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- Gavrilo Milentijević
- Komandir stanice milicije Gornje Polje
- Pridružio: 12 Feb 2005
- Poruke: 35627
- Gde živiš: ovalni kabinet
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Ba 349 ‘NATTER’
The ‘Komet’ was hardly a sophisticated aircraft. However, according to Dr Erich Bachern the ‘Komet’ was over-sophisticated. Bachern was an experienced glider pilot and one-time Technical Director of Fieseler AG, which was latterly a manufacturer of wings for Henschel missiles and control surfaces for the A4 and where Bachem had designed the Fi 156 ‘Storch’ (’Stork’) observation and light utility aircraft. He claimed that a wooden glider, simple enough to have been built in a carpentry workshop and propelled by a similar rocket motor to that used in the ‘Komet’, aided by four solid-fuel boosters so that it could take off vertically, would do the job equally well. It would climb to 14,000m (45,900ft) in little over a minute under control of a simple automatic guidance system, whereupon its pilot, by now hopefully having regained consciousness after blacking out under the forces generated at take-off, would take over and make a diving attack on the enemy bomber formation on his way back to earth. He would bale out to land by parachute only when he had fired his only armament (the 24 RZ 73 ‘Föhn’ 7.3cm or R4M “Orkan” 5.5cm unguided rockets contained in an array in the nose), and had reduced his speed to around 250km/h (155mph), while the ‘aircraft’ from the cockpit back also descended by parachute in the hope of recovering the rocket motor for re-use. From 22 December 1944, a series of 11 unmanned launches were made on the power of the booster motors alone, and on 23 February 1945, a single, unmanned test launch took place using the Walter motor as well. Some days later a manned launch was ordered by the SS (Schutzstaffeln: the Nazis’ private army) which, by that time, had control of all secret weapons projects, even though the unmanned programme had not been completed and there were grave doubts about the aircraft’s viability. The pilot, one Lothar Siebert, was killed when the Ba 349 power-dived into the ground from a height of 1500m (4900ft) after having rolled on to its back. The testing programme continued, and perhaps 20 aircraft (some reports say 36) intended for operations were produced, but none flew in combat. It is thought that two examples remain, both in museum storage: one in the USA, the other in Germany.
A researcher named Horst Lommel has found the original launch pads that were build for the planned Ba349 operational launches. Three complete concrete launch pads (displaced in a triangle shape - each ~150m from each other) are located in a young forest, near the A8 autobahn, in the Stuttgart area. There is no evidence of actual launches from this site.
Another discovery was made in the Heuberg area where the test launches were made. On an ex-military gunnery range, with the help of the German Army, the genuine launch pad was dug up. The concrete plate was obviously blown up later after the war, but the foundations are still visible.
The WW2 production site of the Natter - the old hangar/barn is still standing and is now being used as a storage by the ERIBA company (the same company which produced the Ba349 during the war).
Ernst Heinkel proposed a very similar aircraft to the Bachern ‘Natter’ (’Viper’). The P. 1077 ‘Julia’ (it never received an RLM designator) was also to have been powered by a Walter 509 motor and four solid-fuel Schmidding 533 boosters. It was to have taken off from an inclined ramp, to climb to 15,000m (49,210ft) in 72 seconds, and to have been armed with two MK 108 cannon. It was a high-wing monoplane with almost square-planform wings with considerable anhedral at the tips, and drawings showing two different tail assemblies - one with a single dorsal fin and high-set stubby tailplanes; the other with a single high tailplane terminating in dorsal/ventral fins - were produced. It is probably better considered as a manned missile than an aircraft. There is no account of how the pilot was supposed to complete the mission and return safely to earth.
There is some question whether the ‘Natter’ actually fits our criteria for Selbstopfermänner aircraft at all, since the pilot was expected to break off his attack and turn for home before ejecting (indeed, he was provided with an escape system), but there is less doubt in similar concepts put forward by Zeppelin and DPS, both of which proposed what were essentially motor-assisted gliders to be towed into attack position by aircraft. The Zeppelin proposal - the ‘Rammer’ - had a solid-fuel rocket motor; the DPS aircraft, which went into development as the Messerschmitt Me 328, had an Argus pulse-jet like that which powered the Fieseler Fi 103 flying bomb. There were high hopes of the latter, in particular, but like the Ba 349, it never got past the prototype stage. There was a third, very similar, project, the Sombold So 334 ‘Rammschussjäger’, which, despite its name, was not actually intended to ram. It, too, was powered by the Walter 509 motor and armed with rockets, and was to have been towed to operating height. Like the Me 328, it started out as a parasite escort fighter project but never got further than a wind tunnel model. Blohm & Voss proposed a pure glider fighter, with no powerplant at all, as the Bv 40. Armed with 30mm cannon and towing a proximity-fuzed bomb on a cable, the Bv 40 was to have been towed to a position above the incoming bomber ‘box’ by a Bf 109 and then released. Its limited acceptance was perhaps indicative of the state of mind in Germany by 1944 when prototypes were built and tested.
Type: Bachem Ba 349 Natter
Power-Plant: 4,410lb (2000 kg) thrust Walter HMK 109-509C-1 bi-propellant rocket ;four 1,102lb (500 kg) or two 2,205lb (1000 kg) solid motors
Max Speed: 621 mph (1000 km/h) at high altitude; 497 mph (800 km/h) at sea level
Rate of Climb: 36,417 ft/min (11,100m/min)
Service Ceiling: ? ft (? m)
Wingspan: 11 ft 9.75 in (3.6m)
Length: 29 ft 0 in (8.40m)
Empty Weight: 1,940 lb (880 kg)
Loaded Weight with boost rockets: 4,920 lb (2232 kg)
Armament: 24 73mm spin-stabilized rockets or
33 R4M 55mm spin-stabilized rockets
Range after climb to altitude: 20-30 miles (32-48 km)
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