Messerschmitt Me 328

Messerschmitt Me 328
Replica in the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach
Type:	Multipurpose fighter aircraft
Design country:	German Empire
Manufacturer:	Messerschmitt AG
First flight:	August 3, 1942
Number of pieces:	> 2

The Messerschmitt Me 328 was a single-seat multipurpose fighter aircraft with two deflagration jet engines designed by Messerschmitt AG and the German Research Institute for Gliding (DFS) , which was to be produced in large numbers towards the end of the Second World War .

history

Universal fighter aircraft

From the beginning of 1941, the Messerschmitt development office designed a series of preliminary drafts for a fast, single-seat, twin-engine, light fighter aircraft that was to be used as a fighter , airborne fighter and reconnaissance aircraft under project number P1079 . The Schmidt-Argus thrust tube (As 014) , which is still in development, was intended as the engine , with the price advantage of ℛℳ 2,000 compared to the ℛℳ 43,000 costing DB 601 , which was used in the Bf 109 , for example . Messerschmitt saw here the possibility of producing a universal aircraft in large numbers.

After a pre-development contract from the RLM , construction and workshop work began in September 1941. Because of the overloading of Messerschmitt, this work was handed over to the DFS in Ainring in early 1942 . DFS took over the already finished sheet steel fuselage and built the wooden wings and the tail unit. On August 3, 1942, the first flight as a glider took place in Ainring , which was towed by a Heinkel He 111 . The further flight tests , together with the second aircraft built, were moved to the Hörsching airfield near Linz, where two As-014 thrust tubes in different configurations (under the wings, on both sides of the fuselage) were attached.

The aircraft, in 1942, still at the planning stage design as board hunters who received designation Me 328 A, and the universal fast fighter aircraft became the Me 328 B. In December 1942, worked Messerschmitt a program for the production of 300 Me 328 B -Schnellbombern out. 20 test aircraft and 280 pre-series aircraft were to be built by Jacobs-Schweyer-Flugzeugbau (JSF) in Darmstadt. JSF already had a great deal of experience building gliders. The start of delivery was scheduled for June 1943.

Problems with the engine - the heat and the pulsating sound pressure caused damage to the rear part of the fuselage - meant that flight tests dragged on well into 1943. When the program was discontinued on September 3, the series preparations and the construction of the test samples were still in progress. A variant Me 328 C, which was still planned at the same time, with a Jumo 004 jet engine mounted under the fuselage, remained just a project.

Project for self-sacrifice

When it was expected in early 1944 that the Allies would attempt an invasion of the mainland, a small group of Air Force pilots advocated a “total deployment weapon”, a manned glide bomb as a loss device. Here, the pilot should steer the aircraft to the target until shortly before it hits a landing craft and then jump off with the parachute at the last moment. A group of 70 young volunteers was formed for this purpose. Their management decided to shortlist the Me 328 B for their use. Instead of a bomb under the hull, an air torpedo head of 500 kg was to be installed in the bow .

At the beginning of 1944, the test pilot Hanna Reitsch suggested setting up a " self-sacrifice " squadron to fight the invasion fleet. Me 328 with a 1000-kilogram warhead were supposed to dip into the water at such an angle that they exploded directly under the targeted ships together with the pilots. Himmler and Hitler approved the project. The former wanted to use prisoners for this. On the other hand, Erhard Milch refused and Hermann Göring showed no interest. The project was then handed over to Kampfgeschwader 200 in February 1944 . Due to technical and manufacturing difficulties, they switched to the manned version of the Fi 103 (V1) flying bomb . The project was now given the code name "Reichenberg" .

In June 1944 it was decided that the JSF company should finish the V3 to V10 under construction with the planned changes as sailing school machines and at the same time prepare the Gothaer Waggonfabrik (GWF) for series production (from V11). The emergency machines should also be brought close to the target as sailors with a load of explosives by towing machines. During the changeover to the new task, the RLM decided to use a manned version of the Fieseler Fi 103 flying bomb, which was camouflaged as the Reichenberg device, instead of the modified Me 328 B for the intended purpose. The self-sacrifice command attached to Kampfgeschwader 200 was disbanded in February 1945 due to a lack of fuel, which meant that no such operations were carried out.

construction

The Me 328 was a cantilevered middle decker with a two-part single-spar wing made of wood, with a spar made of steel tubes, slats and a removable edge arch . Landing flaps were installed between the ailerons and the fuselage. The hull was a light metal shell hull with a circular cross-section. The control was carried out via a cantilevered normal stabilizer made of wood, for which parts of the wooden stabilizer of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 were used. The landing gear was a central runner for landing with a spring strut. The start was on a detachable two-wheeled chassis. The crew consisted of a pilot in a closed cabin.

Technical specifications

Side view of the Me 328

Parameter	Data
crew	1
length	7.17 m
span	6.90 m
height	1.60 m
Top speed	805 km / h
Service ceiling
Range	485 km
Engines	2 × Argus As 014 , each with 360 kp thrust

literature

• Hans J. Ebert, Johann B. Kaiser, Klaus Peters: Willy Messerschmitt - pioneer of aviation and lightweight construction , Die deutsche Luftfahrt Vol. 17, ISBN 978-3-7637-6129-6 , pp. 291-296
• Horst Lommel: From height reconnaissance to space glider 1935-1945, DFS secret projects , Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-613-02072-6
• Peter Ocker: Hans Jacobs - pioneering life in aircraft construction . Self-published, Heidenheim 2012, ISBN 978-3-00-039539-0 .

Web links

Commons : Messerschmitt Me 328  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Three-sided view of the A-1 on ww2drawings
• Three-sided view of the B on ww2drawings

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Horst Boog : Strategic Air War in Europe and Reich Air Defense 1943-1944. In: The German Reich and the Second World War, Vol. 7, Munich 2001, pp. 300f.