TYPE: Fighter, project

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: Junkers Jumo 004B turbojet engine, rated at 900 kp thrust

PERFORMANCE: 543 mph at 19.685 ft

COMMENT: In spring 1943, the Messerschmitt design bureau was working on several designs of different single engine, lightweight turbojet fighters. These were the P.1092A-E, and further variants P.1092/2, P.1092/3, P.1092/4, and P.1092/5. At the same time, the Argus pulse jet powered Messerschmitt Me 328 was also under development. Of all these projects only seven prototypes of the Me 328 were built and flight tested. But the results of these tests as well as calculations of all the P.1092 variants were incorporated into a new design, internal designation Me P.1095. In order to cut down the development and retooling time the design team decided to use as many existing components from other aircraft as possible.  The first P.1095 design of October 1943 was proposed in two versions. All used the same fuselage and the power was provided by a single Junkers Jumo 004B jet engine, located below the fuselage. This had the advantage of being easily serviced, but the drawback of the possibility of the ingestion of foreign matter into the intake on take-off. The two variants differed only in wings and tail-plane configuration. One was to use the entire Messerschmitt Me 262 tail unit  with horizontal tail and fin/rudder along with a wooden wing, the other used the entire Me 328 tail unit with horizontal tail and fin/rudder along with a slightly smaller all metal wing. The undercarriage was of a tricycle design, and the main wheels retracted, and were also taken from the Messerschmitt Me 309. A forward retracting nose gear was located in front of the engine intake.  The P.1095 project was discontinued in early 1944, due to the fact that the engine location was felt to be disadvantageous, and the performance was less than the Me 262 twin jet fighter, which was about to come into service (Ref.: 17, 22).

TYPE: Interceptor, fighter. Project

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: Two Lorin-Pabst ramjet engines, rated at 4375 kp thrust each

PERFORMANCE: 621 mph

COMMENT: Heinkel designed this ramjet-powered fighter after receiving ramjet data from DFS near the end of WWII. Two 900 mm (2′ 11.5″) diameter Lorin-Rohr ramjets were mounted on each side of the fuselage with their outer surfaces faired into the wing, so that the large surface area of the ramjets were exposed to the airstream for cooling purposes. To save design time, the swept-back wing with the elevon controls were based on those of the He P.1078, but a single orthodox fin and rudder was used instead of wingtip anhedral. The cockpit was located in the forward section of the fuselage, along with a radar unit and two MK 108 30mm cannon. The fuel tanks were located in the rear of the fuselage. Take-off power was accomplished with the aid of four solid-fuel Schmidding rockets of 1000 kp of thrust each. An undercarriage trolley that could be jettisoned was used for take-off. The aircraft landed on an extendable skid. Like the other Heinkel projects He P. 1078 and He P.1079, the Heinkel He P.1080 was never submitted to the RLM. It is known that members of Heinkel construction bureau were working on these designs under U.S. supervision after WW II during the summer of 1945 (Ref.: 17, 19).

TYPE: Interceptor, fighter

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: One Daimler-Benz DB 603L liquid-cooled engine, rated at 2,100 hp

PERFORMANCE: 491 mph

COMMENT: In autumn 1944 the Blohm & Voss team worked on a high performance, piston engine powered fighter aircraft under the internal designation P.208. From the onset the design was a tailless aircraft, the engine imbedded in the aft fuselage behind the cockpit. The advantage of the design was seen in a reduction of the fuselages surface to reduce drag, the abstinence of an extension shaft to drive the pusher propeller, and lower costs and production time. The engine was fed by an air intake located on the starboard side of the fuselage, with the radiator mounted beneath the fuselage.  The cantilevered wings were swept back at 30 degrees and were of a constant cross section. Downturned wingtips were connected aft of the main wing trailing edge by small booms, which served the purposes of elevators and rudders. A tricycle undercarriage was used, with the wide-track main wheels retracting inwards into the center section and the nose wheel retracting forwards. All armament was in the aircraft’s nose, and consisted of three MK 108 30mm cannon. Three different designs were finalized differing solely in the engine used. Design Bv P.208.01 should be powered by a Junkers Jumo 222E piston engine, Bv P. 208.02 utilized an Argus As 413 engine, and Bv P.208.03, which was the favored design, was to be powered by a Daimler-Benz DB 603L engine. Wind tunnel experiments showed excellent performance but the RLM was convinced of the future of the oncoming turbojet engines (Ref.: 16, 21).

TYPE: Interceptor, fighter. Project

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: One Heinkel-Hirth HeS 011 turbojet engine, rated at 1.300 kp thrust

PERFORMANCE: 612 mph

COMMENT: Henschel submitted this design Hs P.135 in autumn 1944 to the OKL (Oberkommando der Luftwaffe, Luftwaffe high-command) based on specification for a single-seat fighter to be powered by a HeS 011 turbojet. This aircraft design was intended to achieve better high speed performance through the reduction of air resistance. The aircraft was tailless and featured an innovative wing design, a compound swept back wing with different angle of sweep: inner wing 42, mid-wing 38, and again positive about 15 degree for the outer wing. This had the effect of reducing turbulent flow by spreading out the compression effect along the length of the wing as Mach speed was approached, enabling the aircraft to carry more weight at higher speed. The wing was thus thicker in both height and width, as well as heavier, which made the aircraft more structurally strong without adversely affecting performance. The cockpit was relative high positioned, the pilot sat on an ejection seat which was in normal position during cruise flight and could be tilted back during aerial combat. The design was considered as “Zweitlösung” (second solution), while an “Optimallösung” (optimal solution) was expected from Messerschmitt( Me P.1101) (Ref.: 16, 21).

TYPE: Interceptor, fighter. Project

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: One Heinkel-Hirth HeS 011 turbojet engine, rated at 1300 kp thrust

PERFORMANCE: 614 mph

COMMENT: In context with the “Volksjäger Projekt” (Peoples fighter project) designers of the Blohm & Voss Company projected a turbojet engine powered fighter under internal designation Bv P.209. The design was a cantilever shoulder wing airplane with strong forward-swept wing. This was an effort to alleviate compressibility problems of straight wings at high speed, while helping to avoid the instability at low speeds suffered by swept-back wings. The wing was made from steel and the main spar formed the fuel tank. A steel tube formed the fuselage and was used as air intake for the turbojet engine. A second steel tube formed the tail boom with normal and positive swept back tail-plane. Expert’s report from the DVL (Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt, German Aviation Experimental Establishment) was negative concerning forward-swept wing concept and Blohm und Voss cancelled further work on that project in favour of the Blohm und Voss Bv P.212 (Ref.: 16, 17).

TYPE: Interceptor fighter. Project.

ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only

POWER PLANT: Two Pabst-Lorin ramjet engines, rated at 1.500 kp thrust each and one Walter HWK 109-509A liquid-fueled rocket engine, rated at 3.000 kp thrust

PERFORMANCE: 683 mph

COMMENT: In March, 1944, the team of Focke-Wulf worked on a design of a ramjet-powered fighter. The wings were mounted low on the fuselage and were swept back at 45 degrees. It had along, pointed nose and the cockpit was set back into the large vertical fin. The aircraft sat very low on a retractable nose wheel undercarriage and main wheels with extreme short track. The ramjets were located on the tips of the sharply swept tail planes. For take-off a Walter HWK rocket engine, located in the back fuselage was needed as well as to reach speed high enough to operate the ramjets. Ceiling of 36.000 ft should be reached within less than five minutes. Neither detailed design drawings nor models for wind tunnel testing are readied when the defeat of Germany stopped any further studies (Ref.: 16, 18).