamic belly fairing to cover asingle as to whether afighter or combat aircraft in 1000kg bomb. all-wing construction wasbeing worked on, Hauptmann Horten reports that at present THE HIXAND 8-229 he is running aproject forafighter jet With amillion Reichsmarks between them, (fighter-bomber), which he builds in aroad Lippisch and the Hortens set aboutbuilding maintenance centrenear Göttingen. It is to their prototypes. The unpowered H IX V1 have twoJumo jets, 1000kg bombs, 950km/h wasready on March 1, 1944–albeit with speed with aflight distance of 1500km. aHeinkel He 177 tail wheelassembly The first V-pattern will be finished without as its nosewheel, main landing gear engines in February as atowed glider,be wheels from aMesserschmitt Bf equipped with an engine in June and from 109 G, components from acaptured August 1944 also have full equipment. B-24 Liberator and other assorted “Anorder from the RLM forthis aircraft bits and pieces from adamaged Me210. has not yetbeen issued. The aircraft is well Bad weather delayedits first flightbut on suited foralarge series in the opinion of March 5, 1944, it wastowed up to 3600m by an Hauptmann Horten because of its simple He 111 beforegliding back down to the runway. mixed construction method, which requires On touching down the pilot found he was only small tooling capacity.Atthe request unable to brakeeffectively on the icyrunway. of the Reichsmarschall, Hauptmann In order to avoidcollision with ahangar,he Horten reports that his work has received deliberately retracted the nosewheel, putting little support from the Te chnical Office [of the skidding aircraft’snose on to the ground. the RLM], that in between the work was Moretests followedonMarch 23 and interrupted by order of the Office, and that in April 5. During the latter,the nosewheel the past especially General-Ing. Reidenbach failed and repairs led to further delays. and Stabs-Ing. Friebel have pronounced When it came to building the powered against the all-wing construction. HIXV2, Reimar discoveredthat with all “Hauptmann Horten, in his opinion, the necessary accessories added to their could also considerably speed up his work exterior,the engines were actually 20cm if he receives acorresponding urgencyto greater in diameter than he had planned procurethe necessary material. In addition, for, necessitating aredesign. The original Hauptmann Horten asks forthe assignment plan had called forthe V2 to be flown forthe of his designated soldiers who arecurrently first time on June 1, 1944, but work wasstill referred to by the military as indispensable. ongoing as this deadline passed. The RLM Hauptmann Horten also asks forhis command placed an order with Horten Flugzeugbau to be issued with abudget and clear referrals foranumber of further prototype HIXs on ABOVE: The later P11/Delta –now ﬁtted with to ensurethat soldiers who have made a June 15 with the newtype designation 8-229. ahuge underslung cannon. The precise speciﬁcationofthis weapon is not made clear valuable contribution to his service arenot Horten Flugzeugbau, however, did not have on the original drawing, dated October 21, left behind in promotions and awards. the facilities or the manpowertobuild more 1944. “Herr Reichsmarschall thanks the Horten than the one airframe it wasthen working on so brothers fortheir research and development Gotha wasengaged as asubcontractor to build work and assures them of full support for the 8-229 V3 to V6. During this work,Gotha’s their further work.Inconclusion, Herr aerodynamics specialist Rudolf Göthert Reichsmarschall states that, in his view, decided that the original Horten design was therehas not been sufficient attention in irredeemably flawedand designed his own the past in the direction of the development alternative–the Gotha P-60, which had its of all-wing aircraft, in particular the swept- twocrew in prone positions in aglazed cockpit wing, and that this area must be moreclosely built into the leading edge of the aircraft’s respected by the Generalluftzeugmeister.” wing. The twoturbojets were positioned one It is not recorded in the minutes, but above and one belowthe wing/fuselage. speaking years later Reimar said ErhardMilch Horten Flugzeugbau wasstill struggling had given Wa lter the order forthe construction to complete the HIXV2byNovember of the HIX, although it had come from Göring: 1944 but on December 17, 1944, it was “Milch drew up all the paperworkfor the declared ready to fly and wastransported appears to haveslowedorevenhalted its transfer of the RM 500,000 grant from Göring. by rail from Göttingen to Oranienburg, programme of work on the V3, V4, V5 and Milch asked us who should this contract be just north of Berlin, forflight testing. V6. Göthertwas certainly working on his made out to? Hauptmann Horten or what? The designated pilot, Erwin Ziller,received P-60 designsand it is possible that the rest Wa lter paused and told Milch that he wasnot twin-engine jet flight training in atwo-seat of the company wasfully occupied with sure, howeverhewould return in aday or two Me 262 B-1 on December 29-31 but apparently gearing up forand then commencing mass with the correct information. Beforegoing wasnot shown the proper procedurefor production of wings forthe Heinkel He 162. back to Milch, we incorporated ourselves starting the Jumo 004 engines. Te sting was Ziller finally took the 8-229 V2 up for and called our newcompany the Horten halted while the Horten brothers travelled its first powered flight on February 2, 1945, Company forAircraft Design or the back to Bonn to spend Christmas with having had the aircraft’sengines started Horten Flugzeugbau.” their parents and during January Gotha forhim by another member of the Horten

054 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles ABOVE: The Horten 8-229 was originally envisioned as asingle seater –asshown in this version from November 1944.

ABOVE: Ahuge range of different armament optionswere drawn up for the P11/Delta VI – this one had no fewer team –the only one who had received the of the aircraft’sbrake parachute than ﬁve MK 103 cannon, twooneither appropriate training from Junkers –lying resulted in undercarriage damage. side of the pilot and one beneath him. on the wing of the aircraft with his arm in Following repairs, athirdflight took thecockpit flicking the relevant switches. place on February 18, 1945. Ziller made Keeping the undercarriage locked in the three passes over the airfield so that ateam ‘down’ position, Ziller reached 300km/h from the Rechlin test centrecould make beforethrottling back and landing again. speed and altitude measurements –apparently Asecond flight is believedtohavetaken clocking up 795km/h (494mph) below2000m. place on February 3but this time ahard The right engine failed after 45 minutes in landing due to atoo-early deployment the air and Ziller wasunable to restart it. He

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 055 1000 x1000 x1000 bomberomber

tried to bring the aircraft in to landndb butut put the gear down too soon –400mm from the landing strip. The landing gearear hydraulic system, poweredbythee right engine, wasinoperativeso Ziller had to use the contents of acompressed air bottle, his emergencybackup, to lower the gear.This meant that once itt wasdown, it could not be retracted.ed. The increased drag slowedthee aircraft and Ziller realised he wasn’tgoingngtom to makakethe strip. He poweredupthe remainingnge enginengine but the drag produced by the gear waastoo great and its airspeed could not be increased.eased. The project. According to Te chnical Intelligence aircraft then entered abroad turn to the right report no. A.424: “The construction of RIGHT:Perhaps one of the ugliest German project designs, which it maintained until it hit the ground. this aeroplane wasstarted in afactory Focke-Wulf’s ﬁrst attempt The impact wassogreat both engines and in Vienna which wasbombed out in June at a1000 x 1000 x Ziller himself were thrownfromthe aircraft. 1944 by the American Air Force. 1000 bomber was He hit atreeand waskilled instantly. “By this event Dr Lippisch lost 43 of considerably It has been suggested that Ziller was his collaborators. The factory wasthen improved over rendered unconscious by engine fumes entering rebuilt in the Wiener Wa ld but the first time. the cockpit during these final moments, experimental aircraft of this all-wing which would explain why he made no further type, Li P11, wasneverfinished as the efforts to recoverthe aircraft after it entered Russians invaded the region of Vienna.” its wide turn. It wasfound that his harness, Vienna wasbombed twice in June 1944 though torn open by the forceofthe impact, by the USAAF –onthe 16th and 24th. The had not been unfastened, and he had made no former seems morelikely to have hit the LFW. attempt to activate the ejection seat either. Wr iting about the attack in his book On March 1, Reimar produced anew report Erinnerungen some 30 years later,Lippisch outlining the design and calling forGotha put the number of dead slightly higher: “Atthe to be given additional resources in order to time of the highest activity an air attack on complete its work on the 8-229 prototype. It aeronautics research in Vienna (LFW) occurred states: “The company Gothaer Wa ggonfabrik in June 1944, during which severe damage 20 Vsamples have been ordered with DE- and, above all, 45 deaths were to be urgencystarting from November 1944. The lamented; including some of output begins with V3. From V3-incl. V5 is the my most valuable employees.” single-seater.AsofV6, the aircraft will be built Nowworkonthe Delta as adouble-seater.The standardprocessing VI slowedtoacrawl as Lippisch can be carried out by the company GWF. became increasingly focused on anew “In order to achieve the lowest possible project –the ramjet-poweredP12, P13a and P risk during aseries run, it is necessary that 13b designs. Ye t workdid not stop completely. the test aircraft aremanufactured as quickly At one point Henschel appears to have become as possible. The current deadline, which involved, perhaps as aconstruction partner provides forthe production of 1piece per to help with the construction of the Delta VI. month, is sufficient to ensureasatisfactory The minutes from ameeting of the EHK on BELOW:The conventional layout counterpartof trial during the course of the year 1945. November 21-22 state “the Lippisch P11, a Focke-Wulf’s tailless 1000 x1000 x1000 was an “The prerequisite forthis is that the parallel development with theHo229, wasto elegant reﬁnement ofthe lumpenearly design. specified dates arekept. For example, the be developed in collaboration with Henschel” first aircraft to be deployedbythe company and areport from Henschel chief GWF has adeadline of three months, alarger designer FriedrichNicolaus support of the company is necessary.” suggests that this did Evidently work on the V3 to V5 8-229 happen, although prototypes had been taking place on Gotha’s to what extent is behalf at the Ortlepp Möbel Fabrik at currently unknown. Friedrichroda –which is wherethe incomplete Even as late as December airframes were captured by elements of the 2, 1944, Junkers’ special engines American 3rdArmy’sVII Corps on April 14, division OMW-Kobü Sondertriebwerke was 1945. Both the V3 and V4 had their engines struggling to get apair of Jumo 004s to fit fitted, the V3 being near completion. The V5 inside the Delta VIV2–the powered version existed only as asteel frame. By nowboth that wastofollow the unpoweredglider V1. Horten brothers had also been captured and When the Russians reached Vienna nosed conventional-layout aircraft with long taken into custody as prisoners of war. at the beginning ofApril 1945, Lippisch narrow strongly swept wings and tail planes found it necessary to abandon all the and apodded turbojet on either side, adraft LIPPISCH P11/DELTA VI partially completed work alreadycarried report entitled “Kurzbeschreibung 1000-1000- Not long after his meeting with Göring, out on the Delta VI. The unfinished V1 was 1000” wasproduced. Howeverthe document, Lippisch’stailless P11was renamed the abandoned on the edge of amotorway. dated March 8, 1944, wasnot published and Delta VI. His small workforceatthe LFW in remained in note form. The introduction Vienna diligently laboured over his designs, FOCKE-WULF says: “It is to be investigated whether, evenasheconstantly changed and altered During the month after Göring’smeeting with anormal jet aircraft, i.e. non-tailless them. Beforelong, the Delta VI borelittle with Lippisch and the Hortens, October 1943, design, an SB 1000 bomb can be taken over morethan apassing resemblance to the Focke-Wulf’sdesign office began studying apenetration depth of 1000km, the aircraft P11endorsed by the Reichsmarschall. the possibilities of afast bomber based on the being able to reach atop speed of 1000km/h.” Wo rk on building the glider itself had use of twoJumo 004 Cs. After severalmonths The whole typed report is coveredin begun by June 1944 when disaster befell the of work,including arough sketch of asnub- annotations and crossings-out but it appears

056 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles LEFT:The last version of the 8-229 –the two seater that Reimar Hortenintended to be the full production version after the single-seater prototypes in March 1945.

BELOW: Having seen the Hortens’ drawings and been unimpressed, Gotha’s Rudolf Göthertresolved to design abetter ﬂying wing and the result was the Gotha P-60 A – adirect competitor for the 8-229 –with both crew lying prone in the cockpit and turbojets mounted above and below the wing.

that the best possible performance with a Bauart or ‘Comparison of twojet bombers is equated toarange of 2500km; this condition pair of HeS 011s wasa“best travel speed” in normal and tailless design’. March to is justified bythe special use and by the low of 960km/h, arange of 2500km –1000km August had apparently been spent studying drifts resulting from the high flight speed.” there, 1000km back and sufficient fuel for a tailless version of the Focke-Wulf two-jet Theadvantages of thenormal layout manoeuvring –and abomb load of 1000kg. bomber so that it could be compared against were better visibility,ease of maintenance However, this bomber would need to be entirely the original conventional layout design. and replacement forthe engines and no stripped of armour and defensiveweaponry The introduction begins: “Based on the intakelosses thanks to the engines being and the author of the report, probably the Lippisch projects 1000/1000/1000, atest in underwing nacelles. The tailless design leader of Focke-Wulf’sFlugmechanik L is carried out to determine whether afast offeredgreater climbing capabilities and department, Herbert Wo lff, does not appear bomber with an SB 1000 bomb and penetration would be easier to land but would have poorer convinced by the findings he is presenting. depth of 1000km can reach atop speed of flying characteristics, particularly at high Finally,acomplete report waspublished 1000km/h. Twospecial engines, HeS 109-011, Mach numbers. Focke-Wulf appears to have on August 14, 1944, entitled Ve rgleich zweier areselected. With respect to the high fuel abandoned its twin-jet bomber project at Strahlbomber in normaler und schwanzloser consumption, the penetration depth of 1000km this point after some 10 months of work. • Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 057 Pulsejets

Down the tubes Pulsejets The Argus As 014 pulsejet presented adilemma – it was cheap and could provide enough thrust to propel something small to high speeds but it also produced vibrations severe enough to damage a pilot’s health. Nevertheless, the aircraftcompanies continued to view it as apossible engine for manned ﬁghters...g

058 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles Messerschmitt commissioned tests of asleek swept-wing version of its pulsejet-powered Me 328 in 1943. The AVA,which carried out the tests, produced areportonthe results on July 14, 1943.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 059 Pulsejets

hen Alexander Lippisch BELOW: The only pulsejet aircraftfrom late 1944 whichseemed to attract ofﬁcial interest was the produced his P05asthe evolution Junkers EF 126 ‘Elli’ ground-attack aircraft. Like Wof the Me 163 at Messerschmitt its sibling, the rocket-powered EF 127 ‘Walli’, in 1941, the leader of the company’s it would have used several components main project office, Wo ldemar Vo igt, borrowed from the Fi 103 ﬂying countered with aproposal forafighter bomb. poweredbytwo pulsejets –the P1079. There had originally been plans to power the Me 262 with pulsejets and at this point the vibrations theycaused were not viewedasa serious problem. Therewereinitially morethan 17 different designs forthe P1079 and these were whittled down to just one contender –the P1079/13c. After asubstantial redesign this received the RLM type number Me 328. Three was shelved indefinitely versions were initially proposed: an unpowered after the As 014-powered glider,aturbojet-poweredfighter and afighter Fieseler Fi 103 V-1entered service. poweredbyone or moreArgus As 014 pulsejets. Towards the end of 1944, however, The pulsejet itself waspatented by interest in the pulsejet as afighter engine engineer Paul Schmidt in 1931 and consisted wasrekindled in the wake of the Vo lksjäger of asimple tube of mild steel with aset of contest. It has been suggested that the RLM shutters over the intakeatthe front and afuel issued arequirement fora‘miniaturefighter’ inlet valveand igniter inside. Engine company poweredbythe As 014 at this stage, but there Argus built the As 014 and alarger version is only circumstantial evidence to support with asquare-shaped intake, the As 044. this idea –the fact that theyall appear to From astanding start, it wasrun up using have been designed in November 1944. blasts of compressed air to the intake. It Blohm &Voss produced abrochureon wasthen allowedtobuild up to aminimum November 10, 1944, forthe P213 –a“miniature operating temperaturebeforethis wasremoved. fighter with As 014”. The aircraft wasto Asingle pulse would start with the shutters carry just one MK 108 cannon and 350kg open. Fuel wasinjected into the tube and of fuel with aminimum of equipment, ignited, which caused arapid expansion of resulting in atake-offweight of just gases –snapping the spring-loaded shutters 1280kg. Vibrations from the single closed forced the gases to blast free from pulsejet would be mitigated with a the other end of the tube, creating thrust. “sufficiently wide rubber sleeve” between Once the pressurefromthis blast had the inlet pipe running through the fuselage subsided, therewas nothing to hold the and the intakeofthe engine unit itself. shutters closed and theysnapped open againain Junkers wasworking on its ownsingle –allowing air to be sucked in and the cyclee to As 014-poweredfighter at around the same BELOW:The more familiar straight-wing Me repeat. This happened 45-55 times per second.ond. time –the EF 126 ‘Elli’. Likeits Objektschützer 328 B. Messerschmitt drew up plans for a huge number of Me 328 variants. While the Me 163 Bwent forwardtofullll sibling the EF 127 ‘Walli’,‘Elli’ made use of series production, Vo igt’salternativeremainedined components borrowed from the Fi 103, but aworkinprogress. It wasdecided that withh it wasspecified as being aground-attack extendable wings the Me 328 might makeaa aircraft, rather than afighter.Itwas to be good Bordjäger –aparasite aircraft carriedd by large long-range bombers fordefence. Another plan wastolaunch it from atrolleyey down railway tracks or from the back of a Dornier Do 217 Eand still another saw it developed into an expendable anti- shipping suicide attack bomber.In 1943, Messerschmitt commissioned wind tunnel tests of aswept-wing version of the Me 328 at the AVA. The Me 328 V1 wasconstructed and glidingiding flight tests took place in 1944 but the projectect

060 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles LEFT:The tiny Blohm &Voss P213 was drawn up after the company’s equally small P211 had been rejected for the Volksjäger requirement.

ABOVE: Presented as part of a P 1077 ‘Julia’ brochure, the ‘Romeo’ design from Heinkel featured aconventional seat for the pilot, compared to the ‘J ulia’s’ unorthodoxprone pilot position.

armed with twoMG151/20s and twoAB250 bomb containers –or12‘Panzerblitz’ rockets. Heinkel also produced apulsejet version of its Objektschützer in November 1944. Named ‘Romeo’, it wasacounterpart to the P1077 ‘Julia’. Armed with apair of MK 108s, one on either side of the cockpit, it carried atotal of 902kg of fuel in twotanks. None of these pulsejet-poweredmachines everleft the drawing board. Heinkel considered fitting either one or twopulsejets to its He 162 in March 1945, but by that point most of Heinkel’sfacilities were on the brink of being overrun by Soviet forces. • Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 061 Ein-TL-Jäger

Me 262 replacement Ein-TL-Jäger The most important of the late-war German design competitions was 1-TL-Jäger –the idea being to replace the twin-jet Me 262 with something that only needed one precious turbojet butbut couldcould ddoo th thees sameame or betterbetter ininc combat.ombat.

