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Focke-Wulf Ta 283

1945 SECRET WEAPONS OF THE LUFTWAFFE WORLD WAR 2 X-PLANE

History

During World War II (1939-1945) the post-war situation in Germany deteriorated, partly due to the relentless Allied air raids day and night. This has prompted the German aviation ministry to require all interested aircraft carriers to provide viable jet- or rocket-powered interceptors capable of confronting the threat head-on for short periods of time.

Numerous designs were proposed during the war, although in the end few were actually developed and flown in an operational sense. Seen by many as "paper projects", as was the case with the interesting Focke-Wulf Ta 283 rocket and ramjet.

Ta 283, also known as "Project 283" or "P. 283", was one of several projects developed along the ramjet propulsion line at the end of the war. Compared to the fastest piston-powered fighter jets of the time, the overall speed of the ramjet was significantly higher, but these systems couldn't take over the plane's propulsion until about 150 mph. This requires other means of propulsion to assist the aircraft initially in the air - rocket motors/boosters or turbojets are the norm.

Ramjets use an air breathing process similar to a jet engine to generate thrust, but rely on the forward motion of the engine to compress oncoming air, which in turn generates thrust. Conversely, jet engines used on axial compressors can achieve the same effect.

Kurt Tank von Focke-Wulf, designer of the famous Fw 190 piston engine wartime fighter, funded some of Dr. Otto Pabst in the field of ramjet engine technology. By 1945, the ramjet had finally reached the point of formal testing, which helped prove to some that the design was a viable aircraft propulsion device.

To date, no aircraft has been flown entirely on ramjets, so the terrain to be traversed is fairly new to all involved.

Even before 1945, the Luftwaffe needed fast fighter jets to counter Allied bomber formations, and ramjet-engined interceptor designs. The tank responded with the submission of the Ta 283, which used a pair of ramjets and a rocket propulsion to achieve the launch.

While the design was directed by Tank, the fuselage was designed by a certain Hans Mulhopp - the designer of the wartime Ta 183 "Huckabein" fighter, jet wing and American postwar Martin XB-51 jet bomber. In the postwar years, he also lent his design talents to the US Air Force's Martin X-23 'PRIME' lift-body aircraft.

The end result is a sleek, aerodynamically refined aircraft with a distinctly pointy nose and fuselage cross-section, not unlike a Messerschmitt 262 Schwalbe jet fighter. The wing main planes are mounted low along the sides of the fuselage, and the leading edge of each plane includes a 45-degree sweep. The cockpit is located amidships for a good view of the aircraft.

A single HWK 509A dual-fuel liquid rocket motor is buried in the fuselage to provide initial propulsion power during takeoff, and a pair of ramjets - 2 x Focke-Wulf Pabst units - is located aft of the end of the swept horizontal stabilizer. The single vertical stabilizer features a large area emanating from the rear of the cockpit (limiting visibility to the critical "six"), while contributing to the Ta 283's unique overall shape. A wheeled tricycle landing gear is envisaged with the nose bone at the very forward end of the fuselage and the main legs below the central mass of the aircraft.

The legs are all fairly short, giving the plane a very low profile when stationary.

Weapons are 2 x 30mm MK 108 guns, nose mounted under the front of the fuselage. The only recorded dimensions for the Ta 283 are a length of 11.8 meters and a wingspan of 8 meters.

Maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) is estimated at 5,380kg, and other estimates include a top speed of 700mph, an operating range of 430 miles, and a service ceiling of up to 32,800 feet. The rate of climb is close to 4,000 feet per minute due to the rocket/ramjet propulsion scheme.

Like many of the progressive efforts of the German aviation industry in the postwar period, the Ta 283 did not exceed its paper-handling capabilities until the end of the war in 1945. This made the design completely unproven and helped it slip into military aviation obscurity as one of the Luftwaffe's fantastic "secret weapons".