Nazi Germany Built the World’s First and Only Coal-Powered Airplane to Ram American Allied Bombers

Table of Contents

• The Lippisch P.13a: A Visionary Coal-Powered Aircraft from WWII

• Germany's Fuel Shortage Solution: Coal Granules in a Ramjet Engine

• Could the P.13a Have Worked? The Unfinished Prototype and Its Legacy

The Lippisch P.13a: A Visionary Coal-Powered Aircraft from WWII

This was the Lippisch P.13a, a plane that could have existed if it had been built and proven functional. Alexander Lippisch, the designer, envisioned a flying wing with the pilot sitting inside an oversized tail fin. The plane was unarmed but heavily reinforced to ram enemy bombers. After ramming, the pilot would bail out. In later versions, landing skids were added for possible landings.

Germany's Fuel Shortage Solution: Coal Granules in a Ramjet Engine

Germany faced a severe fuel shortage in the final years of the war, so Lippisch proposed using coal granules in a ramjet engine. The plane would need a tow or catapult launch to reach the speed needed for the ramjet to activate. Air would be sucked into the nose, compressed, and funneled into a combustion chamber. There, the burning coal, held in a rotating metal cage, would heat the compressed air, causing it to expand and shoot out the back, propelling the plane forward.

Could the P.13a Have Worked? The Unfinished Prototype and Its Legacy

The concept sounds wild, but could it have worked? We'll never know, as the war ended before a prototype was fully completed. Ramjets today function and can use solid fuel. A life-sized glider model of the P.13a was built during the war, completed by the Allies, and tested in a wind tunnel. The original design had issues, but nothing insurmountable. Though it's unlikely a plane built with mid-40s technology in war-ravaged Germany would have worked perfectly, the fundamental principles behind Lippisch's idea were surprisingly sound and have been used by the Western powers during the Cold War.