Even before 1945, the German Air Ministry was in need of fast performing fighters to combat Allied bomber formations and called for a ramjet-powered fighter-interceptor design. Tank responded with his Ta 283 submission which utilized a pair of ramjet engines as well as a rocket drive unit to achieve take-off. While the design was headed by Tank, the airframe was drawn up by one Hans Multhopp - designer of the wartime Ta 183 "Huckabein" jet-swept-wing, jet-powered fighter as well as the American post-war Martin XB-51 jet-powered bomber. He also lent his design talents to the Martin X-23 "PRIME" lifting body aircraft for the USAF in the post-war years.
The end result was a slim, aerodynamically-refined aircraft with a noticeably pointed nose and a fuselage cross section not unlike the Messerschmitt 262 Schwalbe jet-powered fighter. The wing mainplanes were low-mounted along the fuselage sides and each incorporated 45-degree sweep along their leading edges. The cockpit was set over midships with decent views about the aircraft. A sole HWK 509A bi-fuel liquid rocket engine was buried within the fuselage to provide initial drive power on take-off with the ramjet pair - 2 x Focke-Wulf Pabst units - situated aft on the tips of the swept-back horizontal tailplanes. The single vertical tail fin was of a large-area design, emanating from the rear section of the cockpit (restricting views to the critical "six") while adding to the Ta 283's unique overall shape. A wheeled tricycle undercarriage was envisioned with the nose leg held at the extreme front end of the airframe and the main legs found under the center mass of the aircraft. The legs were all quite short in their design which promoted a very low profile for the aircraft when at rest.
Armament was to be 2 x 30mm MK 108 cannons and fitted under the frontal section of the airframe at the nose. The only recorded dimensions of the Ta 283 were a length of 11.8 meters and a wingspan of 8 meters. Maximum Take-Off Weight (MTOW) was estimated at 5,380 kilograms and other estimated figures included a maximum speed of 700 miles per hour with a operational ranges reaching 430 miles and a service ceiling up to 32,800 feet. Rate-of-climb was nearly 4,000 feet per minute thanks to the rocket / ramjet propulsion scheme.
As was the case with so many advanced, late-war endeavors by German aviation industry, the Ta 283 never material beyond its paper treatment by war's end in 1945. This left the design wholly unproven and helped it to fall into military aviation obscurity as one of the fantastic "Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe".
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