POWER PLANT: One Hirth HM 502 six-cylinder inverted inline engine, rated at 160 hp
PERFORMANCE: 106 mph
COMMENT: Designed from the outset for use on U-boat “cruisers”, like the Type XI B, the Ar 231 was a light parasol-wing aircraft. The aircraft was powered by an inline engine, weighed around 2,200 lb, and had a 33ft wingspan. The design led to a simple and compact aircraft that could be fitted into a storage cylinder only 6.7 ft in diameter. For ease of storage, the Ar 231’s wings featured detachable sections that two operators could remove in less than six minutes. One unusual feature was an offset wing design, with the right wing root attaching to the wing’s tilted center section (elevated above the fuselage, as on all parasol-wing designs) and lower than the left wing root, to allow the wings to be quickly folded up. Testing soon revealed the Ar 231s to be fragile, underpowered, and difficult to fly even during calm weather, and as a result, development ended in favour of the Focke-Achgelis Fa 330 gyro glider. Some of the testing was done on the auxiliary cruiser “Stier”. Only six prototypes were built (Ref.: 24).
Noteworthy is the fact that the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) made similar attempts for submarine-borne aircraft, e. g. the Aichi M6A1 Seiran (Mountain Haze).
POWER PLANT: One Junkers Jumo 213E liquid-cooled inverted V-12 inline engine, rated at 2,250 hp with MW-50 injection
PERFORMANCE: 472 mph at 41,000 ft using GM-1 boost
COMMENT: The superb qualities of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190D fighter did not go unrecognized by the RLM, who rewarded Prof. Kurt Tank, primarily responsible for its design, by permitting him to employ the prefix “Ta” (indicating “Tank”) in place of Fw (Focke-Wulf) for designating of designs produced by his team. Tank took the opportunity provided by the incorporation of some modifications in the Fw 190D design to apply the designation Ta 152 for a modified fighter. Initially there were relatively few differences between the Fw 190D and the Ta 152. The Junkers Jumo 213C engine was similar to the Fw 190D-9’s Jumo 213A but made provision for a 30-mm engine mounted MK 108 cannon which augmented the twin 20-mm MG 151s and the twin 13-mm MG 131s. It was intended to be made in at least three versions – the Ta 152H “Höhenjäger” (“high-altitude fighter”), the Ta 152C designed for medium-altitude operations and ground-attack using a different engine and smaller wing, and the Ta 152E fighter-reconnaissance aircraft with the engine of the H model and the wing of the C model. About 20 Ta 152H-0 were ordered and the first aircraft entered service with the Luftwaffe in January 1945. These were too few and too late to allow the Ta 152 to make a significant impact on the air war(Ref. 11).
TYPE: Long-range escort-fighter and fighter-bomber
ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only
POWER PLANT: One Pratt and Whitney R-2800-21 radial engine, rated at 2,300 hp
PERFORMANCE: 433 mph at 30.000 ft
COMMENT: The Republic P-47 D ‘Thunderbolt’ differed little from its predecessor P-47 C apart from changes in the turbo-supercharger exhaust system, water injection as standard for the R-2800-21 engine, and some minor changes. The P-47 D was the first version of the ‘Thunderbolt’ to serve with the USAAF in the pacific theatre. Towards the end of 1943, 8th Air Force ‘Thunderbolts’ began returning from escort missions “on the deck”, strafing targets of opportunity with their unused ammunition, and their success was partly responsible for the adaptation of the ‘Thunderbolt’ for what was to become its most successful role – that of a fighter-bomber. More than 5,800 P-47D ‘Thunderbolts’ are built, all possessed the original framed sliding canopy introduced on the initial production B-model. Later versions were equipped with an all-round vision bubble-type cockpit canopy (Ref.: 24)
POWER PLANT: One de Havilland ‘Goblin’ 3 centrifugal turbojet engine, rated at 1,500 kp
PERFORMANCE: 548 mph
COMMENT: The de Havilland ‘Vampire’ was a British turbojet fighter developed and manufactured during the WW II to harness the newly developed turbojet engine. The ‘Vampire’ entered service with the RAF in 1945 and was the second jet fighter, after the Gloster ‘Meteor’, operated by the RAF, and its first to be powered by a single jet engine. After Air Ministry specification E.6/41 was raised to provide official support for two prototypes of the jet fighter, design work on the DH.100 began at the de Havilland works in mid-1942, two years after the ‘Meteor’. Originally named the ‘Spider Crab’, the aircraft was entirely a de Havilland project, exploiting the company’s extensive experience in building with moulded plywood for aircraft construction. Many of the basic design features