World War 2 In Review: German Jägernotprogramm Fighter Design

Focke-Wulf Ta 183 wind tunnel model.

The Emergency Fighter Program (German: Jägernotprogramm, literally “Fighter Emergency Program”) was the program that resulted from a decision taken on July 3, 1944 by the Luftwaffe regarding the German aircraft manufacturing companies during the last year of the Third Reich.

This project was one of the products of the latter part of 1944, when the Luftwaffe High Command saw that there was a dire need for a strong defense against Allied bombing raids. Although opposed by important figures such as Luftwaffe fighter force leader Adolf Galland, the project went ahead owing to the backing of Marshall of the Reich Hermann Göring. Most of the designs of the Emergency Fighter Program never proceeded past the project stage.

History

In the Emergency Fighter Program emphasis was laid in shifting production to defensive interceptor/fighters. A number of new aircraft design competition programs were launched to provide new jet fighters. Production of the Messerschmitt Me 262A fighter versions continued, as well as the development of advanced piston-engined fighters such as the Dornier Do 335 as per Hitler’s personal request on May 23, 1944, before the July 3rd announcement of the program. Bombers, however, were severely curtailed, with only jet bombers allowed to continue in production after the edict, such as the Arado Ar 234. New jet bombers such as the Junkers Ju 287 and Heinkel He 343 were worked on fitfully as low priority projects in the last months of the war.

Towards the end of the war some of the fighter designs, such as the Heinkel P.1077 Julia, the Blohm und Voss BV 40 and the Arado E.381 Kleinstjäger – “smallest fighter” were designed with the pilot flying the aircraft in a prone position; or for a vertical takeoff like a modern missile launch system for the first time with a manned aircraft, with the Bachem Ba 349 Natter. The Natter and Julia designs were expected to climb to their ceiling at vertical or near vertical angles, while the Arado design was a parasite aircraft that needed to be carried by a “mother” plane, with the unpowered BV 40 needing an aero tow into action. These small interceptors had fuel for only a few minutes for combat action and landing was difficult, for instead of having a wheeled undercarriage they had only a fixed skid, or as with the Natter, the pilot bailed out at the end of a mission while the rear fuselage containing the rocket motor descended under its own parachute.

Such simplified and dangerous planes were the products of the last phase of the Third Reich, when the lack of materials and the dire need for a strong defense against the allied bombing raids required such craft to be built quickly in underground factories. In the design of the planes little thought was given to the safety or comfort of the pilots who were mostly Hitler Youth motivated by fanaticism. Those were dire months in which Nazi authorities even considered the use of selbstopfer (suicide) planes such as the Reichenberg (a manned version of the V-1 flying bomb).

Peoples’ Fighter Project

In August 1944, a requirement led to the Volksjäger (“Peoples’ Fighter”) aircraft design competition, to create a lightweight high-speed fighter/interceptor using a single turbojet engine, intended for rapid mass-production while using minimal resources. The Volksjäger was intended to be disposable, with damaged aircraft being discarded rather than repaired, while it was to be flown by pilots hastily trained on gliders.

After a hurried design competition involving almost all of Germany’s aircraft companies, including Zeppelin with its Fliegende Panzerfaust, Heinkel’s He 162 proposal was selected as the winning Volksjäger airframe design. The first prototype of the He 162 Spatz (Sparrow), flew in December 1944. Other designs submitted to the Peoples’ Fighter Program, such as the Blohm und Voss P.211, were potentially superior, but never proceeded past the project stage.

