Blohm & Voss BV P.213

          In November 1944, a requirement was issued for a very simple, rapidly produced small fighter aircraft by the RLM. This Miniaturjäger (Miniature Fighter) program was to use the simplest and cheapest power plant available, and to have the minimum of strategic materials and practically no electrical equipment. The motive power chosen was to be the Argus As 014 pulse jet, the same power used for the Fi 103 Buzz Bomb (V1), and the Miniaturjäger was to takeoff and land conventionally. The plan was to be able to build a large numbers of these aircraft, and thus simply overwhelm the enemy bomber formations with their numbers. Only three firms participated in this design competition, Heinkel (with a pulse jet powered He 162 airframe), Junkers (with their Ju EF126 project) and Blohm & Voss with the BV P.213.
          The P.213 was to have a simple fuselage, made from armored sheet steel that was preformed in two halves. 420 liters (111 gallons) of fuel was contained in a fuel tank behind the cockpit, which had simple flight controls and no radio or other electronic equipment. Wooden construction was chosen for the shoulder mounted wing, which had a straight leading edge and tapered trailing edge. The tail unit was also made of wood, and angled down sharply. Behind the fuselage was a tail boom, which the Argus As 014 pulse jet was attached to by free-swinging brackets. The front of the pulse jet was also attached to the fuselage's air duct by a rubber mounting. This flexible mounting was designed to minimize the excessive vibrations that the Argus engine produced. To get the pulse jet to operating speed, either a catapult launch or solid booster rockets would be needed. The main gear legs retracted forwards and were supplied with 500 x 180 sized wheels; the nose wheel (size 260 x 85) retracted to the rear and rotated 90 degrees to lie flat beneath the air duct. Because no generator was included in the equipment, a provision for a small compressed air supply was included for retracting the landing gear, a small hand crank was also considered to manually crank up the gear. A single MK 108 30mm cannon was located in the fuselage nose, with the ammunition box (135 rounds) located on top of the MK 108 cannon. Due to the fact that the BV P.213's performance was less than existing Luftwaffe fighters and less than the competing Ju EF126's anticipated performance, the P.213 design was not pursued. In any case, the whole Miniaturjäger (Miniature Fighter) program was canceled a little over one month later, in December 1944.
 

Blohm & Voss BV P.213 Dimensions
  Span    Length    Height      Wing Area 
6 m 
19' 8"
6.2 m 
20' 4"
2.28 m 
7' 4"
5 m² 
53.8 ft²
 
Blohm & Voss BV P.213 Weights
Fuselage Fuel Wings Crew Engine Equipment Takeoff
175 kg 
386 lbs
350 kg 
220 lbs
100 kg 
2617 lbs
100 kg 
220 lbs
170 kg 
375 lbs
40 kg 
88 lbs
1280 kg 
2822 lbs
 
Blohm & Voss BV P.213 Performances
Max. Speed Rate of Climb Ceiling Max. Range Max. Flight Duration Takeoff Run
@ sea level 705 km/h 
438 mph
@ 6000 m 
19685'
625 km/h 
388 mph
 
18.9 m/sec 
62 ft/sec
7700 m 
25262'
170 km 
558 miles
23.6 min @  6000m 
19685'
 
unassisted 910 m 
2986'
assisted 360 m 
1181'
 
 
Blohm & Voss BV P.213 Models
Manufacturer Scale Material Notes
Airmodel   AM2071 1/72 Resin Nice detail, detailed history included on instruction sheet
Unicraft 1/72 Vacuform  

Original Blohm & Voss 1:20 scale drawing of the BV P.213
 
 
 

     Argus As 014 Pulsejet
 
 
 
 
 


 
 
 
 

   Front view of the Argus As 014 pulsejet, showing various details