Heinkel P.1078

The Heinkel P.1078 (He P.1078) was a single seat interceptor developed for the Luftwaffe by Heinkel aircraft manufacturing company under the Emergency Fighter Program during the last years of the Third Reich.

He P.1078
Model of the He P.1078 A at the Technikmuseum Speyer
Role Interceptor
Manufacturer Heinkel
Status Never went past the project stage
Primary user Luftwaffe

History

As part of the Emergency Fighter Program (German: Jägernotprogramm), at the beginning of 1945 a programme was launched by the OKL for a new generation of fighter/interceptor aircraft in order to replace the winner of the Volksjäger fighter design competition, the He 162A Spatz. The new aircraft was intended to have superior performance in order to deal with high altitude threats such as the B-29 Superfortress, but only had a 30-minute endurance figure.

Heinkel produced three different designs of the project which were submitted in February 1945. The high-altitude fighter designs brought forward by other German aircraft makers were the Messerschmitt P.1110,[1] Focke-Wulf Ta 183 Huckebein, Blohm & Voss P 212 and the Junkers EF 128, the official winner of the competition.[2] After being subject to severe criticism, the project was cancelled by Heinkel at the end of February 1945.

Variants
A model of the He P.1078 B variant

The Heinkel P.1078 project had three quite different variants. All of them were a single-seat fighters with polyhedral swept wings. The wings were swept back at 40 degrees and included wood in their construction. All of the projected aircraft had the wing tips angled downwards and all of them would be powered by a single Heinkel HeS 011 turbojet.

P.1078 A

Jet-powered interceptor. It was the most conventional-looking of the three designs submitted for it was the only one having a tail. Its armament was two MK 108 cannons, as in the following two variants.[3]

P.1078 B

A tailless asymmetric jet-powered interceptor with a short fuselage in which the air intake of the engine was located in the middle between two gondolas. The cockpit was located on the gondola of the left side, while the right side gondola contained the front undercarriage leg and cannon armament.[4]

P.1078 C

A tailless interceptor project similar to the P.1078 B but with a single short fuselage. Both the He P.1078 B and P.1078 C had wing tips angled downwards at a more pronounced angle than the P.1078 A.[5]

                    specifications(Heinkel p.178c)
    
   general characteristics
    crew:1
    length:20ft 0in
    wingspan:26ft 9in
    height:7ft 8in
    empty weight:5410 lbs 
    takeoff weight:8641 lbs
    powerplant:1xHeinkel-hirth hes 011 3307 lbs  
    
  performance
   maximum speed: 637 mph   
   rate of climb: 98ft/sec   
   service ceiling:40,000ft   
   landing speed:113mph
   takeoff distance:2296 ft.
   landing distance: 3000 ft
    
  armament             
     2x30mm mk-108cannon w/100 rounds per gun
     


     see also



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References
  1. Peter Allen's Aircraft Profiles - Fighters
  2. Karl-Heinz Ludwig, Technik und Ingenieure im Dritten Reich. Athenäum-Verlag, Königstein/Ts., 1979, ISBN 3761072198
  3. He P.1078 A - Luft'46
  4. He P.1078 B - Luft'46
  5. He P.1078 C - Luft'46
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