Warplanes of Germany: Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf Ta 183

Deutsche Kampfflugzeuge der Luftwaffe 1939-1945: Focke-Wulf

German Warplanes flown by the Luftwaffe 1939-1945: Focke-Wulf

During and after the end of the Second War a number of German Warplanes were captured and evaluated by the Allied forces.  Most of these aircraft were later scrapped and therefore only a handful have survived.  This is a partial list of aircraft that were known to have been flown by the Luftwaffe.

Während und nach dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs wurden eine Reihe deutscher Kampfflugzeuge von den Alliierten erbeutet und ausgewertet.  Die meisten dieser Flugzeuge wurden später verschrottet und daher haben nur eine Handvoll überlebt. Dies ist eine unvollständige Liste von Flugzeugen, von denen bekannt war, dass sie von der Luftwaffe geflogen wurden.

Focke-Wulf Ta 183

(airwar.ru Photo)

Focke-Wulf Ta 183, wind tunnel model.

The Focke-Wulf Ta 183 Huckebein was adesign for a jet-powered fighter aircraft intended as the successor to theMesserschmitt Me 262 and other day fighters in Luftwaffe service during theSecond World War. It had been developed only to the extent of wind tunnelmodels when the war ended, but the basic design was further developed postwarin Argentina as the FMA IAe 33 Pulqui II. The name Huckebein is a reference toa trouble-making raven (Hans Huckebein der Unglücksrabe) from an illustratedstory in 1867 by Wilhelm Busch.

In early 1944, the Reich Air Ministry (RLM, for Reichsluftfahrtministerium)became aware of Allied jet developments, and were particularly concerned thatthey might have to face the Gloster Meteor over the continent. In response,they instituted the Emergency Fighter Program which took effect on July 3,1944, ending production of most bomber and multi-role aircraft in favour offighters, especially jet fighters. Additionally, they accelerated thedevelopment of experimental designs that would guarantee a performance edgeover the Allied designs, designs that would replace the first German jetfighters, the Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe and Heinkel He 162 Spatz.

The result was a series of advanced designs, some using swept wings forimproved transonic performance, others instead using the tailless design tolower drag to the same end. Since German aircraft engineers were aware thattailless designs might encounter serious stability problems at transonicspeeds, much as the prototype Me 163B V18 did on July 6, 1944, in hitting arecord 1,130 km/h (702 mph) top speed and nearly destroying its entire ruddersurface in the process, a variety of stabilization methods such as airbrakes onthe wings were considered for such aircraft or simply adding conventional tailsurfaces. Kurt Tank's design team led by Hans Multhopp designed in 1945 afighter known as "Huckebein" (from Wilhelm Busch's "HansHuckebein, the unlucky raven", a cartoon raven that traditionally makestrouble for others), also known as Project V (Project VI in some references) orDesign II at Focke-Wulf. The raven character itself was re-used for the modernBundeswehr's Lufttransportgeschwader 62 as the inspiration for their unit'sinsignia.

Development of the Ta 183 started as early as 1942 as Project VI, when theengineer Hans Multhopp assembled a team to design a new fighter, based on hisunderstanding that previous Focke-Wulf design studies for jet fighters had nochance of reaching fruition because none had the potential for transonicspeeds. This aircraft, bearing the RLM airframe number 8-183, was intended touse, as with a growing number of other advanced German late-war jet aircraftproposals, the advanced Heinkel HeS 011 turbojet; although the first prototypeswere to be powered by the Junkers Jumo 004B. Early studies also included anoptional 1,000 kgf (10 kN) thrust rocket engine for takeoff and combat boost,much as the special "003R" version of the BMW 003 jet engine wasmeant to use, with fuel and oxidiser for up to 200 seconds of burn time storedin drop tanks under the wings.

The wings were swept back at 40° and were mounted in the mid-fuselage position.The wings appear to be mounted very far forward compared with most designs, aside-effect of attempting to keep the centre of pressure (CoP) of the wing as awhole as close to the middle of the fuselage as possible. Reflecting thedilemma of a shortage of strategic materials, the first option of usingaluminum in the construction of the main spar consisting of two tapered I-beamsattached together on the top and bottom with shear webs of thin steel sheeting,led to a reappraisal. Multhopp chose to use wood instead of metal throughoutthe wing structure, with wood structure ribs attached to the front and back ofthe I-beams to give the wing its overall shape, and then covered with plywood.The box-like structure contained six fuel cells, giving the aircraft a totalfuel load of 1,565 L (413 US gal).

The original design used a T-tail, with a notably long vertical stabilizer anda seemingly undersized horizontal stabilizer. The vertical stabilizer was sweptback at 60°, and the horizontal stabilizer was swept back and slightlydihedralled. The horizontal stabilizer also featured two large trim tabs, themain pitching force actually being provided by what would have appeared to be"ailerons" on most other turbojet-powered fighter airframes of theperiod. The Ta 183 wing's outermost trailing-edge control surfaces on its wingpanels, were well behind the center of gravity, placing their trailing edges'tips virtually even, horizontally, with the intended HeS 011 jet engine'sexhaust orifice, and thus could provide both pitch and roll control throughfunctioning as elevon control surfaces, as those on the wing panels ofMesserschmitt's Me 163 tailplane-less Komet rocket fighter already did. Manyproblems beset the project, including the chance of a Dutch roll. Worktherefore concentrated on the much less problematic Focke-Wulf Project VII.However, when the RLM eventually rejected that design, Huckebein was againbrought to the fore.

