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Another late-war fighter design attempt by the company became "Project 256" - or "P.256". This was centered around a February 1945 RLM requirement for a twin-engined,
jet-powered all-weather/night fighter intended to remedy the situation in the air war and wrestle superiority away from the enemy before ground forces could swoop in an
claim vital German facilities and force an end to the war. The P.256 could be broadly considered a jet-powered form of the prop-driven Do 335 for it used various elements
first encountered with that design though, by and large, it was its own unique fighter offering.
Since the turbojet pairing would be contained in underwing nacelles, the nose was clear to bring the cockpit forward and provide for better pilot vision. The empennage was
made up of a conventional tail unit showcasing a large-area vertical fin as well as low-set horizontal planes. The low-wing mainplanes were left unswept - though there was
some sweepback of the leading edges. The members were fitted at midships and each held an underslung engine pod along their midway point. A tricycle undercarriage
rounded out the design's key physical qualities - a feature seen in the Do 335. The engine of choice became 2 x Heinkel-Hirth HeS 011 turbojets outputting 2,865 pounds of
thrust each.
Internally, it was thought that the aircraft would be crewed by three due to the systems required for the night-fighting role. Hence there would be a pilot, navigator and radar
operator positioned in a pressurized cabin. The pilot shared the cockpit with the radar operator in a side-by-side seating arrangement while the navigator was set further aft
in his own workspace facing aft. Survivability was enhanced some by way of cockpit armoring and bullet-resistant glass panels. Aft sections would be left largely unprotected
and no defensive armament fitted - the thought being that the jet could simply out-fly any trailing interceptors at will.
As a "night stalker", the P.256 was proposed with 4 x MK 108 cannons in its nose assembly and a further 2 x MK 108 cannons fitted within the fuselage. The latter pairing
would be angled in such a way as to be able to engage enemy bombers from their more vulnerable undersides - this known in the German inventory as the "Schrage Musik"
oblique mount. A radar installation would allow the aircraft to be directed to incoming bomber formations in the dark of night, the P.256 holding all of the advantage against a
target which lacked much in the way of detection facilities. Despite its primary role of night-fighter, the P.256 was also fashioned with two underwing hardpoints for carrying
up to 2,200 pounds of conventional drop stores. In this way, it could double as a fighter-bomber in daylight hours.
All told, the design was given an overall length of 44.6 feet, a wingspan of 50.8 feet and a height of 18 feet. Estimated performance specifications were an absolute maximum
speed of 550 miles per hour with ranges out to 875 miles. A service ceiling of 29,600 feet necessitated onboard oxygen supplies and cabin pressurization for the crew. Rate-
of-climb was to be a useful 2,200 feet per minute.
After review, the P.256 submission was found wanting for it lacked key sought-after qualities found in competing designs. The unswept wing mainplanes were a detriment to
speed and high-performance envelopes where jet fighters were concerned and the podded engine arrangement served only to add drag and further reduce performance (as
proven in the Me 262).The large-area tail fin was another drag-inducing feature that added to the project's woes.
Since the P.256 submission held little to recommend itself, it was discarded from contention, forcing Dornier back to its production of bombers for the Luftwaffe. As such, the
design became nothing more than another abandoned German jet project of the war and progressed little beyond its paper form.