[CLASSIC] n°32 Focke – Wulf Ta 154 Luftwaffe Reich Defence Day and Night Interceptor ** Like New**

On 1 July 1943, an intriguing and unique aircraft took to the skies from the Focke-Wulf works at Langenhagen. The sleek, twin-engined design was to represent the first attempt by the German aircraft industry in the course of the Second World War to design, build and fly an all-wood combat aeroplane. 

In this book, for the first time in the English language, aviation historian Dipl. Ing. Dietmar Hermann tells the story of the Ta 154.

The result of years of research, correspondence and interviews with surviving members of the Focke-Wulf design team and workforce, this is the full story of one of the Third Reich's most advanced night fighters. The driving force behind its gestation, Professor Kurt Tank, designer of the Fw 190, and a small team of superlative designers and engineers, combined state-of-the-art technology with elegant aerodynamics to create an innovative and potent warplane.

Inspired by the British de Havilland DH.98 which, as the Mosquito, later won fame as the 'wooden wonder', in 1943 the German Air Ministry issued a specification for an all-wood, fast attack-bomber to be powered by Jumo 211 engines. The firm of Focke-Wulf was awarded the contract and employed inventive methods for assembly in wood, but ultimately, instead of a Schnellbomber, the resulting Ta 154 would emerge as an experimental night fighter, similar to the Mosquito in construction, although it was fitted with a nosewheel. The Ta 154 also incorporated ejection seats, advanced avionics and radar.

When pitted against the competing He 219 and Ju 388 night fighters, the Ta 154 proved faster, reaching around 700 km/h. In addition to 23 prototypes, around 50 production machines were built with some preproduction examples also being converted to production standard. Examples were assigned to the Luftwaffe for operational night fighting trials, while plans were made to operate the aircraft as a bad-weather daylight interceptor and to develop an Fw 190/Ta 154 composite bomber formation destroyer. In this book, Dietmar Hermann dispels myths and criticism associated with the Ta 154 and, for the first time, reveals new and intriguing facts about this fascinating aircraft. With much previously unpublished material and specially commissioned colour artwork, this forms the most comprehensive study of the Ta 154.