Heinkel Lerche

Heinkel Lerche
General information
Type	Tail-sitter Fighter
National origin	Germany
Manufacturer	Heinkel
Designer	Heinkel
Status	Paper project only, never built

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (July 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Heinkel Lerche (English: Lark) was the name of a set of project studies made by German aircraft designer Heinkel in 1944 and 1945 for a VTOL fighter and ground-attack aircraft.

The Lerche was an early coleopter design. It would take off and land sitting on its tail, flying horizontally like a conventional aircraft. The pilot would lie prone in the nose. It would be powered by two contra-rotating propellers which were contained in a doughnut-shaped, nine-sided annular wing.

The design was developed starting 1944 and concluding in March 1945. The aerodynamic principles of an annular wing were basically sound,^{[clarification needed][citation needed]} but the proposal was faced with a host of unsolved manufacture and control problems which would have made the project highly impractical, even without the material shortages of late-war Nazi Germany.

Figures below are given for the 'Lerche II' plan dated 25 Feb 1945.

Data from ^[1]

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Length: 9.4 m (30 ft 10 in)
• Wingspan: 4 m (13 ft 1 in)
• Wing area: 12 m² (130 sq ft)
• Empty weight: 4,500 kg (9,921 lb)
• Gross weight: 5,600 kg (12,346 lb)
• Powerplant: 2 × Daimler-Benz DB 605D V-12 liquid-cooled direct fuel-injected piston engines 2,000 PS (1,500 kW; 2,000 hp)
  

  or 2 × Daimler-Benz DB 603E V-12 liquid-cooled direct fuel-injected piston engines 2,400 PS (1,800 kW; 2,400 hp)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 800 km/h (500 mph, 430 kn)
• Cruise speed: 553 km/h (344 mph, 299 kn)
• Never exceed speed: 1,282 km/h (797 mph, 692 kn)
• Service ceiling: 14,300 m (46,900 ft)
• Rate of climb: 50 m/s (9,800 ft/min)

Armament

• Guns: 2 × 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108 cannon
• Missiles: 3 × Ruhrstahl X-4 Air to Air Missile (Optional)

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

• Convair XFY Pogo
• Focke-Wulf Triebflügel
• Lockheed XFV
• SNECMA Coléoptère

Related lists

• List of military aircraft of Germany
• List of World War II military aircraft of Germany

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Heinkel Lerche.

• Luftwaffe Secret Projects - Ground Attack & Special Purpose Aircraft, D. Herwig & H. Rode, ISBN 1-85780-150-4