TYPE: Carrier-based fighter
ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only
POWER PLANT: Pratt & Whitney R-2800-18W Double Wasp, rated at 2,100 h.p.
FOR TEST: Aero products contraprops
PERFORMANCE: 425 m.p.h. at 28,000 ft
TYPE: Interceptor. Project
ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only
POWER PLANT: One Walter HKW 109-509A, rated at 1.700 kp
PERFORMANCE: Not available
COMMENT:The Sombold 344 “Schußjäger” (Shoot Fighter) was a rocket powered aircraft designed in 1943/44. It was originally intended as a parasite escort fighter, but its original design was changed in January 1944. The second version of the aircraft retained the two MG machine guns, but its front section was an ejectable explosive nose with stabilizing fins filled with 400 kg of explosives. The pilot sat in the cockpit near the tail which was in the back section. The plane would have been released from a mother plane upon reaching combat altitude. Then it would ignite its single rocket engine and dive towards the enemy bomber fleet at a 45 degree angle. Shortly before contact it would release its explosive nose, equipped with a proximity fuze into the center of the combat box formation in a way that it would damage as many bombers as possible. Then it would try to get away with the remaining fuel in its rocket engine and finally land on its fixed skid. A 1/5 scale model for aerodynamic tests existed when the works on the So 344 were abandoned in early 1945 (Ref.: 23).
TYPE: Interceptor, fighter. Project.
ACCOMODATION: Pilot only
POWER PLANT: Two Lorin ramjet engines, rated at 1.500 kp each (estimated) plus one Walther WHK 109-509A liquid-fueled rocket engine, rated at 1.700 kp
PERFORMANCE: 680 mph in 36090 ft (estimated)
COMMENT: Very little is known about this project, which was designed around the same time as the Focke-Wulf Fw Ta 238. The “Super Lorin” featured sharply swept back wings which were mounted mid-fuselage. There were two ramjets mounted at the tips of the swept back tail plane, this was thought to minimize airflow disturbance. Since ramjets do not begin to operate until a speed of approximately 150 mph is reached, Schmidding solid- fueled or Walter WHK 109 liquid-fueled rockets were proposed to accelerate the aircraft until the ramjets could begin operating. The landing gear was to be a tricycle arrangement, and armament would have been two MK 108 30mm cannon. The aircraft shown here is fitted with two Ruhstahl/Kramer X-4 guided missiles. (Ref.: 16).
TYPE: Dive bomber, ground attack aircraft
ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only
POWER PLANT: One Pratt & Whitney R-4360 radial engine, rated at 3,000 hp
PERFORMANCE: 363 mph
COMMENT: The Vultee XA-41 was originally ordered as a dive bomber. After combat experience led the U.S. Army Air Corps to believe dive-bombers were too vulnerable to enemy fighters, the contract was amended to change the role to low-level ground attack. Although the XA-41 was a potent weapons system, the design was overtaken by more advanced technology, and never entered production.
The Vultee engineering team decided early in the design process to build the XA-41 (company Model 90) around the 3,000 hp Pratt & Whitney R-4360 “Wasp Major” radial engine. The large wing resembled that of the two-seat attack aircraft/dive bomber Vultee A-31/A-35 “Vengeance including a straight leading edge, forward-tapered trailing edge and pronounced dihedral on the outer wing panels. Designed to carry both a large internal load and external stores, the XA-41 was large for a single-engine aircraft. The single-place cockpit, set in line with the wing root, was 15 ft off the ground when the airplane was parked. As operational priorities shifted during its development phase, the original order for two XA-41 prototypes was cancelled, although the USAAF pressed for the completion of one prototype as an engine testbed for the R-4360, the same engine used by the Boeing B-50 “Superfortess” bomber.
Flying for the first time on February 1944, the sole XA-41 proved to have good performance with a maximum speed of 354 mph reached in testing and superb maneuverability, being able to out-turn a P-51B “Mustang”. However, with the reduction in military orders due to the approaching end of the war, no production contract was placed, and the aircraft was used as an engine testbed for the USAAF as well as being evaluated by the U.S. Navy in comparison with other contemporary attack aircraft, especially the Douglas AD-1 “Skyraider” and Martin AM-1 “Mauler”. After its Navy trials, the XA-41, bearing civil registration, was consigned to the Pratt & Whitney division of United Aircraft to continue engine tests. These continued until 1950 before the XA-41 was scrapped (Ref.: 24).
