Rocket and Jet Aircraft of the Third Reich E-Book

Terry C Treadwell

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 227

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

The development of rocket and jet aircraft by the Germans before and during the Second World War is something that intrigues all those interested in the history of aviation. The first trials of the V1 (Doodlebug) were carried out with a pilot at the controls, on occasion the world-famous aviatrix Hannah Reitsch. The first encounter with a jet aircraft by Allied airmen is documented here, including the first shooting down of a jet aircraft by an Allied pilot. Rocket and Jet Aircraft of the Third Reich documents the huge problems faced by the German scientists, designers and engineers, and the pressures put upon them by the German High Command. At the end of the war the Americans and Russians struggled to get their hands on these experts and their data whilst the SS were trying to prevent them falling into Allied hands. Heinkel, Henschel, Junkers – and of course Messerschmitt — all feature, amongst other pioneering designers, alongside legendary pilots such as Adolf Galland and Walter Nowotny.

Leseprobe

For Wendy, Toby, Samantha and Rex.

Cover illustration: Front: Messerschmitt Me 262 A-1C ‘Schwalbe’. (Wikimedia Commons/Ronnie Macdonald) Back: A-view of a Junkers Ju 287.

First published 2011

This paperback edition first published 2025

The History Press

97 St George’s Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Terry Treadwell, 2011, 2025

The right of Terry Treadwell to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 80399 908 1

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ Books Limited, Padstow, Cornwall

CONTENTS

Introduction

1   Messerschmitt Me 163B ‘Komet’

2   Bachem Ba 349 ‘Natter’

3   Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg

4   Messerschmitt Me 328

5   Heinkel He 178 and 280

6   Heinkel He 162

7   Henschel Hs 132A

8   Arado Ar 234

9   Junkers Ju 287

10 Messerschmitt Me 262

Specifications

Translations/Glossary

INTRODUCTION

In AD 1232, during the Mongol siege of the city Kai-fung-fu, the first recorded use of a rocket was identified in the Chinese chronicle T-hung-lian-kang-mu. The ‘Arrow of Flying Fire’ as it was called, was most likely to have been a hollow arrow that was stuffed full of some kind of incendiary material, or an arrow that had been attached to a similar substance.

In Europe around 1249, the English monk Roger Bacon (1214–1294) is credited with developing the first rockets in the Western world. Bacon was a philosopher and scientist and foresaw the use of gunpowder, together with mechanical cars, boats and aircraft. It is also said that he invented the magnifying lens but because of his scientific beliefs, the church branded him a heretic and in 1253 imprisoned him. He wrote a number of books during his time in prison and died in 1294, two years after his release.

In Russia virtually no records exist of the use of rockets until the 1600s, when documents accumulated by the Russian gunsmith Onisin Mikhailov were complied into a document entitled ‘Code of Military, Artillery and Other Matters Pertaining to the Science of Warfare’. In this document detailed descriptions of rockets referred to as ‘cannon balls which run and burn’ are contained. Mikhailov’s authorship of this early document has been disputed, mainly because the documents which made up the bulk of the manuscript were not entirely his, but a collection of some 663 snatches of information and articles from a variety of foreign military books and sources. But that doesn’t really matter, the fact that Mikhailov collected these articles is of more importance than the debate as to whether or not he was justified in calling them his own.

Peter the Great of Russia devoted a lifetime to building Russia’s military might. In 1680 he founded the first Rocket Works in Moscow. There they made illuminating and signal rockets for the army, under the guidance of English, Scottish, Dutch, German and French officers, who instructed them in their use. In the early 1700s Peter the Great made St. Petersburg the new capital of Russia and moved the entire Rocket Works to this new location, expanding it at the same time.

The Espenlaub Rak 3 showing the burnt section of the vertical stabiliser after its first flight. A contemporary of Alexander Lippisch, Gottlob Espenlaub is a now largely forgotten pioneer. His first aircraft was built in 1927 with the intention of working up to rocket-powered flight.

Storch I.

Lippisch Storch glider making its first flight.

Messerschmitt Me 163B Komet about to take off.

