Warplanes of Germany: Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf Ta 154 Moskito

Focke-Wulf Ta 154 Moskito night-fighter

(SDASM Archives Photo)

Focke-Wulf Ta 154 Moskito, coded TE+FK.

The Focke-Wulf Ta 154 Moskito was a fast twin-engined night fighter aircraft designed by the German aeronauticalengineer Kurt Tank and produced by the aircraft manufacturer Focke-Wulf. It wasunofficially named Moskito due to its similarities with the de HavillandMosquito (which was also largely made of wood) that were already with the RoyalAir Force (RAF).

The Ta 154 commenced development in 1942 and was worked on during much of thelatter half of the Second World War. It was designed to replace variants of theMesserschmitt Bf 110 and Junkers Ju 88 and function as a specialised nightfighter. As per a stipulation issued by the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM),wood comprised over half of the material needed to build the Ta 154. A specialphenolic resin adhesive called Tego film was used to bond sections together. Itwas originally designated Ta 211 in reference to the intended Jumo 211R engine,although it was subsequently decided to adopt the more powerful Jumo 213powerplant instead. Following a review of Focke-Wulf's submission, adevelopment contract was issued to the company during late 1942.

On 1 July 1943, the prototype Ta 154 V1 performed its maiden flight; it waspiloted by Kurt Tank. One of the early prototypes undertook competitive flighttesting against both the Heinkel He 219 and the Junkers Ju 388, besting both ofthese rival aircraft. During March 1944, even though the first eightpre-production aircraft were yet to be completed, the Jägerstab decreed that 37Ta 154s ought to be completed by May 1944 and that 250 aircraft were to beproduced each month by November 1944.[2] This schedule proved highlyunrealistic in light of various technical and logistical issues, with key parts(such as engines) not being available in sufficient quantity. Perhaps mostcrucially, the only factory that produced Tego-Film, in Wuppertal, was bombedby the RAF while replacement bonding agents proved to be inferior and a sourceof catastrophic mid-flight structural failures.

During September 1944, amid a complete production stoppage, the RLM opted toterminate the Ta 154 programme. Only a few production standard aircraft werecompleted, and these proved to possess less impressive performance than theprototypes. Several pre-production aircraft were also converted for operationaluse. Several Ta 154s were flown by Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 while a handful arebelieved to have been also used as training aircraft for jet pilots.Furthermore, at least three Pulkzerstörer (Formation Destroyer) and Mistelparasite fighter schemes were mooted for the type.

The origins of the Ta 154 Moskito is closely linked to the wartime demands ofthe Luftwaffe. In 1942, it had become increasing clear that, amid increasinglyintense Allied bombardment of Germany, a new type of night fighter wasdesirable to replace both the Messerschmitt Bf 110 and Junkers Ju 88. One suchaircraft, the Heinkel He 219, was already in development, however, duringSeptember 1942, the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM) issued a fresh requirementthat called for a specialised night fighter that, unlike the He 219, would beprimarily constructed out of wood. The intended benefit of this decision wasnot only as an economic measure to minimise the use of metal but also to takeadvantage of Germany's available labour pool, which had numerous skilledwoodworkers that had not effectively transitioned to metalworking.

This requirement was received by the German aircraft manufacturer Focke-Wulf,who quickly decided to undertake work towards fulfilling it. A Bremen-based designteam at the firm, headed by Kurt Tank, set about studying a fast attack-bomberaircraft that had been initially designated Ta 211 (due to its planned use ofan uprated Jumo 211R engine). The envisioned Ta 21 bomber was a high-wingtwin-engined design, built primarily of plywood and bonded with a specialphenolic resin adhesive called Tego film. The material composition of the basicdesign included approximately 57 per cent wood, 30 per cent steel, and 13 percent duralumin. Both single-seat and twin-seat variants were proposed at arelatively early stage.

