Arado Ar Projekt II

History of Arado Ar Project II

Arado Ar Project II is a fairly large jet fighter. It comes with the basic classification of night fighter/all-weather fighter and comes in paper form at the end of the European campaign. The aircraft features several cutting-edge design aspects, including swept wings, wing-mounted jet engines, a pressurized crew cabin (complete with two side-by-side and ejection seats) and a retractable tricycle landing gear.

The main landing gear will be embedded in the tubular fuselage, while the nose gear will disappear under the cockpit seating area.

The design is in the traditional spirit of a jet fighter, with a featureless aerodynamic fuselage. The engines are mounted under each wing behind the wing roots and may be 2 x HeS 011A series or 2 x BMW 003A series turbojets (estimated power speed of 466 mph).

The wings are monoplane and the shoulders are mounted high on the fuselage, just behind the cockpit. The end of the fuselage has a tail, which also adopts a swept design and a single vertical tail.

Armament consists of 4 x 30mm MK 108 series guns, two mounted high on the nose and two below the nose.

All in all, Arado Ar Project II is an ambitious undertaking, likely constrained by Reich's production capacity and turbojet technology. On paper at least, Project II is a promising glimpse into the future of jet air combat, and Arado spared no expense in its design.

The fact that this aircraft (and most other German jet designs at the time) never saw prototype construction was an Allied advantage, and then some.

Specification

Basic

Production

Roles

Dimensions

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes