The Emergency Fighter Barely Bigger Than Its Pilot: Arado E.381

In this video, we take a look at the Arado E.381 Kleinstjäger, a bomber-interceptor / fighter aircraft from Germany in World War II. We first talk about the general concept of a small or micro fighter, how they can be useful, and what their limitations are. We then talk about Germany's Emergency Fighter Program, and how a great deal of bizarre rocket and jet powered "superplane" fighters were designed as a part of it... and then amounted to very little. We also talk about the general concept of a parasite aircraft and what the potential benefits are.

We then talk about the E.381, a parasite, rocket-powered interceptor that was one of the smallest fighter designs of WW2, barely bigger around than the pilot inside. We talk about the plane it was linked to in the Arado Ar 234, the first jet-powered bomber in the world. We briefly talk about the design of the Ar 234, before then talking about the several proposed designs of the E.381. We talk about their incredibly small size, and how they likely would have been used in combat. We end by talking about the failure of the project, and how they likely wouldn't have been terribly effective in taking out enemy bombers if they had been used.