The need to defend against the hordes of Allied bombers late in WWII forced the German high command, and the air ministry (RLM) in particular to adopt some rather, shall we say “unconventional” approaches. Just when you thought that swept wing jets and rocket planes were a leap forward, the Bachem company proposed the Ba-349 “Natter”, or Viper. The Natter was a vertical take off (VTO) rocket interceptor armed with a battery of nose-mounted aerial rockets.
Of course, testing such a far-out machine, especially one made of wood and using highly dangerous and reactive propellants, necessitated lots of test articles. These were known as Mustermaschinen, and of them all, M23 was the most important. It was the first manned test of this system. Brengun has come out with a kit of this particular and important machine, in the rather diminuitive scale of 1/72. Check out the 1/72 M23 Natter on the Out of Box page, and see what the original “Missile with a Man In It” looked like!
The Sprue Lagoon 
Adam, very nice article, as usual. Just one thing:
” dark clouds seeming to gather on the left.” – or on the right, as it is usually known. 😉
Thanks! I suck at that. Ever since I was small, I screw up left and right. That’s why I’m not the navigator on long tips… 😛