Top 5 Weird WW2 German Prototypes That Actually Flew

During World War III the Germans built many aircraft, some we are familiar with, like the BF 109, they only built around 34,000 of them, it is one of the most built aircraft of all time. The Germans also built rarer aircraft such as the Blom andos BV 138, of which. They built about 300 of this video will focus on German

prototypes

that, if you'll pardon the pun, didn't take off due to other choices in design direction or a lack of resources to build more examples, these are my top five German

prototypes

. strangers. who

actually

flew

for this list there are only two rules: the plane had to exist and it had to have completed a flight, which means no paper plans or prefabricated models or mock-ups Without further ado, let's get on with the list number. five the bominos BV 40 this little glider doesn't look too aggressive it doesn't look out of place as a recreational glider maybe something one could take on a weekend on a nice warm summer day what separates the BV 40 from a standard glider is a set of twin 30mm autocannons, each equipped with 35 rounds, bringing the BV 40's maximum ammunition to 70 rounds.

I can't emphasize how strange it is to have weapons on a glider. The BV 40 is the only combat aircraft in existence. fact in history, this is further emphasized by the fact that the cannons are twin 30mm cannons. Check out this comparison between a 30mm shell and a Browning 50 auto. The reason the BB40 needed this firepower was because of its role as an Interceptor bomber. Germany needed a plane that could take on the bombers attacking deep in the German heartland. The BV 40 was intended to be an alternative design direction for the defensive aircraft that were being designed at the time during 1944.

Germany was researching all types. of different aircraft such as jet aircraft such as the me262 and hton 229, i was also looking at rocket aircraft such as the bham ba 349 and me163 rocket and jet aircraft, even the simplest designs are expensive and complicated to make, they involve engineering precision and are rare. The metals that Germany was running out of in manufacturing workshops were under threat of attack as day and night bombing raids destroyed German industrial centers, resulting in very high competition for designers to secure captured jet engines from limited manufacturing. The bb40 was a cheaper alternative to the Jet and rocket planes was cheap due to three main factors its lack of complexity so an unskilled tag could assemble most of its tiny form very few resources had to be used to produce one its wooden design the fuselage was mainly made of wood, which could be obtained within Germany, the ideal combat mission was that two BV 40 could be towed by a single BF19, the BF 109 was a single-engine German fighter after take-off When attacking an Allied bomber formation at altitude, the BB40 would separate from the toll line and glide freely toward the formation. bombers.

The glider could reach speeds of up to 900 kmph in a dive. It was thought that the pilot should be able to make two passes to the bomber formation. Before running out of potential energy and ammunition, the glider returned to the runway, landing on its fixed skid. Another strange thing about this glider is that the pilot had to lie face down in a prone position to operate the glider. This photo is of a German pilot lying down for another plane, it was nice to fly the plane like that, the flights wouldn't have been too long so it shouldn't have been a big problem, the reason for the pilot lying down was to reduce the Glider size, in addition to the advantages we talked about above, there are other advantages to making the glider small.

One of them is resistance L due to the small surface area that allows two gliders to be towed by a single-engine fighter. Another advantage is that the small shape makes the glider very difficult to hit in defense. Gunners would have difficulty hitting such a small plane. The first test flight was made in May 1944. Bominos received an order for 19 prototypes and an additional order for 200 for production. The program was later abandoned. With only seven prototypes being built, all currently built prototypes are unaccounted for, no one is sure what happened to them at the end of war number four, the Hano H 111z.

This plane looks like some kind of bad Photoshop, the type of plane you'll see in a thumbnail with a kind of clickbait title for H 111z is exactly what it looks like, it's two hg11 bombers joined together, the Z in the designation means swilling , which means twin in German, each side of the Hano 111z was rough, the lead pilot

flew

. on the left side together with a mechanic, a defensive gunner and a radio navigator, the co-pilot flew on the right side together with another flight engineer and a defensive gunner. 12 Z variants were built, the H 111z was not the only experimental twin-fuselage aircraft. manufactured by Germany there was also an experimental twin BF1 109 called BF 109z remember the Z means twin the prototype was destroyed by an allied attack and the project abandoned other countries also had their own experimental twin fuselage aircraft Russia manufactured only the DBL LK one of those were built Italy had the sm92 only one was built and the United States had the twin Mustang f82 only 270 were built the f82 was built to be a bomber escort there was a two man crew, one in each hole, the pilots took turns during long flights control the airplane to reduce the fatigue that occurs after flying for long periods of time and finally, after almost 60 years, in 2017 we have the new large double-fuse airplane, the Strat, an airplane designed to launch rockets at space from high altitude.

