Emergency Fighter Program

Although opposed by important figures such as Luftwaffe fighter force leader Adolf Galland, the project went ahead owing to the backing of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring.

[2] In September 1944, the Volksjäger ("Peoples' Fighter") design competition was initiated to create a lightweight high-speed fighter/interceptor using a single BMW 003 turbojet engine,[3] and intended for rapid mass-production while using minimal resources.

[5] In November 1944 Blohm und Voss designed the BV P 213 Miniaturjäger ("Miniature Fighter") with the aim of producing a very small interceptor using the absolute minimum of strategic materials.

Since additional launch schemes would have to be added to the project, such as towplanes, catapults or rocket boosters, the goal of the P 213 would be defeated as complexity and expense would be far higher.

The designs of the Messerschmitt P.1110, Heinkel P.1078, Focke-Wulf Ta 183, Blohm & Voss P 212 as well as the official winner of the competition, the Junkers EF 128, were submitted by February 1945.

[9] The first prototype of the Messerschmitt P.1101 was 80% complete when captured at the end of the war, following which it was taken to America, with some of its design ideas used as the basis of the Bell X-5 variable geometry research aircraft.