Bachem Ba-349 Natter

The Bachem Ba 349 Natter was 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. The design team at Bachem-Werke GmbH for the Bachem Ba 349 Natter was led by Dipl Ing Erich Bachem, formerly technical director at Fieseler-Werke. The Ba 349 was designed as an inexpensive, semi-expendable, rocket-powered interceptor to deal with the waves of allied bombers bombing Germany late in World War II. The Ba 349 was built using glued and nailed wooden parts with an armor-plated bulkhead and bulletproof glass windshield at the front of the cockpit. The aircraft was launched vertically and 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 motor would then land using separate parachutes while the nose section was disposable. The Ba 349 was tested in early 1945. However, it never saw operational use due to Allied advances.

Initial test flights were undertaken by an unpowered glider prototype. Once these proved the stability of the aircraft, powered flights from a launch tower were undertaken. The first successful launch took place on 22 December 1944, followed by seven more. The last of these with the M22 prototype contained a dummy pilot. After being launched and reaching altitude, the aircraft separated, the dummy landed with its own parachute and the rocket motor descended with its own salvage parachute. Unfortunately there was still some propellant in the rocket engine and it exploded on impact.

The first and only manned vertical take-off flight of the Bachem Ba-349 Natter then took place on 1 March 1945 and ended in the death of the test pilot, Lothar Sieber. Investigations indicated that under the G forces caused by the launch, the control column was involuntarily pulled back, causing the Natter to become inverted at 15 degrees. At this point the canopy fell off causing the pilot’s head to strike the solid wooden rear upper cockpit bulkhead, and either knocking Sieber unconscious or breaking his neck.

A total of 36 test and operational aircraft constructed at the Bachem-Werk, with production A-1 models ready for deployment. The planned operational site at Hasenholz, south of the Stuttgart to Munich autobahn was abandoned with the approach of the US 10th Armored Division. Subsequently four Ba 349 Natters were captured by US forces at Sankt Leonhard im Pitztal, Austria.