Bachem Ba 349 Natter

The Bachem Ba 349 Natter (English: Colubrid, grass-snake) is a World War II German point-defence rocket-powered interceptor, which was to be used in a very similar way to a manned version of the surface-to-air missiles under development in the Reich.

After a vertical take-off, which eliminated the need both for airfields and for trained pilots, and a time to altitude of 62 seconds to 12 km (7.5 mi), most of the flight towards Allied bombers was to be controlled by an autopilot. The primary role of the relatively untrained pilot was to aim the aircraft at a target bomber and fire rockets from the nose cone. After the attack, the pilot would dive his Natter, and using separate parachutes, the pilot and the fuselage containing the rocket engine would land separately. The nose section was disposable.

Prototypes were tested in level flight, towed and free gliding, and in unmanned vertical flights. The first and only manned vertical take-off flight, on 1 March 1945 near Stetten am kalten Markt, ended in the death of the test pilot, Lothar Sieber, as the canopy failed. During the one minute flight, about 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) were travelled in total, at a calculated average speed of about 800 kilometres per hour (500 mph).