Bachem Ba 349

Miloch wrote in
news
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachem_Ba_349

The Bachem Ba 349 Natter (English: Colubrid, grass-snake) was a World
War II German point-defence rocket-powered interceptor, which was to
be used in a very similar way to a manned surface-to-air missile.
After a vertical take-off, which eliminated the need for airfields,
most of the flight to the Allied bombers was to be controlled by an
autopilot. The primary role of the relatively untrained pilot was to
aim the aircraft at its target bomber and fire its armament of
rockets. The pilot and the fuselage containing the rocket-motor would
then land using separate parachutes, while the nose section was
disposable. The only manned vertical take-off flight on 1 March 1945
ended in the death of the test pilot, Lothar Sieber.

In 1943 Luftwaffe air superiority was being challenged by the Allies
over the Reich and radical innovations were required to overcome the
crisis. Surface-to-air missiles appeared to be a promising approach to
counter the Allied strategic bombing offensive; a variety of projects
were started, but invariably problems with the guidance and homing
systems prevented any of these from attaining operational status.
Providing the missile with a pilot, who could operate a weapon during
the brief terminal approach phase, offered a solution. Submissions for
a simple target defence interceptor were requested by the Luftwaffe in
early 1944 under the umbrella of the "Emergency Fighter Program". A
number of simple designs were proposed, including the Heinkel P.1077
Julia, in which the pilot lay prone (on his stomach), to reduce the
frontal area. The Julia was the front-runner for the contract. The
initial plan was to launch the aircraft vertically, but this concept
was later changed to a conventional horizontal take-off from a
tricycle-wheeled trolley, similar to that used by the first eight
prototypes of the Arado Ar 234 jet reconnaissance bomber.

The Natter was designed to be built by unskilled labor with
poor-quality tools and inexpensive material. Various stringent
economies were imposed on an already frugal design. The Natter had no
landing gear, which saved weight, expense, and construction time.
Consequently, one of the most unusual features of the machine was the
escape of the pilot and recovery of the machine. The proposed sequence
of these events was as follows: After the attack, the Natter might
dive to a lower altitude and flatten out into level flight. The pilot
would then proceed with a well-practised escape sequence. He would
open the cockpit canopy latch; the canopy flicking backwards on its
hinge in the airstream; he would undo his seat belt and remove his
feet from the rudder pedal stirrups. By squeezing a lever mounted on
the control column, he would release a lock at the base of the column,
which would allow him to tilt the column forwards where it could
engage in and undo a safety latch for the nose release mechanism. He
would then lean a little further forward and pull a lever hinged near
the floor at the front of the cockpit. This action frees the nose
section, which self-jettisoned as a result of the reduced aerodynamic
pressure at the front of the fuselage. As the nose section separates,
it was intended to briefly pull on two cables that release a small
ribbon parachute stored on the starboard side of the rear fuselage.
The parachute subsequently opens and decelerates the Natter. The pilot
would be ejected from the cockpit by his own inertia and as soon as he
was clear of the fuselage, he would open his personal parachute and
descend to the ground.

A parachute was to eject the valuable Walter rocket motor from the
rear, which would decelerate the aircraft and eject the pilot with
inertia, but associated problems were still not fully resolved prior
to the war's end.


A very complicated process to shoot
down just one bomber, esp at a time when
every mission contained hundreds of bombers.