Semi-OT: Interesting German Fighter Prototypes & Designs

[Olham 164]

Found this website with lots of interesting and partly futuristic German prototypes and designs - some only as models or drawings.

Some of these I had never seen before, and I don't know, if they are all really authentic projects - but it looks believeable.

 

http://www.nexusboar...storer-t296836/

 

This is said to be a Blohm & Voss design; the BV P.208.

 

 

Edited January 20, 2012 by Olham

[itifonhom 6]

I feel lucky enough that the Germans back then kept themselves busy designing paradise birds and revenge weapons instead of seeing the truth and just produce a powerful motor and a sturdy fighter like the Mustang or the Thunderbolt. Lucky that the Germans were getting easily excited with the faintest possibility of success, making them hunting holy grails. Things could be quite bad today if they could concentrate to the things that were really of importance!

[Olham 164]

Yes, I agree - they had come up with some very good ones, but too late - like the Me 262 or the Focke Wulf 190 D 9

or the Tank 154 etc. Also, they had one major problem: no own fuel sources.

But when most of the rest of the world is standing against you, you should anyway better pack it in.

 

I am glad the "Tausendjährige Reich" didn't even last 20 years. Brown doesn't look good on me.

[+streakeagle 871]

The Luftwaffe's problem was just the reverse: instead of fielding the Me-262 as soon as they could have, they delayed service entry and when it did finally enter service misused it as an attack aircraft rather than air superiority. The Luftwaffe did exactly what you said they should do: they cranked out Bf109s (more or less equal to P-51s) forever and supplemented them with Fw190s (more or less equal to P-47s) throughout the entire war. If you look at the production numbers, the search for uber weapons didn't hurt Bf109/Fw190 production at all. They lost because they did not have the resources to sustain a two front war on the ground (really three once D-Day occurred: West, Med, and East), and steady bombing around the clock (US by day, Britain by night) certainly didn't help even if bombing didn't directly impact aircraft, submarine, and tank production. Like Japan, Germany needed to win quickly. Fortunately for the US, Britain and the USSR didn't play along :) The uber weapon they really wanted was a nuclear bomb... and we all know how that arms race turned out.

Edited January 20, 2012 by streakeagle

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

The Nazis used the most weird and desperate solutions by the end of the War. The comics series "Le Grand Duc" by Romain Hugault has already been discussed about here. The last mission of the main German character Wulf is almost a suicide mission: flying a freaky 'Mistel' combination made of an unarmed outdated 109 and a Ju-88 full of 4 tons of explosives to be dropped on the Soviet bridges over Oder, April 1945. A disgusting barbaric mating, Wulf's superior describes it.

[Olham 164]

It is always the same, when I look at any of the photos and films of German Luftwaffe aircraft -

I get a goose skin, both from being deeply impressed by all the inventing and ideas and by what

they got done in a short time; as well as from the dull shadowed system they were built under.

[carrick58 23]

I agree. Germany is about the same size as the state of Texas in the U.S. and its fighting a 2 front War

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

I agree. Germany is about the same size as the state of Texas in the U.S. and its fighting a 2 front War

... just the way Texas does, stuck between the barbarian hordes of Rio Grande and the atheistic Leftists of Washington?

[Olham 164]

This is the proof - size doesn't matter!

[Flyby PC 23]

I suspect the war might have been prolonged, but have doubts about whether this would have made a difference to the outcome. The allies endured the shock of new and superior weapons, like the Tiger, like the 262, like the FW190, V1, V2 etc- but kept their heads, found it's weaknesses and how to nullify it's threat.

 

The only weapon which could perhaps have turned the tide in favour of the Nazi's was a nuclear bomb, and even then, they'd still have had the US and their bomb to contend with.

 

 

When I see some of these bizarre machines the Nazis were developing, I don't see inspired war winning machines, but one-of prototypes without any lineage to their design. They seemed revolutionary concepts for the sake of revolution, not evolution. To me, they look like design cul-de-sacs, (dead ends), or working models to built to test theories in practice. They are not holistic aircraft designs if you understand me.

 

There are exceptions, yes, the V2, and the Me 262 to an extent, but when I look at the Me 163 Komet, or the Gotha HO 229, Me 334's, Focke-Wulf Triebfluegel,etc, to my eye, on the one hand they are desperate improvisations and living proof there are crippling constraints on the designers, or on the other hand, they look like prototypes built to test and confirm whether a particular theory does or doesn't work.

 

For example, the Triebfluegel is dismissed as a complete failure as a wonder weapon. But who said it was meant to be a wonder weapon? To my eye, it looks like what you get when you 'want' a helicopter but you just don't have an engine with enough power to drive the rotor. The power isn't the end of the story, you also need a lot more research and data about 'rotored' flight, so putting rockets or jets at the end of the rotors on a prototype aircraft is one way to prove the theory of lift with a helicopter's rotor is sound - once it does have sufficient power turning the rotors. I believe that's the extent to which the Triebfluegel was only intended to demonstrate a concept, - it was never intended to be the solution, merely one step on the way to a functional helicopter. By all accounts, the Triebfluegel was good for lifting itself off the ground, and just about landing itself under control. Useless as an aircraft, but a gold mine of information in the early days about using a rotor for lift, - but still a design cul-de-sac.

 

A clever VTOL bomber interceptor designed to launch from the woods because your runways are all bombed? ... Yeah, right. - I really don't think so.

Edited January 22, 2012 by Flyby PC

[Olham 164]

A two front war and the entry of America made it impossible for Germany to win that war. And they really tried.

Maybe it had one good thing - Germany now had to climb up in the hierarchy of the high industrial states

without getting there through winning a war. And the Allies were intelligent enough this time, to help them

to get over the hard early years. Maybe the beginning, the proof to show, that among civilised countries

such wars are no longer necessary to fight?

After two terrible wars against France, Great Britain (with their Allies Canada and Australia) and America,

we are friends with all these countries today. And I guess we need each other.

Edited January 22, 2012 by Olham