Further Developments
In late 1944, the RLM went to manufacturers for a new high-altitude fighter with excellent performance - the Ta 152H (a version of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190) was currently in limited production for just this task but Heinkel was contracted to design an aircraft, and Siegfried Günter was placed in charge of the new Projekt 1076.
The resulting design was similar to the He 100, but the many detail changes resulted in an aircraft that looked all new. It sported a new and longer wing for high-altitude work, which lost the gull wing bend and was swept forward slightly at 8°. Flaps or ailerons spanned the entire trailing edge of the wing giving it a rather modern appearance. The cockpit was pressurized for high-altitude flying, and covered with a small bubble canopy that was hinged to the side instead of sliding to the rear. Other changes that seem odd in retrospect is that the gear now retracted outward like the original Bf 109, and the surface cooling system was re-introduced. Planned armament was one 30 mm (1.2 in) MK 103 cannon firing through the propeller hub, and two wing mounted 30mm MK 108 cannons.
The use of one of three different engines was planned: the DB 603M with 1,361 kW (1,825 hp), the DB 603N with 2,051 kW (2,750 hp), or the Jumo 213E, designed from the start to have the same fluid service locations as the DB 603, with 1,287 kW (1,726 hp). The 603M and 213E both supplied 1,545 kW (2,072 hp) using MW-50 water injection. Performance with the 603N was projected to be 880 km/h (550 mph), in the same class as the Messerschmitt Me 262 pioneering jet fighter then entering evaluationary service, which would have stood as a record for many years even when faced with dedicated racing machines. Performance would still be excellent even with the far more likely 1,500 kW (2,000 hp) class engines, the 603M was projected to give it the high speed of 855 km/h (531 mph).
These figures are somewhat suspect though, and are likely just optimistic guesses that could not have been met - something Heinkel was famous for. Propellers lose efficiency as they approach the speed of sound, and eventually they no longer provide an increase in thrust for an increase in engine power. The only remaining gain of thrust can at this point from the piston engine exhausts. The advanced counter-rotating VDM design is unlikely to have been able to counteract this problem.
The design apparently received low priority, and it was not completed by the end of the war. Siegfried Günter later completed the detailed drawings and plans for the Americans in mid-1945.
Read more about this topic: Heinkel He 100
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