The Focke-Wulf Ta 183 ''Huckebein'' was a design for a jet-powered
fighter aircraft intended as the successor to the
Messerschmitt Me 262
The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed ''Schwalbe'' (German: "Swallow") in fighter versions, or ''Sturmvogel'' (German: "Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the Germ ...
and other
day fighter A day fighter is a fighter aircraft equipped only to fight during the day. More specifically, it refers to a multi-purpose aircraft that does not include equipment for fighting at night (such as a radar and specialized avionics), although it is some ...
s in
Luftwaffe
The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
service during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. It had been developed only to the extent of
wind tunnel
Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...
models when the war ended, but the basic design was further developed postwar in Argentina as the
FMA IAe 33 Pulqui II
The FMA IAe 33 Pulqui II (in the indigenous language Mapuche, ''Pulqúi'': Arrow)Crowder-Taraborrelli, Tomas F"Evita in Wonderland: Pulqui and the Workshop of Underdevelopment."''CineAction'', 22 June 2009. Retrieved: 26 April 2010. was a jet f ...
. The name ''Huckebein'' is a reference to a trouble-making
raven
A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigned t ...
(''Hans Huckebein der Unglücksrabe'') from an illustrated story in 1867 by
Wilhelm Busch
Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch (14 April 1832 – 9 January 1908) was a German humorist, poet, illustrator, and painter. He published wildly innovative illustrated tales that remain influential to this day.
Busch drew on the tropes of f ...
.
Development
In early 1944, the
Reich Air Ministry
The Ministry of Aviation (german: Reichsluftfahrtministerium, abbreviated RLM) was a government department during the period of Nazi Germany (1933–45). It is also the original name of the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus building on the Wilhelmstrasse ...
(RLM, for ''Reichsluftfahrtministerium'') became aware of
Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
jet developments, and were particularly concerned that they might have to face the
Gloster Meteor
The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies of World War II, Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turb ...
over the continent. In response, they instituted the
Emergency Fighter Program
The Emergency Fighter Program () was the program that resulted from a decision taken on July 3, 1944 by the Luftwaffe regarding the German aircraft manufacturing companies during the last year of the Third Reich.
This project was one of the ...
which took effect on July 3, 1944, ending production of most
bomber
A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...
and multi-role aircraft in favour of fighters, especially jet fighters. Additionally, they accelerated the development of experimental designs that would guarantee a performance edge over the Allied designs, designs that would replace the first German jet fighters, the
Messerschmitt Me 262
The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed ''Schwalbe'' (German: "Swallow") in fighter versions, or ''Sturmvogel'' (German: "Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the Germ ...
''Schwalbe'' and
Heinkel He 162
The Heinkel He 162 ''Volksjäger'' (German, "People's Fighter") was a German single-engine, jet-powered fighter aircraft fielded by the Luftwaffe in World War II. Developed under the Emergency Fighter Program, it was designed and built quickly ...
''Spatz''.
![Wilhelm Busch's 'Hans Huckebein'](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Wilhelm_Busch%27s_%27Hans_Huckebein%27.jpg)
The result was a series of advanced designs, some using
swept wing
A swept wing is a wing that angles either backward or occasionally forward from its root rather than in a straight sideways direction.
Swept wings have been flown since the pioneer days of aviation. Wing sweep at high speeds was first investigate ...
s for improved
transonic
Transonic (or transsonic) flow is air flowing around an object at a speed that generates regions of both subsonic and supersonic airflow around that object. The exact range of speeds depends on the object's critical Mach number, but transonic ...
performance, others instead using the tailless design to lower drag to the same end. Since German aircraft engineers were aware that
tailless designs might encounter serious stability problems at transonic speeds, much as the prototype
Me 163B V18 did on July 6, 1944, in hitting a record 1,130 km/h (702 mph) top speed and nearly destroying its entire rudder surface in the process, a variety of stabilization methods such as airbrakes on the wings were considered for such aircraft or simply adding conventional tail surfaces.
Kurt Tank
Kurt Waldemar Tank (24 February 1898 – 5 June 1983) was a German aeronautical engineer and test pilot who led the design department at Focke-Wulf from 1931 to 1945. He was responsible for the creation of several important Luftwaffe aircraft of ...
's design team led by
Hans Multhopp
Hans Multhopp (17 May 1913 – 30 October 1972) was a German aeronautical engineer/designer. Receiving a degree from the University of Göttingen, Multhopp worked with the famous designer Kurt Tank at the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG during World ...
designed in 1945 a fighter known as "''Huckebein''" (from Wilhelm Busch's "''Hans Huckebein'', the unlucky raven", a cartoon raven that traditionally makes trouble for others), also known as Project V (Project VI in some references) or Design II at Focke-Wulf. The raven character itself was re-used for the modern Bundeswehr's ''
Lufttransportgeschwader 62'' as the inspiration for their unit's insignia.
Design
![Fw SuperLorin Modell kl3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Fw_SuperLorin_Modell_kl3.png)
Development of the Ta 183 started as early as 1942 as Project VI, when the engineer
Hans Multhopp
Hans Multhopp (17 May 1913 – 30 October 1972) was a German aeronautical engineer/designer. Receiving a degree from the University of Göttingen, Multhopp worked with the famous designer Kurt Tank at the Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau AG during World ...
assembled a team to design a new fighter, based on his understanding that previous Focke-Wulf design studies for jet fighters had no chance of reaching fruition because none had the potential for
transonic
Transonic (or transsonic) flow is air flowing around an object at a speed that generates regions of both subsonic and supersonic airflow around that object. The exact range of speeds depends on the object's critical Mach number, but transonic ...
speeds. This aircraft, bearing the RLM airframe number 8-183, was intended to use, as with
a growing number of other advanced German late-war jet aircraft proposals, the advanced
Heinkel HeS 011
The Heinkel HeS 011 or Heinkel-Hirth 109-011 ''(HeS - Heinkel Strahltriebwerke)'' was an advanced World War II jet engine built by Heinkel-Hirth. It featured a unique compressor arrangement, starting with a low-compression impeller in the intak ...
turbojet
The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...
; although the first prototypes were to be powered by the
Junkers Jumo 004
The Junkers Jumo 004 was the world's first production turbojet engine in operational use, and the first successful axial compressor turbojet engine. Some 8,000 units were manufactured by Junkers in Germany late in World War II, powering the Mess ...
B. Early studies also included an optional 1,000
kgf KGF or ''kgf'' may refer to:
*Keratinocyte growth factor
*King George's Fields, UK, recreation grounds
*Kolar Gold Fields
*The IATA code for Sary-Arka Airport, Karaganda, Kazakhstan
* ''K.G.F'' (film series), Indian Kannada-language film series
* ...
(10
kN) thrust
rocket engine
A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accordanc ...
for takeoff and combat boost, much as the special "003R" version of the
BMW 003
The BMW 003 (full RLM designation 109-003) is an early axial turbojet engine produced by BMW AG in Germany during World War II. The 003 and the Junkers Jumo 004 were the only German turbojet engines to reach production during World War II.
W ...
jet engine was meant to use, with fuel and oxidiser for up to 200 seconds of burn time stored in
drop tank
In aviation, a drop tank (external tank, wing tank or belly tank) is used to describe auxiliary fuel tanks externally carried by aircraft. A drop tank is expendable and often capable of being jettisoned. External tanks are commonplace on modern ...
s under the wings.
The wings were swept back at 40° and were mounted in the mid-
fuselage
The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...
position. The wings appear to be mounted very far forward compared with most designs, a side-effect of attempting to keep the
centre of pressure (CoP) of the wing as a whole as close to the middle of the fuselage as possible. Reflecting the dilemma of a shortage of
strategic material
Strategic material is any sort of raw material that is important to an individual's or organization's strategic plan and supply chain management. Lack of supply of strategic materials may leave an organization or government vulnerable to disru ...
s, the first option of using
aluminum
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...
in the construction of the main
spar
SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, ...
consisting of two tapered I-beams attached together on the top and bottom with shear webs of thin steel sheeting, led to a reappraisal. Multhopp chose to use wood instead of metal throughout the wing structure, with wood structure
ribs attached to the front and back of the I-beams to give the wing its overall shape, and then covered with
plywood
Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...
. The box-like structure contained six
fuel cell
A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...
s, giving the aircraft a total fuel load of 1,565 L (413 US gal).
The original design used a
T-tail
A T-tail is an empennage configuration in which the tailplane is mounted to the top of the fin. The arrangement looks like the capital letter T, hence the name. The T-tail differs from the standard configuration in which the tailplane is ...
, with a notably long
vertical stabilizer
A vertical stabilizer or tail fin is the static part of the vertical tail of an aircraft. The term is commonly applied to the assembly of both this fixed surface and one or more movable rudders hinged to it. Their role is to provide control, sta ...
and a seemingly undersized
horizontal stabilizer
A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplan ...
. The vertical stabilizer was swept back at 60°, and the horizontal stabilizer was swept back and slightly
dihedralled. The horizontal stabilizer also featured two large trim tabs, the main pitching force actually being provided by what would have appeared to be "ailerons" on most other turbojet-powered fighter airframes of the period. The Ta 183 wing's outermost trailing-edge control surfaces on its wing panels, were well behind the
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 weight function, weighted relative position (vector), position of the distributed mass sums to zero. Thi ...
, placing their trailing edges' tips virtually even, horizontally, with the intended HeS 011 jet engine's exhaust orifice, and thus could provide both pitch and roll control through functioning as
elevon
Elevons or tailerons are aircraft control surfaces that combine the functions of the elevator (used for pitch control) and the aileron (used for roll control), hence the name. They are frequently used on tailless aircraft such as flying wings. ...
control surfaces, as those on the wing panels of Messerschmittt's
Me 163
The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet is a rocket-powered interceptor aircraft primarily designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt. It is the only operational rocket-powered fighter aircraft in history as well as ...
tailplane-less ''Komet'' rocket fighter already did. Many problems beset the project, including the chance of a
Dutch roll. Work therefore concentrated on the much less problematic
Focke-Wulf Project VII. However, when the RLM eventually rejected that design, ''Huckebein'' was again brought to the fore.
The Ta 183 had a short fuselage with the air intake passing under the
cockpit
A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft.
The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...
and proceeding to the rear where the single engine was located. The pilot sat in a
pressurized
{{Wiktionary
Pressurization or pressurisation is the application of pressure in a given situation or environment.
Industrial
Industrial equipment is often maintained at pressures above or below atmospheric.
Atmospheric
This is the process by ...
cockpit with a
bubble canopy
A bubble canopy is an aircraft canopy constructed without bracing, for the purpose of providing a wider unobstructed field of view to the pilot, often providing 360° all-round visibility.
The designs of bubble canopies can drastically vary; so ...
which provided excellent vision. The primary armament of the aircraft consisted of four 30 mm (1.18 in)
MK 108 cannon
The MK 108 (German: ''Maschinenkanone''—"machine cannon") was a 30 mm caliber autocannon manufactured in Nazi Germany, Germany during World War II by Rheinmetall‑August Borsig, Borsig for use in aircraft.
The cannon saw widespread use as an ...
s arranged around the air intake.
It was also possible to carry a bomb load of 500 kg (1,100 lb), consisting of one SD or more SC 500 half-tonne bombs, one ''Bombentorpedo'' BT 200 bomb, five SD-series fragmentation bombs, SC-series general-purpose bombs, or a Rb 20/30 reconnaissance camera. The weapons load would be carried in the equipment space in the bottom of the fuselage and thus partially protrude about halfway from the fuselage, possibly allowing for other armament packages such as the
Ruhrstahl X-4
The Ruhrstahl Ru 344 X-4 or Ruhrstahl-Kramer RK 344 was a wire-guided air-to-air missile designed by Germany during World War II. The X-4 did not see operational service and thus was not proven in combat but inspired considerable post-war work a ...
wire-guided missile.
Multhopp's team also seriously explored a second version of the basic design, known as Design III, a modified Design II (it is unknown what Design I referred to). The first of these had only minor modifications, with slightly differently shaped wingtips and repositioning of the
undercarriage
Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include:
*The landing gear of an aircraft.
*The ch ...
. The second version had a reduced sweepback to 32°, allowing the wing and cockpit to be moved rearward. The tail was also redesigned, using a short horizontal boom to mount the control surfaces just above the line of the rear fuselage. This version looks considerably more "conventional" to the modern eye, although somewhat stubby due to the short overall length of the HeS 011.
The second of these two schemes was entered in the official competition ordered by the ''Oberkommando der Luftwaffe'' at the end of 1944. On 28 February 1945, the Luftwaffe High Command examined the various Emergency Fighter proposals and selected the
Junkers EF 128
The Junkers EF 128 was a project for a single-engine jet fighter, developed for the Emergency Fighter Program Luftwaffe design competition during the Second World War.
The EF 128 was a tailless swept-wing design and was to have been powered by a ...
to be developed and produced; the Focke-Wulf team gained second place. However, in the last few weeks of the war, it was decided that the ''Huckebein'' was really the best design and, at a meeting in
Bad Eilsen
Bad Eilsen (West Low German: ''Ahlsen'') is a municipality in the district of Schaumburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately southwest of Stadthagen, and southeast of Minden.
Bad Eilsen is also the seat of the ''Samtgemein ...
, Tank was told to arrange mockups and to plan for full production. It had a planned speed of about 1,000 km/h (620 mph) at 7,000 m (22,970 ft) and it was estimated that 300 aircraft per month would be delivered when production got into its stride, each aircraft being produced in 2,500 man hours.
