More Luftwaffe Lunacy; the Bachem BA-349 and the Fieseler Fi-103R

 

 

       Not content to waste energy and resources on ineffective aircraft, the ever fertile mind of the drug addled Nazi hierarchy muddled the process even further with these two birds. They were literally lethal to the pilots. Literally lethal. 

       The Fi-103R Reichenberg was a piloted version of the V-1 Buzz Bomb, a spiritual precursor to the Japanese Baka Bomb. Developed in the Summer of 1944 under the guidance of (no surprise here) Heinrich Himmler the Luftwaffe formed the Leonidas Squadron of pilots prepared to die. Fieseler hurriedly converted a V-1 into a piloted aircraft and training test flights began. However the idea of deliberately flying a bomb into a target was too much for Albert Speer and he managed to convince Hitler to drop the idea in March of 1945. 

       The Bachem BA-349 Natter was conceived of as a point-defense fighter, much like the ME-163 Komet, but was built to an even more insane central idea. Not only was the same pilot-dissolving rocket engine used but two more solid-fuel booster packages were bolted to either side of this pug-ugly thing in an effort to get it from ground level to 30,000 feet in the shortest period of time. After launching the BA 349 was expected to make one firing pass with its nosecone full of rockets and then glide to a lower altitude to eject the pilot and valuable rocket motor before crashing. The one manned test flight killed the volunteer pilot, probably because his neck was broken.

        The Heller kit of this pair of aircraft was released in 1980, the models are simple to assemble and accurate, needing just a bit of filing and sanding along some of the joints. I didn't include a pilot or magnet in the Fi-103R as it has no real application in a air-combat game. I did waste a fair amount of time painting up the pilot for the Natter, who you can barely see through the tiny windows.

 

decent looking models of two strange aircraft

 

the Natter looks like a flying oil drum while the Fi-103R is rather sleek

 

reportedly the Fi-103R was NOT a suicide weapon,

 the pilot was supposed to bail out just before impact ......

 

just how they were supposed to climb out of that tiny cockpit

 into the mouth of the jet engine 

while diving at speed into the target is left unexplained

 

on the other hand the Natter was supposed to break into three pieces, 

ejecting both the pilot and the rocket motor

 

the solid fuel rockets were jettisoned once they had burned their fuel

 

for the life of me I can't understand why the rockets needed a clear plexiglass nosecone

 

oops, no landing gear, better hope that the explosive bolts don't fail!

 

test pilots reported that both aircraft handled well