What Happened To The Stuka’s Successor?

The Blohm & Voss P 192 is a proposed dive bomber and ground attacker for the German Luftwaffe midway during WWII. What’s unique about this plane is that it looks like it’s wearing a necklace.

Early Days

As effective as the Stuka was, because of its poor speed and poor combat ability when not in a dive, it became increasingly vulnerable to enemy fighters.

This led to a plethora of proposed late-war dive bombers and ground attackers that would ideally be replacing the Stuka, providing some high-level ground support.

Design

The general design of the 192 was relatively odd and practical. Measuring 11.8 meters long, 13.2 meters wide, and 4.3 meters tall, the plane would have a low set wing around the middle of the fuselage.

The plane would have horizontal stabilizers halfway up the vertical stabilizer. The cockpit with a bubble-style canopy was at the front of the fuselage, giving the pilot excellent forward vision. Extending from both sides of the cockpit would be a smaller set of wings/support structures. These smaller sections would attach to the wing-mounted guns.

The armament would also be made up of four forward-firing guns perhaps five if they so desired. Underneath the fuselage would likely be 500 kg. of explosives. Propelling the P-192 would either be a Daimler Benz 603 or a Junkers Jumo 213 each with roughly around 2,000 hp.

Unfortunate End

Unfortunately, Blohm & Voss would never get the chance to test this rather unusual design since it was quickly rejected because of its oddness. The propeller placement would be too much of an unknown and the design would end as quickly as it started.

However. Blohm & Voss took the message that the plane’s design was too unconventional at heart and came back with another design 193, another unconventional design that was a little more conventional than the 192. The 193 also appears to be a direct derivative of the 192.