Focke-Wulf Projekt Kamikaze Carrier

Parasite Fighter Mothership Proposal [ 1944 ]

The Focke-Wulf Kamikaze Carrier project would have carried one or several suicide aircraft under her wings - in essence serving as a mothership of sorts.

Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 04/21/2016 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site.

Image copyright www.MilitaryFactory.com; No Reproduction Permitted.

VIEW SPECIFICATIONS [+]

For a brief moment in World War 2 history (1939-1945), some elements of the German hierarchy entertained the prospect of kamikaze suicide strikes against strategic Allied targets. This thinking was further pressed home when Germany began to lose ground to Allied advances and its initiative in the air was reduced due to the relentless Allied day/night bombing campaigns. Couple desperation with the successes experienced by the Japanese in their use of suicide strikes against Allied naval targets, the idea of German suicide fighters was something to be seriously considered.

During January of 1944, members of the German Academy of Aeronautical Sciences collectively explored the possibility of such a weapon and came away agreeing that it should push the German Air Ministry to support such attacks. It was deemed that a single German pilot, giving up his life in the action, was a highly effective measure is derailing the Allied advanced - some of the German leadership hoping to sue for a favorable surrender by this point in the war. If a single bridge, supply depot or fuel storage area could be destroyed at the cost of one aircraft and its pilot while preventing a handful of bombers from receiving proper supplies, then the German kamikaze concept was understood as a viable one. The idea of self-sacrifice for the greater good, however, was not a foundational one in West thinking as it was in places such as Japan where honor and allegiance to the Emperor was ranked above all else. It would take a pilot with certain mettle to give up his life in such a way.

The German kamikaze approach was to center on a compact single-seat aircraft laden with explosives and fitted with the most basic of flying instruments and controls. At first, the Messerschmitt Me 328 seemingly fit the bill, a "parasite fighter" then under development. However, its production was seriously derailed when an air raid rendered its lines unusable for the foreseeable future. Then came the Fieseler Fi 103R "Reichenberg" which was essentially a manned version of the V-1 "Doodle Bug" rocket terrorizing citizens of Britain. While some 175 of this aircraft type were eventually completed by the end of the war, there was never much faith placed in the Fi 103 as a delivery platform - its intended Argus pulse jet engine limited its practical usefulness just as it had in the unmanned V-1 rockets before it. Additionally there proved limited interest in the project on the whole. By this time, the thought of losing expensive, valuable pilots in a suicide attack had turned to allowing the pilot a parachute to use as he vacated his aircraft prior to the moment of impact. Despite this less macabre approach, the chances were slim that the pilot would ever survive such a stunt considering the forces at play during the attack's descent.

Then came another concept for review, this time pushed by engineers at Focke-Wulf where a slim, single-seat, explosives-laden airframe fitting a turbojet engine would be used. A 2.5-ton explosive content would fill the nose section and instrumentation would be sparse to reduce the production commitment. The Heinkel HeS 011 turbojet of 2,865 pounds thrust was selected for propulsion. The aircraft's fuselage would fit a stand-off probe at its nose with electrical crush fuses used to detonate the explosive hollow charge package causing enough damage to potential sink a warship and kill many.©MilitaryFactory.com

The other part of the equation lay in the delivery method. As the suicide aircraft stood it was too small to carry much internal fuel for a long journey and too basic to serve over long endurance runs over enemy terrain. Focke-Wulf designers enacted a plan to provide the suicide fighter with its own "kamikaze carrier", a mothership of sorts fast enough to avoid enemy interceptors yet powerful enough to haul one or several suicide aircraft. This was a departure from earlier German work on a manned fighter piggy-backing over an explosives-laden airframe, the explosive component being jettisoned against a target while the manned fighter component returning home on its own (this became the intriguing "Mistel" program). Another related concept under consideration in Germany was the "parasite fighter" scheme in which a mothership would carry its own defending escorts, these fighters being released the moment enemy interceptors were identified.

The aircraft devised by Focke-Wulf utilized a high-mounted, gull-wing mainplane of considerable span (177 feet) and limited sweepback set over a largely tubular fuselage containing a glazed-over cockpit nose. A twin-boom tail configuration was added which produced two tail rudders and a central, high-mounted plane joining the two fins. Ahead of each boom would be an engine installation protruding from the wing's leading edge. Outboard of these installations would be a pair of coupled engines in a "pull-push" configuration, presenting a long nacelle structure breaking the lines of both the leading and trailing wing edges. The undercarriage would support many landing wheels situated inline while its supporting struts would be housed under an aerodynamically-refined fairing. The aircraft would require just a two-man crew commitment which benefitted operational logistics.

The six engines in play would be Daimler-Benz DB 603N types, 12-cylinder developments outputting at 1,900 horsepower each. This engine was already shared across various other German warplanes of the conflict including Focke-Wulf's own Ta 152 high-altitude fighter so it came as a proven commodity. Performance estimates of the Fw Kamikaze Carrier included a maximum sped of 348 miles per hour - certainly not fast enough to avoid interception but this was offset some when the strategy morphed to include the carrier rendezvousing with jet-powered aircraft (Ar 234B) from two miles out of the target area. With the now-released kamikaze fighters committed to follow their jet escorts, the carrier was now free for a return trip home to resupply.

As it stood, this large aircraft would not only be used in supporting kamikaze strikes, it could just as easily double as a heavy-lift transport when serving frontline elements. Its high-wing design would also promote short field landings and its undercarriage could survive landings on rough surfaces. Hauling capability would be a key quality of the series.