Campini Caproni in flight. This was the second jet aircraft ever to fly, at Milan on 27 August 1940.

Germany’s interest in rockets started seriously in 1923, when a German-speaking Transylvanian schoolteacher Hermann Oberth, published Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (‘The Rocket into Interplanetary Space’). The book attracted a number of similar minded enthusiasts and in the backroom of a restaurant in Breslau called the Golden Sceptre, they met. At this meeting the society Verein für Raumschiffahrt (VfR) (Society for Space Travel) was formed, the aims of which were to promote the theory of space travel and carry out experiments in rocket propulsion. Within two years the society’s membership had grown from a mere handful of enthusiasts to 870 dedicated members. Among these was a young nineteen-year old by the name of Werner von Braun.

The Horten flying wing that was later to take the world of aviation into a new era.

Two engines from the Horten 229 V3.

Horten 229 V3 with the wings removed showing the skeletal construction of the fuselage.

Messerschmitt P.1101. The second generation of German jet fighters began with the ‘emergency fighter competition’ of 15 July 1944 as proposed to manufacturers by the RLM. The Me P.1101 V1 was about 80% complete when the secret Oberammergau complex in Bavaria was discovered by Amercan troops on 29 April 1945, days before the war’s end.

Gerhard Fieseler’s Delta IV. The aircraft crashed on its first test flight and the project was abandoned.

Cockpit and instrument panel of Me 163B.

Adolf Galland with Werner von Braun and other Luftwaffe Officers.

In 1929, an opportunity to publicise the society came when the famous German film director Fritz Lang wanted to make a film called Frau in Mond (‘Girl on the Moon’). To launch the film Lang wanted Oberth to build a rocket and launch it to a height of 70 kilometres for the premiere. The problem was that Oberth was a theorist and not an engineer. So Oberth hired an assistant, Rudolf Nebel, who was an engineer but who had no experience with rockets. Together they worked on a number of ideas for a rocket, but nothing came of it and the film premiere came and went. Somewhat disillusioned, Oberth returned to Rumania, whilst Nebel, who had become a member of VfR, worked on a design to test liquid propulsion systems.

It was Werner von Braun who initiated the idea of using a rocket as the main propulsion unit for an aircraft and early trials were carried out, the majority of which were not successful. Despite this, experiments continued, culminating in the relative success of the Messerschmitt Me 163B rocket plane.

The first thoughts of using jet propulsion in aircraft can be traced back to the 1920s, when Italian Ingegner Secondo Campini began experiments. He had started seriously studying jet propulsion in 1929 and had built an experimental jet boat for the Italian Air Ministry in 1932. After further experiments the Air Ministry, impressed with what they had seen, gave instructions for Caproni to construct a jet aircraft and two examples of the Campini Caproni – CC.2, MM.487 and 488 – were built between 1933 and 1940. The Campini Caproni CC.2 had a wingspan of 48ft, a fuselage length of 41ft 6in and an all-up weight of 9,790lb. It had a top speed of 223mph and an operating ceiling of 13,000ft. Powered by a 900hp Isotta-Fraschini radial engine, the first flight of MM.487, and the world’s second jet-powered flight, took place on 27 August 1940 with test pilot Mario de Bernardi at the controls. Ingegner Giovanni Pedace accompanied him on the flight and the aircraft was flown from Taliedo to Guidonia for further testing. Unfortunately, it was destroyed during an air raid in 1943. What was left of the aircraft was removed and taken to Britain for examination by the Royal Air Force. The remaining CC.2, MM.488, first flew on 30 April 1941, but production of the aircraft was never considered because of the cost and the pressing military needs of the time. Fortunately the aircraft survived the war and is now on display at the Italian Air Force Museum at Vigna di Valle.

Arado Ar66 trainer, later used for testing the early rocket engines that were mounted under the fuselage.

