The Lippisch DFS 193 never reached the flight line. Conceived in the 1930s as a two-seat tailless experimental aircraft, it explored a practical question: could an unconventional layout offer a useful advantage over a conventional reconnaissance aeroplane? Its story also reveals how designers working towards the same objective could disagree about the best way to achieve it.
Watch: Lippisch DFS 193
A different approach to reconnaissance
Developed at the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug (DFS), the DFS 193 was associated with Alexander Lippisch and a DFS designer identified in published accounts as Roth. The design took shape around 1936 and belonged to Lippisch’s continuing exploration of tailless aircraft. Its basic arrangement has been compared with his Storch IX and with the Gotha Go 147.
The proposed aircraft used a high-wing configuration and accommodated two crew members. Published histories identify close-range reconnaissance as an intended application. Removing the conventional tail arrangement offered a particular attraction for that role: a rear gunner could potentially have a less obstructed field of fire.
That potential benefit was a design objective, not a capability demonstrated in flight. No full-size DFS 193 prototype was built.
Where the designers differed
Accounts of the project record differing views between Lippisch and Roth over its configuration. A more detailed technical history describes Roth’s 1936 proposal in terms of a two-spar wing, increasing wing thickness towards the root, a steel-tube fuselage and a particular arrangement of wing-support struts and landing-gear attachments.
These details matter because an aircraft layout is more than an aerodynamic outline. Wing structure, load paths, supporting struts and crew accommodation must work together. A promising concept on paper still has to become a coherent, buildable machine.
The disagreement is therefore best understood as a technical design debate. The available accounts do not justify turning it into a personal feud, or claiming that the disagreement alone ended the project.
From drawings to the wind tunnel
The proposed powerplant was an Argus As 10 C, rated at approximately 240 hp. This was a piston-engined research proposal, not a rocket aircraft.
A model was examined in the wind tunnel at AVA Göttingen around 1936. Technical accounts report concerns about lateral stability and discussion of wingtip modifications. Such investigations illustrate the central challenge of an unconventional layout: the expected operational benefit had to be balanced against stability, control and structural requirements.
Published summaries state that the tests did not establish a noticeable advantage over conventional aircraft. The project was subsequently abandoned, with 1938 given as the cancellation year in some accounts. The DFS 193 consequently remained a design and wind-tunnel investigation rather than a flying prototype.
Why an unbuilt aircraft still matters
The DFS 193 is interesting precisely because it did not become an operational aircraft. It captures a stage in which an unusual configuration was being tested against a practical military requirement, rather than pursued simply for its novelty.
Its history also provides a useful reminder about experimental aviation: a model test is not a first flight, a proposed specification is not a measured result, and an attractive theoretical advantage does not guarantee a successful aircraft.
For readers studying Lippisch’s work, the DFS 193 offers a small but revealing example of the choices behind tailless design. The aircraft that divided its designers ultimately remained on the drawing board, leaving a record of competing solutions rather than a flight-test programme.
Sources and historical context
This introductory article draws on published secondary accounts. It does not reproduce or claim to transcribe the embedded video. Detailed performance claims should be treated as proposed figures unless supported by original project documentation.
- Histaviation: DFS 193 project overview
- Airwar.ru: DFS (Lippisch) DFS.193 technical history (Russian)
- DFS 193: summary and bibliography
Historical and research information only. This article is not approved technical or operational guidance.