Messerschmitt's "Enzian"
Walter 109-739 Motor
Walter RI-203 Motor

Enzian was a surface-to-air, powerful anti-aircraft missile designed to be fast enough and powerful enough to bring down a high flying enemy bomber with a proximity burst.

Designed by Dr. Wurster of Messerschmitt AG, "Enzian" (as it became in 1944) was originally designated FR-1 - "Flak Rakete 1". The FR series went through a number of design changes through 1943 until the FR-5 upon which Enzian-1 was based. The missile was a cylindrical body carrying a pointed warhead, with a pair of wings and upper and lower fins set at ninety degrees to the wings.

Description.

The 1943 proposal was for a winged missile carrying a 1,000lb warhead, with potential for development into a supersonic missile, or ground-to-ground and anti-tank weapon. Experiences in the Messerschmitt test squadrons convinced Dr. Wurster that even direct strikes with small warhead air-to-air rockets were often insufficient to fatally damage bombers.

"We had the RZ210 under the wings [of our aircraft], this being a 21cm shell with jet propulsion. Our operations with this unit were without success, although the number of hits scored was quite good as far as could be judged throughout the district. We have come to the conclusion that a payload of this size is insufficient for such purposes."

Enzian was therefore designed with a size, low structural weight and power combination which meant that homing heads, proximity fuses, wireless, batteries, control mechanisms and a large payload could all be comfortably carried to height.

Enzian was powered off the launch ramp by four Rheinmetall-Borsig solid fuel booster rockets, with the main engine being a Walter 109-739 bi-fuel motor, burning SV-Stoff (90% Nitric Acid - HNO₃ and 10% Sulphuric Acid - H₂SO₄) and Ergin (brown coal benzene). Walter took on the design of a completely new motor, specifically for this project.

However, when Enzian airframes were being completed for testing, the Walter HWK 109-739 was not ready, so the FR-5 derived Enzian-1 was fitted with an adapted Walter RI-203 assisted take-off motor for flight trials.

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