On 27 August 1939 the first jet-powered aircraft took to the air, the Heinkel He 178. The aircraft was powered by a He S-3b turbo-jet engine, which pushed out 1,100lb of thrust, and had been developed by Hans-Joachim Pabst von Ohain whilst working for Ernst Heinkel. This led to the development of the Jumo engine when the Heinkel Company took over the secret engine projects of the recently amalgamated Bramo/BMW Company. The company had been established in 1936 at Magdeburg by Herbert Wagner and had been taken over by the Junkers Engine Division Company in 1938.

In the meantime, Willi Messerschmitt had been looking at the development of the jet engine too, and together with the RLM – Reichsluftfahrtministerium (German Air Ministry) conceived an engine with a thrust of 1,350lb and installed it in an aircraft with the designation P.1065. This aircraft was to be developed into the Messerschmitt Me 262, which was to take the aviation world, during the war, by storm.

The Messerschmitt Me 163B Komet rocket fighter also appeared at this time and it too made a lasting impression on the bomber crews that came under attack from the minuscule fighter.

The Junkers and Arado companies were meanwhile making progress with this revolutionary new type of aircraft.

Walter Nowotny (7 December 1920–8 November 1944). Three of the Austrian-born ace’s credited 258 victories were achieved in the Messerschmitt Me 262.

Cutaway drawing of the Fritz X bomb.

Fritz X bomb being dropped from a Heinkel He 177 during tests.

Me 163B caught in the gun camera of a P.51 Mustang.

Fritz X Bomb. The radio-guided weapon sank the Italian battleship Roma en route to Malta, preventing the flagship falling into Allied hands.

It is these aircraft that this book considers, together with the part played by the German scientists and engineers who developed them. These rocket and jet aircraft came too late to make any significant difference to the outcome of the war, but they were to lead the way for future designers and manufacturers.

1

MESSERSCHMITT ME 163B ‘KOMET’

Conception

The first thoughts on the possible use of rockets in aviation appear at the beginning of the 1900s when the noted Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, widely accepted as the ‘Father of Rocketry’, published a scientific paper in 1903 on his theory for a rocket-powered motor. Although only a theory, in his paper he specified the use of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen as propellants. In the 1920s two Russian students, Sergei Korolyov and Valentin Glushko, carried out experiments on gliders but the plans were dropped because of the economic climate and probably because the ‘old guard’ in the government disapproved of anything they did not understand. These investigations were of course reborn after the Second World War when the Russians were able to take advantage of the wealth of material acquired from the defeated German Army.

In Germany, experiments had been carried out in 1928 on liquid fuels by Fritz von Opel, the automobile manufacturer. Max Valier of the Verein für Raumschiffahrt – VFR Society – had also carried out such experiments with an eye to space navigation. The extremely wealthy Von Opel’s only purpose for these experiments was not to further the cause of science, but to use the fuel in his automobile business and enjoy the publicity that would go with it.

Von Opel and Max Valier went to see Alexander Lippisch at the Forschungsinstitut, Rhön-Rossiten Gesellschaft – a research institute for aerodynamics – with the intention of persuading him to loan one of his gliders for an experiment. Lippisch had designed and built two tailless gliders, the Storch (Stork) and the Ente (Duck) and it was the Ente that was to be the first full-scale aircraft to be fitted with rockets. Alexander Lippisch had in 1921 set up a company – Weltensegler GmbH – together with his friend and fellow designer Gottlob ‘Espe’ Espenlaub. It was here that they designed the first of the tailless Storch gliders, which was soon followed by the building of the Storch I and the Ente.

Artist’s impression of the DFS 194V-1 in flight.

Prototype Messerschmitt Me 163A V4.

The Ente wasn’t exactly tailless; its tail was in front of the glider, much like that of the Wright Flyer. Lippisch agreed to the use of one of his gliders for the experiment and, with the help of a pyrotechnician by the name of Alexander Sander, mounted two 44lb thrust Sander rockets in a nacelle fitted at the rear of the aircraft. Originally von Opel had wanted the team to mount 796lb of rockets in the rear nacelle, but he was talked out of it. The flight took place on 11 June 1928 flown by Fritz Stamer, an instructor from the Martens-Fliegerschule. The glider was launched by means of a rubber shock cord and lasted just 35 seconds. A second flight some days later, with 55lb rockets fitted, lasted 70 seconds and Stamer took the rocket-powered glider to a height of 4,000ft and returned to the take-off point. A third test flight ended disastrously when one of the rockets exploded on take-off and destroyed part of the glider.