Miniature Fighter Project

In November 1944, a program 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 using the absolute minimum of strategic materials. The aim was to produce them cheaply and in large numbers so as to overwhelm the Allied bomber formations that flew daily over Germany. The Miniaturjäger would be powered by one Argus As 014 pulsejet engine per unit, as this engine required far fewer construction man-hours than a turbojet. The various German aircraft designers showed less interest in this new enterprise than in the Peoples’ Fighter Project for the imminent He 162 program would swallow up most of what was left of the country’s available — and rapidly diminishing — production capacity. Furthermore, it was already well known by the time the Miniaturjäger competition was announced that, as they didn’t produce enough power at low speeds for takeoff, the Argus pulsejets were unsuitable for manned aircraft that would have to takeoff unassisted. Since additional launch schemes would had to be added to the project, such as tow planes, catapults or rocket boosters, the goal of the program would be defeated and expenses would be far higher. Thus the Miniaturjäger project never saw mass-production, being abandoned by December 1944.

Even so, aircraft manufacturers Heinkel, Blohm und Voss and Junkers came up with light fighter designs using a strict minimum of materials before that date. The resulting planes were small, spartan creations, with no radio and almost no electrical equipment, Heinkel would use a He 162 air frame powered by a pulse jet, Blohm und Voss designed the BV P.213 and Junkers would submit the Ju EF 126 Elli project. The only Miniature Fighter aircraft to get beyond blueprint status was Junkers EF 126 ‘Lilli.’ Although unbuilt during the war, five prototypes were built in the Dessau Junkers plant in the area occupied by the Soviet Union. One of the prototypes was destroyed during unpowered testing in 1946, killing the pilot.

Other Projects

At the beginning of 1945 a further program was launched by the OKL in order to replace the He 162 Volksjäger. The new aircraft was intended to have superior performance in order to deal with high altitude threats such as the B-29 Superfortress (although it was never used in Europe). To meet this requirement, power was to be a single Heinkel HeS 011 turbojet, of which only 19 examples were ever produced, and all allocated for development testing. The designs of the Messerschmitt P.1110, Heinkel P. 1078, Focke-Wulf Ta 183, Blohm und Voss P 212 as well as the official winner of the competition, the Junkers EF 128, were submitted by February 1945.

This more advanced fighter had attracted more interest than the austere Miniaturjäger, particularly from Focke-Wulf and Messerschmitt, but only the Messerschmitt prototype had been started by the end of the war. The first prototype of the Messerschmitt P.1101 was 80% complete when captured at the end of the war, following which it was taken to America and used as the basis of the Bell X-5 variable geometry research aircraft.

List of Third Reich Emergency Fighter Projects

Gliders

Blohm und Voss BV 40

Pulsejet-powered Aircraft

Blohm und Voss P.213

Junkers EF 126 Elli

Heinkel He 162 B

Heinkel P.1077 Romeo

Messerschmitt P.1079 1, 2, 10c, 13b, 15 and 16

Ramjet-powered Aircraft

Focke-Wulf Super Lorin

Focke-Wulf Ta 283

Heinkel P. 1080

Messerschmitt P.1079 51

Messerschmitt P.1101 L

Skoda-Kauba Sk P.14

Rocket-powered Aircraft

Arado E.381 Kleinstjäger

Bachem Ba 349 Natter

Focke-Wulf Volksjäger 2

Heinkel P.1077 Julia

Junkers EF 127 Walli

Messerschmitt P.1103

Messerschmitt P.1104

Sombold So 344

Stöckel Rammschussjäger

Von Braun Interceptor

Zeppelin Fliegende Panzerfaust

Zeppelin Rammer

Turbojet-powered Aircraft

Arado E.580 Volksjäger

Blohm und Voss P 211

Blohm und Voss P 212

Focke-Wulf Ta 183

Focke-Wulf Volksflugzeug

Junkers EF 128

Heinkel He 162

Heinkel P. 1078

Henschel Hs 132

Messerschmitt P.1101

Messerschmitt P.1110

Messerschmitt P.1106

Messerschmitt P.1111

As an alternative to the P.1110/I Messerschmitt had also produced the P.1111 design, which was subsequently abandoned in light of the excellent performance of the P.1110/II. This was also a tailless aircraft, with a mid-mounted wing swept back 45 degrees.

