Abandoned German aircraft projects.

There is quite a good website on the German stuff at www.luft46.com

There you go.. or ‘voila’ even. Said it was possible.

…

Hi All,
Beermat – I thought the UK/US/Japanese/German and Russian secret projects had already been covered by Tony Butler and others with these books
below for anybody interested in the subject as I am…;)

Plenty others here :-https://www.google.co.uk/search?biw=1280&bih=855&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=vUwDWsDfJsnPsAee7o24BQ&q=Tony+butler+secret+projects+book&oq=Tony+butler+secret+projects+book&gs_l=psy-ab.3…33836.33836.0.34217.1.1.0.0.0.0.84.84.1.1.0….0…1.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0….0.jLSpmUKTtyA#imgrc=_&spf=1510166098436

Geoff.

Completely agree – that’s why its called the Knapkinwaffe. The Cold War forced development of advanced types shows just how long it took to bring a small fraction of radical designs into production and that was in a period of peace. Anyone can sketch an “aircraft” shape with radical features, but the really really hard part is getting it to the flyable and useful stage. One wonders how much of the Nazi war effort was wasted by designers playing with this fantasy stuff when the Allies were winning the war by showing just how real aircraft production works. One such design for example is the Osprey – decades of experimental work before it was turned into a relatively useful product.

Are the flying saucers included?

Does anyone really believe most of this stuff?
Sure they had three view drawings and performance estimates.
Were any fully designed?

It’s one thing to make promises and drawings, but that late in the war did Germany have the engineering resources to finish the detail design work, the ability to build the things, not to mention test flights and the “debugging” that high performance designs require (especially in those days).

Post-war, it took the UK and Americans years to build, test and get an operational aircraft, and that was without being on the receiving end of a round the clock bomber offensive, and with fuel and pilots….to say nothing of a work force not consisting of prisoners/slaves in caves.

Yes, they’re neat designs…but unless they were production ready and they had the resources build them, a serious student of aviation history should take them too seriously.

Aptly called the Knapkinwaffe 😀

Note this WunderWaffle is shooting down a French Ju88(!)

Call me a cynic, but by ‘secret’ most authors on the subject mean ‘didn’t actually happen’. The clue is where someone described a ‘secret’ German design (all new design ideas were secrets) as ‘decisive’..

It would be possible to put together a collection of 1945 sketches by ‘allied’ designers, fill in a few details in a 1950’s idiom and voila! Secret Wonder Weapons of the RAF.

But this isn’t as appealling to the target audience. No Nazis.

It was also a much better life producing Wonderwaffe drawings than being sent to the Russian Front.

Hi All,
Newforest – Thanks for that quite a lot to look at I have two recommendations on the same subject.

The Truth About The Wunderwaffe by Igor Witkowski

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE WUNDERWAFFE is about the Third Reich’s weapons of last resort, but it is a book unlike any other on the subject. The author,
a former military journalist, has done extensive research on three continents, in the archives of many countries, and he has uncovered a wealth of facts
about weapons and weapons systems unknown to the general public. This book is very well documented, and most of the sources have never before been
presented in any publication. The main section is an analysis of a research project pertaining to a weapon that officially was and still stands beyond any
normal classification-the Wunderwaffe, or, according to German documents, “a weapon decisive for the war.” After its first release,
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE WUNDERWAFFE became an instant classic. This fully updated and extended edition bears the same unique tone of voice and style
that defined the original. This book available from these sources:- https://www.google.co.uk/search?source=hp&ei=0lL_WYK8IoidgAaiuqLoAg&q=the+truth+about++the+wunderwaffe&oq=the+truth+about++the+wunderwaffe&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l3.58899.68716.0.70988.32.32.0.0.0.0.170.3497.9j23.32.0….0…1.1.64.psy-ab..0.32.3490…0i131k1j0i22i10i30k1j0i22i30k1.0.bNRUV7Jf7Yc

Courtesy our very own Ronnie Olsthoorn Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/AviationArt.Aero) of a new publication featuring his artwork….:applause:

This image below features on the title page of Dan Sharp’s excellent new bookazine, published by Mortons Media Group: “Secret Wings of the Third Reich”, available through the link below :https://www.classicmagazines.co.uk/…/bookazine-luftwaffe-se…

In the years that followed Germany’s crushing defeat in the First World War, German aviators took to flying gliders – a sport which led to rapid advances in the study of aerodynamics.

Radical ideas for new aircraft flourished alongside more conventional designs and soon developed into a struggle between proponents of ‘tailless’ and ‘flying wing’ types and those who saw traditional layouts with tail fins and tail planes as the way forward. It was a research odyssey that would continue throughout the war and produce some of the most incredible, unusual and downright bizarre aircraft designs ever seen.

Luftwaffe: Secret Wings of the Third Reich examines types such as the Messerschmitt P 01, P 04 and P 08, Alexander Lippisch’s tailless Delta wing destroyers and the little known Messerschmitt Super 163, the Horten brothers’ 8-229, the Gotha P-60, Arado’s nine twin-jet night fighter designs, Blohm & Voss’s line of batwing fighters, the mighty Harbich Arctur and many more.

Hundreds of original and previously unseen documents have been used to compile this unrivalled history of Germany’s secret Second World War tailless and flying wing designs, illustrated with a host of new and period drawings, illustrations and photographs.

Geoff.