Luftwaffe 1946 and other Aircraft

These are models of experimental, theoretical, and conceptual aircraft from the waning days of World War II. The term "Luftwaffe 1946" comes from the question "what would the skies have looked like had the war lasted another year, if Germany had sufficient material to build their proposed designs?". These designs range from the very inventive and viable, to the desperate and far-fetched. I am fascinated with aviation in general, and to me, at no other point in aircraft history has a situation occured where a ground breaking invention (that of the jet engine) come at a time of such conflict. Germany rushed the development of their designs, in a desperate attempt to turn the tide of war with a "wonder weapon". In fact, the RLM would hold competitions between the competing aircraft manufacturers to see who could design/produce fighters or bombers to certain specifications.

After the war ended, the German scientists were divvied up and most landed in Russia, America, and Argentina. These men helped develop the space race, rocket technology, and in the case of Kurt Tank, the Russian Mig! The Horten brothers developed flying wings in the 1930s and 1940s that predate the B2 Bomber by decades, some of which are housed in the Smithsonian's Garber Facility in Silver Hill Maryland - my favorite being the Ho229. Hopefully this wicked looking plane will be restored one day... until then, I can satisfy my desire to see it by building the model.

I've only built a handful of the kits I own, but I will slowly chip away at them in the coming years. These are sometimes very bizarre and largely unrecognized designs, and the people who make these kits are usually garagekit companies in the Czech Republic. It's always a pain in the ass to locate these kits, and I usually just end up sending my money to some guy in a far-off land and pray the small brown-paper and twine wrapped box arrives on the porch, sometimes up to a year later. I haven't been disappointed yet, amazingly.

For more information, go to this excellent site - it will show you all sorts of amazing and bizarre aircraft - and some of them were actually built and flown! The models shown in my gallery make appearances, and you can read more about their histories, and even see photos of test flights, blueprints, or photographic documentation of how far along they got in the construction of prototypes.

Aside from the Luft '46 designs, my interest remains rooted in the more esoteric planes, most notably X-Planes and Proof of Concept projects.

The following are Luft '46 planes in my collection that I have yet to build.
Atom Bombs 1/72 Unicraft
Arado AR E555 1/72 Revell
Arado Ar E580 Volksjager 1/72 Planet Models
Bachem Ba 349A Natter W/Launch Tower 1/48 Dragon
Bachem Ba 349A Natter W/Engine and Crew 1/48 Dragon
Blohm und Voß BV141 B 1/48 HiPM
Blohm und Voß MGRP 1/72 RS Models
Blohm und Voß p.163.02 1/72 RS Models
Blohm und Voß p.170 Schnell Bomber 1/72 Planet Models
Blohm und Voß P.175 1/72 Unicraft
Blohm und Voß p.208 Schnellstjäger 1/48 Fliegerhorst
Blohm und Voß p.213 Miniaturjager 1/72 Unicraft
Blohm und Voß p.215 Nachtjäger 1/48 Fliegerhorst
Blohm und Voß Ae. 607 RS Models
BMW Flugelrad III 1/144 Unicraft
BMW TL Jäger III 1/72 Unicraft
Dornier Do335A-12 Trainer Anteater 1/48 Tamiya
DFS 228 1/72 Huma
DFS 346 1/72 Huma
Entwurf B 3 x 1000 1/72 Planet Models
Fiesler Fi.103 Reichenberg II 1/72 RS Models
Focke-Achgelis Fa-269 1/72 Alliance Models
Focke-Wulf p.V Volksjager 1/72 Unicraft
Focke-Wulf P.111 1/72 Unicraft
Focke-Wulf Ta-183 Huckbein 1/48 Amtech
Focke-Wulf Triebflugel 1/48 Planet Models
Focke VTOL 1/72 Unicraft
Gotha P-50/I 1/72 A+V Models
Heinkel He 162S 1/72 RS Models
Heinkel He 162A-2 Salamander 1/48 Dragon
Heinkel He 176 1/72 RS Models
Heinkel He 178 V1 1/48 Condor
Heinkel Lerche VTOL fighter 1/72 Unicraft
Henschel Hs P.75 1/72 Alliance
Henschel Hs p 87 1/72 Planet Models
Henschel Hs PJ.600/67 1/72 Unicraft
Horten IIIf 1/72 Sharkit
Horten VII 1/72 Planet Models
Horten X Kampfjäger 1/72 Sharkit
Horten XVIII 1/144 Unicraft
Horten XVIIIa Fernbomber 1/72 Sharkit
Horten XVIIIb 1/72 Sharkit
Horten Ho 229 A-1 1/48 Dragon
Junkers Ju EF.009 1/72 Unicraft
Junker “SFP” 1/72 Unicraft
Lippisch "Aerodyne" 1/72 Sharkit
Lippisch DM1 1/48 AMC Models
Lippisch P.11 1/72 Planet Models
Lippisch P.12 1/72 Unicraft
Lippisch Li.P.13B 1/72 Anigrand
Lippisch P.15 1/72 Alliance
Lippisch P.20 "Comet" 1/72 Planet Models
Lippisch P.116 1/72 Unicraft
Lippisch Gleiter Bomber 1/72 Planet Models
Messerschmitt Libelle 1/72 Unicraft
Messerschmitt “Schwalbe” 1/72 Unicraft
Messerschmitt Me-163B/S Komet 1/72 Academy
Messerschmitt Me-163B Komet 1/32 Hasegawa
Messerschmitt Me-262 A-1a Clear 1/48 Tamiya
Messerschmitt Me-262 A-1a 1/18 Hi/MPM
Messerschmitt Me-262 Three Seat Night Fighter 1/72 Special Hobby
Messerschmitt Me-329 1/72 Planet Models
Messerschmitt Me P.1073B 1/72 Unicraft
Messerschmitt Me P.1079/1 1/72 Unicraft
Messerschmitt Me P.1079/16 1/72 Unicraft
Messerschmitt Me p.1099 1/72 Revell
Messerschmitt Me p.1099 b/1 1-72 Revell
Messerschmitt Me p.1101 Testflugzeug 1/72 Huma
Messerschmitt Me p.1106 Rocket 1/72 Sharkit
Messerschmitt Me P.1110 “Ente” 1/72 Unicraft
Sänger Antipodal Bomber 1/144 Unicraft
Sombold So344 1/72 RS Models
Skoda Kauba V1 1/72 RS Models
Skoda Kauba V1a 1/72 RS Models
Skoda Kauba V6 1/72 RS Models
Zeppelin Rammer 1/72 Planet Models
Zeppelin V-7 Feuerball with launch base 1/72 Unicraft
Revell Uboat 1/72

