Early jet engine testing on the Czech He 219 (aka LB-79)

[richdlc]

Hi guys

I'm doing a lot of research on the Czech Heinkel He 219, of which two examples were built and know as 'LB-79'. One of these aircraft was to be used as a test bed for BMW-003 engines, again captured technology from Nazi Germany, with testing in the very early 1950s.
I'm translating personal recollections as quoted in a Czech language book. I found this part intriguing:

'A lot of preparatory work was done by Letov on the ‘parallelogram’ - a retractable device with attachments for the BMW-003 engine'

I can already envisage what this device looks like (a scissor jack) but I am wondering if there are any other examples in this period of aviation history of such Heath-Robinson devices, perhaps in the Soviet Union? Or were jet engines generally firmly attached to hardpoints / pylons?

One shudders to think what would happen if such a flimsy sounding device were to fail whilst a jet engine was strapped to it and fired up...

thanks in advance
Rich

 

[fightingirish]

[…] The second aircraft (‘34‘) [of the Czech Heinkel He 219] was apparently intended to test BMW 003 and Jumo 004 Engines captured at the war's end, but its conversion for this role was never completed and it never flew. This aircraft carried the same overall schema as first applied to ‘32’, and although ‘32’ carried the radar antenna, the ‘34’ only had the base of the antlers installed.
NOTE: Many artists since seeing the one blurred image of ‘34’ created profiles, that showed an aircraft with an area of the upper mid-fuselage exposed and some sort of odd framework in the aft area. It would seem the image showed the aircraft being serviced, with the upper fuel cells uncovered and that is what they have mistaken for a revision to this area of the dorsal spine. As the aircraft was intended to flight test jet engines slung underneath the fuselage, they would require fuel and it is most likely therefore that one or more of the cells in the fuselage would have been set aside for jet fuel and this may or may not have resulted in major changes to the upper spine structure of shape. […]

Source: Airframe Album No.1: The Heinkel He 219 'Uhu' – A Detailed Guide to The Luftwaffe's Ultimate Nightfighter by Richard A. Franks, Valiant Wings Publications 2012, page 86
ISBN 978-0-9567198-4-3
Interesting book by the way.

 

[richdlc]

thanks, I have virtually all of that info already although nice idea about the jet fuel

 

[blockhaj]

there is a photo from behind somewhere