062 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles The earliest versionversio of the Junkers EF 128 –asita – a ppeared at the December 19-21, 1944, comparison meemeeting.t

Luftwaffe:Secret ProjectProﬁles 063 Ein-TL-Jäger

ttempts to designahigh-performance BELOW:Focke-Wulf’s earliest known jet ﬁghter fighter poweredbyassingle jet engine design, from November 1942, involved simply Ahad been made ever sincesince the RLM attaching averybasic turbojet unit to the nose first became awareofturbojetett technology.echnology. of an Fw 190. However, the earliest workinggeexxaammplesples of the twomost promising designsesigns –the BMW 003 and Jumo004 –simplymply weren’t up to the job so the He 280,M Mee2 26262 and Ar 234 were each designedned to takeapair of engines. The situation changed when Heinkel’snew HeS 011 turbojet, with aprojected static thrust of 1300kg, became aviable proposition in 1943. The Me 262’sJumo 004 B-1s could manage 900kg each and the BMW 003 A-2 production version just 800kg.g. Messerschmitt, Heinkel and Focke-Wulf had each been working on single-jet fighter designs based aroundthe less powerful engines and had alreadyeady begunbegun to consider using the HeS 011 when,hen, in July 1944, theywerepresented with thethe task of designing just such afighter by the RLM. On July 11, 1944, Rodde, them memberember of Focke-Wulf’sTechnischer Aussendienstendienst or ‘TechnicalField Service’ responsiblesible forthe Ta 154 and Ta 254 under Oberingenieurgenieur Ernst Lammel, wrote amemo headed ‘DeDevelopment Communication –TL-Jäger’. Thisis began: “Subject: General definition fortthe start-up jet fighter.Task: It is extremely urgent to tackle the design of the jet fighterter and to carry out both prototyping andnd serial production in such away that afirst prototype aircraft is ready to fly on 1.3.45.” The note wasbased on a technical direction meeting withh the RLM. It is unclear exactlywwhen the meeting took place, but presumablyumably not long beforethe note waswritten.tten. It goes on: “Implementation: The designn work for the prototype aircraft shall bee carriedcaarried ed outout in such away that afirst aircraftraft is ready forflight at 1.3.45, taking intoo account the fact that aseries of prototype aircraft will be prepared with amaximum output of 30 aircraft per month. Paralleleltot to this,his, the completion of the series drawings, where as faraspossible steel is to bee used.” Rated weight wastobe3700kg,00kg, take- offweight 3500kg. The enginenewwaassto to be asingle HeS 011 or asinglee Jumo 004 C(although this part of Rodde’de’snote is crossed out on the original document).cument). Awooden dummy HeS 0111 wasto be “available in afew weeks” andand all documents on the Jumo 004 CwC weerere being made available throughh the RLM. Fuel tanks in the fuselage were to be protected against 13mm bullets and “thee outer wings aretobetightly riveted from the first machine,ne, also the tail unit is required as container”.tainer”. It was to be clarified which corrosionn protection wastobeused forthe tail containerstainers since these might be required to holdld rocket fuel. Further clarification wasnneeded on the points of heating forthe cockpitpit and weapons. The aircraft wastobemade usingusing “mainly

064 Luftwaffe:Secret ProjectProfiles BELOW:Aerodynamicist Julius CRotta believed this is what Focke-Wulf’s first jet fighter should look like –with forward-swept wings, dorsally mountedturbojet and aV-tail.

ABOVE: Rotta’s second design featured ‘safer’ design elements such as straight wings and an unswept V-tail.

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BELOW:This design from March 1943 was labelled ‘1. Entwurf’ in an August 1944 reportexplaining the lineage of Focke-Wulf’s single-jet ﬁghter programme.

RIGHT:Focke-Wulf ‘2. Entwurf’ of June 1943 had its turbojet ﬁtted beneath the fuselage but the design was abandoned for fear that the turbojet engine would almost certainly be lost if the aircrafthad to makea belly landing.

normal materials as faraspossible” and be, what sort of shapeand layout “high-quality materials must be specially would be best, what jet engines approved”. Details on the use and processing could be fitted and how, what the of steel forseries production of the new advantages and disadvantages of fighter were to be provided by the RLM piston engines and jetengines were during afollow-up meeting on July 19. and what the aerodynamic issues were. FocFocke-Wulf,ke Wulf Mes Messerschmittserschmitt aandnd To illustrate his points, Rotta came Heinkel were all invited to participate in up with atrio of remarkably 1-TL-Jäger and afourth company,Blohm foresighted designs: Jäger mit &Voss, wasalso offeredthe opportunity Turbinentriebwerk BMW to pitch adesign but evidently not until P3302 Design 1, Jäger the end of August or early September. mit Turbinentriebwerk BMW P3302 Design FOCKE-WULF 2, and Jäger mit The earliest known Focke-Wulf attempt at a Turbinentriebwerk single-jet fighter,shown in adrawing dated Junkers 109 004. November 5, 1942, had involved simply bolting Each of the three had its jet engine avery basic in-house designed turbojet to mounted on its back, just as the Heinkel the front of an Fw 190. Then on January 4, He 162 would be configured 20 months 1943, company aerodynamicist Julius CRotta later.The first and thirddesigns also had produced areport entitled ‘Fundamentals forward-swept wings and backward-swept For The Design of aJet Fighter’ which V-tails. The second BMW P3302 design looked at howlarge ajet fighter ought to had unswept wings and an unswept V-tail.

066 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles Suggested armament wastwo MK 108 The calculated flight performance was 30mm cannon with 200 rounds and twoMG inadequate due to the lateral intakes.” 151s with 300 rounds. Fuel load was850 litres. Therewas another shift in layout However, Focke-Wulf’sdesign team forthe fourth design of December seem to have completely ignored Rotta’s 1943, with atwin-boom tail likethat of ideas when theyactually started work on the Fw 189, but again: “The horizontal aseries of single-seat, single-engine jet velocity remained unsatisfactory.” fighters. Areport produced on August 15, The fifth and sixth designs were apparently 1944, entitled Considerations forDesigning worked on at the same time, though they aSingle-Engine Fighter Aircraft with aredated January 1944 and February 1944 Turbojet charts the team’sprogress respectively.The former wasaswept-wing, throughsevendifferent designs. T-tail, tricycle undercarriage fighter with a The first of these, dated March nose intakefor its centrally positioned turbojet 1943, wasatail-sitter based on and the report explains: “In the fifth draft an the Fw 190 but with the cockpit attempt wasmade to raise the critical Mach relocated to the nose in place of number by particularly strong wing sweep. the familiar BMW 801 piston “Extreme restriction in size made it possible engine, and with the turbojet to keep the entiresurface approximately positioned directly below. equal to that of ‘4. Design’. Experiments According to the report: with afree-flying model raised concerns “With this arrangement, no about the expected flight characteristics.” satisfactory rolling properties The sixth design also got a were to be expected and Baubeschreibung to itself –Nr. 280. It was therewas also the risk of another twin-boom layout but with arocket burning the airfield surface. engine to boost performance during aclimb. This design wasabandoned.” This is the type that the whole document The second design, of June waswritten in support of, the report stating 1943, seems to have been more that “the intakes of the jet unit arepositioned highly regarded and had its ownseparate in the inner wing leading edge. Objections Baubeschreibung or ‘Construction to this intakeport design can be refuted by description’ number,the closest thing test measurements and wind tunnel tests”. Focke-Wulf had to a‘P’ designation. It It wasthis design that Focke-Wulf wasBaubeschreibung Nr.264 Jäger mit would pitch to meet the 1-TL-Jäger spec. Junkers-Turbinentriebwerkand had a tricycle undercarriage with the turbojet MESSERSCHMITT positioned more centrally under the Up to the end of June 1944, Messerschmitt fuselage. The report notes that Nr.264 was had been working on aseries of designs for “rejected because of the risk of engine jet aircraft using two, three or four HeS 011 damage during belly landings”. engines under the designation P1101. Each BELOW:The ‘3. Entwurf’ Focke- A different approach wastaken of these three layouts had been compared Wulf design of November 1943 for the thirddesign, with the against the Me 262 and although each was had twin rudders but there engine mounted in the upper part substantially heavier,theywereeach much were concerns about the shape and positioning of of thefuselage with its intakes better armed. Wherethe Me 262 could its intakes. on either side of the cockpit. carry six MK 108s, the P1101/2TL could A twin-rudder tail wasused carry one BK 7.5 cannon or three MK 112s, to prevent interference from the P1101/3TL could carry one BK 7.5 or the jet exhaust. According four MK 112s and the P1101/4TL could to the report: “The third manage one MK 7.5 or fiveMK112s. draft satisfied in terms However, when the company wasinformed of rolling characteristics of the 1-TL-Jäger specification, it scaled back to and behaviour in belly landings. asingle HeS 011 and began anew line of designs

ABOVE: Featuring twin tailbooms and reshaped intakes, Focke-Wulf’s ‘4. Entwurf’ of December 1943 had apair of rocket motors exhausting either side of its turbojet but without them it would have beentoo slow.

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ABOVE: In August 1944, Focke-Wulf firmly under the P1101 designation. The earliest FIRST CONFERENCE believed that this should be the Luftwaffe’s first known example is dated July 24, 1944, and the Each company produced performance figures single-jet fighter.Labelled ‘6. Entwurf’ in the chronology report, it was known formally as the drawing shows astubbyeconomical fighter forits design but these varied wildly even Baubeschreibung Nr.280 aircraftand informally with its engine positioned centrally within the though the designs themselves were not as the ‘Flitzer’or‘whizzer’. It was the company’s fuselage. Its wings, while sharply swept close that dissimilar –itwas clear that each firm first 1-TL-Jäger entry. to the fuselage, areless sharply swept closer to wasusing quite different calculations. their tips. The aircraft is just 6.85m long with Therefore, aconference wasscheduled aV-tail and awingspan of 7.15m. Armament is forSeptember 8-10, 1944, at Messerschmitt’s just twoMK108s. It is similar in some ways to Oberammergau facility where, according Focke-Wulf’sthirddesign, with large intakes to the post-conference summary,“the task on either side of the cockpit, but the engine wastocreate comparable fundamentals exhausts belowthe tail rather than above it. forthe performance calculation and, as The second known single-jet P1101 is faraspossible, to carry out acomparison dated August 30, 1944, and is aconsiderable of the presentj et aircraft designs”. refinement of the earlier layout. The Abrief description of each firm’sdesign BELOW:This development of the wings have astraight leading edge all the wasthen given –itbeing noted that Blohm early P1101, still labelled waytothe tip, the intakes aresmaller and &Voss’sHans Amtmann had attended P 1101, was drafted in August the aircraft has along nose forhousing but opted not to present adesign. 1944 and was submitted for the both the nosewheel and armament. The Focke-Wulf design waspresented in first1-TL-Jäger design comparison It would be this latter design which three slightly different forms –outwardly meeting in September 1944. Messerschmitt entered for1-TL-Jäger. identical but with differing quantities of fuel forthe supplementary rocket engine depending HEINKEL on mission. It was armed with twoMK103s LikeMesserschmitt, Heinkel’snew series of jet in the fuselage and one MG 151 in each wing. fighter designs, P1073, started out with more Wing area was 17sqm, span was8mand than one turbojet. The first three examples length was10.5m. Apressure areall dated July 6, 1944. One had an engine cabin wasanoption. towardsthe front of the fuselage, underneath The P1073 the cockpit, and asecond mounted on its back, wasa“pure exhausting through aV-tail, and swept wings; jet” with two the second had twoengines side-by-side under MG 213s in the front fuselage and aconventional tail but the fuselage, or two with forward-swept wings; and the thirdhad MK 108s or one MK 103 and twoengines side-by-side on its back, also with one “20mm weapon”. It had awingspan aconventional tail and backward-swept wings. of 14sqm, wingspan of 8m, wing sweepback The fourth design, of July 10, 1944, reverted of 35 degrees and length of 9.3m. It also to the first configuration. However, the next offeredapressurecabinas an option. design wasnot produced until July 22 and And the P1101 wasalso offeredinthree wasthe first since the 1-TL-Jäger spec had forms as aseemingly modular concept similar been issued. It wassimilar to the first and to the company’spiston-engined P1090, dating fourth designs but had only one turbojet – from February 1943. The summary notes: under the forwardfuselage. The following “Mtt AG. 1) Smallest jet single-seater with dayanother twin-jet version wasdrafted, maximum flight performance. 2) Jet and rocket similar to the first and fourth designs. fighter with rocket fuel forfast climbing Atrio of newdesigns wasproduced on or as acombat aid. Extending possibility by August 3–one with asingle engine, this inserting afuselage intersection. 3) Possibility time positioned on its back –and twomore of expansion to twomen by inserting afuselage of the familiar twin-jet layout. Heinkel may intermediate section, wherebythe space for have been attempting to demonstrate that it second man can also be used foradditional thought twoHeS 011s wasabetter option. weapons, additional fuel or additional drive.” Moredesigns followed, with the one In order to comparethe weights of the presented for1-TL-Jäger being the 14th, dated different designs, abasic armament of two August 19, 1944. This had aV-tail, swept MK 108s each with 60 rounds and afuel load wings, and adorsally mounted turbojet. of 830kg wasassumed –nomatter what the

068 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles LEFT:Focke-Wulf’s ‘5. Entwurf’ has afamiliar look –itwould later formthe basis of the Ta 183 design, but when it ﬁrst appeared in January1944 it was feared that it would have poor handling characteristics.

ABOVE: After aseries of multi-jet aircraft, Messerschmitt scaledback its P1101 series to produce this –the ﬁrst single- jet example in July 1944. However,this neat little design wasnot submitted for the 1-TL-Jäger competition.

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firms had put in their brochures.brochures. Then the ABOVE: Heinkel’s P1073 sequence shows the company’s designers shifting back and forth between companies’ stats were playeyeddaaround with to try ﬁtting turbojets to the back of the aircraftand its underside. The P1073.11 had its engine in the dorsal position but also featured acockpit canopy design somewhat reminiscent of the He 219. and find some common grouground.nd. The Heinkel and Messerschmitt designs wweerreeffooundund to be heavier than the figures given,iven, while the Focke-Wulf wasdeemed to bee 70kg lighter – the difference correspondingto swapping steel components forones made ofduraluminium. In terms of performance,H Heinkeleinkel and Messerschmitt claimed similarlar top speeds but it wasconsidered that thee Heinkel design would suffer aloss of thrust due to the design of its jet inlet and unfortunately forFocke- Wulf, “the FW design should be less than 50-100km/h slowercompared to the designsns of Heinkel and Messerschmitt”.tt”. Therewas disagreement fromfromt thehe outset over the calculations usedsed to determinedetermine top speed: “In the opinion of HeinkelHeinkel and Focke-Wulf, the determined speedspeed levelistlistoooo high, whereas Messerschmitt,t, on the basisbasis of the experience with the Mee 262 and thethe Do 335, is in the opposite opinionion and hophopeses to achieve evenhigher speedss with furtherfurther improvements. For the calculation performedmed by Messerschmitt, the flight measurementsnts of the Me 262, which has arelatively poorr series state, areused as the basis.” At the end of the conference “a broad exchange of experience has been agreed upon in order to clarify these questions withith aviewtoforthcoming designs. It is urgentlytly necessary that, by the disposal of the RLM,M, all the development companies and the experimental stations areasked to providee flight results, together with the necessaryy documentation, forthe evaluation”. It wasthe first attempt to come up withth astandardbasis on which the newsinglej jetet designs could be compared. However, on thehe last dayofthe meeting, September 10, anew requirement wasissued forasingle-jet fighterghter or 1-TL-Jäger with reduced performance compared to the designs just discussed, too be poweredbyasingle BMW 003 engine. Thisisis is what would become known as the Vo lksjägerger

070 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles ABOVE: The 13th P1073 has acockpit design looking more likethat of the He 162 but with the swept wings of Heinkel’s eventual 1-TL-Jäger entryand the single turbojet ﬁxedtoits underside.

ABOVE: The second of Heinkel’s trio of early July 1944 jet ﬁghter designs –with twoturbojets rather than one –and forward-swept wings.

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competition and prospectiveparticipants RIGHT:One of Blohm &Voss’s two original 1-TL- Jäger entries –the P209.02-03 –was verydifferent had just fivedaystopreparetheir entries. from the earlier tailless P209. It had aconventional tail but with sharply forward-swept wings. ROUNDS 2AND 3 The sudden demand forVolksjäger designs seems to have temporarily stalled the primary 1-TL-Jäger competition, with the next conference forcomparison of designs being delayeduntil December 19-21. This time Heinkel retained its P1073, nowreferred to as ‘He 162 development’ but this seems to have been withdrawnsince the comparison charts drawnupbythe DVL following the meeting, while theylist the Heinkel design, have blanks whereits details should be. Having initially hadno project to show forthe contest, Blohm &&VVoossss nowhad two and both were highly unconventionalnconventional in design –the P209.02-03 and P212.02-01. In terms of layout, the P2209.02-0309.02-03 was similar to the early P110101d designsesigns in having acentrally mountedounted turbojet exhausting underder the tail –but rather thann side intakes it had amorere straightforwardnose intakeand its wings were swept forwards rather than back. The P212.02-01 was different again, being tailless. It had anose intakelikethe P209 butt rather than having controltrol surfaces on aconventionalnal tail, these were movedtothee wingtips instead. The turbojet waasinthe rear part of the stubbyfuselageage and the pilot sat right at the front above theh intaki keopening.i Afifth company had also joined the contest by this point –Junkers. The company’sdesign, the EF 128, wastailless likethe P212 but slimmer in profile and with side intakes forits turbojet. The wing control surfaces took the form of apair of rudder plates positioned just over halfway along its sharply swept wings. Messerschmitt’sonly entry at this point wasanother radical design –the P1106. The turbojet wasback in the nose position once more, with the tricycle undercarriage retracting into its housing, but the cockpit was shifted to the extreme rear of the aircraft’s fuselage, just in front of the V-tail. The advantage of this, presumably,was elimination of any form of intakefor the engine and a sizeable area of fuselage free forweaponry.The major disadvantage wasvisibility forthe pilot. Focke-Wulf’slong-cherished twin-boom ‘Flitzer’ design had finally been dropped in favour of an evolution of the earlier ‘5. Entwurf’ or ‘fifth design’. This wasBaubeschreibung BELOW:The P1073 version submitted by Heinkel Nr.279 but wasnicknamed ‘Huckebein’ for the 1-TL-Jäger competition in September within the company.Asbefore, the design 1944 is believed to be this –effectively alarge version of what would become the He 162 but had arelatively conventional layout with with swept wings and aV-tail. nose intake, swept wings and swept T-tail. At athirdmeeting, on January 12-15, 1945, the DVL put forwardanew mathematical formula by which the expected performance of all designs could be calculated and this was agreed. NowHeinkel’sP1073, presumably thanks to the experience gained while building adowngraded version as the He 162, had been replaced with anew tailless design, the P1078. However, the DVL assessors commented in their report afterwards that

072 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles LEFT:Blohm &Voss’s earliest P209 was atailless design similar to the later P 212 designs, but was passed over for 1-TL-Jäger infavour of alater design in the P209 sequence.

