Heinkel Lerche

Heinkel Lerche
Role Tail-sitter Fighter
Type of aircraft
National origin Germany
Manufacturer Heinkel
Designer Heinkel
Status Paper project only, never built

The Heinkel Lerche (English: Lark) was the name of a set of project studies made by German aircraft designer Heinkel in 1944 and 1945 for a VTOL fighter and ground-attack aircraft.

The Lerche was an early coleopter design. It would take off and land sitting on its tail, flying horizontally like a conventional aircraft. The pilot would lie prone in the nose. It would be powered by two contra-rotating propellers which were contained in a doughnut-shaped, nine-sided annular wing.

The design was developed starting 1944 and concluding in March 1945. The aerodynamic principles of an annular wing were basically sound,[clarification needed][citation needed] but the proposal was faced with a host of unsolved manufacture and control problems which would have made the project highly impractical, even without the material shortages of late-war Nazi Germany.

Specifications (Lerche II)

Figures below are given for the 'Lerche II' plan dated 25 Feb 1945.

Data from [1]

General characteristics

  • Crew: 1
  • Length: 9.4 m (30 ft 10 in)
  • Wingspan: 4 m (13 ft 1 in)
  • Wing area: 12 m2 (130 sq ft)
  • Empty weight: 4,500 kg (9,921 lb)
  • Gross weight: 5,600 kg (12,346 lb)
  • Powerplant: 2 × Daimler-Benz DB 605D V-12 liquid-cooled direct fuel-injected piston engines 2,000 PS (1,500 kW)
    or 2 × Daimler-Benz DB 603E V-12 liquid-cooled direct fuel-injected piston engines 2,400 PS (1,800 kW)
    (1 PS (Pferdestärke) = 0.736 kW = 0.98632007272 hp)

Performance

  • Maximum speed: 800 km/h (500 mph, 430 kn)
  • Cruise speed: 553 km/h (344 mph, 299 kn)
  • Never exceed speed: 1,282 km/h (797 mph, 692 kn)
  • Service ceiling: 14,300 m (46,900 ft)
  • Rate of climb: 50 m/s (9,800 ft/min)

Armament

  • Guns: 2 × 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108 cannon
  • Missiles: 3 × Ruhrstahl X-4 Air to Air Missile (Optional)

See also

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

Related lists

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Heinkel Lerche.
  1. ^ Nowarra, Heinz J. (1993). Die Deutsche Luftrüstung 1933-1945 : Band 2 Flugzeugtypen Erla-Heinkel (in German). Koblenz: Bernard & Graefe Verlag. pp. 259–260 & 272. ISBN 3763754660.
  • Luftwaffe Secret Projects - Ground Attack & Special Purpose Aircraft, D. Herwig & H. Rode, ISBN 1-85780-150-4
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