TYPE: Fighter, interceptor. Project.

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: Heinkel-Hirth HeS 011, rated at 1,300 kp

PERFORMANCE: 612 mph at 22,970 ft

COMMENT: However, there is some evidence that a further production version of the Me P.1101 was on Messerschmitt’s drawing boards. All over dimensions, turbojet engines, tricycle undercarriage etc. are unchanged to its predecessor, the wing was swept back to 40 degree and a normal or horizontal tail unit – “T-Tail” was provided. Cockpit armor was fitted and up to four Kramer X-4 air-to-air guided missiles could be carried.

RUHRSTAHL/KRAMER X-4

The Kramer X-4 was the first air-to-air guided missile that entered the production lines. It featured a tapering, cigar-shaped fuselage, with four small swept wings and four smaller tail fins. At the ends of two of the opposing wings were small pods which held the wires that unwound during the X-4’s flight. On the wing tips of the other two main wings were simple flares to aid the pilot in keeping the X-4 on the intended path. The tail unit contained small spoilers which could control the missiles pitch and yaw. Power was supplied by the BMW 109-548 liquid-fuel rocket engine with 1,600 kp thrust for 33 seconds. A warhead weighing 20 with a destructive blast radius of 25 feet was mounted in the nose of the missile, being detonated by the pilot, impact or by an acoustical proximity fuse, tuned to the pitch of the bomber’s propellers. First air launched test took place on August, 1944 by a Focke-Wulf  Fw 190. Tests continued through early February 1945, also by Junkers Ju 88s as well as by a Messerschmitt  Me 262 jet fighter with two X-4 missiles under the wings outboard of the jet nacelle, but were not launched  (Ref.: 16).

TYPE: Fighter, interceptor. Project

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: One Heinkel-Hirth HeS 011 turbojet engine, rated at 1,300 kp

PERFORMANCE: 550 mph at 23,000 ft

COMMENT: Although the Messerschmitt Me P.1101 was from the onset designed as an experimental aircraft different production versions were planned, too. One design was very similar to the Me P.1101 V1 as far as all over dimensions, turbojet engines, tricycle undercarriage etc. are concerned, but the wing was in a fixed position at 40 degree and a horizontal tail unit – “T-Tail” was provided. The unconditional surrender of Germany brought all further work on this exceptional aircraft to an end (Ref.: 16).

TYPE: Fighter, interceptor. Project

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: Two Lorin ramjets, rated at 900 kp each

PERFORMANCE: No data available

COMMENT: The P.1079/13 was one of several Messerschmitt designs to meet the Luftwaffe’s late-War request for a small, cheap, single-seat target-defense interceptor. This design included two wing-mounted Lorin ramjets or conventional turbojet engines. For take-off a trolley-launch system was provided and solid fuel rockets were used for acceleration until the ramjets will work. After mission the aircraft landed on a skid. No further details are known.

TYPE: Fighter. Project

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: One Heinkel-Hirth HeS 011 tubojet engines, rated at 1,300 kp

PERFORMANCE: 652 mph at 19,658 ft

COMMENT: On July 15, 1944, the RLM submitted Proposal 226/II to Germany’s aircraft manufacturers. This “Emergency Fighter Competition” specified the following requirements for the second-generation of jet-powered fighters: powered by a single Heinkel-Hirth He S 011 turbojet, maximum speed of 621 mph at 22,966 feet, fuel capacity 30 minutes of sea level flying time, altitudes up to 45,931 ft, four MK 108 30mm cannon, and pressurized cockpit. Immediately Messerschmitt began to design the project Me P.1101 and nine days later the first blueprints were on the drawing board. The fuselage was short and wide, the cockpit was forward mounted, with the canopy integrated into the fuselage and forming part of the rounded nose of the aircraft. Two round air intakes on either side of the cockpit fed the single Heinkel-Hirth turbojet engine which was located in the lower rear fuselage. Mid-mounted wings had an inner sweep of 40 degree near the fuselage, and a shallower 26 degree outboard. The high tail was of a butterfly configuration, and was mounted on a tapered boom which extended over and past the jet exhaust. A tricycle landing gear was provided and the main armament of four cannon was located in the lower forward fuselage sides. Already on August 30, 1944, a new design was proposed, basically similar to the Me P.1101/13, but sleeker and a more pointed nose. The wing was “borrowed” from the Me 262 outer wing, was swept back at 40 degrees, and a V-tail was also to be fitted. As early as November 1944 the initial design phase of the final variant was started and simultaneously the construction of a prototype began resulting in the Messerschmitt Me P.1101 V1 (Ref.: 16).

