TYPE: Test glider for Lippisch P. 13a supersonic ramjet project

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: None

PERFORMANCE: Unknown

COMMENT: During work on the Lippisch P.13a supersonic ramjet project the Lippisch team proposed to build a test glider in order to study the flight characteristics of this revolutionary design. So a test glider was built by students from technical universities of Darmstadt and Munich, designated DM-1 (Darmstadt-München 1). At the end of the war the prototype of this test glider had not been finished when it was captured by US forces at the Prien airfield in Bavaria. Prof. Theodore von Karmann, a high capacity in aerodynamics in supersonic airflow, (native Hungarian, worked in Germany, later in the US) proposed to complete the test glider by Lippisch’s team. The aircraft was then shipped to the USA where it was test flown. According to NACA the results were positive and lessons learned were incorporated into NASA’s research as well as service aircraft of the 1950s. Mainly the Convair Company recognized the advantage on the Lippisch P.13a design and built the delta-aircraft XF2Y-1, XF-92, F-102, F-106, and B-58 (Ref. 19, 23)