LEFT:Blohm &Voss’s ﬁrst attempt at its P212 ﬁghter,the P212.01-01, looked similar tot he conventional fuselage P209 but with the wings of the tailless P209.

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Heinkel had “brought atailless project, and assessment of the 1-TL-Jäger design which wasstill so little worked through, submissions –February 27-28, 1945. that the comparison wasnot used with it”. The first iteration of the P1078 had avery FINAL ROUND short fuselage that wasegg-shaped in cross The pre-conference report wasprepared by section. Ashort flat section of wing protruded Messerschmitt on February 26 and detailed on either side beforerising and then falling the eight designs due to be discussed. These into agullwing form. The undercarriage were the Blohm &Voss P212.03, the same mainwheels were attached to theflat section but Focke-Wulf ‘I’ and Focke-Wulf ‘II’ as before, an folded up into the sides of the crowded fuselage. updated Heinkel P1078, the Junkers EF 128 The cockpit waspositioned as farforwards as before, arevived Messerschmitt P1101, a as Heinkel’sdesigners might feasibly have revised Messerschmitt P1110 and aradical new been able to put it, with the rectangular nose tailless Messerschmitt design, the P1111. The intakealmost under the pilot’sfeet. The canopy Messerschmitt designs were nowreferred to blended smoothly into the fuselage to the rear, by their project numbers, presumably because which appears to have housed the generator the Messerschmitt offering had changed and starter forthe engine. The only known so much since the January conference. drawing –markedP1078.01 –istoo degraded The February report states: “Atthe request fordimensions to be made out but the design of the Entwicklungs Hauptkommission and is clearly very different from what had been the head of the Te chnische Luft Rustung, offereduppreviously.The date of the drawing designs forsingle jet fighters were tendered appears to be January 10, 1945 –two days by the following firms: Blohm & Vo ss, Focke- beforethe design comparison conference. Wulf, Ernst Heinkel, Junkers, Messerschmitt. Messerschmitt had retained the P1106 At the meeting of the Entwicklungs as ‘Messerschmitt I’ and offeredanew layout Hauptkommission on February design –the P1110 –as‘Messerschmitt II’. 27-28, 1945, adecision concerning This latter design wassomewhat similar the completion of these in appearance to the original P1101 design, designs is to be made. with along streamlined nose and V-tail, but “The purpose of this rather than having the jet exhausting under report, after careful work the rear fuselage, the exhaust passed directly on the material in question, through the rear fuselage to the nozzle at is to present acomparison the extreme rear end of the aircraft. And between the designs tendered, rather than side intakes, the aircraft had and, thus, is to servethe EHK an unusual annular intakearrangement. as the basis fordecision. Focke-Wulf put forwardits Nr.279 “A considerable interruption aircraft again, nowas‘Focke-Wulf I’ plus of the work necessary for anew but similar design, described in this report wasbrought about by war Kurzbaubeschreibung Nr.30, as ‘Focke-Wulf conditions. On account of the bad traffic and II’. The latter waseffectively aless radical or communication facilities, it wasnotpossible ‘safer’ version of the other –with aconventional to obtain in written form the report of the tail and with the cockpit located morecentrally. DVL on general performance and criticism Behind the scenes, Focke-Wulf had set up of the characteristics of the aircraft. RIGHT:When the original twoseparate teams to work on and assess the “For the same reasons it wasnot possible long-nose P1101 failed to makemuch of an designs, nowknown as ‘Projekt Multhopp’ and to compareinthe general discussion with impression, Messerschmitt ‘Projekt Mittelhuber’ after the twoproject DVL the additional designs tendered switched to this design for leaders Oberingenieur Hans Multhopp and (design from Heinkel and designs P1101 1-TL-Jäger –the radical Chefingenieur Ludwig Mittelhuber. and P1111 from Messerschmitt). P1106. It may look too Blohm &Voss put forwardanupdated version “In order to ensurethe fairest bizarre to be agenuine of P212, the P212.03, having withdrawnthe P possible comparison, reference was design, but this is really how its shape appears in the 209, and Junkers retained and refined the EF 128. made to the performance and weights original drawing. Adate wasthen set forafourth and, of all the designs submitted with regard it washoped, final round of comparison to equipment and armament.

074 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles LEFT:The original drawing of this oddity is labelled P212.02. It shows another version of the Blohm &Voss tailless ﬁghter but with a tall ‘spine’ running down its back and appears to be amore direct development of the P212.01-01 than the P212.02-01.

BELOW: The second Blohm & Voss P 212 was this, the P212.02-01. It was one of the company’s two ﬁrst entries for 1-TL-Jäger alongside theforward-swept P209.

LEFT:Appearances can be deceptive –this version of the P212, yet another ‘P212.02’ actually has a single central ﬁnonits back, rather than a ﬁnoneach wingtip –asmight otherwise besupposed when looking atthe later P212.03.

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“The aircraft weights were determined decision in place of the project P1106. against each other at the beginning of the “The estimated performances are performance comparison. The bullet-proofing comparativefigures, which will serveasthe wasnot assumed to be of equal weight forthe deciding factor forthe value of thedesigns individual designs, but the bullet-proofing for submitted. Theyare not to be considered each plane wasset out so that an equal extent as absolute estimates of the velocities. of protection wasobtained wherever possible. “The report consists of ashort description, “Exceptions can be made fordesigns in concise form, of the separate projects, with P1101 and P1111 from Messerschmitt, as the most important technical points such as these have to be considered with aview the main dimension weights and important to their stronger armament (3 xMK108 performances in comprehensivetables. and 4xMK108 respectively,instead of These served the Special Commission 2xMK108). This happened on account forDay Fighters on January 12, of the fact that the arrangement of the 1945, as abasis. In the meantime, supplementary armament at the extreme alterations proposed by the firms front of the aircraft presented great have not been considered.” difficulties on both models in regardtothe From acompetition that centreofgravity,and thus the firm provided had begun with just three additional armament as afundamental. entries from three companies, “The design of EHF (Heinkel) wasnot in the space of fivemonths the included in the comparison of performance and contest had expanded to eight weight, as it wasnot ready at the time. The entries from fivecompanies. comparison wasfinished, but the result has DVL director Günther Bock noted not yetbeen submitted at this time to Special on March 12, 1945, that at ameeting Commission forDay Fighters. The estimated of the Entwicklungshauptkommission performances aretthushus the firm’sspecifications. on March 1, 1945, “the direction of the “The estimatedd performance forthe development workwas discussed. In this case, designs P1110, P11101 and P1111 from the following pictureemerged according Messerschmitt doo not correspond entirely to the intended use of the aircraft types: to the values whichchwweerreeaascertainedscertained at the a) Dayfighter.Development work forday comparison of performance.rformance. For the design fighters with the HeS 109.011 Ajet engine, the P1110, an increasee of wing and fuselage companies Focke-Wulf and Messerschmitt surface is contemplatedplated and considered areexpected to have one development according to the fundamentalundamental process of contract each. Whether the companies calculating the performanceerformance comparison. Junkers or Blohm&Voss arealso activated “The designs P1P 1101101 and P1111, which fordevelopmentisstill undetermined”. were not submittededffoorrt thehe performance It would appear that Focke-Wulf was comparison by Messerschmitt,esserschmitt, were calculated by the firmfirm according to an agreed process andd were submitted for

ABOVE: By January1944, Messerschmitt had signiﬁcantly amended the P1106 design to this version. The V-tail has been replaced with aT-tail and the cockpit has been built into the ﬁn–making the aircraftlook even stranger,ifthat is possible.

076 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles ABOVE: Heinkel’s replacement for the P1073 in 1-TL-Jäger was this –the tiny tailless P 1078. In its earliest form, the ﬁghter’s pilot was crammed into the nose, with his feet almost above the engine intake.

LEFT:Focke-Wulf’s revised 1-TL-Jäger entrywas the Baubeschreibung Nr.279 aircraft–known within the company as ‘Huckebein’. The design is much more svelte and streamlined than the‘5. Entwurf’ shelved at the beginning of the year,though it is clearly derived from it. This would go on to receive the designation Ta 183.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 077 Ein-TL-JägerEin-TL-Jäger

ABOVE: The last known formofthe Blohm &Voss P212 – the P212.03. The aerodynamic shape is noticeably cleaner than that of earlier designs and rather than asingle central ﬁn, it has a ﬁnoneach wingtip for control.

It would appear that Focke-Wulf wasas expecting adevelopment contract fortthe Nr.279 aircraft, what wasdesignated thethe Ta 183, and Messerschmitt wasexpectingting a development contract foreither the P11110 or the P1111. It is unlikely to have beenn the P1101, since the company seems to havvee largely abandoned work on the prototypeype of this model that it had already built.The EF 128 and P212 had not been ruled out.ut. Afurther meeting of the EHK tookk place on March 20-24 at Focke-Wulf’s Bad Eilsen facility,two days of which, the 22nd and 23rd, were devoted to afifth comparison of the 1-TL- Jäger designs. It is unknown whether the companies chose to revise their entries or whether theyremained the same. Abrief summary of the meetingg is given in the wardiary of the chief off the TLR, Ulrich Diesing: “No final decisioncision on the proposals, since the chairman off the Special Commission forFighter Aircraft – Prof Messerschmitt –was absent. Fl-E-Chef has, with the approval of the plenipotentiary forjet aircraft, SS-Obergruppenführer Kammler,commissioned the Junkers firm with the development of design EF 128.” It would appear as though, with Germany on the very brink of collapse, the tailless RIGHT:The second and Junkers EF 128 wasapproved fordevelopment. last known version of With Germany nowbeing invaded on both the Junkers EF 128. This eastern and western fronts and defensive design was actually positions being hastily prepared around approved for production Berlin in anticipation of the imminent in March 1945 –but by then it was far too late. arrival of Soviet forces, it seems unlikely that this development got very far. • 078 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles BELOW:Focke-Wulf pitched asecond design alongside the ‘Huckebein’inFebruary1945 –known as the ‘Focke-Wulf III’ for the purposes of the competition, it was known internally as the Nr.30Kurzbaubeschreibung aircraftor‘Projekt Mittelhuber’.

LEFT:Analternative version of the Nr.30 Kurzbaubeschreibung aircraftfrom Focke-Wulf featured a straight –rather than curved –back.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 079 Ein-TL-Jäger

RIGHT:The last Messerschmitt 1-TL-Jäger design was the P1111. This tailless design had asharply swept formbut shortly after the war company project ofﬁce chief Woldemar Voigt told Allied interrogators that its extreme design was regardedastoo ‘risky’.

RIGHT:The ﬁnal formofMesserschmitt’s P1101. Aprototype of an earlier P1101design had actually been built but this version features a differently shaped canopy andfuselage.

080 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles LEFT:Heinkel persisted with its little P1078 into this new,slightly less cramped design. But the competition judges continued to takeadim view of it.

LEFT: Messerschmitt’s remarkable P1110 design looks strikingly modern. It is depicted here in Swedish colours to draw attention to its similarity to the later Saab 32 Lansen –which ﬁrst ﬂew in 1952.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 081 Volksjäger

Back to basics Volksjäger

Just as the search for asingle-jet Me 262 replacement was getting into gear,anew single-jet fighter competition was launched. It was hohopedped that the result would be aa‘ppeople’seople s fighterfighter’t thathat even untrained pilots could successfully flyinto combat...

082 Luftttwaffe: Secret Project Proﬁles Blohm &Voss initially drafted two designs for Volksjäger, outlined in ashortdescription reportdated September 12, 1944 –the tailless P210 and the more conventional P211.01-01. The latter,depicted here, was the company’s ofﬁcial entryfor the competition.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 083 Volksjäger

twas clear from the demanding specification that the 1-TL-Jäger designs Ibeing worked onbythe various manufacturers would takeseveralyears to reach full series production. And this wasquite normal –evennew conventional piston engine types such as the Ta 152 took at least twoyears to go from drawing boardtoactiveservice. But what if aless ambitious spec was put forward, one which would require performance only slightly better than that of existing piston engine types, and which would makeuse of an engine that was practically already in production? Surely suchh an aircraft could be ready in recordtime? It wasthis line of thinking which resulted in the Vo lksjäger requirement of September 10, 1944. Exactly whose idea it wastolaunch a second single-jet fighter competition before the presentations forthe 1-TL-Jäger had evenended is uncertain –Heinkel director CarlFranckeand Albert Speer’sdeputy Karl-Otto Saur aregood candidates –but clearly arapid turnaround wasdemanded. The 1-TL-Jäger conference of September 8-10, 1944, wasjust winding down when, at around 11.40am, atelegram wassent to the offices of Arado, Blohm &Voss, Fieseler, Focke-Wulf, Heinkel, Junkers, Messerschmitt and Siebel outlining anew requirement. It called forafighter “of the cheapest construction” poweredbyasingle BMW 003 engine and made with “extensiveuse of wood and steel” that could reach amaximum speed of 750kph (466mph) and have an endurance of 30 minutes at full throttle. It also had to be able to operate from poor airfields, with atake-offroll of under 500m, and come equipped with twoMK108s or twoMG151s. This wasamuch moreachievable set of objectives compared to those of 1-TL- Jäger,which called for1000kph (621mph) and afull hour’sendurance with asingle HeS 0111 engine. However, the companies were onlylyg giveniven between three and five days toc completeomplete the designdesignwwoork.rk. Onlyy three of the eight companies had somethinging to present when the first design conferencence wascalled on September 14, 1944 –AArado, Blohm &Voss and Heinkel. The meeting took place at Berlin and waschairedaired by Heinkel technical director CarlFraancke–who wasalso presenting the Heinkelnkeld design.esign. He gave the delegates a detailedd lectur ewhich emphasised the factthat Heinkel had worked on its design

084 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles ABOVE: Arado’s Volksjäger,the E580, is somewhat reminiscent of the company’s 1943 K-Jäger design and was universally rejected at the ﬁrst competition design comparison.

BELOW:The tiny tailless Blohm & Voss P210. The companydecided against pitching it for Volksjäger and offered the P211.01-01 instead.

longer than the others and that the original spec for armament, flighttime and take-off distance could not be met so his company had only met amoremodest brief –20 minutes flight time and smaller weapons. This wasadowngraded version of the company’s1-TL-Jäger design, the P1073. Richard Vogt, representing Blohm & Voss, wasdeeply unimpressed with what he saw – citing difficulties that would be caused bythe design’sdorsal engine position andthe fact that it would be difficult to getthe wings offfor transportation by rail. Not only that, the P1073 only used wood for its wing –the rest wasoflight alloy. Inareport entitled Aktenvermerküber Projektarbeiten für den Vo lksjäger und die geführten Besprechungen or ‘File notes on project work forthe People’sFighter and the related meetings’ dated October 12, 1944, Vo g tnotes that when he pointed this out and said he had adesign which sufferednone of theseproblems, Francke“took the clock in his handand called atime span of fiveminutes, which wasall he could spend looking at my documents!” Blohm &Voss’sdesign wasthe ABOVE: The fourth of Heinkel’s P1073 designs. By the time of Volksjäger,the P211–animpressive-looking swept-wing company had evolved the design into asingle-jet ﬁghter that could be entered for design based on asimple steel structure. 1-TL-Jäger.The Volksjäger P1073 was just asimpliﬁed version of that design –with Arado’sdesign wasthe E580 –a straight wings instead of swept, attwin-rudder tail instead of aV-tail and aBMW 003 instead of an HeS 011. This would become the He 162. small fighter with the turbojet mounted on itsback likethat of the P1073 and the rear part of the cockpit canopy

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 085 Volksjäger

engine’sintake. According to Vo gt: “A project by the company Arado wasalso submitted, which wasrejected by all involved. The company Focke-Wulf participated in the meeting only informally,because the time available wasnot sufficient to complete a project. The company Messerschmitt was uninterested in the model under discussion.” No decision wasmade but “after leaving Mr Francke, we were asked to Lieutenant- Colonel Knemeyer”. Knemeyerwas TLR Fl.-E-Chef –head of the RLM’sdevelopment department –and asecond discussion on the Vo lksjäger nowcommenced. The TLR minutes of the meeting state: “Projects were submitted by the companies Arado, Blohm &Voss and Heinkel. According to the companies involved, the take-off requirement –rolling distance of 500m –isnot achievable.” Arado and Heinkel said theycould meet the take-offdistance but only by reducing flight time to 20 minutes. But “the project of the company Blohm &Voss is impressive in its construction and appearsppears i inn thi thiss foformrm extremely cheap and expedientpedient forthe intended construction. Italso perfectly fulfils the demand forextensiveue usese of wood and steel. Regardless of which companympany receives the final order,these aspectsof Project B&V should be taken into account asm muchuch as possible. “A production reviewoftofthe B&V project will be carriedied out in the next fewdays. Everyone involved agreed at the final meeting with TLR Fl.-E-Chef that such an aircraft should be createdd without failing to depriveetthehe Me 262 of any capacity.The project is particularly justified if it is possible to use large numbers of measures in the shortest possible time through special measures. The possible uses of such an aircraft areofcourse limited. The question of fuel quantity –20or 30 min. –isfinally clarified between Chef- TLR [Diesing], TLR F. l-E-Chef [Knemeyer] and the General of Fighters [Adolf Galland]: 20 minutes flight time is probably too low.” Incredibly,onSaturday, September 16, Vo gt received atelexfromHeinkel “in which the visit of its chief designer,MrSchwärzler,is announced to me on Sunday!unday! He wasinstructed to determine to what eexxtenttent my suggestions could be worked intoh hisis ownproject”. The next Vo lksjägererm meetingeeting wason September 19, at whichchp projectsrojects drawnupby Arado, Blohm &Voss,Focke-Wulf, Fieseler, Junkers and Siebel were presented. To day, the design of the Fieselerand Siebel projects is lost –though Vo gt’saccountccount confirms that theywerepresented att the meeting –while the Junkers design is knownknown only from photographs of aammodelodel rather than drawings. Precisely which Focke-Wulf design waspresented is uncertain since the only known Focke- Wulf Vo lksjäger presentation document is dated September 20 –the dayay after the meeting –anndd

