| Heinkel Lerche | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Type | Tail-sitter Fighter |
| National origin | Germany |
| Manufacturer | Heinkel |
| Designer | |
| Status | Paper project only, never built |
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(July 2011) |
The Heinkel Lerche (English: Lark ) was the name of a set of project studies made by German aircraft designer Heinkel in 1944 and 1945 for a VTOL fighter and ground-attack aircraft.
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The Lerche was an early coleopter design. It would take off and land sitting on its tail, flying horizontally like a conventional aircraft. The pilot would lie prone in the nose. It would be powered by two contra-rotating propellers which were contained in a doughnut-shaped, nine-sided annular wing.
The design was developed starting 1944 and concluding in March 1945. The aerodynamic principles of an annular wing were basically sound,[ clarification needed ][ citation needed ] but the proposal was faced with a host of unsolved manufacture and control problems which would have made the project highly impractical, even without the material shortages of late-war Nazi Germany.
