Wingspan 6 m Manufacturer Blohm + Voss | Length 6.2 m | |
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The Blohm & Voss P.213 was a prototype jet fighter submitted by Blohm & Voss to the Miniaturjäger (Miniature Fighter) design competition of the Luftwaffe Emergency Fighter Program towards the end of the Third Reich in the Second World War. The aircraft was to be powered by a pulse jet, the same engine used in the V-1 flying bomb. The project never saw mass-production for the Miniaturjäger program was scrapped in December 1944.
Contents
History
This plane is one of the products of the latter part of 1944, when the High Command of the Luftwaffe saw that there was a dire need to put up a strong defense against the devastating allied bombing raids. Thus aircraft manufacturers Heinkel, Junkers and Blohm & Voss were asked by the Luftwaffe in November to come up with light fighter designs using a strict minimum of materials that would be fitted with one Argus As 014 pulse jet engine per unit.
The resulting planes were small, spartan creations, with no radio and almost no electrical equipment, but the aim was to produce them cheaply and in large numbers so as to overwhelm the Allied bomber formations that flew daily over Germany's skies. Heinkel would use a He 162 air frame powered by a pulse jet and Junkers would submit the Ju EF 126 project.
The BV P.213 is one of the first aircraft having an inverted v-tail. Unmanned drones such as the Amber, GNAT and the MQ-1 Predator would later feature this type of tail.
Specifications
General characteristics
PerformanceArmament