As part of the Emergency Fighter Program (German: Jägernotprogramm), at the beginning of 1945, a programme was launched by the OKL for a new generation of fighter/interceptor aircraft in order to replace the He 162 Volksjäger.

The new aircraft was intended to have superior performance, in order to deal with high-altitude threats such as the B-29 Superfortress.

[5] The designs brought forward by other German aircraft makers were the Heinkel P.1078, the Focke-Wulf Ta 183 and the Blohm & Voss P 212.

A further development, the P.1111, with wing root intakes (a concept later adopted by the Republic RF-84F Thunderflash and F-105 Thunderchief) to overcome the power losses[6] and 45° sweep, was prepared in January 1945 but never built.

The Me P.1110 "Ente" (Duck) was a more unusual interceptor project with its cockpit located at the nose end of the plane.