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In the early 1940s,
Erich Bachem,
Fieseler Aircraft
The Gerhard Fieseler Werke (GFW) in Kassel was a German aircraft manufacturer of the 1930s and 1940s. The company is remembered mostly for its military aircraft built for the Luftwaffe during the Second World War.
History
Gerhard Fieseler, the ...
's technical manager, developed two designs for a rocket-launched fighter that could reach high altitudes quicker than conventional
fighters.
Design one
Design one involved a straight-winged
jet fighter
Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the air ...
powered by two
Jumo 004
The Junkers Jumo 004 was the world's first production turbojet engine in operational use, and the first successful axial compressor turbojet engine. Some 8,000 units were manufactured by Junkers in Germany late in World War II, powering the Mess ...
jet engine
A jet engine is a type of reaction engine, discharging a fast-moving jet (fluid), jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition may include Rocket engine, rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and ...
s. It would be launched upright by
liquid-fuel rocket
A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket uses a rocket engine burning liquid propellants. (Alternate approaches use gaseous or solid propellants.) Liquids are desirable propellants because they have reasonably high density and their combustio ...
s. After attaining an altitude of 3660 meters, the rocket would burn out, disconnect and return to Earth via parachute for re-use. The fighter would then engage Allied
bomber
A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes
air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles.
There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...
s before landing as a conventional airplane.
See also
*
Bachem Ba 349
The Bachem Ba 349 Natter () is a World War II German point-defence rocket-powered interceptor aircraft, interceptor, which was to be used in a very similar way to a manned surface-to-air missile. After a vertical take-off, which eliminated the n ...
''Natter'', a similar point-defense interceptor designed by Erich Bachem which achieved test flights (1945)
References
{{RLM aircraft designations
Abandoned military aircraft projects of Germany
Rocket-powered aircraft
Fi 166
Low-wing aircraft