At the beginning of 1929, one of the students from the Martens-Fliegerschule by the name of Hatry designed a rocket-powered glider and persuaded Lippisch to help him build it. With the glider completed, Fritz von Opel viewed it and offered to buy it from Hatry. The glider was then overhauled by a workshop at Frankfurt airport to make it airworthy, and christened the Opel-Sander Rak 1 (Hatry was never paid for the machine). Whilst it was at Frankfurt, Valier and von Opel persuaded Espenlaub to modify his EA 1 glider to take Sander rockets. This he did and the glider was renamed the Espenlaub-Valier Rak 3, the first tests being carried out at Düsseldorf. In the meantime Espenlaub had commissioned Swiss engineer A. Sohldenhoff to build him a tailless aircraft that was to be rocket-powered.

Prototype Me 163A on its launching trolley.

One of the prototypes Me 163B VA+SB taking off.

The Sander rockets were fitted to the Rak 3 in a staggered manner above the wing and behind the cockpit, and a sheet metal plate was fitted to protect the vertical tail surfaces. The first two flights were uneventful, but on the third flight the tail surfaces caught fire. That was enough for Espenlaub and he decided to wait until his own aircraft, the E 15 as it was known, was ready.

The Rak 1 in the meantime had not been forgotten and Hatry continued to work and modify the aircraft. What resulted was a strengthened high-wing monoplane with a short fuselage that contained the pilot’s cockpit and the nacelle for the battery of 16 rockets. The tail was mounted on two booms that were raised so as to allow the blast from the rockets to pass between and beneath. The first flight took place on 30 September 1929 with Fritz von Opel at the controls and the 16 rockets, with a thrust of 900lb, blasted him off the launching rail. Von Opel lifted the aircraft to a height of 5,000ft and attained a speed of 95mph. Excited by the results, he carried out a second flight some days later, but on the third flight it crashed. Fortunately von Opel was only slightly injured, but he had lost faith in the project and withdrew his support, having achieved the publicity he wanted.

This left Espenlaub and his E 13 to carry on the research into rocket-powered flight. Rockets were mounted on the trailing edge of the wing centre section and the tricycle landing gear reversed. The first tests flights however were made with a 20hp Daimler engine. It wasn’t until 4 May 1930 at Bremerhaven that the first trials were carried out using rockets, but they were not successful. Further flights were carried out with additional rockets but they too failed and when the aircraft nose-dived into the ground on the last of the flights, Espenlaube’s interest took a nose-dive as well. A few days after the crash, Valier, who had been working on his own liquid fuel rocket, was killed when it exploded during a test at the Heylandt-Werke, Berlin.

At first it was thought that all interest in rocketry had gone, but unknown to anyone the Heereswaffenamt (Army Weapon’s Department) had been investigating the possibility of using rockets in warfare and had sent a report to the Reichswehr. They authorised the go-ahead for research into using rockets in propulsion systems but it had to be carried out in secret. Initial research was into creating a rocket engine for possible use with missiles, but nothing significant was discovered.

The man placed in charge of the research facilities at Kummersdorf was Hauptmann Walter Dornberger and amongst his staff was a scientist by the name of Werner von Braun, – the man who, ultimately, put a man on the moon. Von Braun had been working with Valier on rocket engines whilst at the Raketenflugplatz together with another engineer Walter Riedel. This small team set to work designing and then developing a liquid-oxygen powered rocket of 650lb thrust. The research facilities at Kummersdorf were working with the Germania-Werft, Kiel, which was under the control of Hellmuth Walter.

In 1935 Walter developed a fuel based on hydrogen peroxide, methyl alcohol and liquid oxygen, which was intended to propel a torpedo that would leave no wake trace. Impressed with the results, the Deutches Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt – DVL (German Aviation Experimental Establishment) – approached Hellmuth Walter to develop a rocket motor with a 90lb thrust for roll calibration trials.