were first used in their famous ‘Mosquito’ fast bomber. It had conventional straight mid-wings and a single jet engine placed in an egg-shaped, aluminum-skinned fuselage, exhausting in a straight line. Armament was four 20mm Hispano Mk V cannon under the nose, with air brakes in the wings to slow the aircraft so as to be able to get into a firing position behind slower aircraft – a feature also incorporated in the ‘Meteor`. The Vampire was considered to be a largely experimental design due to its unorthodox arrangement and the use of a single engine, unlike the Gloster ‘Meteor’ which was already specified for production. The low power output of early jet engines meant that only twin-engine aircraft designs were considered practical; but as more powerful engines were developed, particularly Halford’s H.1 (later known as the ‘Goblin’), a single-engined jet fighter became possible. De Havilland were approached to produce an airframe for the H.1, and their first design, the DH.99, was an all-metal, twin-boom, tricycle undercarriage aircraft armed with four cannon. The use of a twin boom kept the jet pipe short, avoiding the power loss of a long pipe that would have been needed in a conventional fuselage. The DH.99 was modified to a mixed wood-and-metal construction in light of Ministry of Aircraft Production recommendations, and the design was renumbered to DH.100 by November 1941. The first prototype made its maiden flight on September 1943, only six months after the ‘Meteor’s’ maiden flight. The first Vampire flight had been delayed due to the need to send the only available engine fit for flight to America to replace one destroyed in ground engine runs in Lockheed’s prototype XP-80 Shooting Star. The production Vampire Mk I did not fly until April 1945, with most being built by English Electric Aircraft factories due to the pressures on de Havilland’s production facilities, which were busy with other types. Although eagerly taken into service by the RAF, it was still being developed at war’s end, and never saw combat in the Second World War.
Noteworthy is the fact that the de Havilland DH 100 “Vampire” had great similarity with the contemporary German Focke-Wulf Projekt VII “Flitzer” (“Streaker” or “Dasher”) (Ref.: 24).
POWER PLANT: One Hirth HM 60 four cylinder inverted air-cooled in-line piston engine, rated at 80 hp, driving a four-bladed pusher propeller via an extension shaft
PERFORMANCE: 137 mph
COMMENT: The Göppingen Gö 9 was a research aircraft built to investigate the practicalities of powering a plane using a pusher propeller located far from the engine and turned by a long driveshaft. In 1937, Claudius Dornier observed that adding extra engines and propellers to an aircraft in an attempt to increase speed would also attract a penalty of greater drag, especially when placing two or more engines within nacelles mounted on the wings. He reasoned that this penalty could be minimized by mounting a second propeller at the rear of an aircraft. In order to prevent tail-heaviness, however, the engine would need to be mounted far ahead of it. Dornier patented this idea and commissioned a test plane to evaluate it. This aircraft was designed by Dr. Hütter as a 40% sized, scaled-down version of the Dornier Do 17 ‘Fast bomber’ fuselage and wing panels without the twin-engine nacelles, and built by Schempp-Hirth at Wüsterberg. The airframe was entirely of wood and used a retractable tricycle landing gear – one of the earliest German airframe designs to use such an arrangement. Power was supplied by a Hirth HM 60 inverted, air-cooled inline four-cylinder engine mounted within the fuselage near the wings. Other than the engine installation, the only other unusual feature of the aircraft was its all-new, full four-surface cruciform tail, which included a large ventral fin/rudder unit of equal area to the dorsal surface. This fin incorporated a small supplementary tail-wheel protruding from the ventral fin’s lower tip that assisted in keeping the rear-mounted, four-blade propeller away from the ground during take-off and landing. The Gö 9 carried the civil registration D-EBYW. Initially towed aloft by a Dornier Do 17, flight tests began in June 1941, but later flights operated under its own power. The design validated Dornier’s ideas, and he went ahead with his original plan to build a high-performance aircraft with propellers at the front and rear, producing the Dornier Do 335 ‘Pfeil’ (‘Arrow’) the fastest fighter aircraft in service during WW II. The eventual fate of the Gö 9 is not known (Ref.: 24)
POWER PLANT: Two Menasco C6S-1 ‘Buccaneer’ air-cooled engines, rated at 275 hp each
PERFORMANCE: 258 mph