086 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Profiles dayafter the meeting –and features a Vo lksflugzeug,which is somewhat similar to the P211, a downgraded version of the company’s1-TL-Jäger ‘Flitzer’ design and another ‘option’ in the form of aturboprop version of the 1-TL-Jäger design –known BELOW:Blohm &Voss quickly shed the‘riskier’design elements of its P211.01-01 and produced the simplified P211.01-02. This in other company documents as ‘Peterle’. had straight wings, astraight tailfin and astraighter,easier to During thismeeting, chaired by Roluf build nose section. This was how the design looked by September Lucht, Vo gt again raised his objections to 29, 1944 –just as it was being defeated by the P1073. the Heinkel design but “the wayinwhich these important questions were dealt with at this commission meeting had a shattering effect on me. Therewas no question of an assessment of things, let alone amoreserious examination. It remained with general discussion and remarks thrown over the table, which were forthe most part untenable and worthless”. In return, Heinkel’srepresentativeCarl Frydag expressed doubt’sabout Vo gt’sdesign, “pointing out the difficulties involved in the production of removable skin panels. He did not say awordofappreciation for the unique assembly opportunity Icould offer and not awordabout the appropriate material types. No one contributed asingle positivethought –only criticism”. Again, no decision wasmade. But on September 30, Knemeyerannounced that adecision had been made and that Heinkel’sHe162 would be built. Vo gt, convinced that this wasaterrible error,went back to the RLM on October 2and gave aconvincing presentation to Knemeyer, demonstrating that his design was superior to that of Heinkel. ABOVE: Focke-Wulf was late in delivering its Volksjäger designs All those present, including Heinrich but when it did eventually put them forward, asimplified Beauvais, the head of fighter testing Baubeschreibung Nr. 280 ‘Flitzer’ was offered in much the same way that Heinkel offered asimplified P1073. at Rechlin, agreed that the P211 oughttohavewon the contest. Knemeyer“did not want to argue the decision and defended it with psychological reasons”. Hepromised Vo gt to put his design back up fordiscussion. Inthe afternoon, Vo gt attended a meeting with the RLM’s production specialists, who werealso convinced that the P 211 would be better than the P1073. Vo gt rang Lucht and “informed him of my exasperation that he had committed himself to amodel ABOVE: Junkers was also late to that, from amilitary and maintenance point the Volksjäger party and offered of view, wasbad”. Lucht told him that the this small fighter as its entry–but decision had been made following apersonal was unsuccessful. presentation of the P1073 by Frydag to Saur. Vogt was invitedtopresent his grievance to Obersturmbahnführer Herbert Klemm, state secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice in the Wa ffen-SS main office. He made the presentation but “expressly pointed out that no charge would be made by me” though Klemm wasapparently also convinced that the wrong decision had been made. Vo gt wastold that Saur would be asked to consider whether the wrong type had been approved forconstruction but it then transpired that Frydag had raised doubts about the P211’s ABOVE: Another of Focke- intakeduct. At this, Vo gt enlisted the AVAto Wulf’s entries was the bespoke assess his design and after wind tunnel tests Volksflugzeug –evidently anew theyfound that therewas no problem with it. design for the competition rather By now, however, it wasfar too late and the than arehash of an existing one. P1073 went on to be built as the He 162. • Luftwaffe:Secret Project Profiles 087 Ramjet fighters

Lorin’s legacy Raamjetje ﬁghtersg e s AsAsr resourcesesources dwindled, the ramjet became an increasingly appealing concept to German aircraftdesigners –intheory it could makephenomenal speeds achievable using only ppowderedowdered coal for fuel. In theory.y.

088 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles Towards the end of 1944, Alexander Lippisch was heavily involved in designing this ramjet- powered rammer –the P13. In artistic renderings, as here, the design is usually depicted with gun holes in its wings but this partofthe wing was actually where it hinged up to allow access for refuelling the ramjet motor.Ifthere were holes at these locations, they were most likely for cooling purposes –toprevent heat from the ramjet damaging the aircraft’s structure.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 089 Ramjet fighters

BELOW:Focke-Wulf investigated ways of improving Eugen Sänger’s ramjet design between 1943 and the summer of 1944. One result was the Baubeschreibung Nr.283 aircraft–incorrectly known elsewhere as the ‘Ta283’. This long-nosed speed machine was powered by apair of barrel-shaped ramjets attached to the sides of the fuselageatthe rear.

irst described as aconcept by Strahlrohrjäger or ‘Raytube fighter’, wasa The Focke-Wulf report on the Frenchman RenéLorin in 1908, the single-seater with avery long nose and sharply Triebflugeljäger stated that the design Framjet wasnothing new, even at the swept-back wing. The tailplane wasswept had six keybenefits: low fuel consumption, beginning of the Second Wo rldWar.Just as back at both leading and trailing edges and high altitude capability, no runway the Germans called the piston engine ‘Otto’ twoPabst ramjet units were mounted one on needed, lowweight, simplicity and the after the man theysaw as its inventor,so either side. Therewas aWalter starter rocket ability to use any combustible gas or theycalled the ramjet ‘Lorin’. The British at the end of the fuselage, belowthe tail. liquid that could be vaporised as fuel. tended to refertoitasthe athodyd instead –a Behind the guns in the nose there Neither design was submitted to the contraction of Aero THermoDYnamic Duct. wasa20mm-thick armoured bulkhead RLM and both remained strictly private Aramjet needs to be moving forwards protecting the forwardramjet fuel tank ventures on Focke-Wulf’spart. Similarly, beforeitcan produce any thrust –with the air of 308 gallons capacity.The cockpit was neither reached the mock-up stage. being ‘rammed’ into its intakebythis motion in the middle and behind it were three Alexander Lippisch had begun working acting likethe compressor of ajet engine. moretanks –another one forramjet fuel on ramjets in parallel to his P11, latterly Lorin couldn’tget his engine moving quickly and the other twofor the rocket motor’s renamed Delta VI, at the LFW during 1944. enough to work,nor did he have the necessary hydrazine hydrate and hydrogen peroxide. His first ramjet aircraft design wasthe materials to build it. However, these problems The other Focke-Wulf ramjet design curvy streamlined P12, which would be were moreeasily overcome in Germany about which most is known is referred to as brought up to speed either whilecarried during the late 1930s and engineer Hellmuth the Triebflugeljäger or ‘Power-wing fighter’. on the back of another aircraft or with Wa lter set to work on aramjet in 1936 before It had three wings rotating around acigar- the aid of arocket-powered launching sled. switching to rocket propulsion instead. shaped central fuselage, each with aramjet The P12’sramjet wasliquid-fuelled. BMW and Junkers also investigated the at the tip. The pitch of the wings could be Improvements to the shape of the air intake concept beforeAustrian inventor Eugen adjusted by the pilot and their maximum and combustion chamber, combined with Sänger went astep further in 1941 by creating speed, which wastonormally be used only the decision to use powdered coal and testing working ramjets. He ranthem while climbing, was670ft/sec (455mph). as afuel, led to anew design on the back of Dornier Do 17s and 217s in Having the ramjets spinning from during the summer of flight with the specific goal of creating an the outset meant theycould be activated 1944: the wedge- example that could poweraninterceptor while the aircraft fuselage itself was shaped P13. The aircraft. The basic form of the aircraft itself still sitting motionless on the ground. aircraft had a wasset down but the project wasshelved For take-offthe aircraft wastostand tubular intake in 1943 beforethe engines could be made to on its tail, which housed fivewheels. on its nose and produce sufficient thrust, but in the meantime Three small 660lb thrust Wa lter rocket the pilot sat within Focke-Wulf had taken notice and begun engines, each incorporated into one of the its huge fin. Rather steps to start its ownramjet research. ramjets, would be used to get the wings than being aconventionally Company aerodynamicist Dr Otto Ernst rotating and the ramjets started. armed fighter,the P13was to bea Pabst set up anew facility at Kirchhorsten The wings would be at neutral pitch rammer –its angular edges fitted with in 1943 with the goal of cutting down the to begin with, then movedinto fine pitch, ahardedge to slice through the relatively length of Sänger’Sängersd s ductuct –m makingaking it wo workrk creating lift. Once the aircraft reached the thin metal of Allied bomber airframes. moreefficiently.The result wasanew desired altitude and began to levelout, the Inside its short fuselage, the aircraft’sfuel ramjet design that wasproposed foratleast pitch would be increased and the speed of would takethe form of either awiremesh grate twovery different fighter projects. The wing rotation thereforereduced to prevent filled with powdered coalorpressed coal in moreconventional of the two, outlined in the wing tips from exceeding Mach 0.9. At plates and hollowcylindrical shapes. It would the company’sBaubeschreibung Nr.283 the aircraft’stop speed in forwardmotion, be broughtuptoramjet ignition speed using dated August 4, 1944, and referred to as a the wings would be rotating at 220rpm. either rockets or acatapult. Refuelling wasa

090 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles simple matter of swinging up the wing on sound. Nevertheless, the task wasundertaken either side to access and refill the grate. as acompromise solution to giving the Further revisions in the size and shape Me 262 better climb performance and ahigher of the combustion chamber and coal grate ceiling with the least possible time and effort.” resulted in the P13b, which combined Sänger states that much of the work a new circular grate with an airframe detailed in the report –which mostly derivedfromthat of the P11/Delta VI. consisted of graphs and calculations –was Nowthecockpit wasright at the front of carried out by Dipl. Math. W. Petersonand the aircraft, protruding from the leading edge Dipl. Ing. W. Lungstras. The conclusion of the wing, with slot intakes on either side of the report wasthat the Me 262 could forfeeding air to the grate. The first P13b be made to go faster but at acost of sketchesseem to have been made on November dramatically increased fuel consumption. 25-26, 1944. Although these showthe form The concept neverleft the drawing board. of the fighter emerging they do not show In parallel to work on fitting ramjets acircular basket forthe ramjet’sfuel. This to the Me 262, theRLM gave both Skoda does not appear,eveninoutline, until January and Heinkel development contracts for a 7, 1945. Then the fine detail of the basket ramjet-powered single-seat fighter based and its construction is shownindrawings on Sänger’sshelved interceptor design datingfromearly February.Nomorework from 1943 combined with alarger ramjet on the P13b is evident after February 1945. that Sänger himself wastodesign. Meanwhile, the RLM hadasked Sänger Skoda’sdesign wasthe P14and the to resume his ramjet work. The DFS was, company’sconstruction description ofthe type, according to Sänger’sreport of January 31, dated March 24, 1945, states: “It is afighter 1945, given acontract to “draw up designs built forhigh speed and high altitude with and performance calculationsonapossible aSänger-Lorin powerunit. Service ceiling of increase in performance of the Me 262 with the help of additional Lorin engines”. He wrote:“It is our opinion that the Lorin engine is very suitable as an attachment to finished airframes, althoughthese maynot be designed to perform well close to the speed of

ABOVE: One of the most radical German projects of the war was Focke-Wulf’s Triebﬂugeljäger or ‘Power-wing ﬁghter’. The most complete project brochure is dated September 14, 1944.

LEFT:Between the end of November 1944 and January1945 Lippisch worked on aversion of the P13, which combined the engine of the earlier P13with the aerodynamic formof the P11/Delta VI –itwas known as the P13b.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 091 Ramjet fighters

BELOW:Aversionofthe Messerschmitt Me 262 ﬁtted with an enormous ramjet tube on each wing was designed by Eugen Sänger inJanuary1945.

BELOW:Heinkel attempted to design a ramjet ﬁghter by using twoless powerful ramjets rather than asingle massive unit –the P1080 being the company’s last known wartime project.

RIGHT:The Skoda P14ﬁghter – based on Sänger’s earlier research into the possibilities of an aircraft built around aramjet.

092 Luftwaffe: Secret Project Proﬁles from 10,000 to 15,000m. Maximum altitude 18,500m, thus built forthe purpose of counteracting the B-29. “Climbing time to service ceiling is 5to6minutes. Time of operation at service ceiling from 30 to 45 minutes. The amount of fuel necessary for the entireflight is 1200kg /B4 mI2/ measured fuel consumption. BEING TESTED: 600kgB4orI2+850kg powdered coal. Possibilities forfurther development: on the basis of the special characteristics of the Lorin unit,itseems possible that crude oil maybeusedasaliquid fuel and that a further use of powdered coal is possible. “Powerunitand fuselage areasingle unit. Exceptionally small number of man- hours necessary forconstruction of the power unit. Little time needed fortotal construction in comparison to that of conventional fighters. No critical materials used. Enclosed is acomparison with the Me 262 and with the Me 262 +2xLorin units. The latter aircraft wasdeveloped to reach altitudes above 10,000m. This comparison shows the better performances and the moreeconomical use of fuel.” The P14was essentially aramjet tube with bits of aircraft stuck on to it. The pilot had to lie prone above it and the aircraft would be armed with just asingle MK 103 with 70 rounds. Wing area was 12.5sqm, wingspan 7.9m, length 9.5m, height 4.2m. Heinkel’scompeting aircraft design, the tailless P1080, was aerodynamically cleaner and much morecompact –though the project was incomplete when the war ended. The Heinkel team had worked out that it ought to be possible to get better results from apair of smaller ramjet tubes than one large one, resulting in asimpler layout with the pilot given aconventional seated cockpit similar to that of the He 162. Wingspan was8.9m, length is 8.15m and wing area is 20sqm. Its ramjets were each 90cm in diameter. As with all the other ramjet projects –neither of these ‘final fighters’ got anywherenear the prototype stage. • Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 093 Jet bombers

Die ersten strahlbomber der welt

Jet bombers

Work on the Arado Ar 234 demonstratedated that ahigh-ﬂying jet aircraft would be practically invulnerable to piston-engined interceptors –which meant that the jet engine was the perfecterfect powerplant for abomber.

094 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles Blohm &Voss’s P188.04 was one of ﬁve designs in aseries entered for the Strahlbomber competition towards the end of 1943. It had a slender fuselage, compared to the other P188s, and an interesting cockpit periscope system for rearward visibility.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 095 Jetbo bombersmbers

he Ar 234 had been designed with the being invitedf fromromA Aradorado itself, Junkers and most straightforwardaerodynamic Blohm &Voss. Messerschmitt also designed Tlayout possible. It had aslender anew jet bomberber at this time –the P1100, fuselage, conventional cruciform tail and atwin-jet designgn–a–and although the straight wings with its engines held in nacelles company comparedpared this to the other beneath them. The result wasasafeand unam- contenders, iti issu unclearnclear whether bitious aircraft well suited to the straight and it wasactuallyy entered for levelflying required foraerial reconnaissance. the competition.ono . Arado waswell awarethat therewas room forimprovement but it wasaware,too, STRAHL- that the Ar 234’srelatively small size and BOMBERR tightly packed fuselage would undoubtedly The Aradoo limit its potential. In November 1942, the entry,projjectect company established anew experimental E395, abandonedndoned the programme under the designation E560 straight sweptwept leading to assess the potential of different swept edge versionion ooff the E560 or pfeilflügel ‘arrow wing’ shapes. wing ando offffeerreedinstead atwo-seater It washoped that aswept wing form, with achoiceoiceof eithereither unswept wings or al a le lessessss either straight or kinked, could be developed sharply sweptwept‘ ‘crescent’crescent’ version of the E560. foruse with futurehigh-speed aircraft. From It waseeffectectiivelyvely ascaled-up version of the outset, it wasconsidered that the Ar 2344 with aerodynamic improvements BELOW:This version of the P1100 sacriﬁced E560 wings might well be suitable forthe incorporatedted into the design. Wherethe Ar defensive weaponryfor the sake of internal next stage of the Ar 234’sdevelopment too. 234 was12.64m2.64m long, the E395 was16.85m bomb load and aspeedy getaway. Extensivewind tunnel testing followed long, and wherwherethe Ar 234’swingspan was which concentrated on the relationship 14.41m, theeE3E395’swas 17.6m. between an aircraft’sfuselage, swept wings This low-riskow-risk approach and jet engines. After nine months, on August seems toh haavveebbeeneen under 11, 1943, the company produced areport considerationtion since entitled Vo rschlag für die We iterentwicklung at least Augustugust schneller Zweisitzer or ‘Proposal forthe 1943, the designdesign development of afast two-seater’. pre-datingg the This presented aseries of potential layouts competitionon forfuturedesigns, including severalpowered itself, but it by turbojets, and concentrated on the 16 tonne had changedged aircraft, the smallest jet-powereddesign. This, little even by it wasargued, represented the best possible January 1944.944. power-to-weight ratio using apair of Jumo The slightlytly bulged 012 engines. The Jumo 012, only adrawing pressureccabin of the boardproject at this point, had an 11-stage fast-twoseatereater proposed in the axial compressor and atwo-stage turbine. Arado reportort that same month wasrejected The report features detailed illustrations in favour ofofasasmooth bullet-shaped nose. of this aircraft design as aheavy fighter and Thereisahis ahint of the fast two-seater in the potential of swept wings using its own as aheavy bomber and presents aversion the design’n’sfs fourour engines,engines hohoweverwever. These experimental designation – EF 116. Like poweredbysix BMW 003s, since these engines aregiven as either HeS 011s or Jumo 012s some of the EF 116 arrangements, the were expected to be available sooner than the –the type intended forthe design with the EF 122 featured forward-swept wings but Jumo 012. Another illustration shows how sharply swept wings. The aircraft offered retained aconventional tailfin and unswept the Arado design would be armed forthe in January 1944 waspresented alongside horizontal tail surfaces. From the outset fivedifferent roles outlined in the report. an alternativewith a‘pfeilflügel’. This was its four engines were to be Jumo 004Cs The report seems to have prompted the one of the curving E560 shapes, rather rather than Heinkel HeS 011s or Jumo 012s. RLM into commencing anew competition to than the straight leading edge type. Twoweretobeattached directly to the find the Luftwaffe ajet bomber in September The Junkers entry wasthe EF 122. Like fuselage, near the nose, and another would 1943, with tenders foranew ‘Strahlbomber’ Arado, Junkers had spent months investigating sit atop the trailing edge of each wing.

