SUMMER SALE - TWO JETS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE

Mistel (German for "mistletoe") was the larger, unmanned component of a composite aircraft configuration developed in Germany during the later stages of World War II. The composite comprised a small piloted control aircraft mounted above a large explosives-carrying drone, the Mistel. Several such combinations were made, but most used a modified Ju 88 as the “mistel” with a small fighter like the Fw 190 sitting on top.

The Mistels had the advantage that a lot of “boom” could be delivered without risking too many bombers and their crews; however, the composite was vulnerable when intercepted, and the modified Ju 88’s weren’t exactly cheap.
And so, at some point someone suggested to use a Me 262-based mistel –a simple fuselage packed with 3000 kg of explosives, without cockpit or landing gear- together with a Fi 103R “Reichenberg”.

The Fieseler Fi 103R “Reichenberg” was little more than a crewed version of the V1 flying bomb, produced for attacks in which the pilot was likely to be killed -it was basically a suicide aircraft, although officially the pilot was supposed to parachute out (yeah, right…).

This mistel combo was never actually built, but it does make some sense. Jet engines were simple and cheap to build, and so was the Fi 103R which would serve as a get-me-home for the pilot (or could be used for a suicide raid against the same or another target).

FLYING / CONTROLS

Takeoff is fairly easy. The mistel has no landing gear; its transport trolley takes over that function, and it’s automatically dropped on takeoff. Forget about ever landing the combo again; you’ll have to drop the mistel first.

Hitting something with the mistel isn’t easy. The closer you get to the target before releasing the mistel, the better your chances of scoring a hit… and getting destroyed in the blast yourself. I got better at it through trial and error; get to know the mistel’s behavior after release, try various attack speeds and angles etc… after some time I managed to hit relatively small targets such as ships with some accuracy from a few km away.

Controls, except for the standard flight controls and flaps & trim, are few; AG1 unlocks the trolley’s front wheel for steering, but you shouldn’t really need that. AG8 dropt the mistel, and that’s that.

Oh, and: you can cheat if you get frustrated after a number of botched bombing runs. If you switch to Cam 1 (mistel chase cam) and press AG8 again after mistel release, you can control the mistel and guide it to target. The Fi 103 should be fine for a short time without control.

The real trick, though, is to hit stuff with an unguided mistel.

Good luck!