Messerschmitt Me P.1111

History

WWII Germany's Messerschmitt AG managed three of the most famous aircraft used in the conflict - the propeller-driven Bf 109, the rocket-powered Me 163 "Komet" and the jet-powered Me 262 "Schwalbe". In between these designs, there are a large number of other submissions and design studies, some of which are maintained by the Luftwaffe for possible development, while others remain as internal research projects or with few pencil sketches. The P. 1111 was one of many designs that were never seen as the intended single-seat jet fighter.

The aircraft was born out of the P. 1112 program, which became Messerschmitt's last jet-powered design in the war, in response to the sudden trend toward a tailless arrangement of Messerschmitt jets.

To advance the P. 1112 effort, design studies were commissioned in January 1945, and Willie Messerschmidt himself lobbied that these would be developed along the lines of the tailless aircraft, as he saw several other The tailless configuration aroused interest and approval in the air. Despite objections from some members of his engineering team, the project went ahead as if there were no backsliding to improve the chances of a desperate German government choosing the Messerschmitt aircraft.

P. 1111 became the first design study with a plan-plan shape of the main aircraft with wings swept back by 45 degrees. Although a single vertical fin is used, there are no other true fin surfaces in the layout. The main planes of the wings have a large surface area, so they almost form a true delta wing plane shape. In addition to the sweep of the leading edge, the trailing edge of the main aircraft was also swept back.

With its tubular fuselage, a turbojet was chosen to power the model, which would be drawn in from two oval air intakes located on either side of the nose, through ducts that encircle the cockpit wall, Complete the only jet mounted in the back that will feed. The cockpit is located at the rear of the nose assembly, with the wing root structure extending down from the sides and the root extending from near the nose to near the exhaust vents below the tail.

The tricycle landing gear is associated with the single wheel front legs at the extreme positions of the nose, and the main single wheel legs under the main body of the aircraft near the middle.

At least the intention was initially to design the wing main aircraft to be "wet" and to carry most of the fuel reserves a thirsty jet engine would need, but the development never really outlined the network that would be used. The cockpit is also equipped with pressurization for high-altitude operations (whose main enemy will be the high-flying American heavy bomber Boeing B-29 Superfortress) and ejection seats for the pilots.

Projected weapons include 2 x 30mm MK-108 guns in the nose and 2 x 30mm MK-108 guns in the wings (one per wing). The second group of ammunition was stored in a compartment in the rear of the cockpit.

The compact fighter is powered by 1 x Heinkel-Hirth HeS 011 turbojet rated at 2,866 pounds of thrust. Performance can only be estimated as the final P. 1111 was never built or flown. Cruising over 500 miles per hour and a desired climb rate of 4,690 feet per minute.

The range is close to 930 miles, but the actual flight time is limited to around 1.8 hours. The proposed service cap reaches nearly 46,000 feet.

In March 1945, when the German war situation reached catastrophic proportions, the design for the P. 1111 was presented to officials of the Air Ministry. After a quick review, some changes were in order - the cockpit was moved to the absolute front of the fuselage, forcing the nose weapons to be repositioned in the wings. With reduced wing space, the fuel reservoirs themselves were moved to the fuselage itself.

Additional modifications to the wings, primarily reducing their surface area, resulted in a slight change in expected performance.

The aircraft was resubmitted for testing under the name "P. 1112", but ultimately the project failed at the end of the war in Europe in May, which in turn became all prospects for further official testing.

Specification

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