The Last WW2 Wonder Weapon - Project Natter 

EVERY time a clip of film shows a WWII plane (and sometimes more modern jets) in a dive or crashing, they play a Stuka's Jericho Trumpet.

The idea of interceptors using rockets to shoot down large bombers have always interested me Aircraft such as the natter, scorpion, and Sabre dog have always been some of my favorites

People really don't realize how bad the fuel shortages were, crazy to think at that point the Germans still thought they had a chance.

19:31 so basically they tried to avoid demonetization before youtube demonetization even exist?

the pine tree platforms are dank af. Damn, they were very desperate.

I've always been fascinated with this aircraft and the entire concept. This video is one of the most complete explanations of the program. Thank you for putting the time, effort and research into it. Keep up this fine work.

I serve at the base where the natter was built even the place where it started is still there and original parts of it are in the nearby museum

Only T-Stoff rocket oxidiser would have been diverted to the V1 programme, because it was used to power the catapults that launched the V1s. T-Stoff was mainly highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide, which would decompose to steam and oxygen on addition of a suitable catalyst (Z-Stoff). T-Stoff was very dangerous to handle, because it would react with most organic materials including human flesh and clothing. Special protective rubberised suits were used by the people handling T-Stoff. The C-Stoff rocket fuel (a mixture of methanol, hydrazine and water, with a small amount of catalyst) was not used in the V1 programme. The main V1 fuel was low grade gasoline, used to power the pulse-jet engine. The V1 didn’t have a rocket engine.

Well done, and Thank You for this thorough, interesting and well edited presentation of this obscure aircraft..! At the 19:05 mark - The young lady pictured with (Erik Bacham sp?) is the famous German aviatrix and test pilot Hanna Reitsch. She was very talented, an ardent Nazi, carried the Luftwaffe rank of Flugkapitan with Iron Cross, and piloted the last plane to depart Berlin after trying to convince Hitler to seek safety. Her Arado Ar-96 was fired upon by the nearby Soviet 3rd Shock Army as it escaped from an improvised airfield in central Berlin. She survived the war and although her racial stance apparently softened, her devotion to the 'Fatherland' remained firm til her death in 1979.

A lot of info i would love if you were my History teacher. Keep it up Iron.

Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.... yes including the ones you have to split the plane in two

I wonder how long until people start spamming Gaijin to add this to War Thunder

i like this please make more

This craft in German pilot lingo was short for -- your life voesn't Natter.

It's marvelous to see someone finally posting video about the Natter. And I say that because it astounds me that for all the documentaries The History Channel aired, in the USA, over the past 25 years about WW II, with going to lengths about the German super weapons, experimental weapons, exotic Luftwaffe aircraft . . . the Natter was noticeably absent from those History Channel TV programs . . . as if the Natter never existed! I was aware of the Natter from print publications of decades ago, but this is the first I've seen of it on film/video. Thanks for this post!

Project Natter...For a moment i thought the Nazis had grabbed my mother-in-law and weaponised her.

must be hell of a ride.... here's yours plane, a rocket on a tree frame with no landing gear... must need some pevitin to get into that

I really don’t get the whole idea of premiers on RU-vid.

Very acurate information and thus super informative. I acctually didn't know the part that those pictures with Swastykas on the natter are actually false. You can see the work you put into this video. Everyone loves it !

8:48 'Built into a stripped down pine tree.'.. damn 9:58 gotta love those takeoff wheels 12:00 'Thats around the height of nelsons column.' A nice reference for the lads who realized how quickly paintballs slow down when you shoot straight up at a statue.

Iron do a kv2 carrier landing :D

These pilots were very brave men. A very risky exercise.

have to say the 262 has to be one of the coolest looking jets tho

Excellent post, thanks for sharing it. Great Natter and Komet footage.

VERY NICE documentary. Informative and fascinating.

This is some amazing footage you found

Great video with details I haven't heard on other videos on the topic. Earned my subscription!

I got to see one of the only two remaining in storage about 15 years ago or so. A neighbor of mine works/worked for the National Air and Space Museum preservation hangar, and invited a friend and myself to see it. We were about 11-13 years old, so I can't remember much (other than getting to see Neil Armstrong's space suit up close) but I'd never forget that bizarre honeycomb pattern of launch tubes up front.

What a well put together video.

Listening to the US Airmen talk about their first contact with the HE 162 is awe inspiring.

Absolutely Excellent! I truly thank you for this upload. Subscribed!

Kermit Weeks has one of these planes at his museum in Florida. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it stored on a upper level of one of the hangers at Fantasy of flight museum. They let me go up to the second floor and take a good look at it. Very crude construction.

