Fighter Emergency Program
Encyclopedia
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
regarding the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
aircraft manufacturing companies. It consisted in shifting production to defensive fighters
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
, focusing primarily on production of the Messerschmitt Me 262
Messerschmitt Me 262
The Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft. Design work started before World War II began, but engine problems prevented the aircraft from attaining operational status with the Luftwaffe until mid-1944...
A fighter versions, and also on developing advanced piston-engined fighters such as the Dornier Do 335
Dornier Do 335
The Dornier Do 335 Pfeil was a World War II heavy fighter built by the Dornier company. The two-seater trainer version was also called Ameisenbär . The Pfeils performance was much better than other twin-engine designs due to its unique "push-pull" layout and the much lower drag of the in-line...
. Production of bomber
Bomber
A bomber is a military aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets, by dropping bombs on them, or – in recent years – by launching cruise missiles at them.-Classifications of bombers:...
s was severely curtailed, the only bombers allowed to continue in production after the edict was issued were those powered by jets, such as the Arado Ar 234
Arado Ar 234
The Arado Ar 234 was the world's first operational jet-powered bomber, built by the German Arado company in the closing stages of World War II. Produced in very limited numbers, it was used almost entirely in the reconnaissance role, but in its few uses as a bomber it proved to be nearly impossible...
, and newer jet bomber designs such as the Junkers Ju 287
Junkers Ju 287
-Bibliography:* Hitchcock, Thomas H. Junkers 287 . Acton, MA: Monogram Aviation Publications, 1974. ISBN 0-914144-01-4.-External links:*...
and Heinkel He 343
Heinkel He 343
The Heinkel He 343 was a four-engine jet bomber project.-Design and development:It was designed by the German Ernst Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in the beginning of 1944. 20 of these aircraft were ordered. For shortening the development time and for re-use of existing parts, its general design was...
were worked on fitfully in the last months of the war.
A number of new aircraft design competition programmes were launched to provide new jet fighters. In August 1944, a requirement for a turbojet-powered Volksjäger (Peoples Fighter), using a single engine, intended for rapid mass-production while using minimal resources. The Volksjäger was intended to be essentially disposable, with damaged aircraft being discarded rather than repaired, while it was to be flown by pilots, including members of the Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
, hastily trained on gliders. After a hurried design competition involving almost all of Germany's aircraft companies, Heinkel
Heinkel
Heinkel Flugzeugwerke was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight.-History:...
's He 162
Heinkel He 162
The Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger was a German single-engine, jet-powered fighter aircraft fielded by the Luftwaffe in World War II. Designed and built quickly, and made primarily of wood as metals were in very short supply and prioritised for other aircraft, the He 162 was nevertheless the fastest of...
Spatz (Sparrow) jet fighter proposal was selected as the Volksjäger. The first prototype of the He 162 flew in December 1944.
In November 1944, a programme for an even simpler fighter, the so-called Miniaturjägerprogramm (Miniature Fighter Program) was launched. The aim was to develop and mass-produce a very small interceptor for the absolute minimum cost. The primary stipulation for the Miniaturjäger was that it be powered by a pulsejet, as this engine required far fewer construction man-hours than a turbojet. Little interest was shown in this new enterprise by the OKL or the various German aircraft designers, owing largely to the fact that the imminent He 162 program would swallow up most of what was left of the country's available production capacity. Furthermore, it was already well-known by the time the Miniaturjäger competition was announced that pulsejets were unsuitable as engines for manned aircraft. The only Miniature Fighter aircraft that got beyond blueprint status was intended as a fighter bomber - the Junkers EF 126
Junkers EF 126
|-See also:-External links:*...
'Lilli'. Although unbuilt during the war, five prototypes were built in the Dessau
Dessau
Dessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the merged town Dessau-Roßlau. Population of Dessau proper: 77,973 .-Geography:...
Junkers plant in the area occupied by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. One of the prototypes was destroyed during unpowered testing during 1946 killing the pilot.
At the end of 1944 a further programme was launched, the "Emergency Fighter Competition". Unlike the Volksjäger and Miniaturjägerprogramm, this was intended to have superior performance to the twin-engined Messerschmitt Me 262
Messerschmitt Me 262
The Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft. Design work started before World War II began, but engine problems prevented the aircraft from attaining operational status with the Luftwaffe until mid-1944...
, which had insufficient altitude performance to deal with high altitude threats such as the B-29 Superfortress. To meet this requirement, power was to be a single Heinkel HeS 011 turbojet. This more advanced fighter attracted more interest than the primitive Miniaturjager, particularly from Focke-Wulf
Focke-Wulf
Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG was a German manufacturer of civil and military aircraft before and during World War II. Many of the company's successful fighter aircraft designs were slight modifications of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.-History:...
and Messerschmitt
Messerschmitt
Messerschmitt AG was a famous German aircraft manufacturing corporation named for its chief designer, Willy Messerschmitt, and known primarily for its World War II fighter aircraft, notably the Bf 109 and Me 262...
. One of Focke-Wulf's proposals, the Focke-Wulf Ta 183
Focke-Wulf Ta 183
The Focke-Wulf Ta 183 Huckebein was a design for a jet-powered fighter aircraft intended as the successor to the Messerschmitt Me 262 and other day fighters in Luftwaffe service during World War II. It was developed only to the extent of wind tunnel models when the war ended, but the basic design...
was chosen as the winner of the competition, but construction of the prototypes had not started by the end of the war. Messerschmitt continued development of one of its designs, the Messerschmitt P.1101, with one prototype being 80% complete when captured at the end of the war, being taken to America and used as the basis of the Bell X-5
Bell X-5
-See also:-Bibliography:* Hallion, Richard P. On The Frontier: Flight Research At Dryden 1946-1981 . Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1984 . ISBN 1-58834-134-8....
variable geometry
Variable geometry
Variable geometry may refer to:* Variable-geometry ways to alter the shape of an aircraft's wings in flight in order to alter their aerodynamic properties* Multi-speed Europe, a proposed strategy for European integration...
research aircraft.