Submarines and their Weapons - Aircraft of World War II

JET AIRCRAFT
Above: The Junkers Ju 287, with its forward-swept wings
and nose-mounted engines, was one of the more radical
aircraft of World War II. This is the sole example built, the
-V1 prototype. It was later captured by Soviet troops.
fighters and interceptors to be stopped, and accordingly
no further progress was made with the Ju 287
V2, though the Ju 287 VI continued to fly occasional
tests. Tn March 1945, the project was suddenly
revived and the Ju 287 ordered into production. Construction
of the Ju 287 V2 recommenced, and plans
were made for a -V3, with a pressurised three-man
cockpit, 4000kg (88001b) bombload, and remotely
controlled guns, to be powered by four Heinkel Oil
engines of 1300kg (28661b) thrust. Two Jumo 012
engines of 2780kg (61201b) thrust or two BMW 018
engines of 3400kg (74801b) thrust (neither of which
had actually been completed) were posited as an alternative.
Both the Ju 287 VI and the still-incomplete
-V2 fell into Soviet hands in May 1945; the former
was flown as found, while the latter was completed
with swept-back wings and is said to have achieved
speeds of around 1000km/h (620mph). Hans Wocke
later produced a civil aircraft, the HFB 320 'Hansa',
with a swept-forward wing.
THE He 162 'SPATZ'/'SALAMANDER'
By 1944, with the situation looking increasingly
black for Germany, there was a vocal school of
thought which advocated the development of almost
disposable weapons, to be used, in the last resort, by
barely trained personnel. Rather more practical was a
design which Heinkel produced in response to an
RLM requirement for the Volksjäger (People's Fighter),
a cheap and expendable fighter aircraft weighing
less than 2000kg (44001b), to be powered by a single
BMW 003 jet engine, with an endurance of 30 minutes
and an armament of two 30mm cannon. This
craft was to be flown by volunteers from the Hitlerjugend.
Design studies were 'invited' from Arado,