In March 1944, Blohm & Voss put forward a proposal to the RLM for a new asymmetrical aircraft, which could be used in a number of roles: fighter, destroyer, dive bomber and reconnaissance. Blohm & Voss had previous experience with their BV 141 in building and flying asymmetric aircraft, and at the time they were working on the BV 237 and the BV P.179 , two other asymmetrical designs from Dip. Ing. Richard Vogt. This project was different because it featured a mixed propulsion scheme, that is, both propeller and jet driven, plus an internal bomb stowage in the main fuselage. As the original Blohm & Voss proposal stated:
"This arrangement gives the asymmetric aeroplane a number of advantages, the greatest being an unobstructed view for the pilot as well as the possibility of great weapon concentration. Also, it greatly reduces the torque moment produced around the vertical axis by the propeller in the single engined configuration. At take-off in particular this motion is expected to be less than half that of the BV141. After take-off the moment is reduced to less than a third and it completely disappears at high speed cruise settings."The BV proposal went on to say that the distance between the pilot and the center of gravity was 180 cm (5' 11") in the Bv 141, but that in the BV P.194 the distance had been reduced to 145 cm (4' 9") . Due to this, Blohm & Voss proposed that instead of calling the BV P.194 an asymmetric design, it should be more correctly called "a not fully symmetrical aeroplane"!
table below shows the advantages and disadvantages of various types of aircraft, as shown in the BV proposal.
Although there were several different designs for the BV P.194 (see table below ), the basic airframe was the same. The proportion of steel to dural was 62% to 38%, and the steel was not thin sheet metal, but a thicker steel sheeting that could easily be electrically welded. The main fuselage was of a rolled shell construction, with a internal bomb bay or camera installation. The bomb bay could hold a variety of bomb loads, as shown in the table below . A single BMW 801 D radial engine of 1700 horsepower was mounted in the front of the main fuselage and drove a three bladed 3.5 meter (11' 6") propeller. The wing spars are made of welded steel box sections, and also serve as armored fuel tanks, capacity of 2100 liters (555 gallons). Dural construction was to be used for the inner and outer wing panels, and the inner wing section is detachable from both the cockpit gondola and main fuselage. There are also three sets of landing flaps which are hydraulically controlled. The single fin is welded into the fuselage, and the rudder is constructed of Dural and is also hydraulically actuated. The cockpit is situated in a gondola located on the starboard wing, and is constructed of armored steel in the front and Dural in the rear. A single jet engine, either a BMW 003 or Jumo 004, is mounted below the cockpit and is angled slightly upwards. A conventional "tail dragger" landing gear arrangement was chosen, with the main gear retracting outboard into the wings and the tail wheel retracting into the fuselage; all were hydraulically retracted. Offensive armament consisted of two MK103 30 mm cannon with 140 rounds each and two MG151 20mm cannon with 500 rounds each, all mounted in the cockpit gondola sides and firing forwards. Due to the late date this project was proposed, and the worsening war situation for Germany, the P.194 development was not pursued.
* Data in tables for P.194.02-01 variant ** Height including jet engine † w/ methanol injection
| Span | Length | Height | Cockpit Gondola width - length - height** |
Bomb Bay width - length - height |
Wing Area |
| 15.3 m 50' 2" |
11.8 m 38' 9" |
3.64 m 11' 11" |
1.2 m - 6.4 m - 2.05 m 3' 11" - 21' 0" - 6' 9" |
1.0 m - 4.0 m - 0.65 m 3' 3" - 13' 2" - 2' 2" |
36.4 m² 391.8 ft² |
| Empty Weight Equipped | Flying Weight | Max. Wing Loading | Fuel Weight (BMW 801D - BMW 003) |
| 6500 kg 14330 lbs |
9150 kg 20172 lbs |
252 kg/m² 51.48 lbs/ft² |
730 kg - 1000 kg 1609 lbs - 2205 lbs |
| Max. Speed † | Rate of Climb † | Takeoff Distance |
Takeoff Speed |
Landing Speed |
Ceiling | Range | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
600 m 1968' |
180 km/h 112 mph |
150 km/h 93 mph |
11200 m 36745' |
|
Blohm & Voss proposal three-view drawing of the BV P.194
Click to get the bigger picture.
| Variant | Features | Span | Length |
| BV P.194.01-02 | - One of the MK103 30 mm cannon could be replaced by a MK412 55mm cannon - Engine mounted slightly below cockpit and fed by flattened air intake |
15.3 m 50' 2" |
12.1 m 39' 8" |
| BV P.194.02-01 | - Example described in main entry | 15.3 m 50' 2" |
11.8 m 38' 9" |
| BV P.194.03-01 | - Engine mounted directly behind cockpit and fed by air intakes on fuselage sides - Stepped tail unit - Redesigned cockpit nose |
14.3 m 46' 11" |
11.94 m 39' 2" |
| BV P.194.00-101 | - Two man version, pilot and observer/radio operator sat back-to-back - Engine as in P.194.01-02 - Stepped tail unit |
16 m 52' 6" |
12.75 m 41' 10" |
| 9 SC70 Total: 630 kg 2 SC250 Total: 500 kg 1 SC500 Total: 500 kg 1 SC1000 Total: 1000 kg* * (in overload condition, bomb protrudes slightly out of bomb bay) |
 |
| BV P.194.02 w/ 1 BT1400
|
BV P.194.01-02 w/ 1 SB800RS "Kurt"
|
 |
 |
|
BV P.194-03 w/ 2 900 liter drop tanks |
BV P.194.00-101 2/ 1 L.10/LT.1 "Friedensengel" |