Non Luft '46 Kits:
Avro Y-2 SilverBug 1/72 Sharkit
Bell X-22 V/STOL 1/72 Anigrand
Bell XV-3 VTOL 1/72 Anigrand
Chance Vought V-173 Flying Pancake 1/72 Sword
Chance Vought XF5U-1 Flying Pancake 1/72 Hasegawa
Convair XFY-1 Pogo VTOL 1/48 Lindberg
Curtis Wright VZ-7 Ariel Platform VTOL 1/72 Anigrand
Curtis Wright X-19 V/STOL Experimental 1/72 Anigrand
De Havilland TK.5 1/72 Dujin
Doak VZ-4DA VTOL 1/72 Anigrand
Farman F.1020 1/72 Dujin
General Dynamics A-12 Avenger II 1/72 Anigrand
Grumman X-29 1/72 Hasegawa
Grumman OV-1A/JOV-1A Mohawk 1/48 Roden
Hiller VZ-1 Pawnee 1/72 Anigrand
Hiller X-18 V/STOL 1/72 Anigrand
Kyushu J7W1 Shinden 1/48 Hasegawa
Lavochkin La-15 1/72 Cooperativa
LeDuc 021 Ram Jet 1/72 Mach 2
LeDuc 022 Statoreactor Jet 1/72 Mach 2
Lockheed F-19 Stealth Fighter (fabricated bat-like concept) 1/72 Monogram
McDonnell XV-1 (XH-35) Convertiplane 1/72 Anigrand
MiG 37B "Ferret E" 1/72 Italeri
MiG 105-11 EPOS 1/72 Anigrand
Miles M.52 1/72 AV Models
Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero fighter Zeke 1/32 Tamiya
Northrop HL-10 Lifting Body 1/72 Anigrand
Northrop N-9 MA 1/48 Sword
Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing 1/72 AMT/Ertl
Payen Pa-49B Katy 1/72 RS Models
Piasecki VZ-8P Airgeep 1/72 Anigrand
Ryan XV-5 (VZ-11) Vertifan VTOL 1/72 Anigrand
Snecma Coléoptère V.T.O.L. 1/72 Mach 2
Yokosuka MXY8 Akigusa 1/72 A+V Models