Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe by Dan Sharp

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My latest publication is almost ready to print and is available for pre-orders here:

Error | Mortons Books

www.mortonsbooks.co.uk www.mortonsbooks.co.uk

SECRET PROJECTS OF THE LUFTWAFFE
Dan Sharp

132 pages
Softback
£11.99 (p&p free in the UK, I believe)

Two editions will be available - the regular one (cover not yet ready) and the limited edition one pictured here. 500 copies of the latter will be printed, with shiny gold foil on the front, and signed by me.

Here's the back cover blurb:
Hundreds of thousands of classified documents were captured from Germany’s aircraft manufacturers and aviation ministry at the end of the Second World War, including details of ‘secret project’ aircraft designs created by firms such as Focke-Wulf, Messerschmitt, Heinkel, Dornier and Blohm & Voss.
Ongoing new research in archives around the world has revealed many previously unknown plans and proposals for aircraft that were radical, revolutionary or just plain weird.
In this latest volume in his series on German wartime aircraft development, author Dan Sharp reveals a wealth of new discoveries – including never-before-seen drawings and designs.
Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe examines Focke-Wulf’s designs for enormous fighters built around bomber engines, aviation minister Erhard Milch’s unusual rival to the Heinkel He 219 and Messerschmitt’s alternative version of the push-pull twin engine Dornier Do 335. Also revealed are the long-buried secret history of the Blohm & Voss BV 40’s repurposing as a suicide bomber, how an American-born car designer came up with the idea for Focke-Wulf’s Ta 154 night fighter and the competition that would see Focke-Wulf, Dornier and Blohm & Voss go head-to-head with plans to design the Luftwaffe’s last all-new piston engine fighter in 1944-45.
Hundreds of original and previously unseen documents have been used to compile this unrivalled look at some of Germany’s least-known Second World War project designs, featuring a host of period drawings and illustrations.

Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe copy.jpg
 
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Wurger said:
I've ordered it on the spot! Still expecting your book on the Me 309 and, above all, the second volume on Luftwaffe bombers. This book's delay is most nerve-breaking.
Click to expand...

The Me 309 book is written from the airframe side and all the images are ready. Once Calum Douglas has worked his engine-related magic, the book will be ready to design and print.
The Luftwaffe bombers book remains a work in progress. Conducting research has become that much more difficult since covid but the chief difficulty is constructing something cohesive out of all the many different development threads. A far greater quantity of work was done on bombers than on jet fighters, excluding the Me 262.
 
To expand upon the blurb a little, this publication focuses both on little-known/entirely unknown designs and designs that are known but about which I think I can offer some fresh insight.
The reasons for Focke-Wulf's repeated efforts to create an enormous fighter powered by a very large single engine (Jumo 222, BMW 802, BMW 803) are examined; I look at why Messerschmitt designed its own version of the Do 335 and discussed it with Dornier representatives; I explain precisely how and why the Fw 187 came to be revived (and by whom) in 1942 and why, precisely, it was cancelled again.
The origin story of the Ta 154 is also expanded upon, since it turns out that the idea/concept for it came from a former American car designer - which I don't think has ever previously been reported on anywhere - with Tank being commissioned to actually build it for reasons that I outline in some detail. It nearly went to Heinkel instead...
I also look at why the BV 40 'glider fighter' was actually cancelled as a glide fighter before the first prototype was flown (Galland having dropped out as its 'sponsor'), what its new purpose was and who the new 'customer' for that was. I give, I think, the first cohesive outline of the little-known (unknown?) Hochleistungs-Otto-Jaeger requirement of July 1944 and the designs tendered for it by Focke-Wulf, Blohm & Voss and Dornier, and I also present a fresh look at the relatively well-known Heinkel Ringfluegel-Projekte.
 
Hi Dan,

newsdeskdan said:
The reasons for Focke-Wulf's repeated efforts to create an enormous fighter powered by a very large single engine (Jumo 222, BMW 802, BMW 803) are examined
Click to expand...

Naturally, I look forward to reading all about that :) Still, I'd like to point out that the Jumo222A/B was only about 10 % heavier than the BMW 801D, and smaller in diameter.

That's about the weight of an R-2800, which I believe has been installed in at least one Flugwerk replica of the Fw 190A-8 (and the R-2800 has a bigger diameter, too).

A Jumo-222-powered Fw 190 certainly would have been an interesting development, but I guess it might not be entirely accidental that not even a prototype was built! :)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)
 
HoHun said:
Hi Dan,



Naturally, I look forward to reading all about that :) Still, I'd like to point out that the Jumo222A/B was only about 10 % heavier than the BMW 801D, and smaller in diameter.

