Submarines and their Weapons - Aircraft of World War II

SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILES
Mach number and become unstable. Guidance was
exactly the same as for the 'Schmetterling' and the
same sort of proximity fuze was to have been used.
Perhaps 60 'Enzian' missiles were constructed, of
which 38 were tested, beginning in April 1944. The
first examples fared badly because the designers had
not grasped the importance of aligning the missile's
axial centre of gravity and thrust lines, but that was
cured, and later tests proved successful. The 'Enzian'
fell foul of the general deterioration in manufacturing
capacity, and as there was concern at RLM that it was
detracting from the production of Me 163s and Me
262s, in January 1945 the project was axed.
THE RHEINMETALL-BORSIG MISSILES
Although successful with its unguided 'Rheinbote'
bombardment missiles, Rheinmetall-Borsig achieved
less with its surface-to-air missiles. The company's
first foray into the field was a winged missile called
the 'Hecht' ('Pike'), which seems to have been no
more than a design and concept-proving exercise;
several are known to have been air-dropped, both in
powered and unpowered forms. Work on it stopped in
1941, when the 'Feuerlilie' project was initiated; it
MESSERSCHMITT 'ENZIAN'
Type: Rocket-propelled surface-to-air missile
Length: 2.4m (7.875ft)
Diameter: 0.88m (2.9ft)
104
seems that this, too, was to have been purely a
research programme, but the RLM insisted that it be
adaptable to use as an anti-aircraft rocket, should that
prove necessary. Even though there is no evidence
that that step was taken, and the missile was unguided,
we may include it here in passing.
The 'Firelily' was to have a streamlined cylindrical
fuselage with rear-mounted swept-back wings terminating
in small symmetrical fins. It was to have been
produced in a number of versions of different fuselage
diameter, the most important of which were the
F25 and the F55, and was to have been propelled by
solid-fuel rockets which the company already had in
production as take-off assistance units (RATO) for
gliders and heavily-loaded transport aircraft, though
there was also a plan to produce a supersonic version
of the 55cm missile, with simple fins in place of the
wing assembly, to be powered by a Konrad-designed
liquid-fuel rocket. The 'Firelily' project continued
Below: In looks, 'Enzian' resembled the Messerschmitt
Me 163 'Komet' rocket plane. Like all liquid-fuelled
rockets, most of the internal space of the 'Enzian'was
taken up with fuel tanks.
Launch weight: 1800kg (3970lb)
Max range: 24.5km (15.25 miles)
Warhead: 300kg (660lb) of explosives