Wunderwaffe planes | TheaterFire

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Psychological-Wind14@reddit

a jet powered glider and a literal maneater

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Crazy-Rabbit-3811@reddit

the me163 had a tendency to liquidate the pilot if the fuel tank punctured

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When they designed the Bachem Ba349 "Natter", an interceptor with the same rocket powertrain, they made the fuselage split into two pieces and land on parachutes to reduce the amount of deadly landing accidents (the parachute part was mostly because they used very green pilots, really just factory workers who watched a small presentation about flying. But the splitting the hull in two part was so the tanks and engine and the cockpit would land separately, so even if the tanks ruptured the pilot would land away from the fire)

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SM-42@reddit

oh is this the one from Munich?

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HATECELL@reddit

Exactly that. Took the photo last summer

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Luster-Purge@reddit

The Ba349 only ever had one piloted test fight.

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HATECELL@reddit

I'm surprised thes managed that many, given the state that Germany was in at that time

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Luster-Purge@reddit

The manned flight was on March 1st, almost two months before Germany as a whole capitulated on April 30th. The Ba349 itself was a very rushed project born of the late-war shortages in everything, with the first prototype only coming together in October 1944.

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DarthCarno28@reddit (OP)

Oh yeah. I thought that’s what you meant.

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BobMcGeoff2@reddit

Well, a jet powered glider and a rocket powered glider

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ReturnOfTheSaint14@reddit

S/T/Z-Stoff my beloveds. Germans and chemistry NEVER goes well, mostly for them.

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Barv666@reddit

"Wunderwaffen" actually.

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BenjoKazooie64@reddit

Not really. While the Horten brothers were playing with gliders, Northrop had an actually functional flying wing let alone a jet version too in the same period, and the Me 163 was a liquid rocket-fueled bomb that occasionally was controllable when it didn't feel like eviscerating its own ground crew and pilots.

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Admiral_2nd-Alman@reddit

It’s a really nice airframe, I have an RC version and it flies and glides really good. The original might have had a ton of issues, but the aerodynamics of it weren’t one of them

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LegitimateSubject226@reddit

Yea, you can just imagine the conversation between the Luftwaffe and Willy - can you build us something that looks really cool, and fast enough to make it impossible to aim the cannon properly, also forget about u/c. It wound nice if the fuel could randomly explode and melt flesh too

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Normal_Suggestion188@reddit

Willy didn't design this, lippisch did. It was a whole thing inside of Messerschmitt.

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LegitimateSubject226@reddit

I did say build - but yes you’re correct

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Normal_Suggestion188@reddit

Fair

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the_real_hugepanic@reddit

The stuff you write about the M163 is crap!I can just recommend to read more about it.

YES, it had its problems but controllabilities was not the problem! It was a very nice plane to fly, IF the rocket worked! That was the big problem!

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Normal_Suggestion188@reddit

It was nice to fly, but not in combat conditions. In that scenario it was practically useless, and given it was a combat aircraft....

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Mr_Vacant@reddit

They built more than 300, they shot down no more than 18 enemy, more Komet pilots were killed by Komets than by the allies.

How nice it was to fly seems like missing the point.

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GayRacoon69@reddit

Is talking about the one thing it got right "missing the point"

Like they're not saying the plane is good just because it flew nicely. They're just saying it flew well. Not that it was good

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Rc72@reddit

It was a very nice plane to fly

Just not at all a nice plane to land..

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the_real_hugepanic@reddit

In my understanding it was not too bad to land, until they installed all the equipment like guns, radios... That increased the weight significantly!

Actually there was a a Me-163 glider flying in Germany. I have seen it flying and it looks really ok. But this one is super light....

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Luster-Purge@reddit

"it was not too bad to land,"

Right.

The plane that was powered by two insanely reactive chemicals and a rocket engine that technically COULD NOT BE TURNED OFF BY THE PILOT was "not to bad to land."

