Page Content (OCR)
(1888-1958), who personally encouraged the Hauptmann to design a small, fully functional prototype. By early 1941, Schriever’s blue- prints were being used to construct a proof of concept model in one of the company’s small workshops and it was called the V1 (Ver- suchs 1); informally the machine was also known as The Flying Top. With a diameter of about 2ft (61.0cm), The Flying Top is thought to have been propelled by a rotary fan, which was driven by an electric motor or possibly a compact two-stroke engine. By the middle of 1942, The Flying Top had been tested and the results were sufficiently promising to encourage the construction of a full-size piloted version, capable of controlled VTOL. Not surprisingly, this machine was called the V2 and as is usually the case with most prototypes, smaller specialist aeronauti- cal companies were employed to manufac- ture the more unusual components, while other parts were adapted from off-the-shelf pieces of hardware. The construction of V2 may have been undertaken in early 1943 at Heinkel’s Marienehe facility, or possibly at a company site in Czechoslovakia. Unfortu- nately, no records have surfaced which show verifiable details of assembly or indicate when the first flight took place, but if we assume that V2 actually existed, itis likely that Schriever flew it on at least one occasion. V2 has sometimes been referred to as the Flightwheel. Crude and undoubtedly rather fanciful drawings that date back to the late 1940s show a central cabin surrounded by a rotating wing. This alleged prototype may have had a diameter of about 25ft (7.6m) and there have been suggestions that a single sta- bilising fin was added to the central cabin section. The propulsion system can only be guessed at, but a strong possibility would be one or two Heinkel-Hirth turbojet engines. A very interesting incident that appears connected to this project took place at the Praha-Kbely Airfield (northeast of Prague), during August or September 1943 and involved the secret test flight of an unusual disc-shaped vehicle. During World War Two Praha-Kbely was a major production and repair centre for various Luftwaffe aircraft and it would later become a Warsaw Pact Mikoyan MiG-21 jet fighter base during the Cold War. It is now the largest aviation engi- neering facility in the Czech Republic. The event was witnessed by approximately twenty-five members of the locally based C-14 Flight School and details eventually sur- faced in the February 1987 issue of the respected German aeronautical magazine Flugzeug. The author of this article (who was a mem- ber of C-14) claimed that the group were acci- dentally exposed to the test flight of a disc-shaped aircraft, (referred to as the Alleged photograph of Richard Miethe, possibly ‘Thing’) which was moved out of a hangar, ‘@Ken ata prewar rocket test site. powered up and then made to undertake a Bill Rose Collection brief hover, followed by a short flight just above ground level. The disc was described as having an aluminium colour and a diame- _ tist who held the rank of Lieutenant in the SS, ter of about 20ft (6.1m). It was supported by ran this facility and undoubtedly had some four legs and had some kind of rotating com- degree of control over the flying disc project. ponent around the rim. Although the group Another possible recruit to the Prague team was immediately instructed to leave the area, was Klaus Habermohl, an aeronautical engi- members of C-14 were aware of a second neer, also apparently employed by BMW- test-flight taking place and it is tempting to Bramo in some capacity under Dr von link this report directly to V2, which remains Zborowski. The next rather questionable an interesting albeit unverifiable possibility. | member of this group is reported to have been There are further reports of similar test flights | Dr Giuseppe Belluzzo (1876-1952), an Italian at this complex, but no irrefutable documen- turbine specialist who also became heavily tation has been found. involved with right-wing Italian politics. By the spring of 1944 Schriever’s team had Under the continuing direction of fully relocated from Rostock to a couple of Schriever, the Prague Group set about design- small sites in Czechoslovakia, with most of _ ing and building a larger and altogether more the engineering and development work tak- sophisticated flying disc with the designation ing place at a facility within the Praha-Kbely V3. The Heinkel Company probably took complex. Without trying to jump to too many __ responsibility for airframe assembly and test- conclusions, it seems probable that Heinkel — ing, while BMW engineers worked on inte- (possibly in association with Skoda) had grated propulsion systems, which may have been operating a test facility for prototype air- accounted for most of the overall budget. craft at Praha-Kbely for some time. Joining Judging by the number of skilled engineers Schriever’s team were several aeronautical working for Avro Canada’s Special Projects designers and scientists that included the Group ona more advanced flying disc devel- somewhat enigmatic Dr Richard Miethe, who opment project during the 1950s, it is likely apparently worked on both the V-1 and V-2 _ that this unit comprised no more than about missile programmes. thirty to forty personnel. This is thought to have been at the Special- Although Heinkel had pioneered the gas ist Advanced Propulsion Section of BMW _ turbine, his organisation was widely per- Bramo in Berlin-Spandau, which was directly _ ceived within the RLM to be an airframe man- associated with the Peenemiinde rocket site. ufacturer. This is probably the reason why Dr Helmut von Zborowski, an Austrian scien- __ Heinkel’s Hirth Motoren engine company Alleged photograph of Richard Miethe, possibly taken at a prewar rocket test site. Bill Rose Collection 39 Heinkel-BMW V3 drawing. via Bill Rose German Wartime Flying Discs