PM Model 1/72 Lippiscjh P-13a Kit (includes towing trolley) PKPM224

PM Model 1/72 Lippiscjh P-13a Kit  (includes towing trolley)  PKPM224

During 1942, while still working on the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket fighter, Dr. Alexander Lippisch developed a sharply-swept, leaf-shaped delta wing interceptor which he believed was capable of supersonic flight. Out of this and subsequent development of the P.11/Delta VI "power wing" through 1943 and early 1944, he conceived the idea of a hollow delta wing with its interior shaped like a ramjet duct. The futuristic design would carry no armament, but would be heavily reinforced in order to ram its opponent.

Initially conceived as a disposable machine with the pilot bailing out at the end of the mission, a landing skid was later added. Launch to ramjet operational speed would be via catapult and/or booster rockets.A variant with a rectangular canard foreplane was wind-tunnel tested and conventional gun armament was also being considered.

The P.13 featured a large fin and integral raised cockpit. The wing trailing edge was angled slightly forwards. The outer wing sections could be folded upwards for transportation by rail.

As conventional fuels were in extremely short supply by late 1944, Lippisch proposed that the P.13a be powered by alternative fuels, such as various types of coal, or pine wood heat-soaked in oil or paraffin. Lippisch soon came to conclude that this might even be more effective than liquid fuels, as the location of combustion was more precisely controllable.

The P.13a had reached a stage where full-scale aerodynamic trials would be possible. A glider with the same general design and 22 ft wingspan, but with the intake and exhaust faired in, was built as the DM-1. Lippisch however took little interest and,having moved on from the design, he set up the glider project only to keep students of Darmstadt and Munich Universities from being drafted into a by-then hopeless war.

The DM-1 had not been finished when it was captured by American forces and the Americans ordered Lippisch's team to complete the glider, which was then shipped to the United States where it was test flown. According to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) the results were positive and lessons learned were incorporated into NASA's research aircraft of the 1950s and on.