BMW Strahlbomber II

The BMW Strahlbomber II was a German jet bomber design of the Second World War that stayed at the design stage. BMW drew up the project in 1944 to show that its turbojets could power bombers, alongside five fighter designs and four bomber designs put forward as a small advertising campaign after aircraft makers had turned to other engines. The Strahlbomber II was a flying wing, tailless with swept surfaces, powered by two BMW 018 turbojets mounted side by side in the middle of the fuselage. The crew was three: a pilot and a navigator seated in the cockpit at the front and a bomb aimer lying in a compartment beneath the fuselage. It had a retractable tricycle undercarriage, a radio-controlled two-cannon turret on top of the rear fuselage aimed from the navigator position, and a bomb load of up to 5,000 kg. Portuguese sources describe it as an intercontinental heavy bomber able to reach the Soviet Union or the United States.