096 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles LEFT:This design for atwo-seat high-speed bomberwas one of several put forward by Arado, based on its swept-wing research project –E560.

BELOW:Asthe Strahlbomber competition was getting under way in late 1943 to early 1944, Messerschmitt came up with some fast jet bomber designs of its own, the P1100, based on using Me 262 wings and anew fuselage. This version featured defensive armament.

Blohm &Voss’sStrahlbomber wasthe intended to provide the benefits of aswept- and the EF 122was approved forprototype P 188. Presented to the RLM in four slightly back wing at high speeds and the advantages construction under the designation Ju 287. different configurations, though afifth was of aswept-forwardwing at lowspeeds. Power However, the RLM felt that the forward- also later studied, the P188 offeredahost of forall four versions of the P188 would come swept wing configuration of the Ju 287 was novelfeatures –landing gear retracting into from aquartet of Jumo 004Cs, although still risky and decided to have asimpler the fuselage rather than the wings, with other engine types were not ruled out. second design built as insurance. Heinkel was only small unstressed support wheels on the Despite also boasting asimple internal approached and told to design asimple four-jet wings themselves; wings which rotated at structure, the P188 seems to have bomber as amatter of urgency. The company their root so that the wings rather than the offeredfew advantages and some serious wastold to takeArado’sE395 and use that as fuselage would pitch up on landing; and a potential risks arising from its unusual the basis of its newproject, so Heinkel chief highly unorthodoxW-shaped wing planform configuration. As aresult, it wasdropped engineer Siegfried Günter went to collect

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 097 Jet bombers

the documents personallylly from Rüdiger Kosin at Arado’soffices in Landeshut, Silesia, eastern Germany,onJanuarynuary 24, 1944. Just over aweek laterr,onF,onFebruary 1, Heinkel produced areportort entitled ‘Strabo 16 to’. This outlined thene wHeinkel design, which wasacombinationonoft of thehe firm’sown four-jet project, the P1068,68, and the scaled-up Ar 234, and emphasised the simple natureof the ‘Strabo 16 to’ aircraftfta andnd the rapidity with which it would be built. It quickly received BELOW:Arado’s Strahlbomber was the E395. It came in twoversions –one with crescent-shaped wings derived from the E560 programme and one with straight wings. The fuselage of each was the official RLM designationnation He 343. essentially scaled up from that of the Ar 234. JU 287 VS HE 343 Having been told to deveelop the He 343 as a matter of extreme urgencncyy,,EErnstrnst Heinkel wassurprised to find thatatd days,ays, weeks and then monthspassed without the necessary orders being given to sett the work in motion. He personally wrotee aletter to Knemeyerinn July 1944, emphasisingg the suitability of the Hee 343 forimmediate mass productionodduction and arguing that the Juu 287287 was ahazardous design thatatt promisedpromised little in return forthe risksrisks involved. He compared the twwodesigns in great detail and took issue withith Junkers’ projected performance statistics..T Thehe additional cost of building the Ju2 28787 –the He 343 would be much cheaperrtob to builduild –was simply not worthwhile,e,hea he argued.rgued. BELOW:The unarmed Blohm &Voss P188.01 with aerodynamic cockpit and single ﬁn. The letter’scombativtivetone prompted KnemeyertoforwarditontoHt on to Heinricheinrich Hertel, technical director at Junkers,unkers, forcomment. Hertel refuted Heinkel’l’ssaargumentsrguments and cast aspersions onHeinkel’s ownfigures forthe He 343. The disagreement endeded without aclear winnerr –workonthe Ju 287 wassuspended at the end of September 1944 with a‘flying mock-up’’ having been constructededd and test-flown. The Hee 334343 wascancelled but the P1P 1068068 project would go on toh haave asecond life as abasis forsupersonicic re researchsearch at the DFS.DFS.

FLYING WING BOMBERSBERS Arado mayhavebeen forced to hand over its BELOW:Junkers’ EF 122 would be redesignated Ju 287 after it won the Strahlbomber competition. work on the scaled-upA Arr2 23434 to Heinkel in Numerous different engine conﬁgurationswere tried and versions with and without remote- January 1944, but the state-ownedate-owned company controlled tail armament were drafted. nevertheless continuedits work on dedicated jet bomber designs. Duringing the summer of 1943, it had launched assecond experimental jet bomber study designatednated E555. This raninparallel withh E560 but rather than focusingg on swept-wing designs, it looked at flying- wing layouts. The earliest known document from the E555 programme is dated July 14, 1943, and comprises achart showing the horizontal top speeds of configurationss E555-6, -7, -8 and 10, each of whichch wastohave been fitted with atrio off BMW 018 enengines.gines.

098 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 099 Jet bombers

BELOW:Heinkel’s He 343 –which started off as P1068, then became the ‘Strabo 16 to’, then received its ofﬁcial RLM designation. It was abasic design intended for the sortof rapid mass production that would later characterise the Volksjäger programme.

The last known document relating directly to the E555 ‘Nurflügelprojekt’ as it is entitled in Arado company documents, ahandwritten sheet of calculations, is dated August 15, 1944. However, activity on the project seems to have peaked between September 1943 and February 1944. Then, on October 18, 1944, Arado issued areport entitled Bomber für Höhe Geschwindigkeit und Grosse Reichweite or ‘A high-speed long-range bomber’ which offeredupthe E555 flying wing designs that had existed in one form or another since the summer of 1943 configured as aselection of bombers without using the would be no formal entry from Arado. Instead, ground –therebyhalting the round-the-clock E555 designation, just as the fast bomber Messerschmitt would compete against Junkers attacks being made by the USAAF and RAF. proposal had not mentioned E560. and rank outsiders the Horten brothers. The first full P1107 brochurewas published It seems that at least adozen E555 on January 26, 1945, and briefly outlined configurations existed but some were passed LANGSTRECKENBOMBER the project as atwo-stage development. over in choosing 10 to present with the report. Wo rk on the Ju 287 had been suspended in The first stage “vorläufige Lösung” or These were forms 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8a, 8b, 9, 10 and 11. September 1944 but in November,two months ‘temporary solution’ P1107 wasabomber Theyvaried considerably in layout, later,interest in afour-engined jet bomber was with asmooth cigar-shaped fuselage and ranging from just one engine to six, revived. Arado had just completed its E555 swept wings with a17.3m span. Its engines depending on the powerplant. Some had tail report when Willy Messerschmitt offeredthe were to be grouped into twopairs of twoand fins on their trailing edge, three had twin-boom Entwicklungshauptkommission his new attached to the underside of its wings and its tails and one had aconventional fuselage P1107 project. His proposal wassimple –build a horizontal tail surfaces would be positioned but with the characteristic E555 fast four-engined jet bomber that could bypass at the top of its fin in aT-tail configuration. wing shape superimposed over it. Allied defences and deliver aheavy payload. Its tricycle undercarriage would consist Mirroring what happened after Arado While this had previously been the basis of adouble nosewheel and twovery large put forwardits proposal foranew two-seat of the Strahlbomber competition, it wasnow mainwheels –all of them retracting into the fast bomber,anew jet bomber development suggested that the Strahlbomber might 18.4m long fuselage –and within the tail was competition waslaunched around a actually be the solution to avery particular room foralarge reconnaissance camera. It month after the publication of ‘A high- problem plaguing Germany at that time: afleet would be unarmed save forits bomb load. speed long-range bomber’. It wasentitled of jet bombers could fly to Britain unassailed The second stage “endgültige Lösung” or Langstreckenbomber –but this time there and destroy the Allied bomber fleets on the ‘final solution’ as Messerschmitt put it, would

100 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles LEFT:The ‘blown’canopy and twin-tail of Blohm &Voss’s P188.02 allowed room for a rear-facing gunner to look back over the fuselage and operate the tail gun via remote control.

Deutsche Ve rsuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt (DVL). By the time of the event, drawings of the P 1107 still had not been submitted and Bölkow wasleft attempting to outline his company’sproject with just the performance predictions and adescription forhis fellow delegates to go on. Little time wasspent outlining the Ju 287’sfeatures at the beginning of the conference since most of those present were already intimately familiar with its design but the Hortens’ XVIII waslargely an unknown quantity. Theflying wing had been designed by ABOVE: The advanced version of Messerschmitt’s P1107 four-engined fast bomber.The quick- Reimar Horten only afew months earlier, availability version had aT-rather than V-tail and engines attached to the underside of its wings rather than built into the wing roots. while he and his brother Wa lter were working on their large flying wing transport, the Horten VIII. The HXVIII had afixed utilise the same fuselage and undercarriage The mammoth four-dayevent wasto undercarriage and four HeS 011 turbojets. but with the engines nowsubmerged into takeplace from February 20-23 at Junkers’ From the post-conference report itself, issued the wing roots and the T-tail replaced with Dessau headquarters and would involveboth by the DVL at Berlin-Adlershof on February aV-tail. Wingspan remained the same but the Sonderkommission ‘Flugzeugzellenbau’ 25, 1945, it is clear that all the delegates the natureofthe V-tail meant the overall or Special Commission forAirframe were fascinated by the Horten XVIII’s length wasslightly reduced, to 18m. Construction and the EHK, the latter chaired layout and were keen to exploreits potential Neither stage wasfully illustrated and only by Junkers director Heinrich Hertel. through detailed engineering calculations. scant data wasoffered. Despite the date on the Apanel of interested parties and It wasrequired that each of the three cover, the committee tasked with assessing the independent experts wasassembled to go over designs –the P1107, Ju 287 and HXVIII proposal did not receiveituntil some days later. thedesigns, establish their relativemerits and –should be assessed with afuel load of In the meantime, on January 27, Junkers identify their flaws. These included Ludwig 15,000kg and apayload of 4000kg of bombs. issued its ownreport document, also brief, Bölkow,representing Messerschmitt; Hans It wasfound, on crunching the numbers, comparing the P1107 to the Ju 287 and Gropler,head of Junkers’ project office; Reimar that Messerschmitt had been rather over- emphasising their similarities. At around this and Wa lter Horten, representing themselves; optimistic about the P1107’sweight but time, adate wasset foraformal conference Rüdiger Kosin of Arado, production the Hortens had been overly pessimistic to fully examine the twodesigns and athird management specialist Senior StaffEngineer about the HXVIII, which would actually design wasadded, the Horten XVIII. Kohl and Professor August Quick of the have been lighter than theyanticipated.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 101 Jet bombers

RIGHT:The HortenHXXVIII flying wing had huge fixed undercarriage ‘legs’ housing its enormous wheels beneath large doors at thebase. The aircraft’s shape meant it could contain sufficient fuel for an impressive range.

In terms of performance, at 7000m the Ju 287 wascalculated to have atop speed of 885km/h, the P1107 933km/h and the HXVIII 861km/h, range wasJu287 4430km, P1107 4850km (Messerschmitt had given arange of 7400km) and HXVIII 5350km. In fact, the HXVIII could go even further because the interior of the flying wing shape wasextremely spacious, meaning morefuel could be carried forarange of 6500km. On the face of it, the HXVIII seemed ABOVE: Even as the P1107 was being discussed during ameeting on February20-23, likeaclear winner.However, the panel of Messserschmitt’s designers were pressing ahead with a closely related series of tailless bombers – experts considered that the positioning the P1108. Some versions of this design looked alittle likethe postwar Avro Vulcan. of its turbojets, in nacelles attached to the fixed undercarriage, would cause difficulties and the undercarriage itself would result in P1108 AND EF 130 Designs were studied with intakes undue wear on the wheels. In addition, the Messerschmitt’sofficial entry for above,beloworinthe leading edge of the amount of time required to properly test the Langstreckenbomber had been the wing but no firm conclusion about which HXVIII’sunusual aerodynamic form would conventional P1107 but between wasbest had been reached by the time of be disproportionately large and it wasthis November 1944 and February 1945 the the Langstreckenbomber conference. morethan anything else which seems to have firm had also worked onaflying-wing Evidently the RLM wasaware of determined the panel’sdecision to choose the bomber design in parallel –the P1108. Messerschmitt’sworkonthe P1108, and Ju 287, which had already been thoroughly This looked something likeacross wasinterested in it, but wasalso concerned tested, forfull series production. It is unknown between the P1107 and the HXVIII but that Messerschmitt lacked the capacity to whether any work wasactually done to put Messerschmitt struggled with the same complete the design. It would appear that this order into effect but it seems doubtful. problem as the Hortens: wheretoput the the Messerschmitt P1108 and Horten XVIII engines and howtoshape their intakes. projects were both effectively handed over

102 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles LEFT:The massive short-range carrier/launcher aircraftdesigned by Focke-Wulf at the behest of Daimler-Benz –complete with high-speed bomber.

target forthe Allied bomber formations. Focke-Wulf chief designer Kurt Tank himself evidently mentioned this problem to Daimler-Benz director Fritz Nallinger,who LEFT:When the Ju 287 won the went away and gave it some serious thought. Langstreckenbomber/TL-Grossbomber From this brief exchange, Nallinger and competition, Junkers was handed the his colleague Erich Übelacker formulated a Messerschmitt P1108 and Horten XVIII and proposal which could not only solveTank’s told to combine them into anew ﬂying wing project. The result was the Junkers EF 130. problem but also help to solvethe much wider problem ofthe Allied bomber streams which at that time were inflicting severe damage on German industry and infrastructure. Ashort while later, Nallinger came back to Tank and presented him with the idea –asecond aircraft specifically designed forheavy lifting which could get the fast bomber offthe ground and carry it up to an altitude from which it could be launched. Fitted with rugged fixed landing gear, powerful engines and large wings, the carrier would be able to operate from rough landingstrips and could be moved easily from one areatoanother.Only ahandful of these would be necessary,since each one to Junkers forfurther development as a controversy” regarding the different designs, would only fly short distances beforeturning single project –the Junkers EF 130 –with the nor what those designs actually looked like. round, landing and repeating the process. Horten brothers retained as consultants. Daimler-Benz as acompany then According to German Aircraft: FOCKE-WULF AND DAIMLER-BENZ commissioned Focke-Wulf to carry out the Newand Projected Types: “Several When Messerschmitt set to work on the detailed design work and do the necessary sums different designs were submitted for P1107 back in November 1944, Focke- to turn the proposal into aseemingly viable the EF 130 and it wasthe subject of Wulf Oberingenieur Herbert Wo lffof prospect forproduction. The resulting design considerable controversy,particularly Flugmechanik Lstarted to draw up a wasoutlined in Focke-Wulf Kurzbeschreibung the positioning of the four jet units.” rival design. But by December he had Nr.28, dated February 10-February 17, 1945. Only one period drawing of the EF 130 encountered aseemingly insurmountable The Schnellbomber or ‘fast bomber’ is known to exist and it has been suggested problem –getting it offthe ground. would be able to carry avery heavy bomb that even this maybeeither avery basic Swept wings generate less lift and given load of 30,000kg at 1000km/h, with arange preliminary layout or asketch drawnfrom the sheer weight of the necessary payload of 2000km. Attached to the Trägerflugzeug someone’smemory because the original the bomber would need avery long concrete or ‘carrier aircraft’, take-offdistance would documents were not available. Certainly, runway –exactly the sort of runway that was be less than 500m –making it possible to nothing else is known about the “considerable proving to be such an easy and attractive launch the bomber from evensmall airstrips.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 103 Jet bombers

And since the bomber’sownn undercarriage would only be needed forlanding,nding, when all the bombs had been droppededa andnd most of the fuel burned off, it could be rerelativelylatively small. Therewould be one launchnch aircraft for every three bombers and thehel launchaunch aircraft could also be used to carry ana numberumber of either BELOW:Two different manned or guided flying bombers were piloted or remote-controlledd ‘SO Flugzeug’ –a designed to be launched from Focke-Wulf’s enormous carrier/ self-destructing suicide aircraft.craft. This was launcher aircraft. This version had its turbojet mounted almost envisioned as aconventional-lookingal-looking fighter- on top of the cockpit. size aircraft carrying explosivesosives in its nose. It waspowered by asingle turbojetrbojet beneath its rear fuselage and it had noundercarriage. The carrier’swing area wasto be 500 squaremetres with a wingspan of 54m. The aircraftraft wastobe35m long and 12mm tall. As farasthe engine wasas concerned: “The propulsionn system consists of six enginesnes with DB 603N motors. Four-r- blade propellers would be usedused which were 5m in diameter.”r.” A later drawing, dated Marchh 19, 1945, shows adramatically redesignedsigned carrier with only asingle fuselage compared to the earlier design’stwin-boom. As aresult, its BELOW:The second manned or guided flying bomb designed by Focke-Wulf length wasincreased from 35m to 36m and to be launched from the carrier/launcher aircraftithad designed for Daimler- height wasupfrom12m to 12.5m. Wingspan Benz. This version looked likeaslightly stout fighter but had no guns and no remained the same howeverr..TThishis newdesign undercarriage –just alarge quantity of explosives and adetonator in its nose. wastobepropelled by fourDaimler-Benz PTL 021 turboprops. Va lues areaalso given fora carrier poweredbyfiveoreevensix PTL 021s. As well as alterations too the carrier,the SO Flugzeug also seems to have been revised. Adrawing appears in Germanman Aircraft: New and Projected Types whichh shows it reconfigured with its jet enginegine on top of its fuselage rather thanhan underneath, and the pilot iss seated much further back with only atiny window to look out of between the engine above his head and the fuselage below. As innovativeand imaginativeinative as it was, the Focke-Wulf/ Daimler-Benz fast bomber/carrier/carrier concept came fartoo late inn the daytobe anything other than apaperereexxeercise.rcise.

