Wingspan 9.3 m | Length 7 m | |
 | ||
The Messerschmitt Me 334 was a proposed German piston-engined fighter, designed by Alexander Lippisch. No examples were built.
Contents
Design and development
Alexander Lippisch was noted for designing tail-less aircraft with a certain amount of success. Along similar lines to the rocket-powered Me 163, Lippisch designed a tail-less fighter to be powered by a Heinkel turbojet. The slow pace of development of reliable turbojets forced Lippisch to re-design the aircraft to be powered by a single Daimler-Benz DB 605 inverted V-12 piston engine, mounted in the nose and driving a pusher propeller at the rear of the fuselage pod, via an extension shaft.
The mid-mounted wings would have been swept back at 23.4°, housing the stalky retractable main landing gear with elevons inboard and ailerons outboard on the trailing edge. Slots in the outboard leading edges would have improved slow speed performance and handling.
The intended armament of two 13 mm (0.512 in) MG 131 machine guns was to have been housed in the wing-roots. Designated Me 334 by the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM), development was abandoned by Lippisch with the advent of the Lippisch P.20.
Specifications
Data from Geheimprojekte der Luftwaffe : Jagdflugzeuge 1939-1945
General characteristics
PerformanceArmament
