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The Focke-Wulf Ta 283 was a design for a twin-engined ramjet powered fighter aircraft that was under development during 1945 but that was never completed. The aircraft had a very slender pointed fuselage, with the pilot's cockpit just behind the centre point. It had low-mounted wings swept back by 45 degrees on the leading edge. The wing roots were at the centre of the fuselage, giving the aircraft a very long pointed nose.
The Ta 283 was to be powered by two Pabst ramjets when in flight. Focke-Wulf had already used these engines on their Tribeflügel project (a radical design for a VTOL aircraft which used three rotating wings each a ramjet on the tip. The ramjets spun the wings, and that rotation provided lift and thrust), and had already carried out wind tunnel tests at speeds of up to Mach 0.9.
The ramjet engines were mounted on the end of the sharply swept-back horizontal tail plane. These surfaces were also swept upwards, so the engines were lifted away from the main wings and any disturbed airflow. The vertical tail fin was long and low and was faired into the back of the cockpit.
The ramjet engines couldn't be used for take-off as they only operated when the aircraft was already travelling at speed. The Ta 283 would thus have had a Walter rocket engine which would have been used for take-off. The aircraft had a retractable nose-wheel undercarriage, with the main wheels under the cockpit. Work on the Ta 283 was incomplete at the end of the Second World War.
Span: 26ft 1 3/4in
Length: 36ft 5/8in
Loaded Weight: 11,863lb
Maximum Speed: 699mph at 32,800ft
Service Ceiling: 32,800ft
Range: 429 miles
Climb Rate: 2.5 minutes to 9,840ft
Aircraft of the Luftwaffe 1935-1945, Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage.
Combines a good background history of the Luftwaffe with a comprehensive examination of its aircraft, from the biplanes of the mid 1930s to the main wartime aircraft and on to the seemingly unending range of experimental designs that wasted so much effort towards the end of the war. A useful general guide that provides an impressively wide range of information on almost every element of the Luftwaffe
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