TYPE: Low- and medium-altitude interceptor fighter, fighter-bomber
ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only
POWER PLANT: One Napier Sabre VA liquid-cooled engine, rated 2,340 hp
PERFORMANCE: 435 mph at 17,000 ft
COMMENT: The Tempest VI was derived from the Tempest Mk. V and was powered by a Napier Sabre VA engine. The prototype flew for the first time on May 1944. It showed an excellent performance and exceeded those of the Tempest V. Consequently, orders were placed, but the Tempest VI was too late to see operational service. It was the last piston-engine fighter of the RAF entering series production before the end of WW II and 142 Tempest VI were delivered. (Ref.: 13)
POWER PLANT: One Pratt & Whitney R-2800-29 radial engine, rated at 2,000 hp
PERFORMANCE: 465 mph at 25,000 ft (estimated)
COMMENT: One of the most radical American wartime experimental fighters was Northrop’s XP-56, a unique tailless interceptor built entirely of magnesium. It was designed around the projected Pratt & Whitney X-1800 liquid cooled engine which, installed as a pusher, was to drive contra-rotating airscrews. A prototype was ordered on September 1940, but shortly after development began, Pratt & Whitney requested authority to abandon further work on the X-1800 engine. So, on July 1941, it was decided that the Pratt & Whitney R-2800-29 should be installed. In the meantime, flight trials with the Northrop N1M Flying Wing, which had an essentially similar wing of the XP-56 fighter, had confirmed the stability of the radical configuration about all three axis, and, realizing the impracticability of having only one prototype under construction, on February 1942, the U.S.A.A.F. ordered a second XP-56. Taxi trials with the first XP-56 were undertaken in April 1943 but due to many problems with the power plant the first flight was not made until September 1943. Further flights at low altitudes were completed, but during taxiing the port tire blew out and the first XP-56 was destroyed (Ref.:13).
POWER PLANT: Four Junkers Jumo 004C-1 turbojet engines, rated at 1,020 kp thrust each
PERFORMANCE: 509 mph
COMMENT: This Blohm & Voss jet bomber project was designed to carry a great bomb load and enough fuel for long distance operations. There were four different designs, P.188.01 to P.188.04. Common to all was a rather wide fuselage center section – except for the Bv P.188.04 whose fuselage was slender – designed as an armored steel shell and located in the center of gravity. This caused a special arrangement of the landing gear in all projects with twin main wheels in tandem with an auxiliary outrigger landing gear outboard from the wings. Very unusual was the W-type layout of the wings. These had a constant 3 degree dihedral with the inner section swept back to 20 degree and then a 20 degree swept forward outer section. This was calculated to give good performance at both low and high speeds. The only drawback was excessive air pressure on the wing tips, which was to be corrected by a variable incidence system which could be adjusted through 12 degrees. An advantage of this arrangement was the fact that the fuselage was constant horizontal during take-off and landing. The crew sat in a pressured, extensively glazed cockpit. Four Junkers Jumo 004 C-1 turbojets were mounted in four single nacelles, two beneath each wing, again except for the Bv P.188.04 where two engines were combined in one nacelle on each side. Both designs of the Bv P.188.01 and Bv P.188.03 had a single fin and rudder design and an airbrake at the tail, while the Bv P.188.02 and Bv P.188.04 were of a twin fin and rudder design, with a dihedral tail-plane and the extreme tail had a remote-controlled FDL 131 Z twin 13mm machine guns firing to the rear. All these futuristic designs remained on the drawing boards (Ref.: 17).
POWER PLANT: Two Continental XI-1430-17/19 liquid-cooled engines, rated at 1,350 hp each
PERFORMANCE: 405 mph at 25,000 ft
COMMENT: In 1939 the McDonnnell Aircraft Corporation submitted the Army Air Corps proposals for a long-range fighter with an unconventional design. The engine, an Allison V-3420-B2 or Pratt and Whitney H-3130, both with two-stage superchargers, was buried in the fuselage aft of the pilot, and driving two pusher airscrews aft of the wings by means of an extension shaft and right-angle gear drives. After further changes in the design studies in 1941 the project received the designation XP-67, and two prototypes were ordered. McDonnell design team attempted to maintain true aerofoil sections throughout the entire fighter, the centre fuselage and the rear portions of the engine nacelles merging to give the aircraft a unique appearance. Power was provided by two Continental XI-1430-1 engines fitted with General ElectricD-2 turbo-superchargers driving four-blade airscrews and using the exhaust to augment thrust. By December 1943 the first XP-67 was completed and ground trials began immediately. The aircraft eventually flew the first time on January 6, 1944, but after a few minutes the flight was terminated in an emergency landing due to difficulties with the experimental engines. Flight trials continued throughout the summer 1944 resulting in several changes in the design and on September 1944 the XP-67 was irreparably damaged by fire resulting in the termination of the development contract (Ref.: 13).