Its wingspan broke the last world record and has a staggering length of 117 M, which is almost twice the size of a 747. The Hano 111z was not designed to be a fighter aircraft nor to be a bomber, it was designed to be a tow plane. Side note: yes he did. I considered some use as a light transport to evacuate wounded troops, but the true purpose of the HG 111z was to be a tow aircraft for the me 321, also known as the giant due to its size, the Emy 321 was an automobile glider, the glider largest cargo in the world.

The internal volume of the Gan was similar to that of a standard German railway carriage. Its lifting capacity was enormous, 23 tons. The large internal space and lifting capacity allowed the transport of heavy items, such as oil supplies. Vehicles, light tanks and artillery pieces. It could even be used to transport 120 fully equipped troops, there are several ways to fly an me 321. You could use a j90 to tow the me 321 in the air, but it had problems and was not really capable of accomplishing the task, the second way Of what I did with a Hine Co 111z, the third way was to use a trio or BF 110 with tow ropes to tow the me 321.

Up to eight rocket boosters could be used externally connected to the me 321 to assist with takeoff, the rockets will be discarded. after the fuel was spent on them about 200 me, the 321 were built, none of the methods for towing, although they were really that good, the j90 could barely climb the hore, the 111z was not much more powerful than the j90 , nor the BF 110 free tow. an extremely dangerous configuration one wrong move on the part of any of the pilots Towing the plane and the glider could end in a disaster and it did, there was a case in which an em 321 crashed shortly after takeoff, to make matters worse, the flight was configured to transport troops among the four planes there were 12 9 deaths later the me 321 was redesigned with six engines and landing gear this redesign was called m323 for Hol H 111z no longer it was necessary now that the cargo glider now the cargo plane could fly under its own power there It was no longer necessary to complicate complicated aircraft or rocket boosters to assist with takeoff, only four of the 12 h11 Z survived the war , the other eight were destroyed, seven of Straford's tours by Allied aircraft and one was shot down during a tour mission, unfortunately. the four survivors have been scrapped number three the Fela fi 103r reenberg this is a Mann V1 the same V1 that was being launched in England from launch sites in northern France for those of you who don't know what the V1 was, it was The world's first cruise missile, the missile was powered by a Pulse Jet that would propel the V1 to speeds of up to 550 kmph on the way to its target.

It had a basic autopilot that would move the control surfaces in flight to stabilize the missile in a straight line. 30,000 V1s were made during the war. Desperate times call for desperate measures. This is where the FI 103r comes into play, as opposed to the primitive guidance system. A manned missile could hit a target with great precision. The guidance system would land the missile within a 10-mile radius. At the designated target, a human could direct the missile directly towards an Allied ship even if it were at sea and move the FI 103 would be carried under the wing of a heavy German bomber to a point very close to the target before launching.

The pilot would then do his best to steer the 103r towards the target. It was suggested that pilots could jump before impact, but in practice this was almost impossible. The cockpit was very tight and what adds to the difficulty is that even if the pilot could slide out, there is a Pulse Jet right behind them, so unless you can somehow get out without hitting the jet engine , you are out of luck, and you are also flying at 650 kmph in a dive while this is happening, the probability of surviving a rescue was estimated to be 1%, yet people volunteered to pilot this plane knowing that flying it would lead to a certain death.

A training and testing program of the plane began with 70 students in a program to learn to fly the plane there. Glider variants of the 103r and also two-seat variants were modified for training purposes. The program did not get off to a good start as there were several accidents causing injuries and deaths during flight characteristics testing. In time, the program was abandoned as decided. Suicide missions were not part of the tradition of German warriors. Curiously, the project was abandoned in favor of the Mel project. To summarize, you take a smaller plane to a larger plane, fill the big plane with explosives, the small plane flies the big plane and directs the big plane into a target, the small plane breaks off before impact and flies back to home. 200 fi 103s were built and none of them were used against an enemy target.

Several of these aircraft have been preserved in various museums around the world before moving on to the next aircraft on this list, let's take a moment to take a look at the Pacific Theater of War, here we have the Japanese cherry blossom Oka, another suicide plane , but this was

actually

used in combat for Oka, appropriately named by the Americans as Baka means idiot in Japanese, the Oka would be carried by a Japanese heavy bomber close to the Allied ships, when within range the Ocha would separate from the bomber and would glide most of the way to the target near impact, the pilot would activate rocket boosters that would propel the ocher to approximately 800 kmph at that speed it would be almost impossible to shoot it down with anti-aircraft weapons the payload was a 1,200 kg explosive the The ocher's main disadvantage was its limited range.

