8. VTOL Planes That Could Have Attacked From Anywhere
The Nazis were also developing vertical take-off/landing (VTOL) aircraft decades before the British came up with the Harrier Jump Jet. With these planes, the speed and cheapness of a fixed-wing aircraft would have been combined with the obvious advantages of a helicopter. That main advantage being the aircraft can take off and land without runways. This VTOL plane, called the Focke-Achgelis Fa 269, was a one-person fighter designed by Heinrich Focke in 1941. The plane had tilting rotors that pointed down for take-off and pivoted to the rear for flight, pushing the craft forward. Focke-Achgelis got as far as building a full-size model of the craft and demonstrating the VTOL concept. Again, the Allies bombed the project, setting the work back years. The project was postponed indefinitely in 1944 when the manufacturer said a prototype couldn't be completed before 1947. Had the factory escaped Allied bombing, VTOL aircraft could possibly have been deployed before the end of the war. Using the ability to land in any medium-sized clear area rather than returning to an airfield, the craft could have been more rapidly refuelled and rearmed, providing the Nazis with a vital tool for quickly attacking advancing Allied troops. With the constant threat of attack from above by a Luftwaffe craft that could hover and pick its targets, the Allied ground offensive could have been severely slowed down. Assuming Hitler could have found enough fuel for their petrol-guzzling sorties.