Bachem Ba 349 Natter

what is it?

The Bachem Ba 349 Natter (English: Colubrid, grass-snake) is a German rocket-powered point-defence interceptor that was developed during the latter portion of the Second World War. The Ba 349 was to be deployed in a very similar way to a manned version of the surface-to-air missiles under development in the Reich. A typical mission profile started with a rapid vertical take-off (the time to altitude being 62 seconds to 12 km (39,000 ft), which eliminated the need for conventional airfields, while the majority of the flight towards Allied bombers was to be controlled by an autopilot, making it feasible to be flown by relatively untrained pilots.

🔎How to recognise it: 5 rocket engines · 4 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 1,000 km/htop speed
• range 60 kmwithout refuelling
• size 2,232 kgmax take-off weight
• built 36made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 81 years ago, in 1945.
• 🏎️Top speed is 7.7× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🏔️Can fly 1.4× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

rocket: Rocket propulsion: very fast, very short flights.

spec sheet

first flight

1945-03-01

number built

36

role

rocket-powered interceptor

origin

German Reich

makers

Erich Bachem

engines

5× Walter HWK 109-509C-1 / Schmidding SG 34

crew

1

length

6 m

wingspan

4 m

height

2.3 m

max take-off weight

2,232 kg

top speed

1,000 km/h

cruise speed

800 km/h

range

60 km

ceiling

12,000 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.