Warplanes of Germany: Luftwaffe Henschel Hs 132

Henschel Hs 132

(Gert Heumann llustration)

Henschel Hs 132, jet dive bomber (prototype).

The Henschel Hs 132 was a jet-powered divebomber and interceptor aircraft designed and produced by the German aircraftmanufacturer Henschel Flugzeugwerke AG. It was developed during the latterportion of the Second World War with the intention of being adopted by the Luftwaffe, but this did not come to fruition.

Work commenced on the Hs 132 in February 1943 in response to a specification issued by the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM – the German Aviation Ministry)for a new attack aircraft. Henschel opted for a relatively unorthodox designthat, amongst other features, used a top-mounted BMW 003 jet engine (identical in terms of make and position to the powerplant used by the Heinkel He 162), aretractable nosewheel undercarriage and the pilot in a prone position. Theaircraft intentionally made as little use of strategic materials as possible,such as its use of wooden wings, and had a relatively simplistic structuredespite it being designed to withstand 12 g, considerably more than typical dive bombers of the era.

In response to the RLM's approval of the project, construction of three prototypes was started during March 1945. However, two months later, Henschel'splant at Schönefeld was captured by the advancing Soviet Army; accordingly, allof the incomplete prototypes fell into Soviet hands and their fate thereafter is unknown. At that point, Hs 132 V1 was scheduled to commence flight testing only one month later. (Wikipedia)

(Borvan53 Photo)

Henschel Hs 132 in a windtunnel test.

(Borvan53 Photo)

Henschel Hs 132 airframe, with its BMW 003 jet engine.

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