Blohm & Voss BV 155

Blohm & Voss BV 155
Type:	High altitude hunters
Design country:	German Empire
Manufacturer:	Blohm & Voss / Messerschmitt
First flight:	1944 or 1945
Number of pieces:	2

The BV 155 from Blohm & Voss was a WWII fighter aircraft , but it did not get beyond the prototype stage.

development

In 1941, the German Air Force needed a new fighter aircraft that could operate at high altitudes to combat the high-flying US bomber units. In the same year Messerschmitt received the order to derive a high altitude fighter from the Bf 109 .

The result was the Me 155 A , a modified Bf 109 with a larger area and increased engine power through the use of a Hirth turbocharger. A wide-legged landing gear should also make it usable for the planned Graf Zeppelin aircraft carrier . Although the Reich Ministry of Aviation (RLM) approved the draft, it remained for various reasons. In the meantime, however, the design office and development department of the Messerschmitt works were fully utilized, so the design was passed on to Blohm & Voss, where it was completely revised. Simultaneously, a dummy was built and started in late 1943 with the construction of the prototype of the name now BV 155 B received. The first flight is said to have taken place in September 1944, but there is still an entry in the flight log of the works pilot Röttger Hilleke under the date February 7, 1945, “1. Flight with BV 155 ”. Whether this was the first flight of the aircraft or Hilleke's first flight on it could not be determined. But it could also have been the first flight with the V2 that was taken by the Americans to the United States, where it is waiting for restoration in the Smithsonian Institution's warehouse in Silver Hill / Maryland today .

The front view shows the immense wingspan and the coolers under the wings

The BV 155 C was created on the basis of the BV 155B and experience with the Blohm & Voss P 205 high altitude hunter project . In this case, the radiators were installed under the engine and the wings were designed to be aerodynamically clean. This gave a completely different look. Before the war ended, only a dummy could be built.

Technical specifications

BV 155 B

Parameter	Data
crew	1
length	12.1 m
span	20.5 m
height	4.17 m
drive	1 × DB 603 U + TKL 15 with a maximum of 1,810 hp take-off power
Top speed	690 km / h
Service ceiling	16,950 m
Range	1,440 km
Armament	1 × MK 108 and 2 × MG 151/20

Web links

Commons : Blohm & Voss BV 155  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: Blohm & Voss Bv 155B V2 (English)
• Model pictures of the BV 155 C (English)
• Polish website. Contains three-sided plan of the BV 155 C ( Memento from October 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (Memento from October 30, 2010 in the Internet Archive)
• Backgrounds, pictures, sketches Me 155 ( Memento from July 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Walter Schick, Ingolf Meyer: Secret Projects of the Air Force . Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01631-1 .