POWER PLANT: One Bristol Centaurus XV radial engine, rated at 2,400 hp
PERFORMANCE: 455 mph at 24,000 ft
COMMENT: The fortuitous presentation of a Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-3 to the RAF in 1942 had profound influence on fighter-design thinking in the U.K. The authorities were surprised by the maneuverability, speed, and handling characteristics of this light-weight fighter. Thus, specification F.6/42 was released and Hawker Aviation offered a design called “Tempest Light Fighter (Centaurus)”. Earlier in 1941 the Hawker design team already had several projects as follower of the Hawker “Tempest”, a Sabre IV-powered P.1018, the Griffon 61-powered P 1019, and the Centaurus IV-powered P.1020. But all these remained in a project status. Early 1943 it was decided to combine the new specification F.2/43 for a land-based fighter and N.7/43 for a naval interceptor. Thus the responsibility for the development and construction of the land-based fighter (“Fury”) was taken by Hawker and Boulton-Paul accepting the task of adapting the aircraft for shipboard operations (“Sea Fury”). By December 1943 six prototypes had been ordered, two of these being powered by the Griffon, two by the Centaurus XXII, one by the Centaurus XII, the remaining prototype being a test structure. In April 1944 orders were placed for 200 F2/43 fighters for the R.A.F. and 200 fighters for the Royal Navy. The first flight of the Centaurus-powered prototype flew on September 1944, the second on November that year with the Griffon 85 engine, driving three-blade contra-rotating propellers. However, the third Fury prototype flew on July 1945 with the Centaurus XV engine. With the termination of the hostilities, the R.A.F. by now committed to a jet programme, cancelled all production contracts except a small number of “Sea Fury’s” for other foreign Allied Air Forces. (Ref.: 12).
POWER PLANT: One BMW 803, a combination of two BMW 801 radial engines, coupled back to back, rated at 3,847 hp, driving three-bladed contra-rotating propellers
PERFORMANCE: 354 mph
COMMENT: This very unorthodox Blohm & Voss design of a single-engine heavy attack bomber dates back to 1942. Basic concept was the construction of a heavy aircraft around the most powerful engines available in Germany at that time. Two versions were proposed to the RLM differing primarily in the power units. While the Bv P. 163.01 was powered by a Daimler-Benz DB 613C liquid-cooled engine, a side-by-side arrangement of two DB 603G engines, rated together at 3,800 hp, the Bv P. 163.02 was to be powered by a BMW 803 engine, a back-to-back combination of two BMW 801 radial engines, rated at 3,850 hp. All engines drove three-blades, contra-rotating propellers. Very unusual were the location of the cockpits for crew-members. The pilot and navigator/radio operator sat in a nacelle located at the extreme end of port wing, with a rear gunner in a turret with two twin mounted MG 151 15mm machine guns to the rear. Another nacelle was located on the starboard wingtip and was manned by two gunners, one firing a machine gun forward from the front and a second from turret on the top of the nacelle, the other gunner sat in a turret at the rear, also with two machine guns. The bomb-bay was located mid-fuselage, over-load bombs could be carried under wing-root mounted racks. In order to test this unusual arrangement an asymmetrical Blohm & Voss Bv 141 was equipped with a second cockpit installed on the wingtip, the controls coupled with those in the main cockpit. The results showed that this arrangement warranted no advantage and the projects were cancelled (Ref.: 17).