TYPE: Fast bomber, destoyer , ground attack aircraft. Project
ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only
POWER PLANT: Two Junkers Jumo 003B turbojet engines, rated at 900 kp each
PERFORMANCE: 590 mph, estimated
COMMENT: The Messerschmitt Me P.1079/18 „Schwalbe“ (Swallow) project of 1942, not to confuse so to the Messerschmitt Me 262 „Schwalbe“, was designed in the Messerschmitt Abteilung L (for Lippisch) under the leadership of Dipl.-Ing R.Seitz. This single-seat tailles aircraft with a wing leading edge sweep of 37 degree and fitted with fixed outboard slots, ailerons and elevators, was powered by two superimposed turbojet engines, the upper and the lower air intakes bifurcated by the cockpit and nosewheel enclosures. The wide-track main wheels retracted diagonally forwards into the wing roots, the aircraft having a total of six protected fuel tanks. The significance of tail brakes is not known. Beside its use as fast bomber and ground attack aircraft, it was also to function as a Zerstörer. Although this seemingly advanced project was stopped by the RLM in 1942, the Me P.1079/17 which later received the RLM designation Messerschmitt Me 328, was given green light to procced (Ref.:16).
TYPE: Dive-bomber and close-support aircraft. Project
ACCOMMODATION: Pilot and rear gunner/observer
POWER PLANT: Junkers Jumo 213 A-1, rated at 1,750 h.p.
PERFORMANCE: Not available
COMMENT: Needed as replacement for the shortcoming Ju 87, the design was faster, better armored and had a greater bomb load. The most unusual feature was the movable tail fin. In order to clear the field of fire for the remote-controlled rear turret the whole tail plane could be turned downwards by 180 degree. Although a full sized mock-up was built the OKL preferred the Focke Wulf Fw 190 as close-support fighter bomber
TYPE: Fighter bomber, ground support aircraft. Project
ACCOMODATION: Pilot only
POWER PLANT: One Junkers Jumo 213 inline engine, rated at 1.800 hp
PERFORMANCE: Not available
COMMENT: This fighter design used a Junkers Jumo 213 buried in the fuselage just behind the cockpit. The air intake was located beneath the fuselage and the pusher propeller was driven by means of a long shaft. The rectangular wing was mounted at the bottom of the fuselage and had no sweep back or taper. The tail unit was of cruciform design and a tricycle undercarriage was fitted. Proposed armament was two MK 103 30mm cannon and two MG 151/20 20mm cannon located in the nose. A refined design was the Blohm & Voss Bv P.207/03 where the upper fin and rudder were deleted. But neither the BV P.207/2 or /3 proceeded past the design stage (Ref.: 16).
TYPE: Experimental aircraft
ACCOMMODATION: Pilot only
POWER PLANT: Heinkel HeS 3B turbojet engine, rated at 550 kp
PERFORMANCE: 420 mph
COMMENT: The Heinkel He 178 was the world’s first aircraft to fly under turbojet power, and the first practical turbojet aircraft. It was a private venture by the German Heinkel company in accordance with director Ernst Heinkel‘s’s emphasis on developing technology for high-speed flight. It first flew on 27 August 1939. This flight had been preceded by a short hop three days earlier.
In 1936, a young engineer named Hans von Ohain had taken out a patent on using the exhaust from a gas turbine as a means of propulsion. He presented his idea to Ernst Heinkel, who agreed to help develop the concept. von Ohain successfully demonstrated his first engine, the Heinkel HeS 1 (HeS = Heinkel Strahltriebwerke, Heinkel jet engines) in 1937, and plans were quickly made to test a similar engine in an aircraft. The Heinkel He 178 was designed around von Ohain’s third engine design, the HeS 3, which burned diesel fuel. The result was a small aircraft with a metal fuselage of conventional configuration and construction. The high-mounted wooden wings had the Heinkel-characteristic elliptical trailing edge. The jet intake was in the nose, and the aircraft was fitted with tailwheel undercarriage. The main landing gear was intended to be retractable, but remained fixed in “down” position throughout the flight trials.
The aircraft made its maiden flight on 27 August 1939, only days before Germany invaded Poland. The test pilot was Erich Warsitz, who had also flown the world’s first rocket powered aircraft, the Heinkel He 176, on its maiden flight in June 1939.
Heinkel had developed the turbojet engine and the testbed aircraft, the Heinkel He 178 V1, in great secrecy. They were kept secret even from the German air force, and on 1 November 1939, after the German victory in Poland, Heinkel arranged a demonstration of the jet for officials, which Hermann Göring, commander in chief of the Luftwaffe, did not attend. Ernst Udet and Erhard Milch, Minister of Aircraft Production and Supply watched the aircraft perform, but were unimpressed. While a technical success, speeds were limited to 372 mph even when fitted with more powerful HeS 6 580kp thrust engines and combat endurance was only 10 minutes.
Undeterred, Heinkel decided to embark on the development of a twin-engine jet fighter, the Heinkel He 280 as a private venture using what had been learned from the He 178 prototype. The He 178 V1 airframe was placed on display at the Berlin Aviation Museum, where it was destroyed in an air raid in 1943 (Ref. 24).
