The BV 246, nicknamed Hagelkorn, was a German Guided Glide Bomb developed by the Blohm & Voss company, and was developed as an anti-bridge, anti-ship bomb at first.
The guided bomb was released from a Junkers Ju 88 or Heinkel He 111 bomber at a height of 7000m. The bombers should have carried three missiles at a time, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 could carry just one Hagelkorn at a time. They were released at a speed of 550 km/h and in flight the Hagelkorn reached speeds up to 900 km/h. Due to its good gliding capabilities it could reach a distance of 210 km after its drop.
It had a length of 3,53m and a wingspan of 6,4 m. Its total weight was 730 kg with a 435 kg explosive warhead.
The wings were made of magnesite cement, formed around a steel spar and was easy to construct without the use of strategic materials used in aviation construction for Luftwaffe planes.
Richard Vogt created the Hagelkorn in 1943 under designation BV 226 but it was changed to BV 246. Due to its poor accuracy the development was rejected. Development was restarted in 1943, the same year it was halted and the Hagelkorn was tested on the Karlshagen test centre where accuracy and performance were improved.
Photographed at the RAF museum Cosford England in 2017.
The Karlshagen test centre is at Peenemunde, at the same peninsula Werner von Braun worked on his V2 with his team and other engineers tested all kinds of Rockets and Missiles at his facility.
Results were not promising and the success of the V1 cruise missile in 1944 stopped the development of the BV 246 Hagelkorn.
In early 1945 though, the weapon was revived, and designated as an anti-radiation missile. It was outfitted with the Radieschen (radish), a passive seeker which homes in on the Allied Radar transmitters. This would guide the Hagelkorn towards its target and destroy the Radar transmitter.
Almost 1000 units were ordered but they were never operational.
