Page 16 - Bike Torque January 2022

Test flight of the Natter. Pilot Lothar Sieber confers with Erich Bachem (left) about the rocketplane handling
qualities (questionable?) and climbs into the cockpit (middle). The Americans finally captured some (right).

By November 1944, just a few months later, Natter prototypes were ready for wind tunnel and flight testing.
Development was rapid because the wings were rectangular slabs of timber with no slats, flaps, or ailerons.
The only “controls” in its 18.7-foot-long fuselage was the firing system for the 24 air-to-air missiles stuffed in
its nose. The only aeronautics were in the cruciform tail, where the control surfaces on the four fins acted in
concert to provide yaw, pitch, and roll control. The HWK 109-509 liquid-fuel rocket engine (the same that
powered the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet fighter) did not generate enough thrust to launch a loaded Natter
349, so the design team bolted four Schmidding solid-fuel rockets to the aft fuselage to provide more lift for
the first critical 10 seconds of flight. 4 rockets and a jet engine on a wooden plane with no controls - what
could possibly go wrong?

Tests of the “craft” in late 1944 and early 1945, showed that Natters generally behaved atrociously. After a
single successful unmanned flight (lasting 40 seconds in total) on February 25, 1945, Himmler wanted
piloted tests ASAP. The “lucky” candidate was Lothar Sieber. In a desperate attempt to regain his officer’s
rank after demotion for drinking on duty, he volunteered for anything including hazardous, secret missions.
On February 26, Sieber strapped into his Natter preparing to make history. The turbine wound up to
16,000rpm, the 4 booster rockets fired and Sieber became the first person to ascend vertically on a rocket.
The rocket lifted off, the booster rockets fell to the ground, the craft then rolled into an upside-down position,
the cockpit canopy detached, the craft flew straight until it reached 350 feet where it made a sharp curve,
flew several kilometres, then dived vertically downwards with the engine still running. The impact sound
could be heard miles away and all that was found was a scorched crater 15 feet deep, a debris field and
parts of Sieber’s body.

Despite the hazards more volunteers came forward for test flights but strategic materials were so scarce that
even cement for ballast could not be obtained. Of the contracted 200 Natters, only 36 were built. Most were
expended in unmanned tests and six were destroyed by Bachem employees. In May 1945 American
soldiers captured four complete Natters, along with construction documents, rockets, and spare parts.
Sieber was buried on March 3, 1945, two months before Germany surrendered. And the jet engines and
plans? Well they probably ended up at Area 51 and NASA where ex-Nazis working for the USA developed
the rockets for the USA-USSR space race. Maybe even the SAME Nazis who built the Natter. Ain’t life
strange.
(Source: AIR & SPACE Magazine, October 2019)

Barn find
A "barn find" 1971 Ford XY GT is set to fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction. The all-
original V8 car has had just one owner and had been sitting for 36 years on blocks with just over 100,000
miles (160,934km) on the odometer. Finished in "yellow ochre", the car has belonged to one Australian
family and was passed down from the original owner to his son.
(Source: 14/12/21, www.9news.com.au)

That’s lovely and we are thrilled, but look what’s in the background. Any clues what they are? The bikes.
Not the truck.

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