BMW BOMBER PROJECTSCTS In June 1944, BMW put forwarwardtwo designs fortailless bombers that weere to be poweredby its ownjet engine products. The first, known as ‘Strabo I’ waspropelled bybynofno feewweerrt thanhan six BMW 003 As –two in tthehen noseose and two under each wing –while tthehes second,econd, ‘Strabo II’ had twoBMW 018s in itsits rear fuselage, fedbygaping nose intakes. It wasexpected that the former would reach atop speed of around 875km/h, while the latter would manage amuch moreimpressive990km/h. Ve ry little further detail is given in the brief report accompanying the two designs and it

104 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles BELOW:Another version of the Focke-Wulf high-speed bomber, this time with twin rudders rather than aV-tail. The aircraft would have had alightweight undercarriage since it would have been almost empty of fuel by the time it came to land.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 105 Jet bombers

seems to have been moreofasuggestion as to howBMW’sproducts might be used, rather than aseeriousrious pitch to get its twoaircraft ddesignsesigns built. ABOVE: The second BMW bomber design, labelled on the original In areport dated JulyJuly 21, 1944, BMW put drawing as ‘Strabo II mit 2xBMW 018’. The crew sat either side of out another report ddetailingetailing alarge bomber the duct leading from the nose intakeand one man, the bomb ppoowweeredredbyt by twwooBMBMWW018s p pluslus twoBMW aimer, was to be carried in the under-fuselagetray. 028 turboprops. Thistoo wasameans of showcasing BMW’srrange of engines. It had an unusual M-wing planform,nform, with the turboprops mounted on the leadingng edge of the wing and the turbojets underder the trailing edge. Finally,BMW offeeredalarge aircraft poweredbyBMW 028s8sa alone.lone. This unusual creation had huge forrward-sweptward-swept wings and its engines were attachededtoo to outriggersutriggers projecting from the upper surfaceceoft of thehe fuselage at an angle of about 45d degrees.egrees. Quite what purpose this mighth haavveebbeeneen intended to servemay neverbeknown since the original project document hass not been found. •

ABOVE: This BMW bomber design, produced amonth after the others in July 1944, is labelled ‘Schnellbomber mit kombiniertem PTL+TL-Antrieb’. It was powered by apair of BMW 018 turbojets under its wings and apair of BMW 028 turboprops on the leading edge of its wings. As aline drawing it looks odd, but ﬂeshed out here it is asurprisingly attractive design.

RIGHT:BMW’s design intended to showcase its 003Aengine –this bomber had apair of engines built into its ‘chin’, plus two more built into each wing.

106 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 107 Advanced night fighters

2-TL-Jäger Advanced night fighters With work on the interim night fighter types under way,arequirement was issued for atwin-jet night fighter –a‘2-TL-Jäger’that would represent the state of the artinnight fighter technology.And thee designs tendered were nothing if not cutting edge...e...

108 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles The second Arado advanced night ﬁghter design. The original drawing is dated March 8, 1945, and it is noted that the aircraftdepicted has a“veryshortfuselage”.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 109 Advanced night fighters

he introduction of ground-scanning radar at the end of 1942 allowed Tthe RAF’sbomber fleet to become steadily moreeffectiveathitting keytargets in Germany and occupied Europe under coverofdarkness. The need forbetter fighters to combat this threat had already resulted in first dedicated piston-engine night fighters, then adriveto convert existing jet types fornight fighting. During the summer of 1944, athirdstrand wasbegun –the development of the most technologically advanced dedicated night fighter the worldhad everseen. Initially the requirement, issued on August 31, 1944, wasfor apiston-engined design with Jumo 222 E/Fs, As 413s, DB 603 Ls or DB 613s but “combination piston engine-jet must be looked at”. We aponry wastobefour MK 108s and two MK 213s fixed forwardfiring with space also allowedfor Lichtenstein radar equipment and the Bremen airborne warning device. Oblique weaponry wastobetwo MK 108s angled at 70 degrees. The aircraft wasalso to be capable of offeredasanalternativeoption.The two carrying two500kg bombs. Apressurecabin crew sat side-by-side with the pilot slightly wastobefitted, along with armour forthe further forward on the left. Armament crew,and top speed needed to be 800km/h wasgiven as twoMK108s fixedforward at an altitude of 11km, with aflight time of with another twoatanoblique angle. four and ahalf hours without drop tanks. Set against the twin-jet Me 262, twin-jet Copies of this requirement were sent P215 and twin-piston engine P 252/1, the to Blohm &Voss, Focke-Wulf, Heinkel, Dornier P254/1 wasunusual inbeing the only Messerschmitt and Dornier.Arado and mixed propulsion design put forward. Gotha, who would both later submit In design, the forwardsection designs, were not included at this stage. and wings were similar to The competition seems to have been those of the Do 335 Aseries delayedbyfirst the 1-TL-Jäger conference except forthe installation on September 8-10, 1944, then the Vo lksjäger of aDB603 LA piston engine requirement of September 10, which demanded in place of the DB 603 A. the immediate attention of the competing However, in the space where firms. The requirement wasslightly altered on the second, pusher,DB603 A would have January 27, 1945, calling specifically foratwo- been, aft of the main fuel tank,wereapair seater machine that could achieve 900km/h at of oblique-firing MK 108s. To t he rear of 9000m and fly on full throttle forfour hours. them wasthe radar operator’s position. On The first confirmed comparison meeting either side of him wasawide intakefor forwhat wasdubbed ‘Schlechtwetter und the HeS 011 jet engine positioned in the Nachtjäger’ took place on February 26, 1945, extreme rear of the fuselage, exhausting and three companies submitted designs. beneath the fin. Also unliketheDo335, Blohm &Voss offeredits radical tailless therewas no lowertail fin –justthe familiar twin-jet P215.01, Messerschmitt put forward horizontal tailplanes and fin arrangement. two- and three-seater configurations of its Me Neither Dornier design came 262 and Dornier put forwardtwo conventional with apressurecabin. layout projects –the P252/1 and P254/1. Finally,therewas the Blohm&Voss In two-seater form, the Me 262 B-2 or ‘B2’ as P215.01, the design apparently drawn it appears in the project description document up in ahurry on February 21, 1945 –just of January 18, 1945, featured afuselage fivedaysbeforethe conference. It was lengthened by 1.5m to provide room foraradar essentially ascaled-up version of the operator and equipment without compromising company’sP212 design for1-TL-Jäger. fuel load. The canopyoverthe men’sheads It had acrew of three seated within a wastall to accommodate the bulky FuG 350 pressurecabin –two facing forwards and one Naxos Zc homing device scanner and the radar to the rear.Armament wasfour MK 108s but operator position had blackout curtains so these could evidently be fitted in anumber the screen could be read moreeasily.Radar of different arrangements since the side-view aerials would be fitted to the aircraft’snose. design drawing shows eight MK 108s –four The second option wasanevenlonger in the upper nose, firing forward, twolower fuselage to allowroom foranavigator.In down on the sides of the nose air intake, addition, the engines would be installed in the angled slightly upwards, and afurther two aircraft’swingroots, rather than underwing positioned towardsthe rear of the aircraft, pods. The wings themselves would also have firing upwards at an angle of 70 degrees. RIGHT:The Blohm &Voss P215.02 a45-degree sweepback, compared to the as it appears in abrochure dated March 16, 1945. The wings are standardMe262’ssweep of just 18.5 degrees. REVISED SPEC now adifferent shape and the Dornier’sP252/1, drafted on January The dayafter the conference, February 27, whole aircrafthas been enlarged 20, 1945, wasperhaps the simplest of the 1945, anew set of specifications wasissued compared to the P215.01. four.Ithad unswept wings and apair of DB which emphasised heavier armament, the 603 LA piston engines mounted in tandem ability to carry moreequipment and the within its fuselage, with twoJumo 213 Js inclusion of athirdcrewman to manage all the

110 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles LEFT:Blohm &Voss created its earliest advanced night ﬁghter design, the P215.01-100, by simply scaling up the P212.03 design it had created for 1-TL-Jäger.The result was this large and outlandish-looking aircraft, shown in adrawing dated February 21, 1945.

ABOVE & LEFT: Dornier’s straightforward P256/1 would have been far easier and quicker to build than any of its contemporaries, being based in part on the existing Do 335 design. The original drawing appears to show two different options for the rudder shape.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 111 Advanced night fighters

additional kit if one wasn’sn’ttppresent already. At this point MesserschMesserschmittmitt seems to have dropped out of contention, oofffering no designs BELOW:Dated March , 94 Arado third design has smaller wings and athicker fuselage compared to the twoprevious efforts. It also has broad forthe newspecification. NNeithereither of Dornier’s vertical intakes for its engines and arudder/finpartway along each wing. previous proposals wasable to meet the revised specification and both were dropped. Only the Blohm &Voss P215 remainedmainedoft of thehe original competitors. However, it wassnnoowwssetet to face an even stifferchallenhallenge.ge. AAnneewwddateate wasset forthe discussion of Schlechtwetterhtwetter und Nachtjäger designs –thhee next EHK meeting at Bad Eilsen on March 20-24. Therewould nowbeseveenn competing designs: Blohm& Vo ss’sslightly revised taillessess P215.02, Dornier’snew P256/1, twofromArado simplymply labelled ‘Arado I’ and ‘Arado II’, Gotha’ha’ssttailless P-60 BELOW:The fifthArado night fighter.Now the engines Cand twodesigns from Focke-Wulfke-Wulf labelled are attached to the rear underside of the aircraftrather ‘Focke-Wulf II’ and ‘Focke-WulfWulf III’. than being built into the wing at the rear.Itfeatures not only forward-firing and oblique-firing cannon, but also a pair of pivoting rear-facing cannon. BLOHM &VOSS P215 The Blohm &Voss P215.02 appearsears almost identical to the P215.01 at first glanceglance but in fact it is alarger aircraft in almostost every respect. The wingspan, including control surfaces, is 18.8m, compared to 17.6m; wing area is 63sq mcompared to 59sq mand fuselage width is 2.2m compared to under 2m. Thee only dimension which remains the same is overall length at 11.6m.6m. According to the introductionn to the P215.02 brochure, dated March 1945:1945: “The 215 project grew out of the P212design, aday fighter with only one turbojet.” ComparingComparing BELOW:Arado’s sixthdesign, with alittle modification to its the P215.02’sdimensions to thoseseoft of thehe undercarriage, was put forward for 2-TL-Jäger as ‘Arado I’. P212.03 reveals astartling differerencence in size It is basically asubtle refinement of the “5. Entwurf”. however. The wingspan of the P2212.0312.03 wasonly 9.5m –nearly half that of the P2215.02. Wing area wasless than aquarter of theheP2P215.02’s at just 14sq m, and overall lengthh was4.2m shorter at arelatively diminutivve7.4m. As with the P215.01, the aircraft had atricycle undercarriage –with the nosewheel being borrowed from the He 219. The main wheels retracted directly into the fuselage. Awide range of different armament options areoutlined.T Thehe standardP215 armament wastobefo be fivivefixed forward-firing MK 108 cannon butut this could be exchanged forfiveMK108sw withith slightly

112 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Profiles BELOW:The first in Arado’s sequence of nine advanced night fighters. The drawing is dated March 7, 1945, and shows an entirely rudderless flying wing with slot intakes for its engines and the nose and coc i rotruding from the leading edge.

ition that could be tilted upwards angle of between0and 15 degrees. The third option was four MG213/30s and the fifth wastwo massive MK112 cannon. Finally,nofewer than 56 R4M unguided rockets could be installed in the P215’snose –alongside either four MK 108s, four MG 213/30s or two MK 212/214s. Likethe P215.01, the P215.02 could also be fitted with apair of MK 108s aimed to fire upwards. Therewas also an option to carry apair of 500kg bombs semi-recessed within the fuselage. Wherethe P215.02 differed most significantly from its predecessor waswith the inclusion of arear-facing FHL 151 remote controlled turret fitted with a single MG 151/20 20mm cannon. This was to be aimed and fired by the navigator.

DORNIER P256/1 Wheremost of the other firms went forradical aerodynamic designs that might well have entailed long programmes of wind tunnel testing and refinement, Dornier opted fora simple and straightforwardsolution –basing its design loosely on the Do 335 push-pull piston engine fighter and installing the aircraft’s twoHeS 011 turbojets in under-wing nacelles. The pilot and navigator sat almost side- by-side in the spacious cockpit with three large fuel tanks directly behind them. And behind the fuel tanks, in the aircraft’stail, sat the radar operator beneath aPerspex window. Armament wasaquartet of MK 108s in the nose and twomorefiring upwards at an oblique angle –although exactly where the latter were to be positioned is unclear.

ARADO IAND II While the other competitors had each worked through numerous earlier designs before finally producing the ones theyentered forthe contest, Arado apparently only got started designing its entry on March 7. The first drawing in aseries of nine, labelled 1. Entwurf zum Nacht- und Schlechtwetterjäger,shows atailless design with no vertical control surfaces and the distinctivekinked wing that the company had developed during its E560 project. This had an armament of six forward-firing MK 108s, two morefiring upwards and asmall rear turret set between its turbojet exhausts mounting twounspecified remote-control weapons. The 2. Entwurf zum Nacht- und Schlechtwetterjäger (mit verkleinertem Rumpf) dated March 8, 1945, wasanother

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 113 Advanced night fighters

BELOW:The seventh Arado night ﬁghter designlooks the most modern today.Itconsisted of along stretched-out fuselage, aconventional cruciformtail and ordinaryswept wings with the engines built into them. tailless design which had,ad, as the name suggests, ashortened fuselage.uselage. Again, it had six forward-firing MKMK1 108s08s but no rear turret and its swept wingsgsh hadad adead straight leading edge. 3.. Entwurf zum Nacht- undd Schlechtwetterjäger dated March 9was againn tailless but movedback to the longer fuselage. Now,w,hhoowweevever, it also featured averticalfin totowardswardst thehe end of each wing. The forward-firing weaponry stayedthe same but arear turret mounted what appeared to be apair of MK 103s on a pivot, allowing them to track left and right. The fourth design is lost but the 5. Entwurfurf zum Nacht- und Schlechtwetterjäger,dated March 13, markedasubstantial refinement on its predecessors. Forwardarmament was the same but nowtwo obliqueMK 108s108sma madedee an appearance and the MK 1033rear turret could track up and down ratherert thanhan left and right. The 6. Entwurf zumm Nacht- und Schlechtwetterjäger wasveryy similar to the fifth design but refined stillill further in the detail of its wings and fuselage.uselage. The 6. Entwurf is dated Marcharch1 14,4, wherewhereasas the 7. Entwurf is dated March 13. This designdesign features aconventional layout –albeit with anan extremely long fuselage, hugee swept tailfin and engine nacelles integratedd into its wingwings.s. Thereisnoforwardarmamentt depictedd – only oblique-firing cannon andd atail tturret.urret. The 8. Entwurf is again missingssing anandd the 9. Entwurf zum Nacht- und Schlechtwetterjäger,dated Marcharch1 17,7, 1945 –just three days beforethhee conference –isanother conventionalntional layout design. Shorter than the 7. Entwurf, everything about it seems designed to be straightforward. The wings arere only lightly swept and the enginesgines are fitted into underwing nacelless forease of access. The three crew sit togetherether ununderder a bubble canopyoffering good visibilityisibility over the short nose and the tricyclee undercarriageundercaarriagearriage appears not dissimilar to the tried and tested undercarriage of the Ar 234 B-2..An An optional V-tail wasincluded on the drawwing. From these nine designs, Arado choseose the 6. Entwurf to offerasits ‘Arado I’, albeititw withith aslightly modified undercarriage retractionaction arrangement, and the 9. Entwurf to offerunaltered as ‘Arado II’.

114 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles BELOW:Arado’s 9. Entwurfwas presented at the design comparison meeting as ‘Arado II’.

LEFT:Itisunclear why Focke-Wulf disregardedits ‘EntwurfI’twin-jet night ﬁghter design but nevertheless a brochure was produced in February1945 which details only “EntwurfII-V”.This is EntwurfII–alarge aircraftwith the crew compartment, engines, armament and landing gear all built into the forward section.

FOCKE-WULF II AND III Focke-Wulfhad spent months working onahuge variety of night fighter designs between September 1944 and March 1945. On July 21, 1944,arequirement wasissued foraHochleistungsjäger mit Jumo 222 E/F or‘high-performance fighter with Jumo 222 E/F’, prompting Focke-Wulf to begin BELOW:Focke-Wulf’s Entwurf working on aseries of pusher-prop fighters. III was verysimilar to Entwurf II except for having shorter When the night-fighter requirement wings, which would makeit was issued at theend of August, these faster but less manoeuvrable. became pusher-prop night fighters with supplementary jet engines. And on November 23, 1944, the firmdispensed with the piston engines altogether with adesign called Zweimotoriges TL-Jagdflugzeug mit HeS 109-011, outlined in Kurzbeschreibung Nr.23. This was followedonJanuary 27, 1945, with Nachtjäger mit 2xHeS 011, outlined in Kurzbeschreibung Nr.26. Further work was carried outthroughout February and into BELOW:The fourth Focke-Wulf night ﬁghter has three, rather early March, resulting in four further twin- or than two, turbojets and was therefore not eligible for 2-TL- triple- jet night fighter designs, outlined in a Jäger.While the earlier designs had had twoturbojets in Focke-Wulf report entitled simply Nachtjäger their fuselages, EntwurfIVhad only one –with the other two mit HeS 011 Entwurf II-V on March 19, 1945. engines being slung beneath the wings in nacelles. From these, designs II and III were chosen forpresentation during thedesign conference. Focke-Wulf II had aconventional tail with swept-back single spar wings. The fuselage nose wasbulbous and housed the twoHeS 011 turbojets positioned side by side but slightly angled within the fuselage. This created aspace between them forthe nosewheelofthe tricycle undercarriage. The pressurised cockpit housed three crew sitting on ejection seats and behind this were

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 115 Advanced night fightersrs

twoself-sealing fuel tanks. Armamentent wasfour BELOW:The ﬁfthand penultimate Focke-Wulf night ﬁghter design. This also had three engines but fixed forward-firing MK 108s and twwomore all three were built into the fuselage –ttwointhe nose and athird at the exxtreme rear,fed by slot firing upwards. Wingspan was16m. Focke-Focke- intakes in the aircraft’s sides. Wulf III wasthe same but with largererm mainain undercarriage wheels and awingspananof1 of 14.1m.4.1m. Even as the EHK sat down to discusscuss the night fighter designs on March 20,F Focke-ocke- Wulf’sFlugmechanik Ldepartmentt wasstill hardatworkonthe night fighter designesign series and drafted preliminary detailsils of an Entwurf VI –labelled “Nurflügel”” in the designer Pauselius’snotes. The fuselage wastobe9.35m long, wingspan 17m and wing area 74.5sqm.m. The wings were to be swept back by 38 degrees. It wastohaveapair of HeSeS 011 engines, carry 5400 litres of fuel and be armed with four MK 108s. Unfortunately,ately, thereisnoknown drawing of this design.esign. Finally,therewas something calledled ‘Entwurf Klages’ which appears tob belongelong toto the same project. Even less is knownn about tthishis design –only that it wastohaveafuselagel 12.5m long and wascalculated to have been marginally faster than Entwurf VI. Again, thereisnoknown drawing of the design.

