Prone III.

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Concluding combat aviation curiosity and oddity concluding. Another forlorn German effort of the concerted and determined attempt to counter what was deemed by the Nazi as the four-engine bomber problem.

BV 40 combat interceptor glider WW2.

"The Blohm & Voss BV 40 was a German glider fighter designed to attack Allied bomber formations during the time of the bombing raids over Nazi Germany."

"The BV 40 was the smallest glider that could accommodate an armored cockpit and two cannon [30 mm] with limited ammunition. By eliminating the engine and lying the pilot in a prone position (i.e. on his front), the cross-sectional area of the fuselage was much reduced, making the BV 40 harder for bomber gunners to hit."

"The plane was designed to use non-strategic materials and to be built in as short a time as possible by non-skilled workers. The fuselage was constructed almost entirely of wood."

BV 40 tiny indeed. Good image of a full-size mockup. Two-wheeled dolly used for take-off, "dropped once the glider was airborne. A skid under the nose was lowered for landing."

BV 40 towed by a German conventional fighter warplane [Bf 109] to an altitude above the bomber stream. Released, diving and attacking during a single-pass an allied bomber with the twin organic 30 mm cannon. Quite reminiscent if not almost identical to the attack profile of the rocket plane Me-163. Bv 40 then gliding to earth and safety.

"The BV 40 on paper had a number of positive characteristics; it was easy to make, could be available in large numbers, was cheap, well-armed and it did not need skilled pilots. But in reality, the poor performance, lack of a power plant, low ammunition count, and its vulnerability to Allied escort fighters showed that this was a flawed concept"

Bv 40 another one of many German wartime oddball aviation concepts during WW2. See the Internet web site Luft46 for details.

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