Really great historical documentary. Very professional, you make David Attenborough appear like an amateur :)

No natter November

this is one of the best videos i have seen in a very long time

Great video man, that's funny he made guitars that break apart. I,LL have to check out more of your stuff.cheers

Look up Operation Krokus for the April 1945 attempt by the SS _Luftkorps_ to operationally deploy 6-8 Natters

Amazing innovative designs, the Germans were clearly ahead in rocket research.

AWESOME VIDEO...and many thankyous for not using a comp voice in place of your own voice. Soo many people do it cause their accent or broken English. VERY WELL DONE !!

Kermit Weeks has one of these aircraft at his museum in Florida. I saw a natter there about eight years ago. It was located on the second floor of one of his hangers. I spotted it while I was standing outside of the main hanger door as I looked up to the second floor railing. I asked someone if that was indeed a natter and they said it was and asked if I wish to go up to have a good look at it. On closer examination I was surprised how simple it’s construction was. In fact it was very crude. The rocket motor was out of it but they said it was in storage somewhere, maybe in the engine wear house? The nose cone was off of it and you could see where the 24 attack rockets would have been placed. Over the years I’ve looked at all the captured natter photos taken in the mountains right after the the area was captured. I did not see one fuel trailer in any of the photos taken. Nor did I see a a complete launch tower of any kind. As far as I know there were only a couple of places that could manufacture the fuel. One was located on the Baltic shore line and one other was at a plant that was used to manufacture poison gas. I knew of the poison gas plant because I knew a American soldier who would ride a train from the poison gas storage location and plant after the war. The gas was loaded on ships and dropped into the ocean. The Germans had stockpile a great deal of gas and then switched some equipment over to produce fuel. Years ago I found a web site that had photos of what remains of the plant. The web site and the location of the plant escapes me now. Come to think of it I don’t remember him saying where it was he just had photos of the remaining structures.

Natter doesn't mean snake but is a type of snake. In German snake is "Schlange"

7:45 they’re called elevons, short for elevator-ailerons

Thanks for a good video. One Inaccuracy, the V1 only had a couple of solid rocket boosters and the main engine was a pulse jet which used used kerosine, not T stoff or C stoff. The V2 did though.

I remember reading about this aircraft program years ago. One thing that stuck with me is when it mentioned that the C-stoff and T-stoff containers leaked, (probably from vibration) after a test flight. The pilot was found later. He'd been partially burnt, dissolved by the highly oxidative nature of the rocket fuel.

Theirs no way to say this without setting myself up... i’de love to try that Ball Gunner position...

Acme® Rocket Planes - We're gonna catch that roadrunner this time.

First time I see a video that gives this plane more than a few minutes, thanks.

One of the test pilots of the unpowered flights, Erich Klöckner, actually lived in my hometown until his death in 2003. Sadly, I didn't get a chance to meet him. Look him up on Wikipedia, he was quite the interesting personality!

Another reason why middle/late war German vehicles were so u reliable was due to how they were made. Most were made by forced labor, Jews, Russians, and other “undesirables” who were selected for work would build them. They weren’t stupid either, they knew how to sabotage parts and get away with it. They also helped massively with the allied war effort but often goes forgotten. Let’s take a min to remember all those who helped fight the axis powers

7:52 I wonder what the story behind the steak restaurant is.

nice subtitles dude, they're top notch.

Great research; nice job!

Well, early jet engine short lifespan is actually an inflated myth. It WAS bad, but not THAT bad. There are three factors people forget: 1)jet engine is in fact of simpler design then a normal one even a radial one. Add things like turbocharging and autocannons in engine block and you'll see why jets were simpler and thus cheaper and easier to make. 2)life expectancy of said normal engines already pushed to their limits themselves was going as low as 100 hours. 3)people mistake service life and maintenance terms. Jumo-004A was easily going beyond 100 hours on the first ones and was checked once in 50. 004B ie the one build without alloys had maintenance terms lowered to 25 hours, BUT it could survive for several checks. It wasn't JUST 25 hours, it was often 50 or even 75+ hours of service life.

" we want volunteers to pilot a Natter ? " ............tumbleweed...........clock ticking loudly..........leaves rusting on trees.........coughing.....

hahaha lol the guitar bit made me chuggle :D

The first flight of that thing was in my hometown and there's a replica of the Natter (+ some original parts) in the local military museum. Btw Schlange means Snake. Natter is just the name of a snake familiy (colubrid/colubridae).

