German Me-1101 Jet Fighter

By Crusader1307

As we have discussed, Adolf Hitler ordered the creation of various weapons which were known collectively as “Wunderwaffe” or “Wonder Weapons”. While the vast majority of these never left the “drawing board”, some nevertheless did see prototype status. Most of these, Historians agree would have drastically altered (if not outright changed) – the course of World War II. From Rockets to even Atomic Weapons, most still made it to Allied hands. These designs and theories would serve to advance both weapons and civil research for decades. Hitler’s Scientists advanced many Fighter Aircraft which were actually  constructed and flown. Unfortunately, too little of them were manufactured too late to be of any great effective use. This is particularly true of his Fighter Program (Luftwaffe). It was Germany that was able to produce and deploy the first such Fighter “Jet”, Me-262. Still another proposed version was The Me-1101 Jet Fighter. (4) Prototype designs were experimented with before the final design was settled upon. The first “swept winged” Fighter, an actual Prototype was constructed (80%). The Me-1101 was as close to a “Modern” Fighter Jet in appearance – as ever seen in previous designs. Designed as a single-seat Fighter, The Me-1101 was 30-feet long with a wingspan of 27-feet. It was to be powered by a single Heinkel Turbojet HES011 Engine. Tests mad on the Engine design would have given it over 2,000-pounds of thrust.  Rated to achieve over 600-mph, The Me-1101 would have had an operational range of 1,500-miles with a 40,000-foot operational ceiling. Although no armament was discovered by Allied Soldiers when The Me-1101 was captured in 1945, it was rated to support Air to Air Rockets and up to (4) 30mm Wing Cannon. The semi-finished Me-1101 was sent to The United States in 1948, and made it’s way to Bell Aviation designers. It helped to redesign the Bell X-5, which was used to achieve Mach 1 – the speed of sound.