BACHEM Ba-349 A NATTER

Name: Brengun BRP72001 BACHEM Ba-349 A NATTER
Brand: BRENGUN
Price: 16.95 EUR
Availability: OutOfStock

WORLD WAR II

The Ba 349 Natter was a last ditch attempt by the Germans to challenge the daylight bomber raids that were pulverising their home territory. Two of the harder tasks that a pilot must master are landing and take-off, but Germany lacked time and resources to train pilots as the war neared its end. The attraction of the Natter was that it did away with the need for the pilot to control take-off or indeed land the plane. Armed with a battery of air-to-air rockets, it could take off vertically to attack a bomber formation. An autopilot controlled the Natter’s launch and approach to target, whilst a hastily trained SS pilot controlled the attack phase of the flight.

The Natter used the same liquid fuel rocket engine the Me 163 Komet. It also had four solid fuel boosters used for take-off that were jettisoned after they burned out. The Natter was to launch as a bomber formation neared its base and climb above the enemy, whereupon it would attack in a dive much as the Komet did. It would them engage the bombers with its battery of twenty-four R4M rockets that were fired off in one go. These same 73-mm rockets had proved very effective when used by the Me 262 that carried them on underwing pallets.

Some of the Komet’s operational problems would have applied to the Natter as well. It would have had similar issues with refuelling risks, short fuel supply and high closing speeds. Both planes were point-defence interceptors, but the Natter had the distinct advantage of not needing an airfield. The Allied bombers used flight paths that avoided known Komet airfields. This would be much harder to do with Natters launched vertically from hidden sites.

The Natter then descended rather like a brick with wings to somewhere that was hopefully near to its base. In fact, the Natter proved to be quite controllable during an untethered gliding test flight, albeit with a very steep glide angle. The cockpit and nose would then separate from the fuselage. This process expelled the pilot shortly thereafter, who would land using his parachute. There was to be a parachute recovery of the rocket motor and the remaining airframe as well. However, the impact of landing caused small amounts of unused fuel to explode and so destroy the motor and airframe. The wooden airframe was simple to make and therefore expendable. The rocket motor consumed more resources to build, but its loss had to be accepted too.

Bachem built around thirty to thirty-six Natters, of which unmanned take-offs consumed eighteen. A pilot successfully bailed out during an unpowered test flight when the nose separated from the airframe, which at least proved that the escape system worked. Another Natter crashed following a towed gliding flight (it had a crude fixed tricycle undercarriage). The single attempt at a manned take-off killed the test pilot when the Natter went out of control early in its take-off. Around fourteen finished and thirty incomplete Natters may have existed at the war’s end.

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