War Machines Drawn: Arado Ar. Projekt I

Monday 18 April 2016

Arado Ar. Projekt I

This airplane was a consequence of the studies for a tail-less airplane conducted for the eventual design of the E.555 bomber and the E.581 proposal.

This design and the E.555 they both share some characteristics like the wing mounted fin and rudder assemblies which also served as boundary layer fences.
Coping with the 27th January 1945 specification, the initial idea was to design a twin-jet night and all-weather fighter that had almost a complete delta wing shape. However, in March of that same year, the requirements changed and, in order to follow them, the design was modified to make it broader just to accommodate a third crew member and to have bigger fuel capacity. From that moment on, it featured a swept wing and was submitted to the EHK in Berlin.
However, on 20/21st March the specialist from the RLM criticised the large, drag-inducing surface area of the aircraft and the unfavourable placement of the engines. Inmediately after that report, another design was proposed featuring a smaller and sharper swept wing, however only written reports of this last one proposal have survived.

It was going to be powered by two Heinkel HeS 011A turbojet engines, delivering 1300Kn thrust each of them, weaponry would consist of two forward firing 30mm MK213 cannons, two oblique upward firing 30mm MK108 cannons placed near the centre of gravity of the airplane and another two rearward-firing 30mm MK213 cannons in a defensive guns arrangement. It could have also carried up to 500Kg of bombs.

It's obvious that this design influenced some airplanes, like the American Vought F7U Cutlass carrier based fighter, which was a more orthodoxal design heavily based on this design.