Provided that you didn't bump into the ground hard enough on the landing skid that any residual fuel mixed together and suddenly the rocket engine is back on, launching the pilot into the nearest slight elevation wherepon it crashes and explodes. If it didn't simply explode outright because that happened to.

And even if it didn't explode on a crash landing, the fuel could rupture and MELT THE PILOT. Because THAT happened.

They even needed a specialized landing cradle to handle the aircraft after landing, because simply being too rough with it on the ground could ALSO cause it to explode.

Like, come on. You act like if you ignore the rocket engine stuff the Me-163 is fine, when the rocket engine was literally the whole reason the plane existed in the first place.

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GayRacoon69@reddit

"If you ignore the exploding issue it's fine"

"The wha-"

"Right engines on; off you go!"

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LegitimateSubject226@reddit

Landings are mandatory

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Robust-yo-ass@reddit

I wouldn’t call an aircraft that can dissolve its pilot mid-flight as “nice”

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GayRacoon69@reddit

They said it’s “nice to fly” not that it’s safe

An aircraft being “nice to fly” means just that. The planes desire to melt your flesh is irrelevant to the handling quality of the plane

It can fly good while still being a piece of shit in other aspects

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the_real_hugepanic@reddit

Just read what the test pilots wrote!

the comment I have responded called a "controllability issue". This was not the case to my knowledge. At least I do not remember anything from all the books I read about the Me-163 and luftwaffe operations at that time.

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Madeline_Basset@reddit

History is full of aircraft that were brilliant to fly, yet turned out to be garbage warplanes.

Conversely, there are legendary warplanes that were complete pigs to fly.

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hgtcgbhjnh@reddit

I wonder if we'll see the Horten fully restored like the He 219 and Do 335.

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Normal_Suggestion188@reddit

Don't think this horten was ever actually finished. It certainly didn't fly.

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En4cr@reddit

From what I read a while back they cannot replicate the bonding material used to glue the sheets of wood together and wood itself is in such a state that the only possible way forward is preservation. They have the wings stashed somewhere too.

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ST4RSK1MM3R@reddit

They did some work on it years ago, but due to the nature of it I’m not sure they’d be willing to do more

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joshwagstaff13@reddit

Specifically the work NASM did is what's referred to as conservation - preserving the aircraft in it's current state to prevent further degradation.

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davidfliesplanes@reddit

It'd be nice if they could at least fit its wings

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AF_Blades@reddit

GO-229

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Admirable_Ad8682@reddit

Ho. GO s for Gothaer Waggonfabrik, which built it, but prefixes were assigned to the constructor, not contract manufacturer.

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Patagucci@reddit

Didn’t you get to steal one of these at the end of the game Medal of Honor?

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StrigiStockBacking@reddit

I remember flying both of these in IL-2 Sturmovik

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DarthCarno28@reddit (OP)

No. I shot them down in Wolfenstein.

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Patagucci@reddit

I FOUND IT! https://youtu.be/N9MPq9AwGk0?si=zZCV3lanijnr2SwP

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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DarthCarno28@reddit (OP)

Wow. Still feels like I saw something out of science fiction.

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Don__X@reddit

First B-2 model

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Tjtod@reddit

Northrop was also working on many flying wings during WW2

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forzaguy125@reddit

And before

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Mysterious_Silver_27@reddit

Ya know what else was built in the 40s?

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Styx_Ferryman90@reddit

Hope they will fully restore somehow the Ho 229… fking legendary aircraft!

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HATECELL@reddit

Behold, the Focke-Achgelis Fa 330 "Bachstelze", an unpowered helicopter meant to be towed by a submarine and serve as an observation platform. It could do vertical landings and could've been a gamechanger in the early Uboat-war. Unfortunately for the Germans, by the time this thing came out allied patrol aircraft were everywhere and the cons of a longer time to emergency dive outweighted the pros of a higher visual range by far

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thatwombat@reddit

The Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe

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DarthCarno28@reddit (OP)

Now if only I could see a Maus or Ratte tank, but the only one of the former I know of is in Russia and the latter never left the drawing board.

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