Blohm and Voss Bv P.212

History

A major strategic oversight by the Luftwaffe was its failure to pursue large four-engine heavy bombers to attack enemy infrastructure. The Allies, on the other hand, played a major role in their bombing campaign, unleashing swarms of Boeing B-17s, Combined B-24s and Avro Lancasters to bomb the heart of the German war machine. As the attack proved to be very damaging to German efforts, the "Emergency Fighter Program" ("Jagernotprogramm") was launched.

Adopted on July 3, 1944, the program aimed to develop a new generation of high-altitude jet interceptors, capable of reaching enemy bomber formations at the required altitude in time to launch attack artillery and missiles, thanks to the steady development of turbojet engines. Many aircraft were designed on paper, and until the end of the war in May 1945, few actually saw a working prototype.

While aircraft like the Heinkel He 162 "Volksjager" and the Arado Ar 234 "Blitz" usually get the spotlight, the attention of Blohm and Voss made an important contribution, submitting hundreds of design proposals on paper, Many of them have been cancelled. 212".

The P. 212 is a compact fighter that will be equipped with a single turbojet engine - the new Heinkel HeS 011 series. The design is simple, with a central nacelle containing the cockpit, avionics, fuel depot, landing gear and powerplant. The engines would be buried in the fuselage, with circular nose air intakes drawing the system in and exhaust exiting from a tailless fuselage nacelle.

Pipes run from the nose below the cockpit floor, bend the plane's fuselage upwards, and connect to the engines all the way to the tail. The wings are centrally mounted and swept well, with added winglets at the tips, and vertical wing surfaces on the winglets for added control/stability. The landing gear uses two single-wheel main legs and a single-wheel front leg, all retracted into the fuselage nacelle. Due to the scarcity of resources in Germany, wood and aluminum will be used along with steel to enable mass production of small fighter jets. For working at heights, the P. 212 will receive a pressurized cockpit and light frame canopy for good visibility.

Broadly speaking, the P. 212 is an evolution of Blohm and Voss' P. 208 concept, a Blohm & Voss proposal for a similarly-minded fighter jet that used a conventional engine to drive a three-bladed propeller in a "thrust" configuration. The airframe will be retrofitted to use turbojets in the near future.

The P. 212 joined competing fighters from Heinkel, Focke-Wulf, Junkers and Messerschmitt in February 1945. P. 212 was commissioned to test the effectiveness of the small design. Construction of these airframes began in May 1945, and the first flight was scheduled for August.

However, the Allied march in Germany at this point ended all further work on the type, ending the program for good and leaving the design to history.

P. 212 has changed considerably in a short period of time. The P. 212.01 was in its original form with a 45 degree swept wing with a V-shape and vertical dorsal winglets. The P. 212.02 was an improved elongated fuselage design, retaining the same wing configuration as the 01, but with swept-down wingtip surfaces and no vertical dorsal fins. The P. 212. 03 became the final and final form of the P. 212 (submitted to the Luftwaffe for debate) and introduced a longer fuselage for more internal fuel storage and management with a 40 degree wing sweep.

The weapons proposed for the 03 proved to be very variable, including a mix of 15mm and 30mm guns. Consider also arming the aircraft with a massive 55mm gun and 22 x R4M air-to-air missiles. An alternative form is envisaged that would carry 1 SC500 series conventional 500kg drop bomb in addition to the cannon weapon. The underwing gas stations will also be equipped with disposable fuel tanks.

The mission duration of the 03 is estimated to be 4 hours using these drop tanks.

The P. 212 had a suggested top speed of 642 mph (1,034 km/h), making it one of the fastest Luftwaffe jet fighters of the war.

Specification

Basic

Production

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Dimensions

Performance

Performance

Armor

Changes