So successful were the tests that it was decided to see what would happen if the rocket was used to assist in the take-off of an aircraft. A 300lb thrust Walter rocket was attached to the underside of a Heinkel He 72 Kadett biplane trainer fuselage. The results were better than anyone anticipated and suddenly a new and exciting chapter in the world of aviation opened. Later, further tests were carried out using a more powerful rocket mounted beneath the fuselage of a Focke-Wulf Fw 56 ‘Stösser’, followed some months later by trials at Altenwald using the Heinkel He 111 and 116. The results were enough to persuade the RLM that the use of rockets for assisting aircraft, especially heavy bombers, was a viable proposition. They also concluded that more research into the use of the rocket motor as an engine should be explored.

The landing skid of a Me 163B shown here extended.

In the meantime Helmuth Walter had been carrying out his own research into installing one of his rocket engines into an aircraft and his work had attracted the attention of the RLM’s Entwicklungsamt (Development Office). So impressed were they with his development that the RLM created a Sondertriebwerke (Special Propulsion Systems) department to watch over his efforts. Not only did this give Walter security, it also helped considerably with the funding of his projects and it was because of this that he was able to develop an engine that operated at low temperature. This engine, known as a ‘cold’ engine, used a catalyst called Z-Stoff, an aqueous solution of calcium permanganate or sodium, which was forced into the combustion chamber by a pump attached to a steam turbine. This in effect enabled the two rocket fuels, when forced into the chamber, to increase the temperature to 600°C without igniting, through a chemical reaction. The engine was known as the TP-1.

Messerschmitt Me 163B with rockets mounted beneath the wings.

Me 163B being fuelled up with C-stoff ready for a test flight.

Heini Dittmar taking off on a test flight in the Me 163B.

The engine was installed in a Heinkel He 112 and tests were carried out at Kummersdorf in November 1937. The tests were a complete success and although Helmuth Walter got the nod of approval from the Luftwaffe, that is all he got. Walter decided to progress further and a Heinkel aircraft was built around the rocket engine. It was called the Heinkel He 176.

Ernst Heinkel, Sigfried Gunther, Heinrich Hertel and Helmuth Walter designed the aircraft. It had a wingspan of 16ft 5in, a wing area of 58.12 sq. ft. and was 17ft 1in long. Unusually it had an open cockpit and a fixed undercarriage Two prototypes were proposed, one for low speed handling tests and the other for high-speed flight trials.

In September 1938 the first of the prototypes was completed at the Heinkel facility at Marienehe. It was sent to the Luftwaffe’s new, secret rocket testing site on the island of Usedom, Peenemünde-West (Peenemünde-East was the area being used by the Army). On arrival the Walter TP-2 rocket engine was installed in the aircraft. This was a moment of concern for the team, as the first Walter TP-2 engine blew up on the test stand, destroying not only the engine but also the building that housed it. A number of ground tests were carried out before the first attempt to take the aircraft into the air. At the beginning of May 1939 the first flight tests were attempted and were a complete flop. The short wings were totally ineffective and couldn’t even lift the aircraft off the ground. Even with a re-designed wing and a longer runway the aircraft only managed to struggle into the air for a flight lasting 50 seconds and reached a top speed of 170mph. A second flight a few days later in front of Hermann Göring’s deputy, Erhard Milch and the Luftwaffe’s head of Aircraft Procurement Ernst Udet, fared no better. Despite the recriminations they received from the two senior Luftwaffe officers (one comment from Ernst Udet was that it was a ‘rocket with a running board’), the Heinkel team were delighted with the results. On 3 July 1939 the team gave a display of the aircraft to Adolf Hitler. Flown by test pilot Erich Warsitz, he climbed the aircraft to 2,500ft, cut the engine as he swept down, then re-lit the rocket engine as he levelled out at 500ft and completed another half-circuit before touching down in front of the Führer. Hitler was delighted and full of admiration – not for the aircraft, but for the courage and skill of the pilot – and insisted on meeting him.

