Henschel Hs-132 Electric
The Henschel Hs 132 — the prone-pilot German jet dive-bomber prototype that the Soviet Army captured before its first flight — captured as an electric RC EDF scale model.
About
The Henschel Hs 132 is one of the most extreme designs of the late-war German aviation industry. The Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM) issued a specification on February 18, 1943, for a single-seat shipping-attack aircraft to counter an expected Allied invasion of Europe. Henschel's response was unusual even by the standards of late-war German prototypes: a top-mounted BMW 003 jet engine, retractable nosewheel undercarriage, and a pilot lying in the prone position rather than sitting upright.
The reasoning was unusual but coherent. A prone pilot could withstand higher G-forces during a steep dive on a target than a seated pilot could — and the slender fuselage that resulted from the prone-pilot layout reduced drag for high-speed cruise. The basic Hs 132A would carry a single 500 kg bomb and lack any defensive armament, beginning its attack from outside ship anti-aircraft range, accelerating in a shallow dive to 910 km/h (570 mph), tossing the bomb at the target with a simple computerized sight, and climbing back out of range. Wooden wings (made of strategic-resource-sparing materials) and a relatively simple structure stressed for 12g supported the demanding dive profile.
Three Hs 132 prototypes were ordered, with construction beginning in March 1945 at Henschel's Schönefeld factory. By the end of the war, V1 was nearing completion (essentially ready for flight testing), V2 was 80% complete, and V3 was 75% complete. The Soviet Army occupied the factory before V1 ever flew, and no Hs 132 ever took to the air. As an RC EDF scale subject, the Hs 132 is a rare and unusual choice — a paper aircraft that nearly became real.
In the simulator
An unusual EDF scale subject that captures the look of a never-flown German prototype. The Hs 132 in our sim flies with the kind of jet handling typical of late-war German EDF subjects in modeling — not the prone-pilot flight characteristics of the real (paper) airframe, but a respectable scale jet experience for pilots interested in the visual aesthetics of the aircraft. Pairs well with airport-class landscapes. A natural sibling of the Henschel_Hs-132 Jet variant in this same pack.