Due to the scarcity of steel tubing, both the primary and auxiliary spars madeuse of wood box construction while extensive use of wood bonding was madeacross the whole airframe. A retractable nose-wheel undercarriage was selected,the main gear of which retracted rearwards into recesses within the enginenacelles while the nose gear pivoted backwards into the fuselage. Furthermore,it was fitted with broad diameter tyres as to permit the aircraft to use grassairstrips. It had a stepped cockpit canopy, the windscreen of which wascomposed of armoured glass; an additional 150 kg of armour was strategicallydistributed around the cockpit to protect its occupant(s). Dependent upon thevariant, the cockpit contained a single pilot and a radio/radar operator, thelatter just aft of the former. Fuel was housed in a pair of fuselage tanks, onewas located directly aft of the primary wing spar while the other was justbehind the auxiliary spar.

By 14 October 1942, the basic calculations were complete; layout drawings werecompleted five days later.[1] The RLM warmly received Focke-Wulf's proposal andpromptly issued a general development contract. It was at this stage that theTa 154 designation was applied to the aircraft; unofficially, it was namedMoskito in reference to its similarity to the de Havilland Mosquito fastbombers (which was also largely made of wood) already in service with the RoyalAir Force (RAF). Around this time, the de Havilland Mosquito, was conductingmissions upon Germany itself and was quickly building up an impressive record;in its first 600 bombing missions, only one was shot down, compared to anaverage of five per cent for the RAF's medium and heavy bombers. Erhard Milchpersonally requested a purpose-built German answer, and selected the Ta 154.Infighting within German circles started almost immediately, because the RLMand night fighter units — as well as Ernst Heinkel himself — still wanted theHeinkel He 219. Milch took this personally, and spent the better part of thenext two years trying to have the He 219 program terminated, partly againstErnst Heinkel's wishes.

During the aircraft's development, it became apparent that the most suitableengine to power the Ta 154 was the more powerful Jumo 213, and that Junkerscould not deliver the originally-desired Jumo 211R engine on schedule due totechnical and production difficulties.

On 1 July 1943, the prototype Ta 154 V1, which was outfitted with Jumo 211Fengines and bore the Stammkennzeichen identification code TE+FE, performed itsmaiden flight in the hands of Kurt Tank. It was followed by V2 with Jumo 211Nengines, which was kept at the factory for handling trials. V1 was laterdispatched to Rechlin-Lärz Airfield to conduct fly-off testing against thecompeting He 219A as well as the new Junkers Ju 388. Reportedly, the aircraftreached almost 700 km/h (440 mph) and easily outflew the other two aircraft,but those were both fully armed and equipped with radar apparatus. In comparison,neither V1 or V2 were fitted with radar at this stage.

On 23 November 1943, the V3 prototype, which was also the first to be poweredby the Jumo 211R engines and carry radar apparatus, made its first flight.[5]The added weight of the guns and drag of the 32-dipole element Matratze radarantennas used on its UHF-band FuG 212 C-1 Lichtenstein radar unit slowed theaircraft by a full 75 km/h, although it was still somewhat faster than the He219. The rest of the 15 prototypes were then delivered as A-0 models, identicalto the V3. Some of these also included a raised canopy for better vision to therear.

During March 1944, the Jägerstab decreed that Focke-Wulf should produce 37 Ta154s by May 1944; in combination with other manufacturing assets, theproduction rate was somewhat unrealistically expected to reach 250 aircraft permonth by November 1944. This schedule came in advance of the completion of thefirst eight pre-production aircraft, designated Ta 154A-0, which occurred inAugust of that year. These were briefly trialled by the service test unitbefore returning to development work. Transportation issues, which preventedsubcontractors from delivering components, were highly damaging to thecompany's efforts to ramp up production; at one point, each airframe wasreportedly taking 12,000 man-hours to produce.[2] By June 1944, the Jumo 213was finally arriving in some numbers, permitting the completion of several Ta154 A-1s with these engines.

