Lippisch P.15 (Diana)

Lippisch p. 15 (Diana) History

The Luftwaffe's "contingency fighter program" in the late World War II brought little material value to all its investments. The goal was to develop a capable fighter jet to counter the threat of day and night Allied bombing raids that were wreaking havoc on German cities, infrastructure and war installations.

By 1945, the wartime situation in Germany was becoming increasingly dire, as the straitjacket of East and West put enormous pressure on both the leadership and the infantry.

German aeronautical engineer Alexander Lippisch has already made a name for himself with his rocket-powered interceptor, the famous Messerschmitt Me 163 "Komet". Despite its swept-wing design and high performance, the interceptor had little tactical value, as it had a very limited amount of time in the air facing Allied bombers heading for German targetsthe pilot was assigned no more than 15 minutes of artillery fire.

The merged design is a simplified construction method. It has been proposed to use components already present on the production Me 163B and Me 163C aircraft, and to this end add parts from the competing He 162 and Junkers Ju 248 - the latter being a proposed, further developed form of the Me 163 itself.

It is hypothesized that this approach can speed up testing and mass production of new interceptors.

The Heinkel HeS 011A turbojet was selected as the prime candidate for aircraft power. Air-breathing engines will be embedded in the middle of the fuselage to provide the interceptor with the power it needs to accelerate. It is estimated that under ideal conditions (about 45 minutes of flight time to and from the destination) the plane can reach speeds of 621 mph, making it almost untouchable in the sky.

Unlike the previous Me 163, whose limited rocket propulsion forced it to land prematurely, the P.15 can land under its own power and turn around for reuse in short bursts. Ground handling will be handled by modern wheeled retractable landing gear (as opposed to the belly skid of the original Me 163) from a piston-powered Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter.

Additionally, the aircraft should have a barrel length of 20.10 feet and a wingspan of 33 feet. The proposed weapon is a reliable bomber killer consisting of 2 x 30mm MK108 automatic cannons (one per side) on the underside of the forward fuselage and 2 x 20mm MK151/20 automatic cannons in the wings (one per wing) cannons).

This would give the fighters considerable firepower against bomber formations, and a single salvo would usually be enough to take down the hapless, lumbering aircraft being targeted.

Aeronautical Institute work on P.15 from start to finish and testing a 1:25 scale form of the P.15 proposal. From the fighter project it was supposed to achieve completion, it was supposed to accelerate to serial production - however, the end of the German war in April-May 1945 meant the end of the entire P.15 project.

Any materials and data available for the program were quickly adopted by the conquered Americans and used for further projects in the United States.

The EFP solution on page 15 is not.

Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes