The "Mistel" was a German composite unmanned aircraft project during the second world war. It was composed of a fighter aircraft (Mostly FW-190's, used in its best form) with a larger unmanned plane below it (Usually JU-88's) packed with high explosives in the nose and cockpit, these were designed to destroy bridges and other important installations on both the eastern and western fronts. Eventually Mistels would be grouped into a special unit named KG-200 Code name "Beethoven" which eventually entered into active service. The Mistel was composed of the fighter and its unmanned component, they were combined by struts and the pilot would fly from the upper fighter aircraft, when he got close to his target he would release it. The explosives in the nose of the Ju-88 component was made as a "shaped charge", shaped charges are designed to penetrate armor and fortifications, in the case of the mistel this meant up to 7 feet of concrete! The Mistel was flown using a few different aircraft, most notably the FW-190 (Its main aircraft and the one you will always see) and ME-109's, however the HE-162 was seen as a possible candidate among other on paper projects (Lets save those for another World War 2 tech post though eh? :D). The most notable instances of Mistel use are the damaging of the French battleship Courbet outside the Normandy beach head, which was actually a decoy, upon damaging it however the mistels explosives also damaged the HMS Nith on June 24th, 1944, killing and wounding about 20 crew members. Another few notable instances were in attacks on soviet bridge heads over rivers in Germany itself in 1945, although some were successful they were minute in delaying soviet advances. Thanks for reading and as always follow me if you like this stuff! Picture- FW-190 and Ju-88 in Mistel configuration, [url]http://aerostories.free.fr/appareils/compopara/mistel-us.jpg[/url] Mistels in flight [url]http://api.ning.com/files/1DOHLLp5C2HtTgIcRP15u3okgpcjrZxCJd15FfUtONKrfx3VyVdXpJPlNulnb0F7jv0PKUt2gZkPcKXfMArifAZD9zgrYrqg/Ju88_mistel.jpg[/url] Mistel with the "Beethoven" penetration device on the Ju-88, and an ME-109 as the piloted aircraft.