A very good video, I recommend it highly Worth the effort

Finally, I have been waiting for a good video on the natter since 1170 AD

@8:30 The Saint-Nazaire submarine base was bombed several times. It was built with a half million cubic meters of reinforced concrete. The Americans and British used their largest bunker busting bombs available at the time, they did no damage to the bunker or anything inside. It was never destroyed and no u-boats were harmed while inside the bunker complex. In fact it is still there and you can see the pockmarks on the roof where bombs hit it. Wikipedia says: "The roof is 8 metres deep, featuring four layers: the first one is a 3.5 metre sheet of reinforced concrete; the second is a 35 cm granite and concrete layers; the third is a 1.7 metre layer of reinforced concrete, and the fourth, is a "Fangrost" layer of steel beams, 1.40 metres deep."

Just a small correction, Natter is just a kind of snake. Schlange actually means snake in German.

I would love a User Mission with this plane in War Thunder

The V1 didn't use rocket fuel. It's ramjet ran on gasoline. I think you meant V2 when talking about contention for rocket fuel.

I remember this thing was in battlefield 1942 and it was one of the hardest things to fly

That girl in the picture at 19min 14sec is Hanna Reitsch. Her autobiography, The Sky My Kingdom is a very good read.

So he went on building rocket propelled guitars after the war? 😉

3:00 Warcrime?

5:37 that's some pretty cool footage of a Natter being constructed, considering how few were made.

An Austrian friend of mine once found some Natter bits in the mountains. Written on the tail was something like "If found, please ring the nearest police station."

Pilot of one of these...a Nutter in a Natter.

9:13 "Prop planes take ages to gain altitude." 9:15 "It also requires a long time to climb from ground level to high altitude." Ya think?

By the way, the last surviving intact Natter is in storage with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air And Space Museum Garber facility in Silver Hill, Maryland, awaiting its turn to be on static display. Reason why the Smithsonian’s got it is because it was captured by American soldiers in southern Germany.

Well done Iron Armnian. Good you tell the story about the Natter to so much interested people - and I forgive you to put some sequences of our documentary "Project Natter" into your film. Hopefully others will be that fair, if you show their film sequences without permission!

The only way this is a "wonder weapon" is when you wonder where they found someone daft enough to fly it.

Did you get the natter

A very good informative video I liked it and want to see more videos like this

Ornament= decorations or jewellery worn as a visual enhancement. Armament=weapons and weapon systems used for offensive or defensive operations

Natter doesn't mean snake its a type of snake. The german word for snake is Schlange

"Arnement" LOL

Lovely work, with the rockets were they not looking at self destructing rockets similar to a Flak shell too to make a barrage that would take out parts of the formation?

Nice informative videos!

No Nat November

Blacknatter - ich habe ein cunning plan.

Fantastic information ," very informative information on the previous Generation and their Technical prowness

My old boss at NAMRL was in charge of that part of Operation Paperclip that was investigating the Natter.

2:59 Roadkill

9:36 Armenian “they are still very vulnerable on takeoff and landing” Me “HAH our op asf AAA will take out the enemy planes!” that is when u know that you play too much War Thunder

Hey, idk if u will see this, but can u please make a video about the Sg 500 Jagdfaust, it seems right up your alley for weird German wonder weapons.

In regards to the V2. The “V” term Vergeltungs means more like Reprisal. The idea was to inflict such damage to British cities that an end to the allied bombing campaign on German cities could be negotiated. From the 10,000th V2 production was to only require 4000 man hours per unit so a workforce of 20,000 could produce 1000/month (actual target was 5000). These final V2 used plastic fuel tanks to save on materials. These V2 also would have replaced the basic LEV-3 with the more accurate SG66 gimballed platform guidance with cross wind compensating accelerometers and a radio beam riding system called “vollcircle” that road a pencil like beam. Both Vollzirkle and SC66 were to place the V2 within 500m. (Vollzirkle should be mistaken with Victoria beam that was two dimensional only and lacked refinements such as radar cut of of Motorrad beam). The winged A4R actually flew and nearly doubled range. Since it used a blind bombing radar transponder in the terminal phases and was expected to be guided within 90 meters of target. Just think of 1000 V2 hitting Britain per week.

I wish i could time travel to comment 6 days ago... :(

Did it nut?

Quite an interesting history of a weapon I have only seen pictures of.

its good my dude, keep it up

Meanwhile the British were developing a rocket propelled exploding wheel, while the Germans were messing around with autopilot. I see a tech disparity here.

Me-163 more reliable? Ouch

Yeees. Last time, in the video about the german SPAAGs, you sayed Mark instead of Maschinenkanone. Now you've learned it, mum is proud of you.

yey u finaly did a vid about THE NATTER PROGRAM

Btw I've got 1/48 scale model of Natter with launch tower.

RIP letter "r"

It might be of interest, that after the war Mr. Bachem founded a company that produced mobile homes. The name for this caravans is: Eriba. That is the short name of "ERIch BAchem". These Caravans are still produced until now! They did not change their look substantial up to now and have a very good reputation.

Great vid