Henschel Hs 298

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The Henschel Hs 298 was a 1940s German rocket-powered air-to-air missile designed by Professor Herbert Wagner of Henschel.[1]

Design and development

The Hs 298 was designed specifically to attack allied bomber aircraft and was the first missile designed specifically for air-to-air use.[1] It was to be carried on special launch rails by Dornier Do 217s (five missiles) or Focke-Wulf Fw 190s (two missiles) and carried 48 kg (106 lb) of explosive.[1]

The Hs 298 was a mid-wing monoplane with tapered swept back wings and it had a single horizontal stabiliser with twin vertical fins.[1] It was powered by a Henschel-designed rocket motor built by Schmidding as the 109–543; it had two stages, the first high velocity stage was designed to leave the launch aircraft at 938km/h (585 mph), in the second stage the speed was brought back to 682 km/h (425 mph) to give a maximum range of about one mile (1.6 km).[1] It used a Strassburg-Kehl FuG 203 radio guidance system powered by a propeller-driven (mounted on the nose) electric generator.[1] The missile needed two crew on the launch aircraft to control it, one operator used a reflector-type sight to aim at the target and the other flew the missile using a joystick and another sight paired to the first with a servo system.[1]

The only known test firings were carried out on 22 December 1944 with three missiles carried by a Junkers Ju-88G.[1] Only two missiles left the launch rails with one failing to release, of the two released one exploded prematurely and nose-dived into the ground.[1] It was planned to enter mass production in January 1945 but the project was abandoned in favour of the X-4.[1]

Survivors

One Hs 298 is on display at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford.[1] One Hs 298 is on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

Specifications

  • Wing span – 1.24m (4 ft 1in)
  • Length – 2.06m (6 ft 9in)
  • Launch weight – 120 kg (265 lb)
  • Launch speed – 938 km/h (585 mph)
  • Cruise speed – 682 km/h (425 mph)

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 Royal Air Force Museum Cosford Guidebook, 1976
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