Aviation of World War II

In order to counter RAF night bombing raids on residential and industrial centers in Germany, the Air Ministry ordered the development of a special two-seat night fighter, the requirements for which were set out in a specification issued in August 1942. The right to serial production was disputed by the all-metal Heinkel He 219 and Kurt Hank's Focke-Wulf Ta 154, which was a twin-engine monoplane with a high wooden wing. Ta 154 V1 with two 1500 hp Jumo 211N engines. With. and piloted by Kurt Tank, took off from the Langenhagen airfield in Hannover on July 1, 1943. A second Ta 154 V2 prototype was soon built with the same power plant, equipped with a FuG 212 Liechtenstein C-1 radar and a Mattress antenna. Both aircraft passed the test of controllability and flight performance. The third prototype Ta 154 V3 (Ta 154A-03/U1) with Jumo 211R engines flew on November 25, 1943; it was equipped with MG 151/20 caliber 20 mm for firing forward and MK 108 caliber 30 mm, mounted on both sides of the fuselage under the cockpit. Four more prototypes were tested at the Langenhagen airfield between January and March 1944, some of them equipped with Liechtenstein SN-2 radars. The remaining eight aircraft from the original order of the Ministry of Aviation were assembled in Erfurt under the designation Ta 154A-0.

Two serial Ta 154A-1 took off in June 1944, but one of the aircraft crashed after its wing fell off in the air. Tegofilm glue was used in the assembly of prototypes and pre-production aircraft, but when the Wuipertals plant that produced it was bombed, an alternative adhesive such as cold glue was used, which led to disastrous results due to penetration into the structure of the tree.

Eight Ta 154А-1s were assembled at a new plant in Poznan (Poland), but in August 1944 their production was stopped due to two more accidents of production aircraft. The following options existed in the drawings: Ta 154C with Jumo 213A engines, a sliding teardrop-shaped lantern and two 30 mm MK 108 guns with the Oblique Music installation (tilted, at an angle); The Ta 254A is a high-altitude fighter with an enlarged wing and Jumo 213 engines and a similar Ta 234B with DB 603 engines.

Several Ta 154A-1s saw action with Group I of the 3rd Night Fighter Squadron based at Stade in January 1945. They were equipped with the FuG 218 Neptune radar, as this type of radar was used for three unusual anti-bomber weapon systems. All Ta 154s used were filled with explosives, which were supposed to detonate in the combat formation of Allied bombers. One system consisted of an FW 190 attached to a Ta 154 in a back-to-back type, a manned FW 190 separated from the Ta 154 as bombers approached. According to another scheme, the "bomb" - Ta 154 was towed by a bomber. The third way was that Ta 154, stuffed with explosives, crashed into the formation of bombers, and the pilot catapulted down before the explosion. Six unfinished Ta 154s, designated Ta 154A-2/U3, were completed in this configuration at Poznań, but they never flew.

Photo	Description
	Drawing Ta 154 A-1/4 (with upwardly curved wingtip)
	Ta 154 A-1 on the ground

Brief technical description of Ta154

The Ta-154 was a cantilever monoplane with an upper wing of a normal aerodynamic configuration with a single-fin vertical tail. The engines were housed in wing nacelles.

Wing. Two-spar all-wood construction, one-piece in scope, was a single unit. Attachment to the fuselage - with four bolts. The relative thickness of the wing profile at the root is 16%. The front spar ran along the 23% chord line, the rear spar along the 70% chord line. Flaps - two-section slotted, metal construction with plywood sheathing. Flaps are driven by hydraulic cylinders. The frame of the ailerons is metal, the sheathing is plywood. The ailerons had aerodynamic compensation and were equipped with trim tabs. The toe of the left console housed a block of two landing lights. The air pressure receiver was also on the left console. In the toe of the wing between the engine nacelle and the fuselage there were ammunition boxes.

Fuselage. A wooden fuselage of oval cross-section, one-piece along the length, was manufactured as a whole from the first frame to the axis of rotation of the rudder. The fuselage nose skin and hatches are metal panels, the rest of the fuselage skin is plasticized plywood. The cockpit was in the bow. The crew of two was housed in tandem under a single drop-off part of the canopy that opened to the right (in the direction of flight) for entry and exit. There was a window on the left side of the lantern, and a handle on the binding. The radar operator sat facing forward. There was a folding step-ladder on the left side of the fuselage. Crew protection was provided by 50-mm frontal, 30-mm side armor glass, 12-mm armor plate on the first frame and 8-mm armor plates on the sides. The radar operator's seat had an armored headrest. The weight of the cab booking is about 150 kg.

