Packed full of explosives and aimed at a target before the aiming aircraft on top released & flew to safety while the bomber exploded onto the target. The German Mistel S1 was an unusual instrument of war. ICM Models is making it in 48th scale. See what we know about the kit & the real thing in our preview...
Preview: 1/48th scale Mistel S1 (German composite training aircraft) from ICM
Mistel S1 (German composite training aircraft)
The Subject: Mistel S1 - the trainer version of Mistel 1
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, and as a whole was referred to as the Huckepack ("Piggyback"), also known as the Beethoven-Gerät ("Beethoven Device") or Vati und Sohn ("Daddy and Son").
The most successful of these used a modified Junkers Ju 88 bomber as the Mistel, with the entire nose-located crew compartment replaced by a specially designed nose filled with a large load of explosives, formed into a shaped charge. The upper component was a fighter aircraft, joined to the Mistel by struts. The combination would be flown to its target by a pilot in the fighter; then the unmanned bomber was released to hit its target and explode, leaving the fighter free to return to base. The first such composite aircraft flew in July 1943 and was promising enough to begin a programme by Luftwaffe test unit KG 200, code-named "Beethoven", eventually entering operational service.
All Mistel types were originally flown with standard nose sections. Later when the
configuration proved successful, the entire nose section could be replaced using quick
release bolts with the hollow charge warhead.
Here is a Mistel at the point of release...
Shown below is one of the early test flights with the Ju 88A-4 & Me 109F (CI+MX) The "S" Schulung (training) version had most of the equipment removed from the Ju 88 leaving only the equipment required for the 2 pilots.
The kit from ICM:
We do not have a lot of info on the kit as yet, but can assume that they take the donor kits of their very good Ju-88 and Bf-109F kits and add the connections to make it into a Mistel S.
There are two marking choices with this kit and we can see the features in the CAD drawing below...
That is all we have on the ICM Mistel S1 for now - You can see more about their range on the ICM plastic model kits website