A9 WWII German Rocket Plane Concept pre-1943 (Late version)

After cleaning up some parts like the Bubble Canopy and replacing the wings with Fuselage strakes (yes that's what they're called) this pretty much would have been the A9 Recon/Bomber that would've terrorized America in 1946 with the A10 booster (Coming soon!). Managed a 726km flight that followed a suborbital trajectory to 76.4km apogee before reentry. Mote you have to point the craft exactly where you want to go in terms of trajectory or else turning during reentry will be extremely difficult as the aircraft has some difficulty with yaw control (again like my previous A-4B and updated versions keeping it stable and pitched up to encourage the aircraft to pull out horizontally is key). It definitely is able to fly supersonically and will continue to glide faster than sound through 10km. Landing is straight forward; press landing gear once to unlock and a second time to open them (you definitely dont want them open on vertical launch, after all!)

There might be some people who might ask why this is called the late version. The A-4B that was in fact test launched twice in 1944-Jan 1945 was the Early concept which was more practical to build; this was designed specifically to fit into the A10 booster stage (hence the fuselage strakes) as well as eliminating the problem of transonic change in Center of Lift, which the U.S. would solve differently with the Navaho project with direct inspiration from the A9, albeit simpler.

Unless I make an A9 with a cargo bay/bomb bay to work with the A10/A11/A12 stages while in orbit/Gliding over a continent, this will be the final rendition of the A9 I will have made. This also technically is where I can jump to the Hermes/Redstone/Navaho rockets, but that would be pointless if people make the Redstone rockets before I do. Perhaps I will.