Henschel Hs 132 Henschel ' s Hs 132 was a World War II dive bomber and interceptor aircraft of the German " Luftwaffe " that never saw service . The unorthodox design featured a top - mounted BMW 003 jet engine ( identical in terms of make and position to the powerplant used by the Heinkel He 162 ) and the pilot in a prone position . The Soviet Army occupied the factory just as the Hs 132 V1 was nearing flight testing , the V2 and V3 being 80 % and 75 % completed . Design and development . There had been interest in the idea of a prone pilot for combat aircraft to reduce the effect of " g " - forces during maneuvering . Several aircraft had already experimented with this layout for various reasons , the Horten IIIf had a prone pilot , but this was primarily to reduce drag in this high - performance glider , while the DFS 228 reconnaissance glider also used a prone pilot to make it easier to seal its pressurized cabin . It was not until the Berlin B9 was built specifically to test this arrangement for improved " g " - load that any serious effort toward development could be carried out . Starting in early 1943 , the Berlin B9 twin - piston engined experimental aircraft demonstrated that it was indeed possible for a pilot to fly the aircraft lying down , and that it did improve his ability to handle high loads . The pilot had an extremely restricted field of view upward or to the rear that made it suitable only for certain roles , including bomber s or fighter s or interceptor s with a major speed advantage over their opposition . Based on this research , several late - war German designs followed the B9 ' s lead and used a prone pilot . Better " g " - load performance was not the only reason , however , as this layout also reduced the frontal area of the aircraft . This was a serious concern for interceptors attacking the USAAF ' s B - 17 Flying Fortress , as calculations showed that the chance of being hit by its defensive guns was largely a function of frontal area . The genesis for the Hs 132 was an 18 February 1943 specification published by the German Air Ministry ( RLM ) calling for a single - seat shipping attack aircraft to counter an expected invasion of Europe . A piston - engined aircraft was called for at the time , but the performance requirements led to a switch to jet power . Henschel submitted their design for RLM approval in April / May 1944 , by which point they had already started wind tunnel testing the basic layout . The aircraft that emerged had a roughly cigar - shaped fuselage with short - span mid - set wings and a horizontal stabilizer with considerable dihedral ending in twin rounded rudders . The BMW 003 engine was mounted on the back of the aircraft above the wing , likely to make servicing easier due to the low ground height of the aircraft that put the engine roughly shoulder - height . The sharply dihedraled ' butterfly ' twin rudder arrangement kept the tail surfaces and rudder assemblies clear of the jet efflux . The cockpit was completely faired into the fuselage contour , with a rounded clear nose - cone on the front of the aircraft . Behind this was the actual " window , " a large armored - glass plate located some distance behind the extreme nose . The design in terms of engine mounting and tailplane bore a very strong resemblance to the contemporary " Volksjäger " " people ' s fighter " design competition winner , the Heinkel He 162 " Spatz " ( sparrow ) . The basic A model was armed with one 500 kg bomb and no other armament . It was to begin its attack in a shallow dive outside the ships ' range of fire , and after reaching a speed of 910 km / h ( 565 mph ) , the pilot would " toss " the bomb at the target using a simple computerized sight , and then climb back out of range . The aircraft was designed to withstand 12 " gs " during pullout . The computerized bombsight was not delivered in time to be fitted to the aircraft . Several other versions of the basic airframe were proposed as well . The Hs 132B used the Junkers Jumo 004 engine in place of the BMW 003 , and added two 20 mm MG 151 / 20 cannon s . The HS 132C was a more extensively modified version intended for bomber interception , featuring the larger Heinkel HeS 011 engine , two 20 mm MG 151 / 20s and two 30 mm ( 1 . 2 in ) MK 103 or MK 108 cannon s as well . The HeS 011 , intended to power a wide variety of new and existing Luftwaffe aircraft ( an example of the latter being the proposed D and P series of the Arado Ar 234 jet bomber ) , was still in the pre - production phase when the war ended . It was hoped that by the time the B model came on stream the " Panzerblitz " tank - busting rocket missile would be in production and able to be employed by the 132 . The missile - a radical adaptation of the R4M " Orkan " unguided air - to - air rocket used by the Messerschmitt Me 262 - mounted in its two models either a 80mm standard ( " Panzerblitz " I ) or 210mm hollow charge ( " Panzerblitz " III ) warhead . It was intended that the 132 would carry up to eight of the missiles , complementing or even replacing the cannon armament in the tank - destroying role . The 80mm model was tested extensively in early 1945 , using Fw 190 s as the launching craft , but neither it nor " Panzerblitz III " ( earmarked exclusively for the 132 ) were ready for use by the German surrender in May 1945 . The Hs 132D included a new wing of increased span . A contract for six prototypes was approved in May 1944 , and construction was begun in March 1945 . Hs 132V1 was scheduled to have its first flight in June 1945 , but the completed wings and fuselage were never mated , and Russian forces captured the intact fuselage in May 1945 while the wings were never moved from their factory in France .