That's about the weight of an R-2800, which I believe has been installed in at least one Flugwerk replica of the Fw 190A-8 (and the R-2800 has a bigger diameter, too).

A Jumo-222-powered Fw 190 certainly would have been an interesting development, but I guess it might not be entirely accidental that not even a prototype was built! :)

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)
Click to expand...

According to Focke-Wulf, the weight of the Jumo 222 (subvariant unspecified) - dry and completely without accessories - was 1,144kg. The control sample BMW 801 C was 1,013kg. However, when you add in the various fluids, the required mountings, prop and other necessary accessories, the Jumo 222 tops out at 2,620kg compared to the BMW 801 C's 2,015kg - so about 30% heavier in real terms.

Also, the development history of the 222 could probably fill a book in its own right. It spent the whole war in a state of being 'nearly ready' for production but never actually got there. Why it never got there is highly debatable. Certainly, it was passed over for priority resource allocation on several occasions but Junkers just doesn't seem to have been able to make it work sufficiently well to give confidence that the allocation of extra resources would definitely yield a viable product.
 
newsdeskdan said:
To expand upon the blurb a little, this publication focuses both on little-known/entirely unknown designs and designs that are known but about which I think I can offer some fresh insight.
Click to expand...
Won't your new publication also include previously unpublished projects by Karl Stöckel, which you wrote about last year in the discussion about the BV P-214?
I would be very interested in it and I am waiting to see if it ever appears.
I'll buy the bookazine anyway, but I'm just curious (-:
Thank you.
 
Hi Dan,

newsdeskdan said:
Also, the development history of the 222 could probably fill a book in its own right. It spent the whole war in a state of being 'nearly ready' for production but never actually got there. Why it never got there is highly debatable.
Click to expand...

I would read that! :) Brandner in his "Ein Leben zwischen Fronten" quite clearly stated the Jumo 222 was perfectly fine for series production early on, but based on the way Brander styles himself as, well, infallible in his book, that doesn't really tell us much.

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)
 
Raketyr said:
Won't your new publication also include previously unpublished projects by Karl Stöckel, which you wrote about last year in the discussion about the BV P-214?
I would be very interested in it and I am waiting to see if it ever appears.
I'll buy the bookazine anyway, but I'm just curious (-:
Thank you.
Click to expand...

I had a lot of potential material lined up for this publication and there was nowhere near enough room for everything. I therefore selected elements which seemed somewhat complementary to one another (there's a lengthy thread of Focke-Wulf material in there) - or which I had wanted to publish for a long time, such as the 'real' BV 40 story - which looks beyond the Karl R. Pawlas version from 1976 upon which pretty much every other retelling has been based.
Despite citing upwards of 80 primary sources (though he doesn't say where they can be found - I found them anyway), Pawlas offers a 'sanitised' version of events, which omits certain details and thereby serves to paint the BV 40 as a quirky oddity - as opposed to what it really was at the end.

Anyway, the bottom line is: the previously unpublished Stoeckel projects, along with many other things, will have to wait.
 
HoHun said:
Hi Dan,



I would read that! :) Brandner in his "Ein Leben zwischen Fronten" quite clearly stated the Jumo 222 was perfectly fine for series production early on, but based on the way Brander styles himself as, well, infallible in his book, that doesn't really tell us much.

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)
Click to expand...

It was reported on June 30, 1942, that the 222 was commissioned in 1937 and testing of the first prototypes commenced in early 1939 (it was, after all, specified for Bomber B). But according to Eisenlohr, "despite intensive testing in 1940-41 a number of unexpected technical difficulties could not be completely eliminated". At this point release for series production was scheduled for April 1, 1943, and the start of series production in small numbers was expected in spring 1944. Delivery of the first engines was due in September 1944.
By November 13, 1942, this schedule had slipped significantly from September 1944 to mid-1945 for delivery of the first engines - and even then it would only be achievable if everything went well.

This publication - Secret Projects of the Luftwafe - does somewhat follow the 222's development journey, but only as far as when it was or wasn't being specified for new projects. I've not delved into the aforementioned 'technical difficulties' though they do appear to have persisted. Calum Douglas might be able to say more on the subject.
 
Raketyr said:
Won't your new publication also include previously unpublished projects by Karl Stöckel, which you wrote about last year in the discussion about the BV P-214?
Click to expand...
Raketyr, can you please share the link to this thread? Those Stöckel designs are puzzling me.
 
newsdeskdan said:
Anyway, the bottom line is: the previously unpublished Stoeckel projects, along with many other things, will have to wait.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your reply, I'll have to be patient and hopefully I'll get it sometime (-;
I'm also very interested in the true story of the BV 40 and I'm secretly hoping for some still-unknown drawing, as was the case with the P 186 pre-project.
 
athpilot said:
Can you give a hind? Any concrete ideas what could the content be? I love this bookazine series.
Click to expand...

