In 1944, Focke-Wulf worked on the design of a high-performance fighter, which was to be equipped with a planned Argus As 9-413 engine in accordance with a tender from the Reich Air Ministry, and whose design broke new ground in many respects. The engine had four rows of cylinders arranged in an H shape, was liquid-cooled and was to produce around 4000 hp. It was to be installed in the rear fuselage behind the wing. A remote shaft was to drive the two counter-rotating four-bladed propellers, which were located at the rear behind the tail unit. The vertical tail unit was designed in two parts, above and below the fuselage. In this way, the entire vertical tail unit lay in the propeller jet, which increased its effectiveness. Both symmetrical tail units could also be manufactured more easily than one large fin. The lower fin protected the thrust screws from touching the ground during take-off and landing. A small tail wheel was built into the edge of the lower fin. Since the fighter was to reach flight speeds of up to about Mach 0.8, the wing was swept quite strongly to reduce the critical Mach number; in 25*/» of the wing depth, the sweep was 31°. Also with a view to the high speed, the horizontal tail assembly was designed as a Victoria tail assembly, i.e. the horizontal tail assembly was swept forward and ran
into the wing. In this design, the horizontal tail unit is located in the wake of the wing; this was expected to result in a significant reduction in drag. The engine's coolant was fed into a ring-shaped cooler in front of the nose, which, together with the strongly swept wing, gave the model the appearance of a jet aircraft. A built-in fan ensured sufficient cooling during operation on the ground. The factory worked on this design until the end of 1944, when it had to be abandoned. Unfortunately, some of the documents were lost in the turbulent events of the post-war period, so that no information on calculated performance is likely to be available.
Type |
Single seat high performance fighter (Project) |
Engine |
1 Argus As 9-413 |
Dimensions |
Length 14,20 m, height 3,75 m , span 16,46 m , wing area 55 m2 , aspect ratio 4,9, sweep at 25 % 31º |
Weights |
Empty , loaded , max. take off weight |
Performance |
Max.. speed , cruising speed , range , endurance , service ceiling , climb |
Armament |
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