Tail. Single-fin vertical tail, cantilever horizontal tail. The keel is made in one piece with the fuselage. The adjustable stabilizer is one-piece in scope, single-spar, all-metal. The stabilizer was rearranged in flight by an electromechanical mechanism. Elevators and rudders had a metal frame and linen sheathing. All rudders - with axial and horn compensation, the rudder had a trim tab, elevators - with plates adjustable on the ground.

Chassis. The nosewheel tricycle has a hydraulic retract-release system. The telescopic front pillar retracted back into the fuselage, while the wheel turned 90 ° and lay flat under the pilot's seat. The main struts of the linkage with an external shock absorber were retracted into the engine nacelles. The low landing gear height allowed the aircraft to be serviced without stepladders.

Powerplant. Ta 154 was equipped with 12-cylinder piston engines with direct fuel injection liquid cooled: Jumo 211 F, N and R, as well as Jumo 213A (had the same cylinder capacity as Jumo -211 - 35 liters, but the compression ratio, boost and revs have been increased). Both engines were equipped with two-speed superchargers. Dry weight Jumo211 -750 kg, Jumo213A- 885 kg. Reduction Jumo 211N - 0.645, Jumo 213A - 0.417. The Jumo211 engine used three-bladed wooden propellers VS11 with a diameter of 3.60 m from Junkers, and with the Jumo213A, three-bladed wooden propellers VS111 with a diameter of 3.70 m from the same company. The engine mounts are standard - two cast I-beams and two round braces. The oil cooler and the coolant radiator were placed in sectors around the engine shaft in front of the cylindrical engine nacelle.

The coolant had the following composition - 44.25% water, 44.25% glycol and 1.5% Schutzol 39 anticorrosive additive. Cooling degree control - by means of flaps in the form of a skirt. The blower intake was on the left. The exhaust pipes could be closed with flame arresters, which were attached to the hood with clamps. The entire nacelle had a metal frame and skin. Oil tanks with a volume of 116 liters each were installed at the rear of the engine nacelles. The oils used are Aero Shell mittel or Intava Rotring. The entire supply of B4 fuel (aviation gasoline with an octane rating of 87) was placed in two 750-liter tanks in the central part of the fuselage.

Armament. The attachment points on the sides of the fuselage provided for the installation of two 20-mm MG151 / 20 cannons from above with 200 rounds of ammunition per barrel and two 30-mm MK108 cannons under the MG151 / 20 with 110 rounds of ammunition per trunk. Cartridge boxes for MG151 / 20 were located in the wing, and for MK108 - in the fuselage. Aiming was carried out using a Revi 16B collimator sight.

Equipment. The standard set of aircraft radio equipment included a Lorenz communications ultra-short-wave radio station FuG16ZY with a ZVG16 radio compass unit, GEMA FuG25a Erstling identification equipment with a reception range of up to 100 km for interaction with an air defense radar type Wurzburg, radio altimeter FuGl0la from Siemens, blind landing equipment FuB12F from Lorenz and radio navigation system PeilG6 from Telefunken with radio compass APZ A-6. The communication radio station used a cable antenna and a Morane type antenna, the ZVG16 radio compass - a circular loop antenna under the rear fuselage, FuG25a equipment - a whip antenna under the fuselage, FuG 101а altimeter - 2 antennas under the wing, and APZ A-6 - a flat star-shaped multibeam antenna a round cover on top of the fuselage. The types of radars used are FuG212 C-1, FuG220 SN-2 or FuG218 Neptun. FuG350 Naxos Z receivers may have been installed on individual vehicles, picking up signals emitted by the British H2S bomber sight. Radar antenna types: Matrazen with four or one holder for FuG 212, Hirschgewein for FuG 220, 4 whip antennas on the wing for FuG 218.

Bibliography

• "Aviation of Luftwaffe" /Viktor Shunkov/
• "Encyclopedia of military engineering" /Aerospace Publising/