As can be surmised, the German kamikaze initiative fell to naught by war's end. The project was certainly a reach with all of its intended design goals and the war situation in Germany only served to ruin many-an-aircraft development heading into the final weeks. The concept was never wholly sound nor proven and no work beyond that undertaken at drawing boards was realized before the end. The idea of German pilots even surviving the bailout process was a recurring concern and materials required to make this costly project a success were few and far between. This left the Focke-Wulf "Kamikaze Carrier" as nothing more than one of the many German wartime "paper airplane" projects simply not meant to be.©MilitaryFactory.com

Note: The above text is EXCLUSIVE to the site www.MilitaryFactory.com. It is the product of many hours of research and work made possible with the help of contributors, veterans, insiders, and topic specialists. If you happen upon this text anywhere else on the internet or in print, please let us know at MilitaryFactory AT gmail DOT com so that we may take appropriate action against the offender / offending site and continue to protect this original work.

Specifications

Service Year

1944

Origin

Nazi Germany

Crew

2

Production

0
UNITS

Focke-Wulf - Nazi Germany

(View other Aviaton-Related Manufacturers)

Nazi Germany

(OPERATORS list includes past, present, and future operators when applicable)

✓ X-Plane (Developmental, Prototype, Technology Demonstrator)
Aircraft developed for the role of prototyping, technology demonstration, or research / data collection.

Length

114.8 ft
(35.00 m)

Width/Span

177.2 ft
(54.00 m)

Height

39.4 ft
(12.00 m)

Empty Wgt

113,097 lb
(51,300 kg)

MTOW

268,964 lb
(122,000 kg)

Wgt Diff

+155,867 lb
(+70,700 kg)

(Showcased structural values pertain to the base Focke-Wulf Projekt Kamikaze Carrier production variant)

Installed: 6 x Daimler-Benz DB 603N 12-cylinder piston engines developing 1,900 horsepower each.

Max Speed

348 mph
(560 kph | 302 kts)

Ceiling

27,887 ft
(8,500 m | 5 mi)

Range

1,069 mi
(1,720 km | 3,185 nm)

Rate-of-Climb

1,500 ft/min
(457 m/min)

♦ MACH Regime (Sonic)

Sub

Trans

Super

Hyper

HiHyper

ReEntry

♦

(Showcased performance specifications pertain to the base Focke-Wulf Projekt Kamikaze Carrier production variant. Performance specifications showcased above are subject to environmental factors as well as aircraft configuration. Estimates are made when Real Data not available. Compare this aircraft entry against any other in our database or View aircraft by powerplant type)

None. Payload of one or several "kamikaze" suicide aircraft. Local defense supplied by accompanying escort aircraft.

Supported Types

(Not all ordnance types may be represented in the showcase above)

"Kamikaze Carrier" - Base Project Name.

Military lapel ribbon for Operation Allied Force

Military lapel ribbon for the Arab-Israeli War

Military lapel ribbon for the Battle of Britain

Military lapel ribbon for the Battle of Midway

Military lapel ribbon for the Berlin Airlift

Military lapel ribbon for the Cuban Missile Crisis

Military lapel ribbon for pioneering aircraft

Military lapel ribbon for the Falklands War

Military lapel ribbon for the French-Indochina War

Military lapel ribbon for the Golden Age of Flight

Military lapel ribbon for the 1991 Gulf War

Military lapel ribbon for the Indo-Pak Wars

Military lapel ribbon for the Iran-Iraq War

Military lapel ribbon for the Korean War

Military lapel ribbon for the 1982 Lebanon War

Military lapel ribbon for the Malayan Emergency

Military lapel ribbon representing modern aircraft

Military lapel ribbon for the attack on Pearl Harbor

Military lapel ribbon for the Six Day War

Military lapel ribbon for the Soviet-Afghan War

Military lapel ribbon for the Spanish Civil War

Military lapel ribbon for the Suez Crisis

Military lapel ribbon for the Ukranian-Russian War

Military lapel ribbon for the Vietnam War

Military lapel ribbon for Warsaw Pact of the Cold War-era

Military lapel ribbon for the WASP (WW2)

Military lapel ribbon for the World War 1

Military lapel ribbon for the World War 2

Military lapel ribbon for the Yom Kippur War

Military lapel ribbon for experimental x-plane aircraft

Ribbon graphics not necessarily indicative of actual historical campaign ribbons. Ribbons are clickable to their respective aerial campaigns / operations / aviation periods.

Images Gallery

1 / 1

Image of the Focke-Wulf Projekt Kamikaze Carrier

Image copyright www.MilitaryFactory.com; No Reproduction Permitted.

Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Cookies

2024 Military Pay Chart Military Ranks DoD Dictionary Conversion Calculators Military Alphabet Code Military Map Symbols

The "Military Factory" name and MilitaryFactory.com logo are registered ® U.S. trademarks protected by all applicable domestic and international intellectual property laws. All written content, illustrations, and photography are unique to this website (unless where indicated) and not for reuse/reproduction in any form. Material presented throughout this website is for historical and entertainment value only and should not to be construed as usable for hardware restoration, maintenance, or general operation. We do not sell any of the items showcased on this site. Please direct all other inquiries to militaryfactory AT gmail.com. No A.I. was used in the generation of this content; site is 100% curated by humans.

Part of a network of sites that includes GlobalFirepower, a data-driven property used in ranking the top military powers of the world, WDMMA.org (World Directory of Modern Military Aircraft), WDMMW.org (World Directory of Modern Military Warships), SR71blackbird.org, detailing the history of the world's most iconic spyplane, and MilitaryRibbons.info, cataloguing military medals and ribbons. Special Interest: RailRoad Junction, the locomotive encyclopedia.

©2023 www.MilitaryFactory.com • All Rights Reserved • Content ©2003-2023 (20yrs)