__NOTOC__ The DFS 40 (originally developed as the Delta V) was a tail-less research aircraft designed by Alexander Lippisch in 1937 as a follow-on to his

Delta IV Delta IV is a group of five expendable launch systems in the Delta rocket family introduced in the early 2000s. Originally designed by Boeing's Defense, Space and Security division for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, t ...

aircraft. In construction, the DFS was closer to a flying wing than its predecessor, and was built as an alternative to that aircraft. The DFS 40 was flown for the first time by

Heini Dittmar Heini Dittmar (Born March 30, 1912, Bad Kissingen, Unterfranken, Germany – Died April 28, 1960 near Mülheim an der Ruhr, West Germany) was a record-breaking German glider pilot. Inspired by the example of his glider flying brother Edgar, Di ...

in 1939, shortly before Lippisch departed the DFS (''

Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug The ''Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug'' (), or DFS , was formed in 1933 to centralise all gliding activity in Germany, under the directorship of Professor Walter Georgii. It was formed by the nationalisation of the Rhön-Rossitten G ...

'' - German Research Institute for Sailplane Flight) to begin work at Messerschmitt. Soon afterwards, without Lippisch there to supervise the project, the aircraft was crashed due to an error in

center of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force ma ...

calculations that resulted in it entering a flat spin during flight.

Specifications (DFS 40)

{{RLM aircraft designations 1930s German experimental aircraft World War II experimental aircraft of Germany Lippisch aircraft DFS 040 Single-engined pusher aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1939 Tailless aircraft