Designed by Heinrich Focke of the Focke-Wulf company towards the end of World War II, the project remained unbuilt before the surrender of Nazi Germany, but saw some development in the postwar years.

Towards the last years of the Third Reich, Heinrich Focke started design work on the Rochen, also known as Schnellflugzeug, as soon as he had the relevant data for the new German jet engines.

The Fw-Rochen would have achieved forward flight by vectoring the downwash from the propellers rearward through a series of louvers below them.

When fuel was added, the auxiliary combustion chambers acted as primitive afterburners, providing horizontal flight.

After the war, a wooden 1/10 scale model of the Rochen was built in Bremen and subjected to wind tunnel tests.