An uncommon sight in Europe's skies

[pampa14]

I share with you an interesting collection of pictures showing one of the projects launched at the end of World War II by Germany as part of its war effort to try to avoid the increasingly Allied bombing. The big question remains whether this rocket plane had been built in greater quantities and earlier would have changed the final outcome? What do you think? Visit the link below, see photos and give your opinion about it.


Aviação em Floripa: Uma visão incomum nos céus da Europa


Best Regards.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Very cool, thanks!

 

[mikewint]

Another one of those "WHAT IFS". Essentially a surface-to-air with a human as the guidance. The little Natter would be guided to the bombers the "pilot" only had to aim and fire the rockets in the nose. The Natter would glide to a lower altitude where the pilot, nose section, and fuselage would separate. No landing field required and the vertical launch rails could easily be hidden in deep woods. So YES, IF everything worked as planned and IF enough could be made and deployed the Germans would have had a very effective air defense. Much as SAM sites are deployed today

 

[Gnomey]

Good stuff! Thanks for sharing.

 

[GregP]

Effective? They didn't have ONE kill, but killed more than one pilot. None were successfully flown after a powered launch, if I read the history correctly.

I seriously doubt it could have been effective in the condition it was in when the war ended. Perhaps with some development and reliability ... maybe, but as fielded? No way.

It would be very neat to build and test one today, but we'd probably want landing gear ... so it could be re-used ...

 

[Wayne Little]

Cool!

 

[Denniss]

Just for info - the Threadstarter/Troll was caught spamming again at Axishistory forum, now operating as mark.p51 and claiming to be Mark Phillips Wilkinson from San Diego.

 

[Gixxerman]

I'm afraid the Natter was simply another desperate 'point defence' system (not totally unlike the Me163 in purpose or operation) and like the Me163 it would have been very easily avoided thanks to it's 'point defence' nature.

In skies swarming with allied fighters I wouldn't fancy the glide back down much either - not to mention the whole thing about corrosive volatile fuels etc (again see Me163).

An unusual and interesting project (the SS getting into things was IIRC a first) but really it's all just symptomatic of the desperation clutching at anything that might stave off the inevitable ( boy was it, by then especially, very very inevitable).
A great idea for, at best, marginally prolonging the agony which could only (far more than anything else) end up with the war killing more German people.

 

[GregP]

Who is the Threadstarter/Troll? I though we WANTED people to start threads ... perhaps his aren't forum-related? Or what?

No comment here, just curious.

 

[fastmongrel]

Who is the Threadstarter/Troll? I though we WANTED people to start threads ... perhaps his aren't forum-related? Or what?

No comment here, just curious.

He has multiple accounts on lots of forums, sometimes several different names on the same forum just google the first line of his post and it comes up with page after page of links on several different subjects like Cars, Planes, semi naked women and on and on. Sometimes he is from the US sometimes Brazil but also just about every country in the United Nations. I think he is harmless though he has got into trouble for using pictures that werent his to use but mainly I reckon its all a click bait exercise, the more people who click his link to see what its about the more traffic his site has the more money he makes from adverts and the more cookies end up on your computer.

As I say mostly harmless as long as you dont mind him making money out of the forum without contributing in any way

 

[Crimea_River]

I've stopped going to his site long ago.