Zeppelin Fliegende Panzerfaust

moin1900

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Hi everybody

I am searching for every Information about this Project.
What about the armament? (pure rammer, RZ65 Rockets or Sprengstoffträger).
http://www.luft46.com/misc/zepfpf.html
What about the Pilots Position in the Aircraft, could the Pilot eject?
Thanks in advance
 
Dear Moin ,

With all respect , put internet sources are not the most dependable sources of information
about such an 'esotheric' subject like- End of WW II German projected designs.

You will find much more profound info in a few good books about this theme.

For example : Die Deutschen Raketenflugzeuge 1935-1945
Joachim Dressel/Manfred Griehl-Motorbuch Verlag-Germany
and : The 'Luftwaffe Secret Projects' series . 3vols.
Dieter Herwig & Heinz Rode -Midland Counties Publ. England.
to name a few.

Good luck.
 
Moin,

I agree with lark. Luftwaffe Secret Projects are excellent volumes.

Two more:

http://www.amazon.com/Jet-Planes-Third-Reich-Vol/dp/0914144367/ref=pd_sim_b_title_1

http://www.amazon.com/Luftwaffe-Advanced-Aircraft-Projects-1945/dp/1857802403/ref=pd_sim_b_title_2
 
Reject that:

http://www.amazon.com/HITLERS-MIRACLE-WEAPONS-9-Unconventional/dp/1874622620/ref=pd_sim_b_img_5

That's not a serious source (and really expensive) :mad:
 
What kind of misinformation does it contain? Perhaps a "anti-disinformation" thread would be in order?
 
Perhaps a "anti-disinformation" thread would be in order?

We are working seriously on it. Look at this:

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,3704.0.html
 
Hi, the Fliegende Panzerfaust was a rocket-powered design meeting the demand for a low-cost aircraft in a very-short-range interceptor role. It was a parasite aircraft meant to be towed behind a Messerschmitt Bf 109G for which it had a special long nose. Powered by six Schmidding SG 34 rocket engines, three on each side on the rear half of the fuselage, the Fliegende Panzerfaust was a small plane with a v-tail, a wingspan of 4.5 m and a length of 6.0 m.

This Zeppelin-built aircraft would have been released upon reaching combat altitude above the enemy bomber fleet. Shortly before contact with the combat box below it would ignite its six solid-fuel rocket engines, attacking the target bomber by firing two 73 mm RZ 65 air-to-air missiles at an extremely close range. The front half of the aircraft which had the pilot lying in a prone position in the cockpit would then split from the other half. Both parts would land separately with parachutes, being later retrieved and reused. Owing to the extreme risks for the pilot inherent in its operation this aircraft is sometimes referred to as a suicide weapon.

(pictures from http://rec.aviation.military.narkive.com/IEotbj2X/fliegende-panzerfaust )
 

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I've yet to see any period documents relating to the 'Zeppelin fliegende panzerfaust'. The 'Zeppelin rocket-propelled ramming aircraft', aka 'Zeppelin rammer', is included in German Aircraft: New and Projected Types from January 1946 - but not the 'fliegende panzerfaust'.
Regarding the 'Zeppelin rocket-propelled ramming aircraft', the British report makes it clear that it exists only as a drawing - there are no accompanying documents to provide any context in terms of development etc.
So what can we say about the 'fliegende panzerfaust'? Well, firstly, as far as I can tell there were two organisations which bore the 'Zeppelin' name in Germany during WW2. Both of them did design aircraft but doing so wasn't really the primary concern of either.
1. Luftschiffbau Zeppelin (LZ) based at Friedrichshafen. This is presumably the company referred to in the link posted in reply #7 as 'Flugzeugbau Zeppelin'. During the war, LZ seems to have carried out a lot of wind tunnel work under contract - primarily for Dornier and Daimler-Benz, testing wings, engine nacelles, radiators etc. It also seems to have done a lot of work on rocket aerodynamics, including the A4 (V2), Drache and Wasserfall. On the airframe side, it seems to have carried out contract work on large aircraft, particularly the Messerschmitt Me 323, Junkers Ju 290 and Dornier Do 24.
2. Forschungsanstalt Graf Zeppelin (FGZ) based at Stuttgart. This organisation did a lot of work on parachutes - including bombs dropped using parachutes, brake parachutes, the aerodynamics of parachutes etc. - experiments with firing into water, acoustics, medicine and physiology, wing containers (such as that weird experiment with personnel pods on the wings of a Ju 87), the V1 launch ramp, pulsejets and experimental anti-bomber weapons. It also designed a small V-tail pulsejet fighter (having solved the vibration problem) which would have used components from the Bf 109 and He 162.
German Aircraft: New and Projected Types lists only two projects under the heading 'Zeppelin', the rammer and the gigantic Z SO 523. The latter must have been designed by LZ but the rammer? It could have been LZ or FGZ. Similarly, the V-tail 'fliegende panzerfaust' doesn't really seem like an LZ project - although I couldn't entirely rule it out.
So we don't really know which organisation designed the 'fliegende panzerfaust', assuming it's 'real'. What about the description given: "a rocket powered parasite interceptor designed by Germany in 1945 as part of the emergency fighter program with a single mockup built". I would suggest that this is entirely wrong. There was no emergency fighter programme except for Volksjaeger - and a rocket-powered rammer would certainly not have been suggested for that requirement. The 1-TL-Jaeger programme, similarly, was intended to eventually produce a replacement for the Me 262, or He 162, or both. It was longer-term and demanded a high-performance cannon-armed fighter powered by an HeS 011 turbojet. Again, no room for a rocket-propelled rammer.
I suppose the 'fliegende panzerfaust' would sit best with the aircraft tendered for the Objektschutzjaeger requirement. Some designs in this field were intended to be towed aloft - such as the Messerschmitt P 1104, Blohm & Voss P 186 (BV 40) and DFS Eber. Was a single mockup actually built? There is really no evidence for that whatsoever. The object pictured is, as I'm sure you're aware, simply a modern mockup based on the modern drawings.
Unfortunately, we know practically nothing about the design labelled 'Zeppelin fliegende panzerfaust', and nothing that has been written about it seems likely to be accurate.
 
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Zeppelin Fliegende Panzerfaust


The Starrschlepp system for towing gliders consisted of one rigid pole with articulated ends.

After the launch of the glider the piston fighter that carried it had to detach from the pole before entering combat, but sometimes the mechanism did not work properly and the plane was forced to land with the pole fixed to the tail, damaging the tail surfaces.

To solve the problem and avoid a waste of resources the design team of Flugzeugbau Zeppelin Company, led by Dipl.-Ing. Arthur Förster, proposed the construction of a miniature fighter with shoulder wing, butterfly tail and a nose mounted towing pole that also served as support for a retractable skid.

In the summer of 1944 the project was proposed to the OKL under the code-name Fliegende Panzerfaust.

To adapt it to the technical specifications of the Verbrauchsflugzeug competition, the aircraft was designed to carry out two attacks and was completely expendable. But it was also equipped with flaps to land conventionally to suit the Bordjäger formula.

The fuselage was to be built of steel and light alloys. The armored cockpit housed the pilot lying in prone position with 120-mm thick windscreen.

The forward section of the fuselage contained the Starrschlepp pole and four launch tubes for 73-mm RZ 65 rocket projectiles with a system for laterally discharging the gases produced during shooting, called Abgasleitung openings, located on either side of the cockpit.

The center section of the fuselage contained six Schmidding 109-563 rocket engines with 26-degree angled nozzles and a single central wheel that protruded from the belly.

The rear section of the fuselage, constructed of light alloy, served as support for the wooden butterfly tailplane.

The wood/plywood shoulder wing was only 120-mm thick and contained the ailerons and flaps.

This midget fighter was to be towed into battle by one conventional interceptor Messerschmitt Bf 109 G.

The separation mechanism and the devices for deploying the skid and flaps were manually operated by the pilot.

After separating from the towing plane, the Fliegende Panzerfaust made a first attack on the bomber stream firing two RZ 65 projectiles, then the pilot ignited two Schmiddings to regain altitude. The second attack had to follow the same scheme and the third pair of Schmiddings was reserved to flee from the allied escort fighters.

One mock-up was completed at Friedrichshafen in January 1945.

Zeppelin Fliegende Panzerfaust technical data

Wingspan: 4.5 m. Lenght: 6 m. Height: 1.5 m. Wing area: 3.75 sq. m. Max weight: 1,200 kg. Max speed: 850 km/h. Armament: four 73-mm RZ 65 spin-stabilized rocket projectiles. Power plant: six Schmidding 109-563 rocket engines with 500 kg peak thrust each.
 

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