The air intakes for the turbojet were in the wing roots; a position much used in the post-war years. The tail unit consisted of a single swept-back vertical fin. The nose wheel of the tricycle undercarriage retracted backward into the nose, and the two widely-spaced main wheels into the wing inner sections.

The fuel tanks were housed in the wing and carried 1,560 liters of fuel.

Armament consisted of four Mk. 108 cannon with 100 rounds each, housed together in the nose.

Dimensions were a length of 6.50 meters, height 2.50 meters, wingspan 9.15 meters, and a wing area of 25 square meters.

Design performance was a maximum speed of 900 kilometers per hour at sea level and just under 1,000 kilometers per hour at 7,000 meters, a speed of climb of 23.7 meters per second, and a range of 1,500 kilometers.

Fully loaded weight was slightly less than that of the P.1110/II at 3,850 kilograms.

Messerschmitt P.1116

On this particular design, which was not accepted for the competition since it was put forward after the time limit, we have little information. It was a modification of the earlier P.1106 which had, in its turn, been derived from the P.1101, and would have been a very different aircraft from the P.1110 and P.1111; perhaps slightly less advanced, but easier to build.

The air intake was in the nose, and the cockpit, to leave space for the engine which was mounted centrally forward, was positioned far back, immediately in front of the V-shaped tail. As in all the other designs put forward by Messerschmitt the cockpit was pressurized and heavily armored.

Dimensions were a length of 9.10 meters, height 3.50 meters, wingspan 6.70 meters, and a wing area of 12.70 meters.

Maximum take-off weight was calculated as around 4,000 kilograms, and estimated maximum speed was 995 kilometers per hour at 7,000 meters, with a service ceiling of 13,300 meters.

Armament was limited to two Mk. 108 cannon.

Blohm und Voss P.212

The Blohm und Voss P.212 design, of very advanced concept, was directly derived from their earlier P.208 propeller-driven fighter, which never got beyond the design stage.

It was a monoplane, at first sight apparently without a tail, but in effect the tail’s functions were carried out by additional control surfaces on the wing tips. The wing was mid-mounted with a sweep of 40 degrees and a marked dihedral; at the wing tips, as we have already mentioned, were two small vertical fins and two horizontal planes with very marked negative dihedral. Leading edge and trailing edge were completely parallel, with slots the full length of the leading edge and large flaps and smaller ailerons on the trailing edge.

There was a tricycle undercarriage with the nose wheel retracting forward into the nose, and the two main wheels retracting into the fuselage.

When the design was put forward the suggested armament was three 30-mm Mk. 108 cannon with 100 rounds each, but it would also have been possible to install three more cannon of the same type, although this would have reduced the number of rounds per cannon to sixty.

The aircraft’s dimensions would have been a length of 7.55 meters, wingspan of 7 meters, and a wing area of 14 square meters.

Empty weight had been calculated as 2,700 kilograms and fully loaded weight 4,170 kilograms, of which 1,250 kilograms would have been 1,500 liters of fuel.

Estimated performance was a top speed of 910 kilometers per hour at sea level, speed of climb 21.7 meters per second, service ceiling 12,500 meters, and a range of 1,125 kilometers.

As can be seen, the increase in service ceiling compared to the Me 262 was less than that specified by the Technischen Amt, while the other characteristics were all up to specification.

Heinkel P.1078C

The P.1078C was another tailless aircraft; this particular configuration being very popular with German designers at that time. It was the third and last in a series of three designs which included also the P.1078A and P.1078B, and it was probably the original intention of Heinkel to put forward all three designs, as had done Messerschmitt and Focke-Wulf, but in the event only the P.1078C was put forward.

Unfortunately, no technical data is available on this aircraft’s characteristics, but it probably had a wing similar to that of the P.1078A, with a sweep of 40 degrees and negative dihedral at the wing tips, but with a very different fuselage and, as we have already mentioned, no tail.

