24.11.2012, 07:25
There is a certain mystique to the Luftwaffe that never was. That's the problem though, much of it was imaginary and so many of these projects were no more than paper doodles with no more chance of completion than winning the war. If you study Germany's development history they tended toward clever technological answers to problems but suffered interminable problems with technological issues. Much of their aircraft developent, even the saner and more conventional kind, never made it because they were unable to iron out the problems.
Worse still was the politics involved. Many of these companies wanted to produce their own designs, not other peoples as often happened, and convincing the RLM that their new project was viable required a good deal of political fettling. For instance, without succeeding in getting Ernst Udet to support the project, Messerschmitt's Bf109 would not have been chosen over Heinke'ls He112 regardless of the aeroplanes actual qualities. This was made worse in the late war partly because of the emergency situation, but not least the shortages of materials and productive industry.
Whilst it's fascinating to see what German aeroplane designers were thinking of, most of these designs were nothing more than pipe-dreams.
Worse still was the politics involved. Many of these companies wanted to produce their own designs, not other peoples as often happened, and convincing the RLM that their new project was viable required a good deal of political fettling. For instance, without succeeding in getting Ernst Udet to support the project, Messerschmitt's Bf109 would not have been chosen over Heinke'ls He112 regardless of the aeroplanes actual qualities. This was made worse in the late war partly because of the emergency situation, but not least the shortages of materials and productive industry.
Whilst it's fascinating to see what German aeroplane designers were thinking of, most of these designs were nothing more than pipe-dreams.