"Last of the Luftwaffe Lunacy" Topic

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I finished the last two models in my late-war Luftwaffe foolishness project. Very good kits from Heller dating back to 1980. More here link

Exceptional job.

Love the paint job, and the story behind two 'aircraft' I'd not heard of before. Let's face it, we've all been in those project meetings at some point.

Read your blog, then had to spend time following up on the "dissolving the pilot" episode with the ME-163. I spent 37 years as an Air Force civilian, and I thought we'd done some things that were ot-nay oo-tay ight-bray, but this goes far beyond any of those things!

Grelber

Great modeling, sir.+

Never ceases to amaze me what contraptions can come from drug-addled minds.

You have an amazing collection of model aircraft. I hope that most of them are suitably displayed.

Jim

Great models!

The V-1 suicide weapon does seem to be more than a little dicey. I imagine perhaps the pilot could attempt to bail out, or use an ejection seat, if one of those was provided for it, as long as the rocket motor had cut out.

The Natter seems like a very sensible, economical, and effective weapon. With that heavy rocket armament, and limited need for pilot training due to its unique launch and recovery system, it could have been devastating to our bomber squadrons if deployed in large numbers.

Fortunately for our bomber crews it came too late to be deployed against them.

Great work on the models. Thanks for sharing your photos.

Well done

Well done.

Oh, you don't need drugs for this sort of thing, ColCampbell. Remember the one we had--the XF-85 "Goblin"--which was supposed to fit in the bomb bay of B-36's? And don't forget that the TFX actually made it into production as the F-111. (In fairness, we did eventually fix the whole "wings falling off" problem.)

The history of aviation is filled with lunatic ideas, and military aviation may have more than its fair share. Still, always nice when someone makes a model of one.

Every nation was testing aircraft designs that did not get into production. In some cases it came out too late and in other cases it just did not justify putting it into production. Germany was on the ropes and tried anything that could give them an edge.

Fantasy of Flight here in Florida nearby Polk City has a Natter Viper in its collection:
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You have to stand by it to realize how small the thing is and how you had to be incredibly brave, or nuts, or both to fly this thing!

Their V-1 is just a plain vanilla one, not piloted :)
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Marc33549 Oddly enough I am going to be in the Orlando area mid-September, I will set aside a day for that museum

Thanks everyone for your kind words.

robert piepenbrink, oh you are so right, there were lots of loopy ideas out there; the US built two HUGE dirigibles that were intended as carriers while the Russians festooned a heavy bomber with parasite fighters in their "Zevno project"

Very nice camo, Anton. +1

B

Oddly enough I am going to be in the Orlando area mid-September

Dont suppose that will include a trip to Hurricon in the Orlando area? 23-26 September.
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Marc33549, sadly no, I'm going to be down that way 12SEP21-18SEP21

The Natter and the Piloted V1 make great models.

But neither have spats…….

The Natter was rocket powered, the V1 used a Ramjet, a sort of pulsed jet thrust. The difference? The former could fly in a vacuum in theory (oh, but then there would be no lift from the wings…..crunch). The latter was an "air breathing" engine.

deadhead,

As is usual with me there are several things going on at once. There are really three collections in play regarding aircraft; "Too Cool", "Yellow Wings" "Spats (and fixed undercarriages)" and "What Were They Thinking?".

Often an aircraft can fall into more than one category: The PZL-23 Karas falls into (in my my entirely subject classifications system)both the "Spats" and "Too Cool". The P-6E Hawk is in three; Spats, Yellow Wings and Too Cool. My last two efforts (which are VERY notably lacking spats, or any sort of landing gear at all!) both fall squarely into "What Were They Thinking"