The undercarriage arrangement would be similar to that of the Blohm und Voss P.212, largely dictated by the mid-mounting of the wing, with the nose wheel retracting forward into the nose and the main wheels sideways into the fuselage.

The armament did not, however, come up to specification, and consisted of only two 30-mm cannon with 100 rounds each, mounted one either side of the cockpit.

Design dimensions were a length of 6 meters, wingspan of about 9 meters, and a wing area of 18 square meters.

Empty weight was 2,450 kilograms, with a maximum take-off weight of 3,870 kilograms carrying 1,450 liters of fuel, which gave a range of 1,500 kilometers.

Maximum speed at sea level was estimated at 1,025 kilometers per hour and speed of climb 21 meters per second. The service ceiling of 12,900 meters was below the required specification.

Focke-Wulf Ta 183

The specification issued for the emergency fighter gave Focke-Wulf the opportunity to put forward two designs on which they had been working since 1942, and which they had lumped together under the name of Huckebein (a large species of crow). Although both put forward under the same Ta 183 designation, the two designs differed to some extent, and were the last of a series of eight designs representing different stages of development.

The first was an aircraft of very advanced aerodynamic form; the wing, positioned high, had a sweep of 40 degrees, with leading and trailing edges almost parallel. The tail unit was T-shaped (a configuration much used in recent years, but at that time very futuristic), with a swept-back (60 degree) tail fin and slight dihedral on the horizontal surfaces. An interesting point from the manufacturing and maintenance points of view, was that the wings were interchangeable, being of symmetrical double convex profile with no camber, twist or dihedral.

The fuselage was semi-monocoque divided laterally into two sections; the upper was the strong part of the fuselage which housed the cockpit and to which was attached the tail unit, while the lower housed the engine and the two Mk. 108 cannon, which could be increased to four by discarding one of the fuel tanks and reducing the number of rounds carried to 80 per gun. The undercarriage was tricycle, retracting into the fuselage.

Dimensions were a length of 9.50 meters, height 3.50 meters, wingspan 10 meters, and a wing area of 22 square meters.

Empty weight was 2,850 kilograms, and 4,200 kilograms fully loaded, of which 1,250 kilograms was the 1,570 liters of fuel (in the two-cannon version).

Performance was an estimated maximum speed of 870 kilometers per hour at sea level and 960 kilometers per hour at 7,000 meters, a speed of climb of 20.5 meters per second, and an estimated service ceiling of slightly over 14,000 meters.

The performance of the Ta 183 in this first form was not much better than the performances of the other competitors for the Jägernotprogramm specification; what really swung the decision in its favor was the limited use of strategic materials in its construction, and the short building time; characteristics which really made it another Volksjäger. In its building, in fact, great use was made of wood which accounted for twenty-five per cent of the total weight. The wing ribs and covering were of wood and ply respectively, with duralumin spars; the tail unit was also of all-wood construction, and the fuselage also used the same mixed materials, although the skin was of light alloy. In all, the building time of the Ta 183 would have been only 2,500 man hours.

In the middle of March 1945 the Oberkommando of the Luftwaffe chose this design as the winner of the Jägernotprogramm, giving it the designation Ta 183. With the least possible delay Focke-Wulf passed to the detail design stage and started to program the building of sixteen pre-production aircraft; before they could get beyond the design stage, however, all of the company’s factories were occupied by the Allies.

The second design, which was also designated Ta 183 was a little more subdued in design. The wing was still mounted high but was positioned centrally and had a sweep of only 32 degrees (the first version had the wing much farther forward). The tail assembly was mounted on an outrigger from the fuselage and was of normal type, unlike the T shape of the first version and without the accentuated sweep-back.

Armament consisted of two Mk. 108 mounted high in the nose. Other arrangements were more or less common to the two versions, apart from the cockpit which was positioned centrally rather than forward.

This second version had a length of 8.80 meters, wingspan of 9.60 meters and a wing area of 20 square meters; fully loaded weight was 4,100 kilograms.

