| Although not powered by a turbojet engine or come to that any engine what so ever, the DM-1 (along with the Horten Ho XIII) represents the most advanced aerodynamic design achieved by any nation by the end of 1945. |
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The Seibel Si 204 |
Designed by a team of students of aircraft construction from the universities of Darmastadt and Munich, led by Dr Alexander Lippisch. The DM-1 was a pure delta of 60 degrees swept leading edges with a fin and rudder shape mirroring the wings. Made of steel tubing with a ply wood skin, the aircraft was intended to be launched from a Siebel Si 204 at a height of 7,900m and to glide back home testing the low speed characteristics of the delta shape This was the final stage in research to develop a aircraft which would exceed Mach2, as scale models of the same shape had already been successfully tested in the wind tunnel to speeds of over Mach 2.6. |
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The out come of all this research by the end of the war in Europe was that a large amount of design work been done on a rocket and ramjet powered fighter, the P.13a, however no construction was ever undertaken on this very advanced aircraft. The DM-1 was found by the Americans at the end of World War II, the prototype was shipped back to the USA for wind tunnel testing, the subsequent data with the help of Dr Lippisch (who was now working for the US government ) was used in the design of the Convair XP-92 which, as with the Lippisch P.13a used a combination of rocket and ramjet engines, designed in 1946 the XP-92 was never to fly as problems with the power plant were never overcome, but a test aircraft to investigate delta wing behavior at subsonic speeds, the XF-92A(Model 7-002) fitted with an Allison J33-A-21 turbojet engine, was completed before the program was shelved in 1948. The XF-92A flew for the first time on 18/9/1948 taking the honor of being the worlds first delta wing aircraft to fly. |
The DM-1 being wind tunnel tested in the USA |
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The Consolidated Vultee Aircraft
Corporation XP-92
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XF-92A The similarity of the wings
and tail to the DM-I is quite striking
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