DFS 346

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adrian

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When I was on holiday in Germany during May, I saw this model in one of the museums I visited:
076dfs346_2_small.jpg

It's the DFS 346, an experimental rocket plane designed by the Germans during WW2 but not completed. The design was taken over by the Russians, who did complete it, and dropped it from one of the B-29's which made emergency landings in Siberia during WW2 and weren't handed back. You can read more about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DFS_346

So I built a scratch model of the DFS 346. At first I kept it basic since, to get the tail looking even remotely to scale, I had to use a 13mm motor, for which the nose weight needed for a winged model like this would be heavy, so I wasn't sure whether it would fly.
230dfs346_small.jpg

It went up straight enough:
4794dfs346_launch_small.jpg

And then it weathercocked, not surprisngly:
4796dfs346_sky_small.jpg

But although it was on its way down before the A10-3T kicked out the streamer, the model DFS 346 did land safely. Which means now I can tidy it up, add a few details and paint it...
 
It flew better than the prototype.
The first versions of the real one failed to deploy the undercarriage skid; so did mine because I didn't fit one. :) The powered one, 346-3, flew well enough in a straight line, failed to respond to controls, was losing altitude and then the pilot ejected the nose to bail out. Mine doesn't have any controls but due to being overweight and underpowered, it was losing altitude when it ejected the nose. I'd say its flight was closer to that of the real thing than most model rockets. :lol:
 
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