Lippisch P.15
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Lippisch P.15 was a prototype WW II German fighter aircraft. Similar to the Lippisch P.20 design of 1943, the P.15 was another attempt to produce a suitable turbojet powered fighter from the Me 163 rocket fighter. In this case however, Alexander Lippisch designed a hybrid aircraft composed of the nose section of the Heinkel 162, the wings and tail of the Me 163C, a newly designed rear fuselage, and landing gear adapted from the Bf 109. Power was to be supplied by a single Heinkel HeS 011A turbojet contained within the rear fuselage, which was fed by two intakes buried in the wing roots.
Never leaving the drawing board, the design could well have made a suitable jet fighter, but Lippisch was never considered a credible aircraft engineer of the likes of Willy Messerschmitt or Kurt Tank, which coupled with the worsening war situation to doom all of his late war projects to fail.