The Messerschmitt Bf 161 was a 1930s
prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
reconnaissance aircraft
A reconnaissance aircraft (colloquially, a spy plane) is a military aircraft designed or adapted to perform aerial reconnaissance with roles including collection of imagery intelligence (including using Aerial photography, photography), signals ...
.
Development
The Bf 161 was a specialised reconnaissance aircraft, based on the
Bf 110, and similar to the
Bf 162, designed as a
light bomber
A light bomber is a relatively small and fast type of military bomber aircraft that was primarily employed before the 1950s. Such aircraft would typically not carry more than one ton of ordnance.
The earliest light bombers were intended to dr ...
. The prototype ''V1'' was powered by two
Junkers Jumo 210
The Jumo 210 was Junkers' first production inverted V12 gasoline aircraft engine, first produced in the early 1930s. Depending on the version it produced between 610 and 730 PS and can be considered a counterpart of the Rolls-Royce Kestrel in m ...
inline engines and first flew on 9 March 1938. It was followed by a second prototype, ''V2'', powered by two
Daimler-Benz DB 600
The Daimler-Benz DB 600 was a German aircraft engine designed and built before World War II as part of a new generation of German engine technology. It was a liquid-cooled inverted V12 engine, and powered the Messerschmitt Bf 110 and Heinkel He ...
a engines which first flew on 30 August 1938.
The aircraft did not enter production, as it was soon decided that a new aircraft type was not needed, and variants of the Bf 110 could perform the reconnaissance role.
Operational history
The two prototypes were used for research and development, and V2 was used in Augsburg for towing the
Me 163A ''Komet'', later moving to
Peenemünde
Peenemünde (, ) is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in north-eastern Germany. It is part of the ''Amt (country subdivision), Amt'' (collective municipality) of Used ...
to continue towing.
Specifications (Bf 161 V1)
See also
References
*
External links
German Aviation 1919 - 1945
{{RLM aircraft designations
Bf 161
1930s German military reconnaissance aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1938
Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft
Twin-tail aircraft
Aircraft with retractable conventional landing gear