COMMENT: The Northrop N-9M was considered an approximately one-third scale, 60-ft span all-wing aircraft used for the development of the full size, 172-ft wide Northrop XB-35 and YB-35 flying wing long-range, heavy bomber. On October 1941, the preliminary order for development of the B-35 Flying Wing bomber was confirmed, including engineering, testing, and most importantly a 60 ft (18 m) wingspan, one-third scale aircraft, designated N-9M. It was to be used in gathering data on flight performance and for familiarizing pilots with the program’s radical, all-wing design. The first N-9M was ordered in the original contract, but this was later expanded to three test aircraft in early 1943. A fourth was ordered a few months later after a crash of the first N-9M destroyed that airframe; this fourth N-9M incorporated various flight test-derived improvements and upgrades, including different, more powerful engines. The four aircraft were designated N-9M-1, -2, -A, and -B, respectively. The N-9M framework was partially constructed of wood to reduce its overall weight. The wings’ outer surfaces were also skinned with strong, specially laminated plywood. The central section (roughly equivalent to the fuselage) was made of welded tubular steel. The first flight of the N-9M occurred on 27 December 1942. During the next five months, 45 flights were made. Nearly all were terminated by mechanical failures of one sort or another, the Menasco engines being the primary source of those problems. After roughly 22.5 hours of accumulated flight time, the first N-9M crashed on 19 May 1943. Northrop’s Flying Wing bomber program was canceled in mid 1944, and all remaining N-9M flight test aircraft, except for the final N-9MB, were scrapped (Ref. 24).
POWER PLANT: One Walter HWK 509A-2 liquid-fueled rocket, rated at 1,700 kp
PERFORMANCE: 503 mph
COMMENT: In mid 1944 the RLM called for proposals of a small, cheap, easy to build, reusable short-range, high speed interceptor in the context of the ‘Miniaturjägerprogramm’ (Miniature fighter program). Aircraft companies such as Bachem, Focke-Wulf, Heinkel, Junkers and Messerschmitt submitted proposals: Bachem Ba 349 ‘Natter’ (‘Grass Snake’), Focke-Wulf Fw ‘Volksjäger’, (‘People Fighter’), Heinkel He P.1077 ‘Julia’, Junkers EF 126 ‘Lilli’, Junkers EF 127 ‘Walli’ and Messerschmitt the designs Me P.1103 and Me P.1104, each in several variants. The Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II design was a simple wooden construction with a cylindrical fuselage, the wings were shoulder-mounted and un-swept so as the tail-plane. Power was provided by a Walter HWK 509A-2 liquid-fuel rocket engine with a main combustion chamber of 1.700 kp thrust and a smaller cruising chamber of 300 kp thrust. The pilot was in a conventional seated position, the armament consisted of one single MK 108 30 mm cannon beneath the cockpit. For take-off the fighter was positioned on a trolley so as the Messerschmitt Me 163 ‘Komet (‘Comet’) that was jettisoned when the aircraft was airborne. The tiny plane was towed by a Messerschmitt Me 109G or Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 towards the enemy, released when in attack position and ignited the rocket motor. After attack the aircraft glided back to its base and landed on retractable skids. As with projects of other companies all work was cancelled in favour of the Bachem Ba 349 ‘Natter’ (Ref.: 17, 20)
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II and Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II and Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II and Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II and Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II and Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a
Messerschmitt Me P.1104/II and Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a
POWER PLANT: Two Junkers Jumo 004C turbojet engines, rated at 980 kp each and one Walter HWK 509S-2 liquid-fueled rocket engine, rated at 1,700 kp
PERFORMANCE: 510 mph at 32,800 ft
COMMENT: The major disadvantage displayed by the ‘Heimatschützer I’ had been the strict limitation imposed on J2 tankage (for the Jumo 004 turbojet engines) by the internally mounted rocket motor, and the need to use some of the available tankage for its propellants. The Messerschmitt Me 262C-3a ‘Heimatschützer IV’, therefore, had a Walter R II-211/§ rocket motor slung beneath the fuselage with ‘C-Stoff’ and ‘T-Stoff’ tanks mounted on modified bomb carriers immediately ahead of the power plant. The rocket motor was jettisonable, and was to be dropped by parachute after the fuel had been consumed. Fuel was fed to the power plant by means of a flexible line, but difficulties were encountered with the fuel feed as a level of tanks was slightly below that of rocket combustion chamber, and these had not been resolved when further work on the Messerschmitt Me 262C-3a ‘Heimatschützer IV’ terminated.