GOTHA P-60 C Gothaer Wa ggonfabrik aerodynamics specialist Dr Rudolf Göthert had originally designed the P-60 as an alternativetothe Horten IX, which his company had been tasked with building. As his work pprogressed,g d, BELOW: The last known version of the Gotha P 60 C was a revision of the earlier however, he sawthat the design hadadg greaterreater two-seater.The Nacht- und Schlechtwetter/2-TL-Jäger competition required two potential than originally envisioned.ed. additional crewmen besides the pilot, so provision was made to house them in The BMW 003-poweredP-60 Awwaassadadireirectct the inner wings under glazed panels –making the P60Calittle more likethe A and B, which both had fully glazed nose canopies for their prone crewmen. HIXheavy fighter competitor,withthatatwo-m-manan prone crew,and the P-60 Bwas arevevisedised versionrsion of the ‘A’, with greater equipment capacity and HeS 011 engines. The P-60 C, hohowweevever, had adifferent wing centresectionn wher ethe twocrew had been seated in tandemm rather than prone positions –freeing up space in the nose foraradar unit. Just nine days beforethe conference however, Gotha’sP-60 Cwas revised to become athree- seater.While the pilot remained seated in the central fuselage cockpit,kpit, his twofellowcrewmen were givennppositionsositions within the aircraft’swings themselveselves to his left and right. Thereisnomentiontion of it in the documentation but drawingsngs of BELOW:Heinkel’s P1079 had aconventional fuselage and V-tail, with its engines housed the three-man P-60 Cappear to shoowthese in large nacelles built into its wing-roots. It looked verymuch likethe postwar Vickers- twopositions coveredbyalarge curvingrving Supermarine Type 508, which had almost the same conﬁguration, except for the sheet of Perspex–giving their occupantscupants a swept wings. Heinkel also designed at least two ﬂying-wing versions of the P1079 but it reasonable degree of visibility.Armamentmament remains unclear whether these were designed while the war was still ongoing or not. remained the same: four fixed-forwarwardMK 108s plus twomoreangled upwards.s.

DECISION-MAKING According to areport on his interrogation by Allied investigators shortly after the war, the P-60 C’sdesigner Dr Rudolf Göthert believedthat his design “was shown to have the best performance of these aircraft, and Dr Göthert believeditwould have wonhad not the wardisrupted the competition”. However, Göthert appears to have been ill informed. None of the designs, tailless or conventional, came out on top in the end. According to the wardiary of the TLR:

116 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles “Meeting EHK in Bad Eilsen from March 20-24clearly showedthat the requirement cannot be achieved, particularly with regard to flight duration and defence. Requirements of theweapon side rest on today’sstate of the nightfighters and takenoregardfor device development. The decisivefactor forthe use of high-quality jet fighter aircraft is the development ofnew armament methods. “Joint processing by company representativesrevealed that the original TLR requirement of January 27, 1945, is to be realised. The TLR revised requirements will be published and distributed on April 2. EHK, in contrast to TLR, also requires an optimal piston-engine fighter.” But by nowitwas too late fora revised requirement. Focke-Wulf’s design offices at Bad Eilsen would fall to the British on April 8, 1945.

P1079 Evidently designed too late for inclusion in the Schlechtwetter undNachtjäger competition, Heinkel’sP1079 series of designs wasvery impressivenevertheless. The only known full report on the project wasdrafted byHeinkeldesigners Hohbach and Eichner while theywerebeing held at Landsberg-Lech air base, formerly known as Flugplatz Penzing, then under US ABOVE: The Ruldolf Gö rt’s first Gotha P60C occupation, and is datedAugust 11, 1945. design featured acrew of twositting in tandem Rather than outlining just one design, within the fuselage. It retained the flying wing shape of the P60Aand Band had both the report includes details of four differently forward-firing and oblique weaponry. sized conventional twin-jet designs and one tailless design. It would appear that a second tailless designwas also produced, but this only appears in asummary of the report included in German Aircraft: New and Projected Types. All fiveofthe known designs had anumber of features in common: two HeS 011 jetengines, four forward-firing MK 108s, two MG 151s firing rearwards, 220kg of armour plate and acrew of two. The four conventional layouts differed mainly in wing area –three of them had wings with a 35-degree sweepback and aV-tail, but with wing areas of 30sqm, 35sqm, and 45sqm. The fourthhad 30sqm wings but with asharper 45-degree sweepback. The landing gear wastobe of atype developed forthe unbuilt He 343 bomber. The tailless design, detailed in asupplement to the main report, had awing area of 41.5sqm and was expected to be faster than the conventional designs, with a top speed of 1015km/h at sea leveland 910km/h at an altitudeof11,000m. It was also projected to have greater range. While the conventional layout P1079 certainly existed in someform before the warended, it is unclear whether the tailless version or versions were also designed beforethe collapse or later by the Heinkel team in captivity at Penzing. • Luftwaffe:Secret Project Profiles 117 Miscellaneous jets

Loose ends Miscellaneous jets There are numerous Second World War German jet designs which don’t ﬁteasily into any particular competition or lineage. These oddities are collected here.here.

118 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles Acentrally positioned turbojet and twin-boom tail are the main differences between the Strahljäger III and the two other BMW 003 designs from the November 3, 1944 report. The Strahljäger III also had an extremely shortnosewheel leg, with the wheel itself barely clearing the bottom of the fuselage.

Luftwaffe: Secret Project Proﬁles 119 Miscellaneous jetsjets

ABOVE: BMW’s Strahljäger Idesign had its BMW 003 turbojet installed within the central section of the fuselage, fed by anose intake. Dating from November 3, 1944, after the He 162 had already been chosen as the Volksjäger,it seems unlikely anyone ever expected it to be built.

BMW SINGLE JET FIGHTERS ABOVE: Similar in some ways to the Strahljäger III, the Strahljäger IV As one of the three biggest aeroengine differed in having amuch larger BMW 018 turbojet in its lower fuselage manufacturers in Germany during the Second and in having swept wings. Overall, it was asubstantially larger aircraft. Wo rldWar,BMW wasconstantly in contact with the aircraft constructors –liaising over existing models and potential futuredesigns. turbojet exhausting belowitand ‘Strahljäger Handrick produced the seminalP11 In addition to the ongoing development III’ has acentrally positioned turbojet on September 13, afast bomber intended for of its war-critical BMW 801 piston engine, exhausting between the fins of atwin-boom the long-running Schnellbomber competition and piston engines it hoped would soon reach tail. The final design, known as ‘Strahljäger which wasongoing at that time, and one of series production such as the BMW 802 and IV’, waspowered by aBMW 018 and was Lippisch’slongest-serving staff members, Josef 803, the company wasalso at the forefront of somewhat larger than the other three. Hubert, produced the P12some 17 days later. developing both turbojet and rocket engines. None of these designs went any Loosely resembling the earlier P01designs, Towardsthe end of the war, the BMW 003 further than BMW’sreport. it wasoffered with twodifferent wing forms turbojet became increasingly important in the –either an 11m wingspan or 14.8m –and two minds of those planning forthe Luftwaffe’s MESSERSCHMITT P12 different tailfins, arelatively conventional requirements and the troubled BMW 018 It is possible to determine the origin and short one which gave the aircraft a length wasalso perceived to have great potential. purpose of nearly every design worked on of 7m and aswept one which increased the Just as the company had come up with by Messerschmitt’sAbteilung Lduring overall length by 60cm. The pilot sat beneath aseries of bomber designs to showcase its its morethan four years in existence abubble canopyand above ahuge, sharply products, in EZS-Bericht Nr.58ofNovember –with the exception of the P12. angled intakefor the massiveengine. 3, 1944, it appears to have done the same with This extremely bulky fighter,appearing Armament wasapair of long-barrelled fighters –presenting four configurations in adrawing dated September 30, 1942, was MG 151s or possibly MK 103s and the drawing which leaned on the latest aerodynamic forms designed around BMW’senormous shows acylindrical object under each wing being reported on by experimental institutions P3303 turbojet project, later to be renamed –probably abomb, although these areonly such as the AVAand LFA.While the four the BMW 018, at atime when fewother shown in the forwardviewand not the side look quite different from one another at first manufacturers were considering it. or top views. Large as it is foranAbteilung L glance, the first three all have exactlythe At that time, Abteilung Lwas locked into design, the aircraft wasintended toland on a same straight wing shape with swept leading an increasingly bitter disagreement with skid and presumably would have had to edge and areall poweredbythe BMW 003. The Professor Messerschmitt himself following the takeoff using acatapult or trolley second and fourth designs have avery similar P10/Me 329 debacle outlined elsewhereinthis undercarriage since it lacks any fuselage and tail design, and all four have a publication. As department head Alexander other sort of undercarriage. nose intakeand atricycle undercarriage. Lippisch and his twolieutenants Wa lter Exactly what the P12was The first design, known as ‘Strahljäger Stender and Dr Hermann Wurster argued intended to demonstrate or what I’, has atwin-tail with the high-position among themselves and with Messerschmitt, requirement it wasintended to turbojet exhausting above it, ‘Strahljäger II’ the remainder of Abteilung Lseems to meet is unclear.Lippisch would later has aconventional tail with the low-position have simply got on with its projects work. return to the P11and reworkitextensively

120 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles LEFT:The BMW Strahljäger II looks somewhat different from the Strahljäger Ibut the two are actually quite similar –they both had aBMW 003 engine, both had anose intakeand their wings were largely the same. The Strahljäger II differed in having amore conventional tail, its turbojet in the lower partofthe central fuselage and aprone pilot position. Aconventional seated pilot position is shown as an option on the original drawing.

BELOW: Abteilung L’ sP12was to have been powered by aBMW P3303 –later to become the BMW 018. But where BMW’s own 018-powered design was drawn up in November 1944, the P12dates from more than twoyears earlier – September 1942. Had it been built, theP12would have been averybulky aircraftand landing it on abelly skid might have been tricky.

BELOW:The Messerschmitt P20was Abteilung L’ s ﬁ nal design. Although it looks similar to the P12, it was actually much smaller –being essentially aturbojet-powered Me 163.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 121 Miscellaneous jets

extensively but the P12was left on the shelf –perhaps because the BMW P3303 never materialised as aviable production model, evenafter its redesignation as the BMW 018.

MESSERSCHMITT P20AND P1092 Over six and ahalf months later,onApril 19, 1943, the final Abteilung Ldesign wasdetailed in anew report –the P20. Likethe P12, this was asingle jet fighter but unlikethe P12itwas much closer to the Me 163 Binscale thanks to the much moremodestly sizedd JJumoumo 004 C fitted centrally within its stubbyfy fuselage.uselage. In fact, the report notes that thehe P20is effectively an Me 163 Bwith ajet,t,rraatherther than rocket, engine. The drawing appendedended to the report is by Wurster.But at leastthe P20had apurpose –onJune 23, nearly twoommonthsonths after Abteilung L’sdissolution, it wasiincluded in areport comparing the qualitiesof single-jet fighters with those of the Me 2622 alongside twoversions of the P1092. The latteratter wascloser to the Me 262 in the shape of its fuselage and tail but with its single engine positioned much likethat of the P20, centrally on the underside of the fuselage, venting beneath the up-raised tail.il. The P20/P 1092/Me 262 reportort concluded that therewas little to be gainedfrom installing only asingle Jumo 004 Csince thehee enginengine was not quite powerful enough to produceduce the desired performance. This seems to haveebeen where Messerschmitt’ssingle-jet fighter development ground to ahalt foralmost ayear –uptothe beginning of the 1-TL-Jäger competition. RIGHT:The Messerschmitt MESSERSCHMITT P1112 P1112 of March 3, 1945, with Jumping forwardtothe very end of the 1-TL- wing intakes. Jäger,another series of Messerschmitt designs appeared right at the end of the war–P1112. This wasthe company’sfinal project. After the EHK meeting at the end of February, none of Messerschmitt’sthree entries had succeeded in defeating the other competitors. So Messerschmitt ditched all three and started a BELOW:This undated design with fuselage slot intakes presumably newproject which combined the best elements sits somewhere between the wing intakeversion of March 3and the of the most advanced two–the P1110 and longerfuselage intakeversion of March 27. P1111. The P1112 has arefined version of the P1111’stailless layout and in some versions the annular or side intakes of the P1110. The British summary of the project in German Aircraft: Newand Projected Types reads: “The P1112 wasdesigned to correct some of the faults which became apparent after study of the P1111. “The wing area wasreduced to 236.5sq ft since it wasfelt that the wing loading could be increased. The pilot’scockpit is situated at the extreme nose of the aircraft and 2 xMK108 guns arefitted in the wing. “The remainder of the design closely resembles the P1111. Performance calculations were not completed.” InterviewedonSeptember 7, 1945, by the British, the head of Messerschmitt’sproject office, Wo ldemar Vo igt, said: “P 1101, P1106, RIGHT: Undated P1110, P1111, P1112. Aproject investigation Messerschmitt of the single-engined jet fighter P1112 with wasbeing carried out. The project long fuselage drawings areknown here, Iassume. and wing “A final conclusion had not been intakes. drawnuntil the end of the war; the results secured by that time were:aspeed of

122 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles LEFT:Messerschmitt’s single-jet P1092 1000kph (620mph) is obtainable and had was compared against the Me 262 been guaranteed to the government. and P20but the Me 262 beat both of them on performance and overall “The tailless designs P1111 and P1112 cost –despite having two turbojets showedthe best performance out of the instead of one. hitherto completed project series. Theyhad the special advantage of combining best max speed with best landing speed. Theyseem to be dangerous at high Mach numbers (pitching moments). It seems to be possible to reach the same performance with moreconventional designs (or even to exceed it) with less risk.”

ARADO TL-JÄGER AND K-JÄGER As previously mentioned, Arado put forward designs forarocket fighter,jet fighter and combination rocket and jet fighter in its Vo rschlag für die We iterentwicklung schneller LEFT:Messerschmitt Zweisitzer or ‘Proposal forthe development P1112 of March 27, 1945, with fuselage of afast two-seater’ report of August 11, 1943. intakes. The section of the report that deals with the interceptors, Appendix 2, begins: “Previewoffuturetechnical and tactical possibilities of next-step fighter aircraft. General requirements forafighter to combat rapid aircraft. “For rapid aircraft flying at high altitude, despite awell-organised reporting system, defensivefighters have little time to go on the attack. Therefore, avery large rate of climb is absolutely necessary and aircraft with Otto engines must be separated from those with moresuitable propulsion. “The fighter must be at least equipped with jet engines, but would not be significantly superior to the enemy in this arrangement. Above all, the rate of climb would still be regarded as insufficient, since the altitude greatly decreases the thrust of jet devices, which means a significant decrease in the rate of climb. “By contrast, with arocket-poweredfighter (herecalled R-Jäger) large rates of climb and steep climb angle arepossible, but due to the high specific fuel consumption has completely inadequate range, wherebythe possibility of adogfighting battle is called into question. “If one wants to succeed with afighter against arapid opponent, one must combine high-altitude performance with climbing speed, long range and horizontal velocity. Even under these conditions, asuccessful interception will be possible only with excellent reporting and guidance to the target. “These conditions areonly applicable when the fighter is equipped both with aturbojetengine and an intermittently connectable rocket engine. This combination fighter (herecalled K- Jäger) alone has the potential to fight and destroy rapid opponents.” The report then goes on to outline the equipment, advantages and disadvantages of the TL-Jäger,R-Jäger and K-Jäger beforeconcluding that the K-Jäger offers the best performance. However,the designs appear to have been drawnuptomakeapoint –rather than to provideabasis forreal aircraft.

ARADO’S E581-4 AND -5 Little is known about Arado’soutlandish single jet flying wing fighter series –E581. The series seems to have begun in mid-November 1944 and the earliest known version is the E581-2, which wastobepowered by the

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 123 Miscellaneous jets

BMW 003. It had awing sweepback of 46 to be joined by an intermediate layerofglued degrees, mid-wing fins forcontrol, a740 litre dural and wood, which wastoberiveted to RIGHT: The Arado E581-5 has a fuel tank and twoMK108 cannon. By January the steel part and glued to the wooden part. similar appearance to the E581-4 but with areshaped intake. 1945, the design had evolvedinto the E581-4 AV-tail with end-plate rudders wasto and E581-5, each of which wastobepowered by be fitted which were to be made entirely of asingle HeS 011 –putting the small fighter into wood. The engine, lying on the back of the the same category as the 1-TL-Jäger designs. aircraft, wastobeeither aBMW 003 or Jumo However, no evidence has yetcome to 004 with the HeS 011 replacing whichever light suggesting that the E581 wasever waschosen when it became available. submitted or considered forthe 1-TL-Jäger The hydraulically actuated undercarriage competition. The only surviving period wasatricycle arrangement and the main documentation appears to be abundle of legs were to be wide gauge, folding into the notes and 3-viewdrawings of the latter two wing roots. The nosewheel at the forward designs, produced by Arado designer Braun tip of the fuselage turned sideways while at Landeshut and dated March 1945. retracting to lie flat under the pilot’slegs. Armament varied according to the engine HENSCHEL HS 132 fitted. With aBMW 003, it would feature The Hs 132 evidently resulted from Henschel’s just twoMG151 cannon with 250 rounds ownexperience with dive-bomber aircraft, each, plus abomb load totalling 1250kg or rather than from acompetition to design 1500kg under the fuselage. The greater ajet-propelled Stuka. The company had thrust provided by the HeS 011 however, realised that asmall well-armoured ground- would allowfor four MG 151s with 250 rounds attack aircraft moving very fast would be each and abomb load of 1500kg or 2000kg. almost impossible to intercept and extremely The aircraft’ssafedivespeed wastobe difficult foranti-aircraft firetoshoot down. 950km/h (590mph). To pspeed in levelflight The aircraft boreamarkedresemblance to with aBMW 003 wastobearelatively meagre Heinkel’sHe162 with the notable exception 650km/h (403mph) carrying a500kg bomb of its prone pilot position cockpit. Inside, load, or 780km/h (484mph) without the the pilot wastolie on acouch pressed out of bombs. With aHeS 011 levelflight without 8mm thick armour,behind a75mm thick abomb load would be 830km/h (515mph). RIGHT:The small single-jet disc of armoured glass. The cabin opened Wo rk had begun on three prototypes Arado E581-4 ﬁghter.While downwards normally but therewas an of the Hs 132 when the warended. it looks ‘fat’ when viewed emergencyupper exit in the case of abelly side-on, from above the landing. The fuel tanks, to the rear of the HENSCHEL P135 design is something like an fuselage, were self-sealing and the wing roots Twotailless single-seat fighter projects arrow-shaped ﬂying wing. could also house an unprotected tank each. were worked oninparallel by Henschel from The aircraft wastobebuilt mainly of wood late 1944 to early 1945. The first, and steel,steel,w withiththeuseof the use oflig lighthtallo alloykykepeptttoa to a P 130, was to be powered by a Jumo 213 piston minimum. Steel and wooden components were engine but no drawing of it appears to have

BELOW:The Arado TL-Jäger or ‘turbojet fighter’was asimple design, looking something liketheearly fighter version of the Ar 234. Arado argued that turbojets alone would be insufficient for atruly high-performance fighter due to their slow acceleration.

