ABOVE: It would have taken a miracle for the Dornier P.256 to win the competition and enter service but it would nevertheless have made a surprisingly handsome addition to the Luftwaffe fleet fleet. Art by
Chris Sandham-Bailey
entered into the competition. II and III, however, were entered. Focke-Wulf II had a conventional tail with swept-back single spar wings featuring normal flaps and ailerons. The fuselage nose was bulbous and housed the two HeS 011 turbojets positioned side by side but slightly angled within the fuselage. This created a space between them for the nosewheel of the tricycle undercarriage. The pressurised cockpit housed three crew sitting on ejection seats and behind this were two self-sealing fuel tanks. Armament was four fixed forward-firing MK 108s and two more firing upwards. Wingspan was 51.8ft, with a wing area of 538sq ft. Top speed at 23,000ft was 565mph and maximum endurance was two hours and 45 minutes. Focke-Wulf III was the same but with larger main undercarriage wheels, a wingspan of 46.3ft, with a wing area of 431sq ft, a top speed of 586mph at 19,700ft and maximum endurance of two hours, 48 minutes. Focke-Wulf’s mechanic H Wolff had some surprisingly negative comments to make of his
own firm’s ideas: “The smaller winged aircraft has too high a surface load and therefore a large landing speed. The engines can be expected to lose 2% thrust.”
DORNIER P.256/1
Dornier’s designers must have been horrified when they saw what their P.256/1 was up against in the Schlechtwetter und Nachtjäger competition. The other entries – flying wings, swept-wing and tailless types – made their conventional design appear decidedly dated. The P.256/1 was derived from the Do 335 fighter and had the specified three crew members, two in the cockpit at the front, pilot and navigator, seated side by side and the other, the radar operator, in a separate compartment within the fuselage. The wings were unswept and the two HeS 011 turbojets were housed in pods beneath them. There were three fuel tanks between the two crewmen at the front and the ‘back seater’ and the aircraft had a tricycle undercarriage. Armament was f our MK 108s firing forward and two
ABOVE: The Focke-Wulf IV, shown in Focke-Wulf drawing 0310 251-53, was designed with three turbojets instead of two – making it ineligible for the competition but providing useful comparative data. It had one in its nose and the other two under its wings.TNA more firing upwards. Top speed was an underwhelming 515mph. Focke-Wulf’s H Wolff was typically scathing: “The unswept wings are taken from the Do 335, the unfavourable engine nacelle structure will result in high interference. The trunk is short and the tail is conspicuously large because of the small wing to tail distance. “The Dornier project falls sharply out of contention because of the unswept wing and the unfavourable gondola suspension of the engines.”
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ABOVE: Focke-Wulf document showing the seven advanced night fighter competitors. GDC
ABBOVE: With its unswept wings, stubby fuselage and underslung engines, Dornier’s P.256/1 was a dinosaur compared to its competitors. GDC
ABOVE: The long-tailed Focke-Wulf II design as it might have appeared in service. Art by Chris Sandham-Bailey Luftwaffe: Secret Jets of the Third Reich 089