Subscribe to download
Bachem Ba 349 by Uncle T

531 bricks.

My take on the German WW2 Bachem Ba 349 Natter rocket powered interceptor. It's a bit of a "quick and dirty" build and very much an approximation, but it works fine. At least in single player at 144 fps.

Info from Wikipedia, somewhat edited.

******
The Bachem Ba 349 Natter (English: Colubrid, grass-snake) is a World War II German point-defence rocket-powered interceptor, which was to be used in a very similar way to a manned surface-to-air missile. After a vertical take-off, which eliminated the need for airfields, most of the flight to the Allied bombers was to be controlled by an autopilot. The primary role of the relatively untrained pilot was to aim the aircraft at its target bomber and fire its armament of rockets. The pilot and the fuselage containing the rocket engine would then land using separate parachutes, while the nose section was disposable.

The first and only manned vertical take-off flight, on 1 March 1945, ended in the death of the test pilot, Lothar Sieber.

The proposed sequence of these events was as follows: After the attack, the Natter might dive to a lower altitudeand the pilot would open the cockpit canopy. Next, the pilot would undo his seat belt and squeeze a lever mounted on the control column, releasing a lock at the base of the column, which would allow him to tilt the column forwards where it could engage in and undo a safety latch for the nose release mechanism. He would then lean a little further forward and pull a lever hinged near the floor at the front of the cockpit, freeing the nose section, which self-jettisoned as a result of the reduced aerodynamic pressure at the front of the fuselage.

As the nose section separated, it was intended to briefly pull on two cables that released a small ribbon parachute stored on the starboard side of the rear fuselage. The parachute subsequently opened and decelerated the Natter. The pilot would be ejected from the cockpit by his own inertia and as soon as he was clear of the fuselage, he would open his personal parachute and descend to the ground. A parachute was to eject the valuable Walter rocket engine from the rear, which would, in theory at least, decelerate the aircraft and eject the pilot with inertia.
******

After taking off vertically the booster rockets will detach after about 10 seconds when the plane has reached about 2,000 meters altitude and a speed of over 1,000 kph.
Once the plane is within a couple of km from the target the pilot is to eject the nose cone, enabling the 24 Henschel Hs 297 Föhn 73 mm rocket shells to be fired like a huge rocket shotgun. I have made the rockets fire in rapid sequence to make it possible to attack more than one target.
As mentioned in real life the pilot would then detach the rocket engine and let it fall by parachute to the ground to hopefully be reused, and he would bail out and, at least in theory, land safely in his own parachute.
This is a bit of a quick and dirty build and we have no parachutes in the game so I have not made the main rocket engine detachable nor can the canopy open. However if you get the speed down to 3-400 kph you can land the plane with a bit of luck. I suggest using grass as a surface since it seems to have less friction than the tarmac.
I also chose to spawn the plane in horizontally and then raise it into its (near) vertical launch position since the Local Camera gets a bit weird when you spawn in the driver's seat at a 90 degree angle.
The unmanned prototype flights where launched from a more complex truss construction, but the planned actual launch device seems to have been a simpler wood and steel construction, somewhat similar to the one I built.

OPERATION
- Aim the plane in the desired direction with the button on the control panel. -15 to +15 degrees.
- Raise the rail with the plane to its (near) vertical position (85 degrees just so the plane doesn't risk falling off since the plane is not attached in any way).
- Launch the plane.

CONTROLS
W/S: Variable throttle for main rocket.
W: Start booster rockets. Hold down W for about a second when taking off to get the main engine up to full throttle too. Booster rockets will detach automatically after 10 seconds.
A/D: Yaw.
Up/Down arrows: Pitch.
Left/Right arrows: Roll.
Fire action 8/Num 8: Detach nose cone. Indicator light in the cockpit turns green to show it's safe to fire rockets.
Hold Fire action 1/Num 1: Fire the 24 rockets in rapid succession. It takes 2-3 seconds to fire all. The yellow light indicates that half of the rockets have been fired, the red light indicates all 24 rockets have been fired.

Feel free to edit, but if you reupload publicly in any way please acknowledge the original creation and creator.