However, the Ta 154 received a fatal blow when the only factory that producedTego-Film, in Wuppertal, was bombed out by the RAF. While determined effortswere made towards this end, the new bonding agents proved to be neither asstrong and even weakened the wood due to it containing too much acid and thusbeing corrosive. In July 1944, several Ta 154 A-1s reportedly disintegratedduring high speed flight, allegedly due to the delamination and failure of theplywood wing.[2] This same problem also critically affected the Heinkel He 162Spatz, Ernst Heinkel's "Volksjäger" jet fighter program entry; theissue with the bonding agent was eventually resolved on this programme however.

Accordingly, production came to a half in August 1944. One month later, the RLMofficially cancelled the Ta 154, by which point Milch had been removed from hisposition and thus could no longer protect the programme. It is believed thatabout 50 production aircraft had been completed, and a number of the A-0preproduction aircraft were later modified to production standard.[2] An unknownnumber of the aircraft served with Nachtjagdgeschwader 3, and a few were laterused as training aircraft for jet pilots.

Mistel/Pulkzerstörer variants. The designation Ta 154A-2/U3 was given to sixunfinished 154A-1 airframes completed and converted into Pulkzerstörer(Formation Destroyer) aircraft. At least three Pulkzerstörer and Mistelparasite fighter schemes were mooted for the Ta 154. The only one of the threethat was actually brought to operational readiness (Ta 154A-2/U3) was a systemwhereby the entire forward fuselage ahead of the fuel tanks was filled withAmatol high explosive. A new and extremely small cockpit for the pilot wasadded to the airframe directly ahead of the tailfin. From this cramped cabin,the pilot would fly the 'Bomb Moskito ' into an Allied bomber formation, armthe onboard charges and quickly bail out. A timer would then detonate theexplosives a few seconds later. Fragmentation charges in the warhead wouldmaximize the effective area of destruction.

It was hoped that this flying bomb system would tear large holes in theAnglo-American bomber streams at little cost to the Luftwaffe in terms of pilotcasualties. The six Ta 154A-2/U3 'Bomb Moskitos were completed at theFocke-Wulf plant near Poznań shortly before the occupation of the area by theRed Army, but were not used in combat. Their ultimate fate is unknown, thoughit is likely they were destroyed by the plant's staff to prevent them beingcaptured. One Ta 154 Mistel scheme, reportedly designated Mistel 7, envisaged aFocke-Wulf Fw 190 'mother aircraft' mounted on struts above an unmanned BombMoskito. Takeoff would be effected via a sturdy three-wheeled trolley of thesame type designed for the abandoned A-series of the Arado Ar 234 jetreconnaissance bomber. The trolley would be jettisoned after takeoff, leavingthe Mistel Moskito to fly to its target with all three engines running. Thecombination would formate above an Allied bomber stream before the 190 pilotreleased the Bomb Moskito, which would then hopefully crash straight into abomber with massively destructive effect. A related scheme would see a standard Ta 154 towing a Bomb Moskito behind it into the middle of a bomber stream,whereupon release and detonation would be initiated by the manned Ta 154's pilot.(Wikipedia)

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Focke-Wulf Ta 154V-1 Moskito.

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Focke-Wulf Ta 154V-2 Moskito.

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Focke-Wulf Ta 154, Moskito.

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Focke-Wulf Ta 154V-3, Moskito, coded TE+FG.

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Focke-Wulf Ta 154 Moskito, coded TQ+XE.

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Focke-Wulf Ta 154V-4 Moskito.

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Focke-Wulf Ta 154V-7, Moskito.

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Focke-Wulf Ta 154V- Moskito.

(Luftwaffe Photos)

Focke-Wulf Ta 154, Moskito night-fighter in Luftwaffe service.

(USAAF Photos)

One slightly damaged Ta 154 is known to have been captured at Lage, Germany, by the 54th Air Disarmament Squadron and is reported to have been shipped to the USA on board the SS Richard Gatling.  No FE number was assigned, its fate is unknown.

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