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The Messerschmitt P.1079 was a series of different experimental Messerschmitt fighters projected during the Second World War. The last designs were proposed in 1944 towards the end of the Third Reich.〔Jean-Denis Lepage, '' Aircraft of the Luftwaffe, 1935-1945: An Illustrated Guide''〕 Except for the last one, all the aircraft designs were to be powered by pulse jets, the same engines used in the V-1 flying bomb. None of the Messerschmitt P.1079 projects saw mass-production and the pulsejet-powered fighter program was scrapped in December 1944, although Junkers continued developing its model until the last days of the war.〔(Junkers EF 126 - Luft'46 )〕 ==History== The P.1079 Messerschmitt designs span from 1941 to 1944, the latter being the year in which the High Command of the ''Luftwaffe'' took to call attention to the need of a strong defense against the devastating allied bombing raids with its Emergency Fighter Program. Since pulse jets were cheaper to build, the possibility of using them to power aircraft was explored owing to the overstretched industry and materials shortages of the Third Reich at that stage of the war. Thus the main German aircraft manufacturers were asked by the Luftwaffe to come up with light fighter designs (''Miniaturjäger'') using a strict minimum of materials that would be fitted with one Argus As 014 pulse jet engine per unit. The projected planes were small, spartan creations, with no landing gear, no radio and almost no electrical equipment, but the mostly propaganda-based aim was to produce them cheaply and in large numbers so as to overwhelm the Allied bomber formations that flew daily over Germany's skies.〔(Ulrich Albrecht: Artefakte des Fanatismus; Technik und nationalsozialistische Ideologie in der Endphase des Dritten Reiches )〕 All the P.1079 Messerschmitt designs remained on paper, but Junkers built the Ju EF 126 ''Ellie'' the only pulsejet-powered fighter project that got to the prototype stage right before the end of the war. For this venture Heinkel would use a He 162 air frame powered by a pulse jet and Blohm & Voss submitted the Blohm & Voss P.213 At any rate the Argus pulsejets proved themselves unsuitable for manned aircraft that would have to takeoff unassisted, for they didn't produce enough power at low speeds for takeoff. Since additional launch schemes would have to be added to the project, such as towplanes, aircraft catapults or rocket boosters, the goal of the program would be defeated and expenses would be far higher than projected. Thus the pulsejet-powered fighter project never saw mass-production, being brought to a close already before 1945. The last of the Messerschmitt variants, the 1944 Me P.1079 51 project, uses a ramjet instead of a pulsejet. But eventually ramjets were also dropped in favor of turbojets towards the end of the Third Reich. A further variant, the Me P.1079 18 ''Schwalbe'', appears in some publications.〔(Messerschmitt P.1079/18 Schwalbe )〕 But this "experimental aircraft" is a widely publicized hoax, not a real Messerschmitt project.〔("Wildgans", "Libelle", "Wespe", P.1106: bogus Messerschmitt Projects? )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Messerschmitt P.1079」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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