Junkers Ju P.009 (Hubjager)

History

The situation in Germany during World War II (1939-1945) deteriorated during the campaign of 1944, when Allied fighter jets bombed all areas of Hitler's once proud Reich. This has led to various moves by authorities to stem the tide of failure, including rocket and jet interceptors designed to confront high-altitude threats head-on for short periods of time. A plethora of designs appeared before the end, many of which never appeared.

One such interceptor briefly considered is the Junkers Ju P. 009, intended as a successor to the famous Messerschmitt Me 163 "Komet".

The Me 263 is a single-seat rocket-powered interceptor that delivers exceptional performance while being compact and reusable. Its performance, especially its rate of climb, is second to none, and its construction is largely conventionalboth qualities a fighter has. Its downsides, however, were the inherent propensity to ignite its volatile rocket fuel mixture, and its erratic landing procedure, which required pilots to land the aircraft on its belly-mounted skids.

The Me 163 was clearly a greater threat to its operators than to Allied bombers.

Junkers modified the Me 163 method and began developing a possible successor internally. A teardrop-shaped fuselage was designed to place the pilot in a tilted position at the nose. The nose is covered with a large, clear plastic cone for maximum visibility - and the cockpit is fully pressurized for violent soaring. The rear wing is conventional, with a vertical tail and low-mounted horizontal tail.

The wing main aircraft will be mounted low on the sides of the fuselage, just forward of the midship. Proposed armament consists of 2 x 20mm MG 151 cannons mounted above and below the nose (one on starboard and the other below port).

It is believed that these guns could easily be replaced with 2 x 30mm MK-108 guns if desired.

To address the shortcomings of the Me 163 rocket propulsion system, the Junkers design team focused on the use of 10 small turbojets arranged in three separate clusters - three on the starboard Located on the port side and the remaining four are under the belly. The end result appears to be a ring of jets fitted around the fuselage behind the cockpit. This should provide the necessary rate of climb to meet incoming bombers as quickly as possible.

The small turbojet comes from Junkers' proprietary design.

The launch will be accomplished by setting the interceptor vertically, allowing the aircraft to lift off as quickly as possible - essentially what we now call a vertical take-off (VTO) aircraft. Its compact design is also ideal for transport - a squadron of these systems can be moved to defend key locations within German territory. The landing and recovery range of the aircraft is similar to that of the Me 163 - an anti-skid system will be deployed under the fuselage.

Landing speeds are just under 100 mph, which is still quite a challenge even for the most experienced pilots.

The Junkers project already has a lot of restrictions - known as "P. 009". The fuselage does not have enough internal volume to store the necessary fuel to fuel the thirsty turbojets.

Instead, the wings were earmarked for fuel storage, but even that supply would limit total powered flight to about six minutes barely enough to complete one or two overflights of enemy bomber formations. By this stage of the war, Junkers was already working on the development of its mid-size Jumo 004-series turbojets, as well as larger, more powerful systems in the future - so there was no interest in devoting critical resources to the development of smaller engines. Engines meet P .009 engine requirements.

Since war is good business, Junkers must also keep a close eye on BMW's role in the war -- Junkers' rival is also a key player in the booming turbojet engine market.

The barely recommended P. 009 goes into the annals of WWII as just another German paper project. Some defined structural dimensions include a fuselage length of 16.4 feet and a wingspan of 13 feet.

Estimates include a maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of 4,410 pounds, a top speed of 620 miles per hour, a rate of climb of 15,160 feet per minute and a service ceiling of 51,515 feet.

Specification

Basic

Production

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Dimensions

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Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes