The Heinkel P.1078 (He P.1078) was a single seat

interceptor Interceptor may refer to: Vehicles * Interceptor aircraft (or simply "interceptor"), a type of point defense fighter aircraft designed specifically to intercept and destroy enemy aircraft * Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, a police car * ...

developed for the

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 ...

by Heinkel aircraft manufacturing company under 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 ...

during the last years of the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

History

As part of the

(german: Jägernotprogramm), at the beginning of 1945 a programme was launched by the OKL for a new generation of fighter/interceptor aircraft in order to replace the winner of the ''Volksjäger'' fighter design competition, the

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 quickl ...

A ''Spatz''. The new aircraft was intended to have superior performance in order to deal with high altitude threats such as the

B-29 Superfortress The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is an American four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber, designed by Boeing and flown primarily by the United States during World War II and the Korean War. Named in allusion to its predecessor, the B-17 F ...

, but only had a 30-minute endurance figure. Heinkel produced three different designs of the project which were submitted in February 1945. The high-altitude fighter designs brought forward by other German aircraft makers were the Messerschmitt P.1110,

Focke-Wulf Ta 183 The Focke-Wulf Ta 183 ''Huckebein'' was a design for a jet-powered fighter aircraft intended as the successor to the Messerschmitt Me 262 and other day fighters in Luftwaffe service during World War II. It had been developed only to the extent ...

''Huckebein'',

Blohm & Voss P 212 The Blohm & Voss P 212 was a proposed jet fighter designed by Blohm & Voss for the Emergency Fighter Program Luftwaffe design competition during the Second World War. History In early 1945, a replacement was sought for the Heinkel He 162 ''Volks ...

and 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 ...

, the official winner of the competition.Karl-Heinz Ludwig, ''Technik und Ingenieure im Dritten Reich.'' Athenäum-Verlag, Königstein/Ts., 1979, After being subject to severe criticism, the project was cancelled by Heinkel at the end of February 1945.

Variants

The Heinkel P.1078 project had three quite different variants. All of them were a single-seat fighters with polyhedral swept wings. The wings were swept back at 40 degrees and included wood in their construction. All of the projected aircraft had the wing tips angled downwards and all of them would be powered by a single

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 intake ...

turbojet.

P.1078 A

Jet-powered interceptor. It was the most conventional-looking of the three designs submitted for it was the only one having a tail. Its armament was two

MK 108 cannon The MK 108 (German: ''Maschinenkanone''—"machine cannon") was a 30 mm caliber autocannon manufactured in Germany during World War II by Rheinmetall‑Borsig for use in aircraft. The cannon saw widespread use as an anti-bomber weapon during the ...

s, as in the following two variants.

P.1078 B

A tailless asymmetric jet-powered interceptor with a short fuselage in which the air intake of the engine was located in the middle between two gondolas. The cockpit was located on the gondola of the left side, while the right side gondola contained the front undercarriage leg and cannon armament.

P.1078 C

A tailless interceptor project similar to the P.1078 B but with a single short fuselage. Both the He P.1078 B and P.1078 C had wing tips angled downwards at a more pronounced angle than the P.1078 A.

References

External links

Heinkel He P.1078A single-seat fighter
{{Heinkel aircraft Abandoned military aircraft projects of Germany World War II fighter aircraft of Germany P1078 World War II jet aircraft of Germany