A total of 16
prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
s were to be built, allowing the tail unit to be interchanged between the Design II and III variations. Of the ''Versuchs'' (experimental test series) aircraft, the Ta 183 V1-V3 were to be powered by the Jumo 004B turbojet with somewhat lengthened rear fuselages near the engine's exhaust nozzle to accommodate them, pending delivery of the HeS 011 jet engine. The Ta 183 V4-V14 were intended to be A-0 series pre-production aircraft and V15-V16 were to be static test aircraft. The first flight of the aircraft was projected for May 1945, but no finished Ta 183 ''Versuchs''-series prototypes had been completed by 8 April 1945, when British troops captured the Focke-Wulf facilities.
Influence
![Pulqui II 04](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Pulqui_II_04.jpg)
After the end of the war,
Kurt Tank
Kurt Waldemar Tank (24 February 1898 – 5 June 1983) was a German aeronautical engineer and test pilot who led the design department at Focke-Wulf from 1931 to 1945. He was responsible for the creation of several important Luftwaffe aircraft of ...
, in exile in Argentina, resurrected the Ta 183 project, resulting in the
IAe Pulqui II. This version was modified to place the wings at a shoulder-mounted position, in order to avoid a heavy fuselage spar pass-through structure going around the engine, however this resulted in
deep stall
In fluid dynamics, a stall is a reduction in the lift coefficient generated by a foil as angle of attack increases.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', p. 486. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. This occurs when t ...
problems at high angles of attack. This could be resolved, and a version correcting these problems was planned. However, the financial crash of 1953 and the fall of
Juan Peron temporarily suspended work on the project. By 1955, the project had been abandoned due to the availability of surplus ex-
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
F-86 Sabres
The North American F-86 Sabre, sometimes called the Sabrejet, is a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as the United States' first swept-wing fighter that could counter the swept-wing Sov ...
at a fraction of the cost.
![MiG-15 RB1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/MiG-15_RB1.jpg)
Historians including David Myrha have claimed the Soviet
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (russian: Микоя́н и Гуре́вич МиГ-15; USAF/DoD designation: Type 14; NATO reporting name: Fagot) is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of ...
was at least inspired by the Ta 183, because the Soviets captured plans from the Germans at the end of World War II. The MiG-15 does bear a resemblance in layout, sharing the high tailplane and nose-mounted intake, although the aircraft are different in structure, details, and proportions. The MiG-15's design shared features, and some appearance commonalities with the MiG design bureau's
own 1945-46 attempt at a Soviet-built rocket interceptor similar to the
Messerschmitt Me 263 rocket fighter, and also common to many contemporary jet fighters — and were derived from aerodynamic and structural considerations (for example, the American
Republic F-84F, the Swedish
SAAB 29
The Saab 29 ''Tunnan'', colloquially ''Flygande tunnan'' or just ''Tunnan'' ( en, "The flying barrel", "The barrel"),. is a Swedish fighter that was designed and manufactured by Saab in the late 1940s. It was the second turbojet-powered comb ...
, and the French
Dassault Ouragan
The Dassault M.D.450 Ouragan (french: Hurricane) is a French fighter-bomber developed and produced by Dassault Aviation. It has its origins in a private venture by Dassault to produce an all-French aircraft which would make use of jet propulsio ...
and
Mystère). A detailed design history of the MiG-15 was published by Russian aviation historian Yefim Gordon refuting any connection between the Ta 183 and the MiG-15. According to the designers, the MiG-15 was an indigenous design, their choice of swept wings (as swept-back wings of any sort on a Soviet-designed aircraft were first flown on the
MiG-8 ''Utka'' canard light aircraft of 1945) being due to their desire to move ahead of most Western designs which were not intended for the 960 km/h+ (600 mph+) speed range.
Like the MiG-9 and MiG-15, the Saab 29 is subject to claims of having been indirectly influenced by the Ta 183. SAAB engineers received German research studies in swept wings in the immediate post-war period via contacts in
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, and incorporated it into the Tunnan design, which was still limited to paper studies at the time.
[Erichs et al. 1988, p. 37.]
Specifications (Ta 183, as originally designed)
See also
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Ciampaglia, Giuseppe. ''Il Focke Wulf Ta-183. Il capostipite dei caccia a getto di seconda generazione''. Rivista Italiana Difesa, gennaio, 2013.
* Erichs, Rolph et al. ''The Saab-Scania Story''. Stockholm: Streiffert & Co., 1988. .
* Gordon, Yefim. ''Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15: The Soviet Union's Long-Lived Korean War Fighter''. Earl Shilton, Leicester, UK: Midland Publishing Ltd., 2001. .
* Myhra, David. ''Focke-Wulf Ta 183'' (X Planes of the Third Reich). Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, 1999. .
External links
{{Authority control
Ta 183
Abandoned military aircraft projects of Germany
World War II jet aircraft of Germany
Single-engined jet aircraft
High-wing aircraft