POWER PLANT: One Aerojet XCARL-2000A-1 rocket engine, rated at 920 kp thrust
PERFORMANCE: 348 mph
COMMENT: In 1942, Northrop Company was working an ambitious design for a rocked driven flying wing fighter aircraft under the designation Northrop XP-79. To test the radical design, rocket-powered glider prototypes were built under the designation MX-324. Positioned on a trolley the first aircraft was towed into the air on 5 July 1944 by a Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Once released towline the rocket engine was ignited for three minutes, making the Northrop MX-324 the first US-built rocket-powered aircraft. After successful flight the aircraft landed on skids. In late 1944 the MX-324 was retrofit with a tricycle landing gear enabling take-off and landing on runways. Results from flight tests were incorporated in the final aircraft, the Northrop XP-79B (Ref.: 23)
POWER PLANT: Two Heinkel-Hirth HeS-11 turbojet engines, rated at 1,500kp
PERFORMANCE: 596 mph, estimated
COMMENT: In August 1944 the Gotha Aircraft Company was given the order of series production of the Horten Ho IX flying wing fighter, designated Go 229A. But additionally, in January 1945 the Gotha engineers proposed a series of altrenate all-wing design to the RLM which used many of the construction techniques as the Horten aircraft but had the advantage of being able to be modified with new equipment and engines without changing the flying characteristics. Three designs were proposed, and designation Gotha Go P.60A, Go P.60B, and Go P.60C was given. All were of delta-shaped., flying wing design, and powered by two turbojet engines at the rear end, one engine above the wing, the other slung under the fuselage. A two men crew sat in a pressurized and armored cockpit, located in the extreme nose. For its duty as night fighter the aircraft was equipped with the most modern radar available at that time. The Gotha Go P.60A was powered by two BMW 003A-1 turbojet engines, rated at 800 kp each, the crew laid in prone position. The Gotha Go P.60B was a further development of the P.60 series which simplified construction by utilizing an easier to build airframe and a conventional rudder. The two-seat cockpit was located behind the radar equipment in a fuselage section. The two engines were upgraded to Heinkel-Hirth HeS 011 turbojets. The RLM approved the construction of the project in 1945, but later construction of the prototype was halted in favor of the Go P.60C. This was the final design of the Gotha Go P.60 series, the P.60C night fighter. The fuselage was lengthened to accommodate the installation of the newest radar set with its “Morgenstern” (Morningstar) or the the FuG 240 “Berlin” antenna. The end of the war prevented further development (Ref.: 16).
TYPE: Twin-engined heavy fighter, ground attack aircraft
ACCOMMODATION: Pilot and radio-operator/gunner
POWER PLANT: Two Mitsubishi Ha-102 radial engines, rated at 1,050 hp each
PERFORMANCE: 335 mph at 19,685 ft
COMMENT: The Kawasaki Ki-45-Kai Toryu was probably the most manoeuvrable twin-engined fighter to be employed operationally by any combatants during WW II. Although outclassed in the air-to-air combat arena by Allied single-seat fighters, the Toryu was never to be considered an “easy kill” and it was to prove capable of out-manoeuvring the Lockheed P-38 “Lightning” without difficulty. Furthermore, the Ki-45 was very effective in ground attacks. A special version, the Ki-45-KAI-Otsu, was equipped with 20-mm Ho-3 cannon, too low-firing in air combat, but, as the Imperial Army enjoyed air superiority over the areas in which the Toryu was operating, it was found to be particularly efficacious in attacks on US Navy PT boats and other smaller vessels and in ground-attack role. In late 1943 the 20-mm Ho-3 cannon was replaced by a hand loaded 37-mm Type 98 gun, making this variant even more successful for close-support duties (Ref.: 5).
POWER PLANT: Two Mitsubishi Ha-112-II Ru radial engines, rated at 1,500 hp each
PERFORMANCE: 360 mph at 32,810 ft
COMMENT: In early 1943 intelligence reports concerning progress in the USA with the B-29 Superfortress recognized the Imperial Army Air Service that itself might eventually find confronted by bombers cruising above the effective combat ceiling of its existing fighters. So a requirement was prepared for a specialized heavy interceptor fighter capable of operating at extreme altitudes. Kawasaki proposed a derivative of its Ki-102, work on which just had commenced, featuring a pressure cabin for the pilot. As work proceeded the project was assigned the designation Ki-108. Two prototypes were ordered and flight trials began in mid 1944. Concerning the pressure cabin, it was calculated than an equivalent pressure of 9,845 ft could be maintained up to an altitude of 32,810 ft, but there were serious misgivings concerning the vulnerability of such a cabin to battle damage. These were answered in somewhat unexpected fashion, for, during early flight tests, an insecure lock resulted in the entry hatch blowing out at an altitude of some 33,000 ft with an immediate loss of pressure in consequence. The pilot immediately dived the aircraft and landed safely, indicating that the effect of a bullet penetration the pressure cabin would not be particularly hazardous. Further modifications resulted in the Kawasaki Ki-108-KAI (Ref.: 5).
Kawasaki Ki-108
Kawasaki Ki-108
Kawasaki Ki-108
Kawasaki Ki-108
Kawasaki Ki-108
Kawasaki Ki-108
Kawasaki Ki-108
Kawasaki Ki-108
Kawasaki Ki-108
Kawasaki Ki-108
Kawasaki Ki-108
Kawasaki Ki-108
Kawasaki Ki-108
Kawasaki Ki-108
Kawasaki Ki-108
Scale 1:72 aircraft models of World War II
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