Estimated performance was a maximum speed of 900 kilometers per hour at sea level and 965 kilometers per hour at 7,000 meters, with a service ceiling of 13,500 meters.

In any consideration of the relative merits of the aircraft produced by the German aircraft companies for the Jägernotprogramm, a clear distinction must be made between practical considerations and purely technical merit. As far as the first is concerned, the whole program, as we have already said, can only be explained within the context of the “collective madness” which, in the latter stages of the war, appeared to affect the German leaders, both military and political. To imagine, in March 1945, that it would be possible to launch a program for the mass production of an advanced jet fighter (there was talk of producing the Ta 183 at the rate of three hundred a month) indicates a complete refusal to face up to the reality of the situation, just as, in the same period Hitler prepared his grand operation for the defense of Berlin, maneuvering and deploying divisions which existed only on paper.

The technical aspects of the program are, however, quite a different matter. The Jägernotprogramm fighters were the most advanced designs which German industry would, at that particular point in time, have been capable of producing, at least as prototypes, and were not simply technical speculation. A simple look at their characteristics shows that they were very advanced aircraft, not only compared with the products of Allied industry, but also compared with anything the Germans themselves had previously produced. Compared to the Me 262 particularly, the Jägernotprogramm fighters were obviously of the next generation, and only designs of this kind could have led to a genuine jet fighter without the limitations and compromises of the Me 262 design, particularly its twin-engine configuration, which was dictated largely by the lack of a jet engine producing sufficient thrust. Nor are we saying anything new when we say that the influence of these aircraft on the aviation industries of the victorious countries was considerable. A comparison of the lines of the Messerschmitt P.1101, Ta 183, and Messerschmitt P.1110, with those of first generation American, British, Swedish and Russian fighters makes this evident.

The designer of the aircraft which won the Jägernotprogramm, Kurt Tank, like many other Germans, moved to South America after the war. Having established himself in Argentina, Tank joined the I.A. organization where he produced an aircraft with the characteristics of the Ta 183, which never got beyond the prototype stage.

The I.A. 33 Pulqui II made its first flight on 27 June 1950. It had a mid-mounted wing with a sweep of 40 degrees, a T-shaped tail unit with the fin swept back 50 degrees and the horizontal surfaces swept 45 degrees. The undercarriage retracted into the fuselage. It was powered by a Rolls-Royce Nene 2 engine producing about 2,300 kilograms of static thrust fed from one fuel tank in the wing (800 liters) and one in the fuselage (1,250 liters). It had a pressurized cabin, ejector seat, front (windscreen) and back armor for the pilot, and an autopilot. Armament consisted of four 20-mm cannon mounted in the lower nose. Dimensions were a length of 11.60 meters, wingspan 10.6 meters, height 3.3 meters, wing area 25.1 square meters. Empty weight was 3,600 kilograms, and 5,550 kilograms fully loaded. Estimated performance gave a maximum speed of 1,040 kilometers per hour at 5,000 meters, a speed of climb of 29.8 meters per second, and a maximum ceiling of 15,000 meters.

Six aircraft were built but, probably for economic reasons, it never went into production, although for that particular period its performance was excellent. Thus ended the last trace of the Jägernotprogramm.

Messerschmitt P.1111.

German artist conception of the Messerschmitt P.1111. The Messerschmitt P.1111 was a jet fighter/interceptor project designed by Messerschmitt for the Luftwaffe before the end of the Second World War. The innovative design of the Me P.1111 was completed in January 1945 and was intended as an improvement to the Messerschmitt P.1110 Ente. The Messerschmitt P.1111 was an 8.92 m long tailless airplane with nearly delta-shaped wings swept back at a 45 degree angle and a wingspan of 9.12 m. It was equipped with a pressurized cockpit for a single pilot. The planned powerplant was a Heinkel HeS 011 turbojet engine, and armament was to be four 30 mm MK 108 cannons. Only one wooden model was built. The project was later further developed into the Me P.1112.