TYPE: High altitude interceptor

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only, in pressurized cockpit

POWER PLANT: One Daimler-Benz DB603V inverted V-12 liquid-cooled piston engine with Hirth TJ KL 15 turbo-charger, rated at 1,609 hp at 32,808 ft

PERFORMANCE:  435 mph at 52,493 ft

COMMENT: : Immediately after transfer of the Messerschmitt Me 155-project from Messerschmitt to Blohm & Voss the layout and the arrangement of the radiator was a topic of intensive discussion between both companies. Dr. Vogt from Blohm & Voss Company suggested a solution to delete the unpopular complex underwing radiators. As a result the Bv P.205, as the designation was officially given to that design, the aircraft was quite different in appearance to the Blohm & Voss Bv 155 V1. The clumsy wing-mounted radiators were eliminated, and the main landing gear leg attachment points were moved inboard to retract inwards. The cooling was provided by an annular frontal radiator as in the Focke-Wulf Ta 152. Large circular intakes were attached to the fuselage sides above the wing roots. The engine cowling and turbo–charger were unchanged. With the wings now free of clutter, they were considerably simpler and were reduced in span. This also had the side effect of reducing the track, which would later prove to be a welcome change. The new design would be simpler, lighter and faster, and plans were made to make it the standard version of the aircraft. The project never left the drawing board, but further development led to the Blohm & Voss Bv 155C “Spezial Höhenjäger” (Special high altitude fighter) where all radiators were located underneath the engine, allowing an aerodynamically clean airfoil. A mock-up was under construction when the war ended (Ref.: 17, 24).

TYPE: Long-range fighter. Project.

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: One Heinkel-Hirth HeS 021 turboprop engine, rated at 2,000 hp, plus 750 kp thrust

 PERFORMANCE: 560 mph in 29,500 ft

COMMENT: This Focke-Wulf design was powered by a He S 021 turboprop, located within the fuselage just behind the cockpit. The jet engine was fed by two air intakes located in each wing root. The wing was swept back 31 degrees and was mounted mid-fuselage, and the tail planes were also swept back. A tricycle landing gear arrangement was fitted. Armament was to be a single MK 103 30mm cannon firing through the propeller hub and two MG 213 20mm cannon in the lower forward fuselage. This project never left the drawing board. As far as the appearance of this project is concerned it definitively has influenced the outline of the post-war development McDonnell XF-88 “Voodoo” (Ref.: 16)

TYPE: Target-defense interceptor. Project.

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only, in seated position

POWER PLANT: One Heinkel-Hirth HeS 021 turboprop engine, rated at 2,000 hp plus 750 kp thrust, driving six-blade propeller within a circular wing

PERFORMANCE: 497 mph

COMMENT: The Heinkel “Wespe” (“Wasp”) was designed in late 1944 as a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) interceptor. It should be used as a “Punktverteidiger” (Target defense interceptor) to protect factory complexes and military facilities which only had small or no airfields. The idea goes back to early 1939, when Werner von Braun proposed a rocket driven aircraft (Braun fighter) that should vertically take-off from a truck on two guide rails. Although the scheme was discarded as impracticable by the RLM, later during the war the Fieseler Company prepared a series of interceptor design studies under the generic designation Fieseler Fi 166 (a rocket-driven aircraft on the tip of a Aggregat 4  (A4, better known as V2) as booster. Finally, in late spring 1944, the RLM issued a requirement for a small and inexpensive target-defense interceptor that led to the development of the Bachem Ba 349 “Natter”(Colubrid). Other companies followed such as the Heinkel Company with projects like He P.1077 “Julia I” and “Julia II”, or the propeller-driven VTOL-projects “Wespe” (Wasp) and “Lerche II” (“Lark”), or Focke-Wulf with its Fw “Treibflügeljäger”  (thrust-wing fighter).

To the Heinkel “Wespe”. The aircraft was designed around a circular wing, with small wing tips protruding beyond the circular wing at the two lower wing support locations.  A single Heinkel-Hirth HeS 021 turboprop, rated at 2,000 horsepower plus 750 kp thrust, was fed by an air intake located below the cockpit.  The “Wespe” took off and landed on three landing gear, the pilot sat in a normal seated position in the nose under a huge blown canopy, and two MK 108 30mm cannon mounted in blisters on each side of the cockpit were envisioned for the armament. Further development was abandoned due to the approaching war’s end. A more aerodynamic VTOL interceptor project, the Heinkel “Lerche” (Lark) was on the drawing board (Ref. 16, 17).