As with the unseen Stoeckel designs, if I give too much of a hint I'm going to make a rod for my own back. However, here are a few: I have a previously unknown Horten twin-jet design if that's of interest to anyone... also a ramjet-powered Do 17, a twin-fuselage ground-attacker, more highly unorthodox Gotha projects, an amphibian... lots of stuff really.
 
Hi Dan,

newsdeskdan said:
According to Focke-Wulf, the weight of the Jumo 222 (subvariant unspecified) - dry and completely without accessories - was 1,144kg. The control sample BMW 801 C was 1,013kg. However, when you add in the various fluids, the required mountings, prop and other necessary accessories, the Jumo 222 tops out at 2,620kg compared to the BMW 801 C's 2,015kg - so about 30% heavier in real terms.
Click to expand...

I found this weight overview of the Ta 152 with Jumo 222 in a Pawlas reprint of the Baubeschreibung ... for comparison, the empty weight of a Ta 152 H-1 with Jumo 213E is given as 3850 kg, so the Jumo-222 engined version is 768 kg heavier:

Ta 152 with Jumo 222 Weights.jpg

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)
 
newsdeskdan said:
As with the unseen Stoeckel designs, if I give too much of a hint I'm going to make a rod for my own back. However, here are a few: I have a previously unknown Horten twin-jet design if that's of interest to anyone... also a ramjet-powered Do 17, a twin-fuselage ground-attacker, more highly unorthodox Gotha projects, an amphibian... lots of stuff really.
Click to expand...
We`ll await for these "goodies" but do not take it too long, please, Dan!
 
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newsdeskdan said:
According to Focke-Wulf, the weight of the Jumo 222 (subvariant unspecified) - dry and completely without accessories - was 1,144kg. The control sample BMW 801 C was 1,013kg. However, when you add in the various fluids, the required mountings, prop and other necessary accessories, the Jumo 222 tops out at 2,620kg compared to the BMW 801 C's 2,015kg - so about 30% heavier in real terms.
Click to expand...
I'm afraid that your figures for the complete engines are way off the mark. Eg. the whole powerplant on the Fw 190A-8 , including empty fuel tanks, cowling, engine mounting, oil system and propeller was under 1700 kg.
 
newsdeskdan said:
As with the unseen Stoeckel designs, if I give too much of a hint I'm going to make a rod for my own back. However, here are a few: I have a previously unknown Horten twin-jet design if that's of interest to anyone... also a ramjet-powered Do 17, a twin-fuselage ground-attacker, more highly unorthodox Gotha projects, an amphibian... lots of stuff really.
Click to expand...
Yes to all of them!
And I just saw this. I'm so excited. Thanks and a good time for everyone.
Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe Vol7 https://amzn.eu/d/hZSCYzn
 
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tomo pauk said:
I'm afraid that your figures for the complete engines are way off the mark. Eg. the whole powerplant on the Fw 190A-8 , including empty fuel tanks, cowling, engine mounting, oil system and propeller was under 1700 kg.
Click to expand...

Those figures are from a Focke-Wulf report produced in 1941.
 
athpilot said:
But the first one is the "Limited Edition". What is the difference?
Click to expand...

The limited edition is limited - only 500 copies with that cover and signed by me.
The regular edition is unlimited, several thousand copies, and with a different cover and no signature.
 
gatoraptor said:
So this is effectively a Volume 3 that will actually be available before Volume 2 (Bombers)?
Click to expand...

It's a standalone publication that's more of a continuation of my 'Luftwaffe Secret' series from a few years back (last one in 2019).
The terminally unimaginative title was intended to position it in line with my other recent(ish) titles such as:
Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe: Heinkel He 162
and
Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe: Blohm & Voss BV 155.

Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe Volume 2: Bombers has proven extremely difficult to write for two main reasons: 1) I have thousands of documents I didn't have when I wrote Luftwaffe Secret Bombers of the Third Reich. 2) I initially tried to write the book by adding to and expanding the structure of that publication. But the story is so complex and there are so many projects covering such long periods of time that it became impossible. I've since devised an entirely new structure which is proving infinitely more acceptable and accommodating: chronological.
 
newsdeskdan said:
It's a standalone publication that's more of a continuation of my 'Luftwaffe Secret' series from a few years back (last one in 2019).
The terminally unimaginative title was intended to position it in line with my other recent(ish) titles such as:
Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe: Heinkel He 162
and
Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe: Blohm & Voss BV 155.

Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe Volume 2: Bombers has proven extremely difficult to write for two main reasons: 1) I have thousands of documents I didn't have when I wrote Luftwaffe Secret Bombers of the Third Reich. 2) I initially tried to write the book by adding to and expanding the structure of that publication. But the story is so complex and there are so many projects covering such long periods of time that it became impossible. I've since devised an entirely new structure which is proving infinitely more acceptable and accommodating: chronological.
Click to expand...
"accommodating: chronological... Does it continues?
 
Wurger said:
"accommodating: chronological... Does it continues?
Click to expand...

The original structure had a chapter on Bomber B, and another on Fernbomber, and another on Fernaufklaerer, and another on Hoehenbomber or whatever. But all those programmes overlapped and evolved together, which would have meant having to retread the same period over and over. Sometimes different programmes were discussed during one meeting, so two different chapters would have had to quote bits of the same meeting.
And when jet bombers came along, those also overlapped chronologically with the many competing piston-engine projects.
The answer was to start in 1939 and cover all development lines simultaneously in one continuous narrative up to the end of the war.

Another issue was how to define 'Bomber', as per the book's title. Ought I to have included the Me 262, Ar 234 and Me 328? All were regarded as pure bombers for a time. And what about the Schnellbomber competition which produced the Do 335? Should I include single-seat fast bombers?
I decided, in the end, to stick to what might be regarded as medium and heavy bombers for Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe Volume 2: Bombers. This might, I suppose, necessitate a name change to something like Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe Volume 2: Medium and Heavy Bombers 1939-1945.
 
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newsdeskdan said:
It's a standalone publication that's more of a continuation of my 'Luftwaffe Secret' series from a few years back (last one in 2019).
The terminally unimaginative title was intended to position it in line with my other recent(ish) titles such as:
Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe: Heinkel He 162
and
Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe: Blohm & Voss BV 155.

Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe Volume 2: Bombers has proven extremely difficult to write for two main reasons: 1) I have thousands of documents I didn't have when I wrote Luftwaffe Secret Bombers of the Third Reich. 2) I initially tried to write the book by adding to and expanding the structure of that publication. But the story is so complex and there are so many projects covering such long periods of time that it became impossible. I've since devised an entirely new structure which is proving infinitely more acceptable and accommodating: chronological.
Click to expand...
Diachronic or synchronous: that is the question that every historian asks himself. Now I'm even more curious about volume 2.
 
newsdeskdan said:
The original structure had chapter on Bomber B, and another on Fernbomber, and another on Fernaufklaerer, and another on Hoehenbomber or whatever. But all those programmes overlapped and evolved together, which would have meant having to retread the same period over and over. Sometimes different programmes were discussed during one meeting, so two different chapters would have had to quote bits of the same meeting.
And when jet bombers came along, those also overlapped chronologically with the many competing piston-engine projects.
The answer was to start in 1939 and cover all development lines simultaneously in one continuous narrative up to the end of the war.

Another issue was how to define 'Bomber', as per the book's title. Ought I to have included the Me 262, Ar 234 and Me 328? All were regarded as pure bombers for a time. And what about the Schnellbomber competition which produced the Do 335? Should I include single-seat fast bombers?
I decided, in the end, to stick to what might be regarded as medium and heavy bombers for Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe Volume 2: Bombers. This might, I suppose, necessitate a name change to something like Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe Volume 2: Medium and Heavy Bombers 1939-1945.
Click to expand...
So, no "Ural Bomber" or "Bomber A". I can live with that!
 
Wurger said:
So, no "Ural Bomber" or "Bomber A". I can live with that!
Click to expand...

They're in there, though it wasn't possible to get into their early development in detail.

My biggest problem on starting to write the book was Grossbomber (can't find a single contemporary source which mentions an 'Ural Bomber' - the Do 19 and Ju 89 are referred to as 'Grossbomber') and Bomber A (plenty of mentions of 'Bomber A' in contemporary reports).
As far as I can tell, Walther Wever was dissatisfied with Grossbomber because it was producing low-tech slow-moving aircraft that would've been extremely vulnerable to enemy fighters. Putting extra manned turrets onto them added weight, making them even slower - a vicious circle.
He therefore produced a radical requirement for a heavy bomber with minimal crew and defensive armament, which would utilise the latest aerodynamics tech to get the fastest possible aircraft without depending on more powerful engines. Heinkel's innovations were key to this - at the time, the He 70 and what became the He 119 seemed to point the way forward (flush rivets and retractable undercarriage, through to paired internally-housed engines with evaporative cooling - even flush-fitted or retractable remote-controlled turrets). Reduce drag and weight as much as modern innovation can allow - squeeze everything into the most compact and efficient aerodynamic form possible - and you can have a heavy bomber capable of outrunning interceptors.
That was the philosophy behind, and the basis for, Bomber A. Wever's apparent obsession with the high-tech cutting edge solution (his signature is on the requirement for an aircraft embodying those features) was effectively what kick-started the immensely painful He 177 journey long before the whole 'dive-bombing' controversy.

