And now for something completely different......

[Wuzak]

The Blohm + Voss Bv-40 bomber interceptor....glider.

Yes, here was an aircraft deisgned to be towed aloft by a Me-109 or similar, and then attack Allied bomber formations by diving down on them at speeds estimated at 560mph, using two 30mm cannons as the armament.

Not much chop if the first run was unsuccessful, though!

http://www.rollmodels.net/ninbox/airplanes/48czechbv40/48czechbv40.php
http://www.luftfahrtmuseum.com/htmi/itf/bv40.htm
http://members.tripod.com/Air_Museum_ww2/id31.htm

[DoBravery]

Finally! A last ditch German research project designed specifically for the Hitler youth and their glider training.[B)]

[montanamotor]

In german there's a saying, which goes like: "Hunger ist der beste Koch!" - reading, "Hunger is the best cook." And meaning: When you're in need of everything, you'll take anything. Even if it was the last straw.

Those "fighters of despair"-projects where being put up in abundance at the end of WW II in Germany and, interestingly, they were often promoted by the SS, not by the german Luftwaffe. Guess, why? Those guys knew, what would happen to them, when the war would be lost to the allies (Which, thank God, Churchill and Roosevelt, it finally was!).

Remember the Bachem Natter? This was also a fully SS-led project. Only recently, there was a very well-made documentation about the Bachem Natter on TV over here in Germany. This project was mind-sick from the start, I can tell you. But they really found one unlucky bloke really to try the Bachem Natter out!

Well - final conclusion in this film was, that accelleration during vertical take-off of the first-and-only ever flying Bachem Natter was so strong that, the cockpit-hood broke loose and hit the pilot's head, so that the pilot was knocked out instantly after take off (Probably he would have fainted under such a tremendous G-force, anyway...). Thus, the flight-path of the plane equalled that of the notorions V2-(A4)-ballistic rocket - with predictable results, that came perfectly into realisation...

Well: If THAT wasn't despair, which made anyone believe in - And, let alone, enter! - such a plane, what else was it...?

Cheers!

Montanamotor

[Jemiba]

Remember, there were several other attempts, too, to built fighter
aircraft, that were more or less "one-way aircraft", although not
explicitly called. But to order young pilots on combat missions,
who had barely learned to fly, doesn't give the aircraft a fair
chance to bring his occupant back home, and the He 162 was exactly
designed to be flown by members of the "Hitler Jugend", who should
be trained mostly on gliders ! The Bachem Natter probably was an
extreme example for such a design philosophy, but, if the problems
with take-off accelaration could have been overcome, maybe it even
would have offered his pilots a better chance to survive an attack,
than the He 162. A fast climb and attack probably during the
transition from vertical to horizontal speed, so in a phase of
impunity from fighter attacks, then a dive to lower altitudes and
bailing out. Maybe his even would have been a safer method, than
to take-off conventionally, fly to he target area, attack and land
back under constant pressure from Mustangs or Tempests, that could
match on nearly equal terms ...
The Bv 40 was ,apart from the idea of boosting the number of flight
personal with semi-skilled "pilots", a try to make dual use of the
conventional fighters, I think. First as a tug for the glider and
then as an interceptor in itself.

[GregP]

I think the Natter had potential, but not as a combat aircraft.

It had potential as an experimental aircraft.

To try to use it as a combat aircraft was nothing short of murder of the pilot. With some development and some SUCCESSFUL unmanned launches, especially with an animal in the cockpit that SURVIVED the flight, they could have had a nice expermient ... not a combat aircraft.

What they had in mind I can't imagine ... the combat potential was negligible, though the technology was revolutionary.

Hhhhmmmmm ... seems like there's a pattern here. Wasting the resources in search of a wonder weapon that never materializes while simply fixing the shortcomings of the Bf-109 could have reaped strategic benefits. About one-third of the Bf-109s used in combat were lost in ground-handling or landing accidents due to poor gear placement! If they had fixed THAT, then the number of available combat aircraft would have been increased by many thousands, even if SOME would still have been lost.

The Natter never would have been any good in combat! It wouldn't even today, with all the advancements we have now ...

Idiots ... sorry, not an indictment, just an opinion ...

[Jemiba]

Not to be misunderstood : I'm certainly NOT an advocat of the Bachen
Natter, nor of the other designs, hastily drawn up and sometimes
converted into unreliable and dangerous (for the pilot !) hardware.
What I mean simply is, that the concept of the Natter is just that
of a tail sitter point defence interceptor. If you trace the origin
of the (postwar) Fairey FD.1 back to its roots, you'll see, that
the basic idea was the same ! Taking off vertically make sense for
this kind of aircraft, which simply would be used as an AA-battery
with a higher SPK than usual. Rocket power was regarded as the best
way to achieve high speed and especially fast climb not only in
germany, but for example in russia, too, with fatal results for
at least one test pilot, too, IIRC ! The armament, made up of a battery of
unguided rockets instead of guns had its advocates still after
the war, as you can see for example in some US interceptors, l
ike the Northrop F-89 or the Lockheed F-94C .
So the concept of such a last-ditch weapon probably, requiring
minimal ground installations was quite reasonable.
What is to condemn, of course, is the way the german authorities
still pushed forward this and other developments without care for
the test personal and surely with the knowledge in mind, that all
efforts simply would be wasted, because there was no way to prevent
the german defeat. I think, for many of the designers and involved
staff personal such projects just were a method to prevent them from
being send to the front. And those “unlucky blokes” had to pay the
bill !

[GregP]

Hi Jemiba,

Your tag line is correct, it DOES take a long time for all mistakes to be made!

Certainly the germans tried to hurry this task along with the Natter!

[Jemiba]

The germans were hurrying to make A LOT OF ERRORS, especially
during that time ! [}:)]
But, as I pointed out, some errors just are too good, not to
be repeated by others ! :D