RIGHT:Another undated Messerschmitt P1112, this time with V-tail as well as fuselage intakes.

124 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles LEFT: Arado Kombinationsjäger –abbreviated to ‘K-Jäger’inthe text of the 1943 reportin the beginning of March 1945 mentions which it appears. It had acombination of jet and rocket propulsion, giving it the best of both aHenschel entry.However, according to worlds according to Arado. the March 5toMarch 15, 1945, section of survived. The P135, on the other hand, is the wardiary of the Chef der Te chnische known from at least twoperiod drawings. Luftrüstung or ‘Head of Te chnical Air Force Likethe Arado E581, it wasinitially to have Armament’, the office of General Ulrich been fitted with the BMW 003 and later the Diesing, under the heading of ‘1 TL-Projekt’: HeS 011. The jet engine, whicheveritended “FL-E required the following projects: 1) up being, would be fitted centrally within Junkers, B&V,and modified FW project. the fuselage behind astraight cylindrical 2) Mtt. Optimal solution. Recently,EHK duct from anose intake. The pilot wastobe proposed that in addition to 2) Fa. Henschel positioned on aseat which could be reclined be used as asecond solution forthe optimal very farback, to protect him from the effects solution (based on the work of Dr Zobel).” of g-force during high-speed dogfighting. The outcome of the February 27-28 The wing had an unusual double kink 1-TL-Jäger meeting had been Focke- design. Early on the entirety of the wing Wulf’sNr. 279 design being chosen as an wasswept back, but the last design had ‘immediate solution’ and shortly thereafter forward-swept wingtips. The tricycle awarded the designation Ta 183, with undercarriage all retracted into the Messerschmitt’sdesign, presumably fuselage so that the wing surfaces could the P1111, being chosen as an ‘optimal becompletely smooth and unaffected by the solution’ forlonger term development. Now lumps and bumps of wheel wells and doors. it appeared that Junkers’ EF 128 design, Top speed with the BMW 003 was the Blohm &Voss P212 and the Ta 183 expected to be 930km/h or 1010km/h were all being regarded as ‘immediate with the HeS 011. Maximum ceiling with solutions’ with Henschel being tacked both was14-15km (46,000-50,000ft). on alongside Messerschmitt’sfighter Ithas been suggested that the P135 as adevelopment forthe future. Given was Henschel’sentry forthe 1-TL-Jäger the advanced state of development that competition but that the entry wastoo late severalofthe other projects had reached, to beconsidered. Certainly,none of the it seems unlikely that Henschel’sP135 documentation forthe competition up to would ever have been aserious contender.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 125 Miscellaneousous jets

BELOW:The Henschel P122 is only known from asingle drawing in the Allied postwar report German Aircraft: New and Projected Types. It was to be ahigh altitude bomber powered by two BMW 018s but details such as the shape of its cockpit canopy remain the subject of debate.

HENSCHEL P12222 One of the best knownown but most elusive Henschel projectso offt thehe waristhe twin-jet P122. It wasfeaturededinL in Luftwafuftwaffe: Secret Wings of thee ThirdReich and appeared in an artworworkbyRonnie Olsthoorn on the contentsontents pages. The only knownn documentation on it appears in British postwartreport t GermanG Aircraft: Newand Projected Types: “This Henschel bomber project has alow wing without dihedral but with moderate sweepback. Thereisnotailplane but the normal fin and rudder has been retained. In plan the fuselage has asharply pointed nose. The span is approximately 70ft and the overall length 38ft. TwoBMW 018 turbojet units, each developing 7500lb static thrust, areslung belowthe wing. With acrew of two the aircraft has anormal all-up weight of 33,100lb (bomb load not stated). The maximum speed is 627mph at sea leveland 580mph at 33,000ft. The rate of climb at sea levelis 11,200ft/min. The maximum range is 690 miles at 33,000ft and 1240 miles at 55,700ft.” ABOVE: The ﬁnal formofHenschel’s P135. The company’s chief Thereisonly one known original drawing designer, Friedrich Nicolaus, told Allied interrogators that it was available, from the same report, and nothing to have forward-swept wingtip and arather reclined pilot seat. else. Perhaps one daythe original P122 document will be discovered, but fornow this unusual design remains largely ‘unknown’.

BLOHM &VOSS NURFLÜGEL-TL-JÄGER Blohm &Voss designer Thieme produced drawing number Ae 607 on February 5, 1945, showing avery odd-looking aircraft. It was labelled “Nurflügel-TL-Jäger” or ‘all-wing jet fighter’ and had not only a45-degree sweepback but also an offset cockpit which allowedavery narrow wingg pprofile. This also meant that therecooulduld be adirect and uninterrupted flowofairirf fromromt thehe circular intakeatthe tip of thew winging to the HeS 011 engine at the rear.Smalllffoorward-sweptrward-swept whisker-likecanards atthe front of the fuselage would have presumablyesumably loweredthe landing speed to an acceptableeptable level, and the four-wheel undercarriage,ge, with twolarge wheels at the front, twossmallermaller ones at the

126 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles rear,would have kept the engine intakeaway from any surface debris in arough landing area. The Blohm &Voss Nurflügel-TL-Jäger was probably intended to showcase ideas forsolving particular problems facing designers when deciding on alayout forfighters and never received a‘P’ number.For years, the Nurflügel- TL-Jäger wasregarded as a‘fake’but has now been proven to be areal lifewartime design.

BLOHM &VOSS P196 While other companies focused their efforts on designing fighters and bombers, Blohm & Vo ss attempted to carveaniche foritself as adesigner of ground-attack aircraft –much as Henschel had. One of its late-war designs forthis role was the innovativeP196. Dating from early April 1944, this twin-boom design waspowered by apair of BMW ‘special engines’, which undoubtedly meant BMW 003s, positioned side-by-side under acentral nacelle. This housed the pilot and weaponry comprising two MG 151s with 200 rounds each plus a single 55mm Rheinmetall MK 412 with 50 rounds. Apparently an alternativeload was apair of MK103s. Therewas asmall bomb bayinthe forwardsection of each boom capable of housing one SC 250 or one SC 500. The P 196 had aconventional undercarriage, with atail wheel on the end of each boom and main wheels retracting

ABOVE: Henschel’s single-jet P135 as it appeared in January1945. It was atailless design withanunusual wing planform when viewed from above.

LEFT:Much of the material which must have existed on Henschel’s Hs 132 jet dive-bomber has been lost but the type certainly got as far as prototype production. The aircraftwas to have had averystrong structure to withstand the rigours of repeated high-speed diving.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 127 Miscellaneous jets

into the wing. All-up weight was9120kg. Although these basic specifications concerning the P196 can be verified from Blohm &Voss documents, little else is known about the type’sbackground.

BLOHM &VOSS P197 This advanced-looking single-seat fighter – probably dating from April to May 1944 – was poweredbytwo Jumo 004s fitted side-by-side in the rear end of the fuselage. This arrangement waspossible thanks to the sweepback of the lowwing. According to German Aircraft: New and Projected Types: “Apart from the fact that the tailplane is mounted at the top of the fin the front elevation is rather likethat of the Me 262.” Armament consisted of twoMK103s underneath the cockpit and an MG 151/20 on either side. The intakes forthe jet units were in the nose just forwardofthe leading edge. RIGHT:Another design Unusually,theywerepositioned facing slightly disﬁgured by the downwards and were thereforepartially enormous BMW 018 masked when looked at directly from the turbojet was Blohm front. Estimated maximum speed was660mph. &Voss’s P198 high- Again, little else is known about the P197. altitude ﬁghter.The position of the wings relative to the underside BLOHM &VOSS P198 of the fuselage meant Poweredbyasingle very large BMW 018, that the aircraftwould the P198 wasapparently designed as a have needed to high-altitude fighter.Ithad arelatively have extremely long conventional layout except foravery deep undercarriage legs. fuselage to accommodate the turbojet and bulges on the underside of the wing roots to accommodate its undercarriage main wheels when retracted. The armoured cabin was in the aircraft’snose and the armament wasa single MK 412 and apair of MG 151/20s. It probably dated from mid-1944 but no other data about it hasyet been discovered. •

128 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles LEFT:The twin-boom Blohm &Voss P196 was to be atwin-jet ground- attack aircraftwith four cannon in its nose and bomb bays in its booms.

BELOW:TheBlohm &Voss P197 was asurprisingly modern-looking ﬁghter powered byapair of Jumo 004s.

LEFT:For years it was assumed that this outlandish Blohm &Voss design was pure fantasy –until an original drawing was discovered which proves its authenticity. The aircraftwould have had two ordinary- sized undercarriage mainwheels at the front, and another two verysmall ones to the rear.Italso had small ‘whisker’type canards beside its nose intake.

Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles 129 Profile colour scheme index by Daniel Uhr

AIRCRAFT SQUADRON SEASON AIRCRAFT SQUADRON SEASON

Me 262 early FactoryGermany43 B&V P209.01 JG 52 Germany, 45 P01-116 VIII./JG 52 Eastern Front B&V P209.02 JG 54 Germany, 45 P01-111 I./JG 51 Germany, May 45 B&V P212.01 JG 7Germany, 45 P01-113 III./JG 1Germany, 45 B&V P212.02 JG 300 Germany, 45 P01-116 (June 41) Test Germany, 42 B&V P212.02-01 JG 53 Germany, 45 B&V P212.03 JV 301 Germany, 45 Me 262 Schnellbomber (Avia S. 92) 5. LP CZ, 50 B&V P212.03 JV 44 Germany, 45 Me 262 Schnellbomber Ia KG 54 Germany, Mar 45 Ju EF 128 early JG 2Germany, 45 Me 262 Scnnellbomber II JG 1Germany, May 45 Ju EF 128 late JG 52 Germany, 45 Me 262 Aufklarer IKG54CapturedbyUStroops Me 262 Aufklarer Ia 2./KG 51 Germany, Feb45 Ar 580 N/A Germany, 44 Me 262 Aufklarer II JV 44 Germany, Feb45 Fw Volksflugzeug KG(J) 6Germany, 45 Me 262 Interzeptor IIII./EJG 2Germany, Nov 44 Fw Flitzer JG 27 Libya, 44 Me 262 Interzeptor II VII./EJG 2Germany, Nov 44 Ju Projekte JG 1Germany, 45 Me 262 Interzeptor III Eprobungs Kommando Germany, 1944 He P1073 N/A Germany, Feb45 Me 262 HG III III./KG(J) 54 CZ, May 45 B&V P210 JG 5Germany, 45 B&V P211.01 JG 11 Germany, 45 Ar 234 pfeilflügel KG 76 Germany, 44 B&V P211.02 JG 53 Germany, 45 Ar 234 fighter III./KG 26 Germany, Apr45 Skoda P.14 N/A Germany, 45 Me P01-114 N/A Captured by Red Army He P1080 III./JG 2Germany, 45 Me P01-116 244th Sentai Kofu, Japan, 45 Me 262 Lorin III./JG 27 Germany, 45 Me P01-117 101st Sentai Okinawa, Japan, 44 Fw Triebflugeljäger FW companyGermany,44 Me P01-118 2./ JG 400 Germany, 45 Fw Strahlrohrjäger III. /JG 4Germany, 44 Me P01-119 2./ JG 400 Germany, 45 Li P13a JG 26 Germany, 44 Me P05N/A Germany, Nov 43 Me P09N/A Germany, Oct 42 Ar E560 1II. /KG 200 Germany, 45 Me P1104 JG 54 Germany, 45 Ar E395 KG 76 Germany, 45 Fi 166 I7./KG 54 Germany, 44 Me P1100 5. /KG100 Denmark, 45 Fi 166 II 7./KG 54 Germany, 44 Me P1100 5. /KG100 Germany, 45 BP 20 Natter early N/A Germany, March 45 B&V P188.01 13. /KG40Holland, 44 BP 20 Natter late N/A Germany, May 45 B&V P188.02 N/A Germany, 45 Ju EF 127 Walli JG 2Germany, May 45 B&V P188.04 4. /KG 100 France, 45 He Julia IN/A Austria -Vienna, Dec 44 He 343 KG74 Germany, 45 He Julia II N/A Austria -Vienna, Dec 44 Me P1107/I I. /KG 40 France, 45 Me 163 Clate RA 31 Gruppo 18 Stormo Rome 44 Me P1107/II I. /KG 40 France, 45 Me 263 late N/A Sion, Switzerland, Nov 45 Ju 287 6. KG 100 France, 45 Ar 381 JG 1Germany, 44 HXVIII KG 55 France, 45 Ar R-Jäger JG 11 Germany, 43 Me P1108 5. /KG 1EastPrussia, 45 Stockel 1JG6 Germany, 45 Ju EF 130 I. /KG 40 France, 45 Stockel 2KG(J) 54 Germany, 45 BMW bomber II/KG4 Germany, 45 Stockel 3N/A Germany, 45 BMW bomber II II/LG 1Crete, 45 Stockel 4N/A Germany, 44 (scheme from V2) DB projects 1N/A Germany, 45 Stockel 5JG26Germany, 44 DB projects 2N/A Germany, 45 Fw SO Flugzeug IN/A Germany, 45 Me 262 B-2 I/NJG 1Germany, 45 Ar 234 P-5 II./NJG 1Germany, 45 B&V P215.01 NJG 2Germany, 45 Do P254 IV./NJG 5Germany, 45 B&V P215.02 NJG 1Germany, 45 Me 262 3-seater II./NJG 3Germany, 44 He P1079 (N)JG 53 Germany, 45 Ar 1. Entwurf NJG 1Germany, 45 Me P09JG54Germany, 42 Ar 2. Entwurf NJG 1Germany, 45 Me P010 JG 54 Western front, 44 Ar 3. Entwurf II./ NJG 4Germany, 45 Me P11III. /KG54Germany, 45 Ar 5. Entwurf I./ JG 300 Germany, 45 Me P11III. /KG54Germany, 44 Ar 6. Entwurf NJG 1Germany, 45 Li P11early III./ KG 76 Germany, 44 Ar 7. Entwurf NJG 1Germany, 45 Li P11lateI./ (Jabo) JG 53 Hungary, 44/45 Ar 9. Entwurf 4./ NJG 3Denmark, 45 Ho 8-229 single seater III./ KG 30 Germany, 44/45 Fw Nachtjäger Entwurf II 3./ NJG 3Germany, 45 Ho 8-229 two-seater II. /KG30Germany, 44/45 Fw Nachtjäger Entwurf III I. /NJG 4Germany, 45 Fw bomber early I./ KG 51 Germany, 45 Fw Nachtjäger Entwurf IV JG 300 Germany, 45 Fw bomber fuselage 10./ LG 1Greece, 44 Fw Nachtjäger Entwurf V10./ (N)JG 77 Germany, 45 Fw bomber tailless II./ KG 30 Germany, 44/45 Do P256 NJG 2Germany, 45 Go P-60 Ctwo-seater 2./ NJG 1RAE, summer 1946 Me 328 BTest Germany, 44 Go P-60 Cthree-seater 2./ NJG 1Germany, 45 Me 328 sweptTest Germany, 44 He Romeo JV 44 Germany, 45 Me P01-115 III./JG 27 Germany, 44 Ju EF 126 Elli N/A Germany, 45 Me P12EJG 1Germany, 45 B&V P213 N/A Germany, 45 Me P20JG4 Germany, 44 Me P1092 3. /JG 51 Germany, 44 He P1073.02 SKJ Iraq -Mosul,45 Me P1112 JG 77 Germany, 44 He P1073.11 JG 54 Germany, 45 Me P1112 (V1) 3. /JG 26 Germany, 45 He P1073 (advanced) I./ JG 77 Germany, 45 Me P1112 (S2) N/A Germany, 45 He P1078 early JG 54 Germany, 45 Me P1112 (Mar 27 45) JG 4Germany, 45 He P1078 late JG 54 Germany, 45 Me P1112 (Mar 345) KG(J) 54 Germany, 45 Fw 190 with turbojet 6. /JG 4Sweden 45 Me P1073 N/A Germany, 45 Fw Entwurf 1I./ JG 51 Germany, 45 BMW Strahljäger I14. /JG 26 Germany, 45 Fw Entwurf 2I./ JG 51 Germany, 45 BMW Strahljäger II JG 301 Germany, 45 Fw 1. Entwurf JG 6Germany, 45 BMW Strahljäger III 7. /JG 26 France, 45 Fw 2. Entwurf JG 3Germany, 45 BMW Strahljäger IV III. JG 3Germany, 45 Fw 3. Entwurf KG(J) 54 Germany, 45 Ar E581-4 I. JG 3Germany, 45 Fw 4. Entwurf JG 77 Tunisia, 45 Ar E581-5 JG 53 Germany, 45 Fw 5. Entwurf III. /JG 54 Germany, 45 Ar TL-Jäger 3./ JG 27 Germany, 44 Fw 6. Entwurf (Flitzer) F3 Flygflottilj Sweden, 46 Ar K-Jäger 3./ JG 27 Germany, 44 Fw II straight back Flying Wing F10 Sweden, 46 Hs P122 6. KG 77 Germany, 45 Fw II curved back 2/HLeLv 24 Finnland, 44 Hs P135 early II./SG 2Germany, May 45 Fw Ta 183 III. /JG 54 Germany, 45 Hs P135 late III./JG 3Luftwaffe in Me P1101 (early) 5/1 Puma Squadron Hungary45 Sweden, May 45 Me P1101 late Escadrille GC II/6 France, 45 Hs 132 Test Germany, 45 Me P1106 early Escuela de Caza Spain, 46 B&V Nurflügel 7. /JG 26 Germany, 45 Me P1106 late 9./ JG 3(Udet) Germany, 45 B&V P196 6. /JG 5Finland, 45 Me P1110 late Flyglotilij F11 Sweden, 46 B&V P197 III. /EJG 2Germany, 45 Me P1111 JG51 Germany, 45 B&V P198 I./JG 3Germany, Apr45

130 Luftwaffe:Secret Project Proﬁles