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Henschel Hs P.75

1941 SECRET WEAPONS OF THE LUFTWAFFE WORLD WAR 2 X-PLANE

History

The Henschel Hs P. 75 appeared in 1941 as a possible candidate for the outdated and backward Messerschmitt BF 110 "Zerstorer" heavy fighter of the Luftwaffe. This heavy fighter found its equal in the Battle of Britain and was relegated to a night combat role. A stronger alternative was needed, and Henschel provided the answer with his Hs P. 75 idea. The P.75 takes a unique design approach, placing a pair of engines (and corresponding propellers) behind the cockpit.

This layout provides unobstructed forward visibility and the inherent advantages of weapons that do not require specialized equipment - the artillery does not require simultaneous firing via a rotating propeller blade system, and all artillery can be concentrated in one target area for maximum effect. Conversely, the rear-mounted position of the engine means that cooling the twin engine requires special consideration. Also, there is no safe way for the pilot to get out of the plane in flight and at high speeds because he has to deal with the spinning propeller blades in the tail.

However, this can be solved by discarding the propeller assembly before the pilot leaves the aircraft, which requires some special design modifications.

The design of the rear and front canards is not entirely unique to the Henschel Hs P.75. The Americans tried the same design concept on the discontinued Curtis XP-55 "Ascender" that the Japanese tried on the Kyushu J7W1. Xinden". All have the main wing assembly in the rear, the engine and propeller in a "slider" configuration, and the weapons in the front of the fuselage.

Although promising data has been collected through wind tunnel testing, the Henschel P.75 Not developed into a working prototype, let alone a production-quality example.

The powerplant originally chosen for the P.75 became a pair of DB 610 series inline piston engines from Daimler-Benz. However, these powerplants caught fire easily and frequently overheated, leading to a switch to the more stable Daimler-Benz DB 603 series engines sometime in 1942.

Combined in this way, these engines are known by the prototype designation DB 613. She has the potential to deliver a total output of 3,500 horsepower.

The design of the Henschel Hs P. 75 is very different from that of modern aircraft. The monoplane's main wing assembly is mounted low at the end of the fuselage, with a pair of small canards at the very front. Both wing arrangements are shown to be swept along their leading edges, although the front canards are also swept along their trailing edges. A vertical caudal fin works with the design, but interestingly it is mounted as a ventral protrusion rather than the traditional dorsal attachment.

The tail arrangement helps protect the propellers from accidental damage during takeoff and landing. Most of her weight is on the back of the design, where the wings, engines and fuel supply are attached. The engine layout also forced designers to develop a flat, wide airframe to accommodate the dual systems.

The fuselage is long and skinny, from the contours of the curved nose cone to the curved tail cone propeller spinner. To drive the two counter-rotating propellers at the rear, a Daimler-Benz engine drives an extension shaft.

The aircraft will operate on a fully retractable landing gear system consisting of two main legs and a front leg, all with independent wheels. The cockpit is located in the middle of the fuselage, behind the weapons and in front of the engine compartment.

The cockpit itself has thick glass and limited stern visibility due to the fuselage spine. Weapons were stored in the forward fuselage before the engines were installed, while fuel tanks were attached to each wing and the rear of the cockpit.

Armament is a pair of 4 x 30mm MK 108 gun batteries, one in front of the nose and the other behind the cockpit.

The Henschel Hs P. 75 has a wingspan of 37ft 1in, a length of 40ft and a height of 14ft 1in. Her maximum legal weight is over 16,535 pounds. The performance of their combined engine unit will provide a top speed of 39,370 feet with a top speed of approximately 491 mph.