Product Details
Projekt Natter: Last of the Wonder Weapons (Luftwaffe Classic)

Projekt Natter: Last of the Wonder Weapons (Luftwaffe Classic)
By Brett Gooden

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Product Description

In 1944, in response to the bombing of German cities and factories by the Allies, an inventor named Erich Bachem developed Projekt Natter ( Viper ), an extraordinary, highly-secret, vertical take-off, semi-expendable, single-seat rocket-fighter armed with a nose-mounted honeycomb of 73-mm or 55-mm spin-stabilized air-to-air rockets as well as 30-mm cannon. The Natter was intended to offer high-speed defense of key targets. Once blasted into the air from its vertical launch tower, the pilot of the Natter was to climb towards an enemy formation using an internal rocket, target an enemy bomber and fire his battery of rockets. He would then use the remaining kinetic energy to climb higher than the bombers in order to mount a ramming attack. Just before impact, the pilot was to trigger a mechanism that would activate an ejection seat and separate the rocket unit, which would return to earth by means of an automatically deployed parachute for reuse. Relatively little has been published on the Natter and this book will provide a detailed and definitive account of this unusual but fascinating aircraft. This will be required reading for all those interested in the history of the Luftwaffe during World War II, particularly for those fascinated by the radical and revolutionary projects which German aircraft designers contrived toward the end of the Nazi regime.
    

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #895640 in Books
  • Published on: 2006-11-15
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 144 pages

Customer Reviews

The story of an amazing advanced interceptor5
The development of strange experimental aircraft and missiles in Nazi Germany was nothing less than amazing. This book is about the development of a specialized, that means radically specialized vertical takeoff rocket powered intercepter that was to be produced in high quantity and positioned around high value targets to counter the incoming bomber fleet.

After you see the pictures of the 'Natter,' you will recognize that it, or parts of it have been shown in a lot of books on the developmental efforts of the Nazis. This book, however, is the complete story. At the beginning of the book there is a comment that the author spent twelve years researching the material for this book. That's easy to believe as it is so complete down to pictures of each test, of tracing the units recovered at the end of the war, the further history of the people involved and so on.

This is one more absolutely fascinating study of what the Germans were doing in advanced systems at the end of the war. It is well researched, well written, illustrated and very complete.

Natter5
I always wished there was more information on this little known rocket powered point-defense interceptor. This book is the definitive source on this obscure World War II wonder-weapon. The color profiles are great, and the detailed account of the research, development and testing are invaluable. Given the very obscure nature of this aircraft, plus the dispersal of documents and the people involved with it's development, it's a wonder the authors were able to gather this much data. Very highly recommended.

Interesting4
There are very few books about the Natter.This book is well written and explains all aspects of the project from its conception to its ill fated end in wartime Germany, and its life after the war as a technological grandfather of guided missiles and the space shuttle.