Messerschmitt Me-277 (P.1125) Nachtjager

[Spinners 15,968]

Messerschmitt Me-277 (P.1125) Nachtjager - Luftwaffe '48

 

Towards the end of his four-year collaboration with the Messerschmitt company at Augsburg, Dr. Alexander Lippisch had sketched out a formidably large delta-winged all-weather interceptor but his transfer to the Luftahrtforschungsanstalt (Aviation Research Institute) in Munich led to the project being shelved due to the lack of a suitably large powerplant. The desperate but eventually successful 'reversal campaigns' of late 1944 and early 1945 had led to stalemate on both fronts and allowed Germany time to develop and field their first-generation jet and rocket fighters to great success.

 

In late 1946 Dipl-Ing Hans Hornung, head of preliminary studies at Messerschmitt, dusted down the original Lippisch delta design and scaled it down slightly to suit the Junkers Jumo 'Titan' axial flow turbojet which had successfully been test flown on the port wing of a specially modified Me-323 Gigant in September 1946 and was promising sufficient thrust for the large delta-winged fighter now renamed 'Projekt Nachtjager' and given the design number of P.1125.

 

The project moved smoothly and the first P.1125 entered service as the Messerschmitt Me-277 in July 1948 but production was severely hampered when the factory was hit by USAAF B-50's in September 1948 leading to only a handful of Me-277's seeing service.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2012 by Spinners

[Wrench 9,461]

(I'd have removed the tailhook)

 

great idea! After all, the Dart and it's predecessors (XF-92) are Lippisch designs!