So that's one thing - Walther Wever killed the Do 19 and Ju 89-as-a-bomber. He was never the 'champion' of those designs. He died before he could issue the order to cancel them but their cancellation was a direct result of him instigating Bomber A and setting the Luftwaffe/RLM down the high-tech/speed-defence bomber road, rather than the low-tech/armed-defence bomber path.

Then we come to the He 177 dive-bomber controversy. It has proven extremely difficult to pin down exactly who (if anyone) told Heinkel that a dive angle of greater than 40 degrees was necessary. There was certainly an order to make it capable of an unpowered - gliding - dive at up to 40-degrees. But no one seems to have required any more than that. Later in the war, Jeschonnek actively denied that any greater angle than that had been required by the Luftwaffe. So perhaps the strengthening for non-powered diving beyond 40 degrees was the result of a misunderstanding. In any case, the whole issue of the He 177's dive capability seems not to have been a big concern during the war, since no one appears ever to have wanted to use it operationally like that.

Getting to the bottom of what happened to the He 177, with the assistance of Volker Koos, was very time-consuming but also essential since that aircraft and its problems overshadows all other heavy bomber development during the war.
 
newsdeskdan said:
They're in there, though it wasn't possible to get into their early development in detail.

My biggest problem on starting to write the book was Grossbomber (can't find a single contemporary source which mentions an 'Ural Bomber' - the Do 19 and Ju 89 are referred to as 'Grossbomber') and Bomber A (plenty of mentions of 'Bomber A' in contemporary reports).
As far as I can tell, Walther Wever was dissatisfied with Grossbomber because it was producing low-tech slow-moving aircraft that would've been extremely vulnerable to enemy fighters. Putting extra manned turrets onto them added weight, making them even slower - a vicious circle.
He therefore produced a radical requirement for a heavy bomber with minimal crew and defensive armament, which would utilise the latest aerodynamics tech to get the fastest possible aircraft without depending on more powerful engines. Heinkel's innovations were key to this - at the time, the He 70 and what became the He 119 seemed to point the way forward (flush rivets and retractable undercarriage, through to paired internally-housed engines with evaporative cooling - even flush-fitted or retractable remote-controlled turrets). Reduce drag and weight as much as modern innovation can allow - squeeze everything into the most compact and efficient aerodynamic form possible - and you can have a heavy bomber capable of outrunning interceptors.
That was the philosophy behind, and the basis for, Bomber A. Wever's apparent obsession with the high-tech cutting edge solution (his signature is on the requirement for an aircraft embodying those features) was effectively what kick-started the immensely painful He 177 journey long before the whole 'dive-bombing' controversy.

So that's one thing - Walther Wever killed the Do 19 and Ju 89-as-a-bomber. He was never the 'champion' of those designs. He died before he could issue the order to cancel them but their cancellation was a direct result of him instigating Bomber A and setting the Luftwaffe/RLM down the high-tech/speed-defence bomber road, rather than the low-tech/armed-defence bomber path.

Then we come to the He 177 dive-bomber controversy. It has proven extremely difficult to pin down exactly who (if anyone) told Heinkel that a dive angle of greater than 40 degrees was necessary. There was certainly an order to make it capable of an unpowered - gliding - dive at up to 40-degrees. But no one seems to have required any more than that. Later in the war, Jeschonnek actively denied that any greater angle than that had been required by the Luftwaffe. So perhaps the strengthening for non-powered diving beyond 40 degrees was the result of a misunderstanding. In any case, the whole issue of the He 177's dive capability seems not to have been a big concern during the war, since no one appears ever to have wanted to use it operationally like that.

Getting to the bottom of what happened to the He 177, with the assistance of Volker Koos, was very time-consuming but also essential since that aircraft and its problems overshadows all other heavy bomber development during the war.
Click to expand...
Great reply, Dan! I enjoyed it very much. Nice to know about the collaboration by Herr Koos on Heinkel. Hans-Peter Dabrowski's book on the "Bomber B" is packed with Fw191 a Ju288 images. Some on the Do317 and the Hs130. He only "fails" precisely on Heinkel's tender, with no images.
 
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