The Ta 183 had a short fuselage with the air intake passing under the cockpitand proceeding to the rear where the single engine was located. The pilot satin a pressurized cockpit with a bubble canopy which provided excellent vision.The primary armament of the aircraft consisted of four 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108cannons arranged around the air intake.

It was also possible to carry a bomb load of 500 kg (1,100 lb), consisting ofone SD or more SC 500 half-tonne bombs, one Bombentorpedo BT 200 bomb, fiveSD-series fragmentation bombs, SC-series general-purpose bombs, or a Rb 20/30reconnaissance camera. The weapons load would be carried in the equipment spacein the bottom of the fuselage and thus partially protrude about halfway fromthe fuselage, possibly allowing for other armament packages such as theRuhrstahl X-4 wire-guided missile.

Multhopp's team also seriously explored a second version of the basic design,known as Design III, a modified Design II (it is unknown what Design I referredto). The first of these had only minor modifications, with slightly differentlyshaped wingtips and repositioning of the undercarriage. The second version hada reduced sweepback to 32°, allowing the wing and cockpit to be moved rearward.The tail was also redesigned, using a short horizontal boom to mount thecontrol surfaces just above the line of the rear fuselage. This version looksconsiderably more "conventional" to the modern eye, although somewhatstubby due to the short overall length of the HeS 011.

The second of these two schemes was entered in the official competition orderedby the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe at the end of 1944. On 28 February 1945, theLuftwaffe High Command examined the various Emergency Fighter proposals andselected the Junkers EF 128 to be developed and produced; the Focke-Wulf teamgained second place. However, in the last few weeks of the war, it was decidedthat the Huckebein was really the best design and, at a meeting in Bad Eilsen, Tankwas told to arrange mockups and to plan for full production. It had a plannedspeed of about 1,000 km/h (620 mph) at 7,000 m (22,970 ft) and it was estimatedthat 300 aircraft per month would be delivered when production got into itsstride, each aircraft being produced in 2,500 man hours.

A total of 16 prototypes were to be built, allowing the tail unit to beinterchanged between the Design II and III variations. Of the Versuchs(experimental test series) aircraft, the Ta 183 V1-V3 were to be powered by theJumo 004B turbojet with somewhat lengthened rear fuselages near the engine'sexhaust nozzle to accommodate them, pending delivery of the HeS 011 jet engine.The Ta 183 V4-V14 were intended to be A-0 series pre-production aircraft andV15-V16 were to be static test aircraft. The first flight of the aircraft wasprojected for May 1945, but no finished Ta 183 Versuchs-series prototypes hadbeen completed by 8 April 1945, when British troops captured the Focke-Wulffacilities.

After the end of the war, Kurt Tank, in exile in Argentina, resurrected the Ta183 project, resulting in the IAe Pulqui II. This version was modified to placethe wings at a shoulder-mounted position, in order to avoid a heavy fuselagespar pass-through structure going around the engine, however this resulted indeep stall problems at high angles of attack. This could be resolved, and aversion correcting these problems was planned. However, the financial crash of1953 and the fall of Juan Peron temporarily suspended work on the project. By1955, the project had been abandoned due to the availability of surplusex-Korean War F-86 Sabres at a fraction of the cost.

Historians including David Myrha[6] have claimed the Soviet Mikoyan-GurevichMiG-15 was at least inspired by the Ta 183, because the Soviets captured plansfrom the Germans at the end of World War II. The MiG-15 does bear a resemblancein layout, sharing the high tailplane and nose-mounted intake, although theaircraft are different in structure, details, and proportions. The MiG-15'sdesign shared features, and some appearance commonalities with the MiG designbureau's own 1945-46 attempt at a Soviet-built rocket interceptor similar tothe Messerschmitt Me 263 rocket fighter, and also common to many contemporaryjet fighters — and were derived from aerodynamic and structural considerations(for example, the American Republic F-84F, the Swedish SAAB 29, and the FrenchDassault Ouragan and Mystère). A detailed design history of the MiG-15 waspublished by Russian aviation historian Yefim Gordon[7] refuting any connectionbetween the Ta 183 and the MiG-15. According to the designers, the MiG-15 wasan indigenous design, their choice of swept wings (as swept-back wings of anysort on a Soviet-designed aircraft were first flown on the MiG-8 Utka canardlight aircraft of 1945) being due to their desire to move ahead of most Westerndesigns which were not intended for the 960 km/h+ (600 mph+) speed range.

Like the MiG-9 and MiG-15, the Saab 29 is subject to claims of having been indirectlyinfluenced by the Ta 183. SAAB engineers received German research studies inswept wings in the immediate post-war period via contacts in Switzerland, andincorporated it into the Tunnan design, which was still limited to paperstudies at the time. (Wikipedia)

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