It had a shorter operational range than the 103r. The ocher's delivery system was its biggest disadvantage. American warships expanded their defensive air screens to account for the range the okre could travel with the skies over controlled Allied ships. The Japanese bombers could not get close enough to drop the ocher within range of a 850 American ships were built and many are on display around the world. Number two, the sac as6, the sac as6, although not a fighter aircraft, is notable enough to earn a spot on this list, it was developed as a proof of concept for a circular wing aircraft.

It looks like a bad Photoshop, like a German UFO, the kind the old History Channel loved so much before it became the channel for logging and porn shops. The jacket like 6 is named after its designer Arur Saac. Its strange circular wi design was first seen when it participated in the competition competition for remote control airplanes with combustion engines. Its first model with a circular wing design was the as1, which measured just over 1 m long, Unfortunately, the AS1 was unable to take off under its own power, however, it achieved 100 m of stable flight. After being launched into the air by Alas Saac, the current German Air Minister who was attendingThe competition was interested in the circular shape of the wing and provided funds to continue.

Research into its design continued making four more models, each larger than The first design, the as6, was the first ARA design intended to be piloted by a human rather than radio controlled. The first test flight took place in early 1944, during which several design defects were found, one of which was that the AS6 was underpowered and more powerful. The engine could have offered better flight performance. The as6 was using a BF 108 engine which was an early 1930s design and due to wartime shortages there were no more powerful engines available for the prototype after several more flight tests it was shown With the aircraft being a failure due to its inability to barely get off the runway, plans were proposed to take the aircraft to the next stage with the Me 600.

The proposed Me 600 would have considerably enlarged the circular wing and would also have the latest design of complete engine with fuel. injection and a four-bladed propeller, there will also be other features, such as improving the responsiveness of the control surface, repositioning the landing gear and redesigning the tail unit, a 30mm cannon will also be added, adding that the me 600 could have reached 800 km/hour in flight, this plan was never followed and was nothing more than a basic prototype design for the as6, which was destroyed so that it would not fall into allied hands, the wood was broken into pieces and the missile and The metal parts were thrown away.

In an aircraft rescue area when the Allies arrived at the airfield, the plane was already destroyed and therefore was not registered. In the inventory of seized items, the AS6 was neither the first circular wing aircraft invented nor the last of the first aircraft. circular wing invented was the umbrella plane. From its design, it is easy to see why they called it an umbrella with its large located wing. Above the main body of the aircraft, another circular aircraft that was being produced near the end of World War II in the United States was the Vault XF 5u or by its nickname The Flying Flapjack, unlike the AS6, the flight characteristics of the flapjack were actually very good.

It was capable of high speed flight and could be armed with quadruple 20mm cannons and could also carry bombs. The most attractive quality of this aircraft was its low stall speed, which facilitated takeoff and landing on the deck of the aircraft carrier. The Navy was considering mass producing this aircraft, but decided against it because they saw that the future of aviation was in jet propulsion and not old-fashioned propellers. Number one Vonia do 335 also called V Aro The do 335 was one of the fastest piston aircraft of In World War II, its maximum speed in level flight is said to be around 850 kmph, although that speed was recorded in perfect conditions, the crew's normal speed was around 750 kmph, although this is very impressive for a heavy single-seat fighter aircraft, the key to achieving this.

The type of speed was by having two engines in a fuselage, one engine pulled and the other pushed. I'll go over the more technical side in a moment. The Arrow was originally designed as a fast bomber but was redesigned during the emergency fighter program. To become a fighter, the first prototype had to be disguised. At the end of 1943, production models were manufactured at the beginning of 1944. The adornment of the first production variant was two 15 mm machine guns with 200 rounds each, there was also a single 30 mm cannon with 70 rounds. which fired through the propeller shaft, if necessary, a small internal bomb could carry bombs of up to 500 kg and there were also external pylons to which more bombs could be attached.

Surprisingly for such a large and heavy aircraft, the pilots who flew it said it had good maneuverability, a tight turning circle and good acceleration, it is unusual for a heavy aircraft to have those characteristics and when I say it was a heavy aircraft I mean it was heavy. Each engine alone weighed 1 ton and produced 1,750 horsepower with a total arrow weight weighing 7 and a half tons and that's not with the additional pumps, put it that way, it weighed more than a BF 110 or a bowfighter but It did not suffer the mobility problems that those planes had. A couple more interesting features that made it unique from other fighters at that time.