The Walter rocket engine had proved itself, but the Heinkel He 176 had not.

Whilst the development of the Walter rocket engine and its trials with the He 176 had been going on, Alexander Lippisch had been designing and developing a Delta-shaped tailless aircraft. This tailless aircraft was believed by many at the RLM to be the future of aircraft design. A number of his designs, the Storch 111, IV and V, had a variety of different engines attached and were successfully tested. Using the experience and results gained, Lippisch designed a new glider, the Delta I. After initial tests, a Bristol Cherub 30hp engine was installed and on 1 May 1931 made its first flight.

A number of other aircraft manufacturers including Messerschmitt and Fieseler became interested in the Delta design and in 1932 both these manufacturers produced a Lippisch-designed Delta wing aircraft, the Delta III and Delta IV (Fieseler F3 Wespe). Alexander Lippisch set to work to design a Delta-wing aircraft that could be fitted with a rocket engine and with the help of the Deutsches Forschungsinstitut für Segeflug (DFS) produced the DFS 39 Delta IVc aircraft, which was fitted with a 75hp Pobjoy radial tractor engine. The idea of the tractor engine was to test the airframe before fitting the rocket motor, which it did successfully. In October 1937 an order came from the RLM for a second DFS 39 to be built with the express purpose of mating it to the newly developed Walter HWK (Hellmuth Walter Kiel) R II-203 rocket engine.

Secrecy was paramount and it was soon realised that the tiny workshop at the DFS facility was unsuitable, not only for aircraft production but also for security. It was decided that the project needed the facilities that only an aircraft manufacturing plant could provide and so Lippisch approached Willy Messerschmitt. With the approval of the RLM, the whole project (code-named Projekt X) including Lippisch and 12 of his engineers and designers, was moved from Darmstadt to the Messerschmitt factory in Augsburg under the tightest security. The team took with them both the DFS 39 and their newly developed DFS 194 aircraft. Although the team operated in the confines of Abteilung L (Section L) in the Messerschmitt factory, they came under the authority of the Technischen Amtes of the RLM. Their first directive was that the first aircraft to be developed by the team would be known as the Messerschmitt Me 163.

Inception

Then in September the Second World War erupted and suddenly all projects came under scrutiny. It was announced from Berlin that any project that could not be completed within a year was to be abandoned. This of course put paid to the Me 163 project. The plans were shelved but Alexander Lippisch decided that unless he and his team continued with research they would be closed down. It was decided to take the DFS 194 and convert it to take the Walter R I-203 rocket engine and this was done early in the New Year. The aircraft and its new engine were taken to Peenemünde-West for testing. They had considered using the airfield at Augsburg but it was thought to be too short. By August 1940 a flight test programme by test pilot Heini Dittmar was exceeding all expectations. A top speed of 341mph was attained, although there were some problems with excess play in the control cables that caused some difficulty in controlling the aircraft at high speeds. Placing the cables into tubes later solved this. Further tests followed and all were successful and interest in the little rocket-powered aircraft was suddenly revitalised. The Reichsforschungsführung (Reich Research and Planning) recommended that the programme be given a priority status.

The Reichsluftfahrtministerium – RLM (German Air Ministry) – ordered that work on three development prototypes be started almost immediately and they were designated Me 163 V1, V2 and V3. The engines were to be Walter HWK R II-203s and there were certain specifications laid down. The engines had to be easily removed from the Me 163 airframe for general maintenance and so that engine test runs could be carried out as and when required. The engine also had to have the capability of being re-lit in mid-air in the event of a flameout.

By October 1940 the first of the prototypes, the Me 163 V1 (KE+SW) was ready but the engines were not. It was decided to carry out glide tests with the aircraft, so it was taken to a nearby Luftwaffe airfield at Lechfeld where it was towed behind a Messerschmitt Bf 110C. The landing was carried out at Messerschmitt’s airfield at Augsburg. It was staggering, that although only a glider at this moment in time, when put into a steep dive the aircraft was capable of reaching speeds of up to 528mph. On one visit by Generalluftzeugmeister