Manufacturer: Heinkel

Model: He 642

Name: Hydra

Type: Flying bomb

Date:

Status: Project

Country: Germany

Service: Luftwaffe

Designation: (He 642)

By the end of 1944, the high-ranking officers of the German military command realized that the war was soon to be lost. In a desperate attempt to cause as much damage as possible, Colonel Hans Aplast suggested to multiply the range and hit capacity of the Fieseler Fi 103 (better known as the "V-1") by assembling several of them into one single weapon of destruction.

The project was given to Heinkel, given the company's expertise with large bombers, and the resulting machine (one could hardly call it an aircraft) was known as the He 642 Hydra (a name supposed to remind of the multi-headed guardian of hell in Greek mythology). The Hydra could fly as a combined entity or it could split into several separate V-1s when in flight.

Only one Heinkel Hydra was built in late 1944 and launched in February 1945. The experiment was a terrible mess as the contraption disintegrated in flight after 500 yards, crashing onto the mirador from which the officials were looking on and killing them all. Needless to say that Hitler immediately demanded that the Hydra project be called off and all related documents and photographs destroyed...

• Amazing concept there, and the dual engines for each V-1 makes it even better. Well done, have a fav. (Pixel-pencil)
• So frightening... Thanks to secret agents that made it disappear without being built... (Tophe)
• O-ho-ho! Its my favorite  Very courageous engineering decision. You the great visionary  (Waldemar-Kazak)
• This is great, but what about some kind of demented extension of the Mistel system the Germans had in WWII with, like, several 103's stacked atop one another trying to piggyback on one another? (Airrider1)
• It needs a prone kamikaze pilot, I think  (Ronnie Olsthoorn)
• Oh my!!! I think you might have gone off the deep end on this one!!!  Looks like even Hitler agreed that this was just too much!! I like your story with this one. God, what a contraption. This almost begs to be built into a model diorama with this wobbling into the air and starting to come apart, aimed at the mirador with the officials looking on in shock and even starting to futily run away. (dinobatfan)

That's the spirit, dude! LOL

Tophe found it frightening, but it didn't keep him from getting busy over it: "from your funny He-642, I have imagined a serious He-646 derivative, twin-boom of course: [link]"

Thanks a lot Tophe!