Red Skull’s Escape Vehicles (2011)

Focke-Wulf Triebflügel

This afternoon I saw Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). My favorite part of the film was the terrific production design, especially Red Skull’s research facility. The Red Skull has a mighty fine arsenal of Luftwaffe secret weapons. In the story, the aircraft were fabricated by Skull’s task force HYDRA, but the CGI vehicles designed for the film are based on real historical aircraft. The massive flying wing is loosely based on various Horten Brother designs (most notably the conceptual Horten 18 long-range bomber). Red Skull makes his first escape in a rocket-aircraft with a gyrating nose-cone. That’s the Focke-Wulf Triebflügel or Triebflügeljäger (literally a “thrust-wing fighter”). It was designed as a VTOL interceptor. Here’s some links on the subject:

http://www.nexusboard.net/sitemap/6365/ringflugler-und-hubjager-t296826/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focke-Wulf_Triebflügel

http://www.luft46.com/fw/fwtrieb.html

http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/rpav_germany_hr.html

http://www.strange-mecha.com/german/luftvaffe/LuftWaffe.htm