Re: What could have been
The Germans used a Hydrogen Peroxide oxidizer and a Hydrazine and Methanol fuel in their Komet fighter.
And if you didn't get rid of absolutely every last drop of fuel on the powered phase of the flight, then the aircraft exploded as soon as you touched down. It wasn't quite a single-use plane, but you'd have to be a nutter to fly in one. Eric Brown did it of course, but I think only once.
Also it was designed to get up to 30,000ft in a couple of minutes, then glide down and shoot the bombers on the way past. which meant you got only a couple of seconds of useful bomber shooting time if you were a brilliant pilot, otherwise you just zoomed past ineffectively. However it had an unpressurised cabin, the pilot had oxygen. Which I believe meant the pilots had to be put on a special low fiber diet in order to minimise the massive amounts of farting that the ascent to high altitude would otherwise cause.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
