[caldrail]

The Focke-Wulf/Tank Ta283. It's a top fuel dragster of an aeroplane. Totally mad. How could anyone not want that on their hard drive? I certainly do, and since Santa has kindly left me an older version of 3DS Max, it's time to crack knuckles and embark on my inaugral aeroplane mod for IL2. This one, if you haven't guessed already.

Now there's going to be those who moan and complain that I haven't tried to build their favourite subtype of some obscure WW2 legend, but frankly I don't care. Look at it like this. I'm learning 3DS Max as I go. The beauty of a 1946 project like this is the possibility of taking what was little more than a paper doodle and turn it into something more real, albeit pixels rather than rivets. It also means I can fill in the blanks without worrying whether some expert is going to notice the oil radiator isn't exactly the right shape. This is a steep learning curve and as yet I'm not up to the job of reproducing a historical production aircraft to IL2 standards.



I've always thought this design was fantastic. To me it's the epitome of German technological ambition struggling with the frantic compromise of a worsening wartime situation. At first sight it's something out of Starwars, but no, it's a genuine German proposal to meet Luftwaffe specifications, and when you start considering what this aeroplane actually would have been like it comes across as a frighteningly awkward aircraft.

Firstly, it was without doubt an interceptor and nothing else. That low-slung undercarriage makes it impractical to carry most underwing stores, so you really are limited to two MK108 30mm cannons. (That's gotten rid of the uber-plane crowd too!) As a matter of fact, considering the low ride and narrow track, I doubt this aeroplane was suited to rough-field operation at all, meaning it would have to operate from hard runways and autobahns.

Those two engine pods are not turbojets. They're ramjets, little more than a metal cylinder into which fuel is injected and ignited. They only provide thrust because the aeroplane is moving forward and thus air presure forces the efflux out the back.

There are aspects to this I'd definitely like to see coded into the flight model as well. The main power, those two Pabst ramjets, should only work if you're going fast enough, so anything slower than (for the sake of argument) 300kmph results in an engine flame out. The axial take-off rocket in the rear fuselage will get you there, but with weight saving in mind you have a limited hydrazine fuel tank with no more than a few minutes of acceleration. If you fall outside that flight envelope, you're in a swoopy glider.

But it's even more limited than that. Those ramjets only have two throttle settings - On and Off. You're either at full throttle or you cut the fuel, almost like an old rotary piston engine of WW1, and as already mentioned you'll need to be travelling fast enough to set the power back on again.

What you have then is the same sort of concept as the 'Century Series' US fighters of the Cold War, where the idea wasn't to dogfight but to get there first, stand off, and fire missiles before the enemy does. The Ta283 should attack at high speed and avoid manoevers, but without missiles you rely on two cannons for a close-in offensive capability in the absence of radar, not to mention a challenging engine management regime. In other words, an aeroplane designed for hit and run without a complex maintenance schedule to get it back into the air again.

So I'll leave you with an artists impression of what it should look like (Adapted from artwork by Marek Rys)