One of these features is that it was the first airplane to have an ejector seat. It was more out of necessity than luxury due to the situation with the rear propeller coming out of trouble. Normally, it is a very risky experience to rescue when there is a huge propeller spinning, it probably means that you will not escape injury to help further increase the pilot's chances of surviving a rescue. Explosive bolts were placed in the rear propeller and also in the upper tail fin before ejecting. the pilot could detonate these bolts, this would then remove the tail fin and jettison the propeller.

Another interesting feature is the tricycle landing gear, which was a new concept at the time. Tricycle landing gear is taken for granted in modern aviation. The reason for the development of the tricycle. The GE landing was so that the rear propeller would not hit the ground during landing and takeoff. Most aircraft in the 1943 period were taildraggers, meaning the tail rested on the ground. It was a bit difficult to have a propeller at the back of the plane, if the tail must rest on the ground, an additional benefit of the TR landing gear is that the pilot can see forward when taxiing with a tail drager, it is much more Difficult to roll as the engine blocks your forward view, right? we're taxiing this Cub here to take off this is my first time in a taildragger so this is very exciting Jack the other uh the other thing I also need to tell you Steve, I can't see out the window yeah I see that.

It's like this I have to turn the plane to look forward so I put the wheel on the strip turn the wheel and the strip to the right and repeat that way we won't run over anyone, that's good, now let's visit the technical part. As to why this aircraft was one of the fastest propeller aircraft of World War II, its secret was that by having two engines in the main body of the plane, by doing this it was possible to avoid the problems most designs face. classic twin-engine airplanes, usually twin-engine airplanes. They have increased drag produced by the addition of engines to the wings, increased drag and negatively affects speed and roll rate.

Another advantage of having two engines sharing the same foil line is that if one engine failed, it would not drag the airplane to one side. It would be flying relatively normal with the only change being less speed. Both propellers were set to rotate in opposite directions, standard practice on any twin-engine aircraft. This is done to counteract the engine torque. Fighter aircraft at that time had very powerful engines for their weight. If 100% power were applied on takeoff, an inexperienced pilot might find his airplane turning sharply to one side, basically rolling on its axis, and the result would be that the airplane would end up upside down in a ditch and the pilot would be the laughing stock of the plane. airbase this is due to the twisting effect of the propeller, an expert pilot would slowly increase power while balancing the pool to one side using his control surfaces on the aircraft in high stress situations such as during AAL combat a pilot can Panic and increase the power to maximum and forget about countering the pool.

The twin planes are not affected by the Tor agent because both engines rotate in opposite directions, balancing the forces. It wasn't all rainbows and flashes with the arrow. This plane did not come without its flaws. The problem was that the landing gear was not very strong, which meant there was a danger of it collapsing during landing. Another problem was that visibility outside the cabin was quite poor. This problem was not helped further by the addition of the huge nose that the plane had. The Arrow was a very expensive plane to operate with its two few engines hungry and a lot of maintenance needed all the extra maintenance cost for a plane that was just a Little better than the Wolf T A152 The TA1 152 was a late war German fighter plane, its speed and performance were only slightly worse than the Arrow.

It was also much simpler to produce compared to the arrow. The arrow saw some use in the skies over Germany, although whether it ever engaged enemy aircraft or ground is disputed. Targets A memory of a French Ace fighter was that of an arrow flying at low level. He and his companions chose to participate in the Haw of the Storms. They were unable to reach the arrow to enter combat range. Production of the arrow was stopped due to complications. In late war manufacturing only 38 were produced, this was a mix of different variants of the Arrow, some of which were two-seat training aircraft, the twoa had the nickname antier, another variant was a night fighter, it had a second seat and radar equipment.

Only one of those was built. Remember those double fuselage airplanes we were talking about before. They wanted to give the Arrow the same treatment. There was a plan to build a twin-fuselage version of the Arrow, the daia do 635, whose purpose was long-range reconnaissance. that variant was never built, only one Arrow survives today and it is the Zer variant currently on display at the National Aeronautical Space Museum near Dallas Airport in the US. Well there you have it, those are my top five German prototypes strangers who actually flew, feel free to leave a comment about what you think should have been on this list.

I'm going to recommend two videos to you, one of which is my top five of the five strange Nazi planes with wonder weapons that actually flew. That video focuses on late-war German jet planes and rockets. of which actually flew, the other video is the five strangest Soviet aircraft that actually flew. That video focuses on strange Russian planes that you probably wouldn't have heard of before. Thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed.