Special Sub-Topic: German WW2 RLM Numbers Click Here To Play: German WW2 RLM Numbers

The number 8-144 was assigned to a late war STOL transport aircraft. One prototype was built. Who was the manufacturer?

Blohm & Voss BV-144. The single prototype of the BV-144 was built in France and flew in 1944. At the end of the war it was captured by the French but the program was not continued. The BV-144 had a variable incidence wing to assist short take-offs and landings.

What was the single-engined observation aircraft designed by Messerschmitt as a competitor to the Fieseler Fi-156?

Bf-163. Only one prototype was constructed. The type number 163 was later reused for the Me-163 rocket interceptor. The other competitor was the Siebel Si-201. The Fieseler Fi-156 was chosen and both the Bf-163 and Si-201 remained only prototypes. The number 163 was later reused for the Me-163 rocket interceptor for security reasons.

What was the unique feature that the Junkers Ju-187 was intended to have in order to have a better protection against enemy aircraft?

The vertical tail could rotate 180 degrees to give the gunner an unobstructed field of fire. The entire vertical tail rotated 180 degrees and was pointing down during the flight. This way the gunner had a clear field of fire with the danger of shooting off his own tail. The Ju-187 remained a project and was never built.

The RLM often gave out numbers to follow on designs that were one hundred higher than the original number. Examples are the Me-109, Me-209 and Me-309 or the Ju-88 , Ju-188 etc. Which number was NOT a follow on to an earlier number?

Junkers Ju-287. The Junkers Ju-287 was a jet bomber with forward swept wings which had nothing to do with the Ju-87 Stuka and Ju-187 design. The Fi-256 was a development of the Fi-156 Storch with a more powerful engine. The Me-208 was developed from the Messerschmitt Bf-108 light transport aircraft. The Me-208 was also built in France after the war as the Nord 1000. The Dornier Do-317 was a variant of the Dornier Do-217 bomber with more powerful engines and a pressurized cockpit.

Sometimes the design responsibility for an aircraft was transferred from one manufacturer to another. The number then stayed the same but the prefix changed. Which number was NOT switched from one manufacturer to another but was assigned to two completely different aircraft?

Bf-162 & He-162. The Messerschmitt Bf-162 Jaguar was a design derived from the Me-110. The Heinkel He-162 Volksjäger was a jet fighter. The Me-155 project was transferred from Messerschmitt to Blohm & Voss due to lack of design capacity with Messerschmitt and became the BV-155. Blohm & Voss later redesigned the project and turned it into a completely different aircraft. The Me-263 and Do-635 were both transferred to Junkers because of lack of design capacity with the parent company.

Who was the manufacturer of number 8-192?

Ago. The Ago Ao-192 was a twin-engined light transport aircraft constructed by the Ago company. In all nine aircraft were built. It was meant as a competing design to the Siebel Fh-104. The first prototype flew in 1935.

In the early period, the numbers were assigned in blocks. So Heinkel received the numbers 8-111 till 8-120. One of the numbers in this range was not used by Heinkel and later reassigned to another manufacturer. Which one?

117. The number 117 was reassigned to Henschel and used for the Hs-117 "Schmetterling" of "Butterfly" air-to-air rocket. The He-116 was a pre-war four engined airliner, the He-118 was a Ju-87 competitor and the He-120 was a four engined flying boat project.

Which of the following RLM numbers was never assigned to a manufacturer?

8-165. The Ju-186 was a follow on design of the Ju-86, the Arado Ar-240 was a twin engined destroyer / heavy fighter and the Fieseler Fi-99 was a pre-war sports aircraft. The number 165 was never assigned to any manufacturer.

Who was the manufacturer assigned to the number 8-212?

Dornier. The Dornier Do-212 was an experimental flying boat/amphibian. It was built by the Swiss subsidiary of the Dornier company. Design started in 1938 and the prototype was complete in 1942. During flight attempts it turned out that the Do-212 was not able to get airborne by itself. It had to be towed by a Dornier Do-24 to get in the air. The Do-212 turned out to be very unstable and the program was ended in 1943.

What was the designation of the 1944 rocket powered high altitude reconnaissance aircraft which looked very much like the later Lockheed U-2?

DFS-228. The Focke Achgelis Fa-266 was a helicopter design, the DFS-331 was a cargo glider and the Weserflug We 271 was a amphibian. The DFS-228 was to be launched on the back of a Dornier Do-217 using its rocket engines to gain further height. In a series of gliding flight and ascends with its rocket engines, it would be able to fly high over enemy territory. Two prototypes were built in 1944 which made a number of flights.