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Heinkel P.1079B

1946 SECRET WEAPONS OF THE LUFTWAFFE WORLD WAR 2 X-PLANE

Heinkel P. 1079B History

Considered a possible all-weather and night fighter, the P.1079B was the natural progression of a series of design studies by Heinkel engineers during World War II (1939-1945) starting with the P.1079A (from early 1945, described in detail elsewhere on this page). In its original form, the aircraft carried two people (tandem, back-to-back) with a large swept-wing main aircraft and an aircraft with a "V-tail" layout.

A side-by-side configuration of the two engines will power the machine.

In the "P. 1079B" revision, the aircraft was extensively modified into a near-flying wing design. The larger surface area of ??the delta wing arrangement means that horizontal stabilizers are not required. The V-tail was dropped in favor of a more traditional single tail fin. Additionally, the winged main aircraft, which returns at a 45-degree angle, has now been cranked to adopt a "gull-wing" shape, giving the potential fighter a futuristic feel.

Likewise, the twin-turbojet configuration will be used for propulsion and ground-operated tricycle landing gear. In this new design approach, the crew is reduced to a single person, and their position is fixed in a lightweight cockpit close to the nose of the aircraft. Each engine takes in air through a circular air intake at the root of each wing and exhausts it near the trailing edge of the wing in front of the rear wing.

Structural measurements include a barrel length of 29.6 feet and a wingspan of 42.8 feet.

In any case, P. 1079B is no further development than the paper drawings, it may be a product of the early post-war period after Germany's surrender in May 1945.

The subsequent P. 1079B design, known as "P. 1079C", took many of the features listed above and added more power to the main aircraft, eliminating the vertical tail entirely and reverting to a two-crew (tandem, back to back). Retains the same armament as the twin turbojets.