Another ‘Heimatschützer’, the Messerschmitt Me 262C-3 ‘Heimatschützer III’ was a proposed version of the basic Me 262A-1a with Junkers Jumo 004 turbojet engines replaced with Walter HWK RII-211 liquid-fueled rocket engines (Ref.: 7).
Messerschmitt Me 262C-3a ‘Heimatschützer IV’, (Home Protector IV’)
Messerschmitt Me 262C-3a ‘Heimatschützer IV’, (Home Protector IV’)
Messerschmitt Me 262C-3a ‘Heimatschützer IV’, (Home Protector IV’)
Messerschmitt Me 262C-3a ‘Heimatschützer IV’, (Home Protector IV’)
Messerschmitt Me 262C-3a ‘Heimatschützer IV’, (Home Protector IV’)
Messerschmitt Me 262C-3a ‘Heimatschützer IV’, (Home Protector IV’)
Messerschmitt Me 262C-3a ‘Heimatschützer IV’, (Home Protector IV’)
Messerschmitt Me 262C-3a ‘Heimatschützer IV’, (Home Protector IV’)
Messerschmitt Me 262C-3a ‘Heimatschützer IV’, (Home Protector IV’)
Messerschmitt Me 262C-3a ‘Heimatschützer IV’, (Home Protector IV’)
Messerschmitt Me 262C-3a ‘Heimatschützer IV’, (Home Protector IV’)
Messerschmitt Me 262C-3a ‘Heimatschützer IV’, (Home Protector IV’)
POWER PLANT: One Walter HKW 509A-1 liquid-fueled rocket, rated at 1,600 kp
PERFORMANCE: 435 mph
COMMENT: In 1944, according to the RLM’s ‘Miniaturjägerprogramm’ (Miniature fighter program) the Messerschmitt Me P.1103/III was designed as a small, cheap, easy to build, short-range, high speed interceptor fighter. Competitors were Focke-Wulf Fw ‘Volksjäger’, Junkers EF 126 ‘Lilli’, Junkers EF 127 ’Walli’ and Bachem Ba 349 ‘Natter’. Construction was to be simple, the airframe mainly built from wood. The wings were mid-mounted and un-swept so as the tail-plane. For take-off the fighter set on a simple pair of wheels and a front skid. Both were jettisoned when the aircraft was airborne. The tiny plane was towed by a Messerschmitt Me 109G or Messerschmitt Me 262A-1 towards the enemy, released when in right position and ignited the rocket motor. After attack the aircraft glided back to its base and landed on retractable skids. All design work was cancelled in favour of the Bachem Ba 349 ‘Natter’ (Ref.: 17).
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III with Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III with Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III with Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III with Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a
Messerschmitt Me P. 1103/III with Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a
POWER PLANT: Two Rolls-Royce ‘Merlin’ 130/131 liquid-cooled engines, rated at 2,030 hp each
PERFORMANCE: 472 mph at 22,000 ft
COMMENT: The de Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ was perhaps the most graceful twin-engined monoplane to be produced by any combatants during WW II. The experience gained by the company with the de Havilland ‘Mosquito’, coupled with a need for a long-range, single-seat fighter for the use in what appeared likely to be a prolonged island-hopping in the South Pacific against the Japanese, led to the design of an unusual clean ’Merlin’-powered aircraft. The first prototype D.H.103, officially to be named ‘Hornet’, was flown on July 1944. Production of sixty ‘Hornet’ F.1s was commenced late in 1944, and the first aircraft off the line flew on February 1945. The prototypes of the ‘Hornet’ had achieved the phenomenal speed of 485 mph and with full operational equipment the production ‘Hornet’ F.1 was only a shade slower at 472 mph. The ‘Hornet’ was too late to see operational service during WW II, however, the first squadron, No 64, re-equipped early in 1946. A conversion of the ‘Hornet’ F.1 initiated before the end of war was the navalisation of two machines for use on carriers. Equipped with folding wings, these aircraft were named ‘Sea Hornet’ (Ref.: 12)
De Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ F.1
De Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ F.1
De Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ F.1
De Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ F.1
De Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ F.1
De Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ F.1
De Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ F.1
De Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ F.1
De Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ F.1
De Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ F.1
De Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ F.1
De Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ F.1
De Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ F.1
De Havilland D.H.103 ‘Hornet’ F.1
Scale 1:72 aircraft models of World War II
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