Towards the end of WWII the German aircraft industry designed many advanced projects, some of which were built and flown while others remained on the drawing Board. Amongst the more promising of these projects was a series of Mistel unmanned bombers Which carried a piloted fighter aircraft on top to take the bomber component towards its target area, at the right moment the bomber was to be jettisoned and continued on its one way Journey to the target under it's own power Early Mistel projects comprised a Bf 109 or Fw 190 carried by a Ju 88. The bomber component was nothing more than a basic airframe filled with high explosives.

The Mistel 5 Project of Late1944 comprised a specially designated Arado E 377 twin engined flying bomb which carried an adapted Heinkel He 162 Salamander on tops unlike previous Mistel lower components The Arado E377 was jet powered and to be of relatively simple construction. Fitted with very simple control surfaces  to save weight and complexity and dispensing with any undercarriage it relied on a special 20 ton trolley for take off  and unlike the He 162 the E 377 was never built, folks this is defiantly a Luft 46 project . The He 162 also known as the Volksjager (Peoples fighter) was itself a remarkable aircraft having been conceived in competition with other manufactures on September 1944 as a mass produced high performance fighter it was first flown on 6 Dec Only 3 months from Drawing board to Service.

Note: History copied from instruction sheet 

The Arado/E 377 combo arrived in Revell's now standard blue box. With the He162 and the E377 packaged in separate plastic bags. Basically a re-boxed  DML/Dragon kit and is a major improvement over Revell's original He 162 release that dated from the 70's, that kit which I have two of is very crude detail wise in comparison to the DML/Dragon He 162. The Revell kit comes with a very detailed engine and cockpit, sidewall detail is comprehensive, surface detail is recessed and on comparison with the limited details I have of the He l62 seems to be accurate. Being a Dragon kit the fit of the major components may have some issues as Dragon has a reputation of producing very detailed and accurate but ill fitting kits. I reserve judgment on the fit of Dragon Kits until I actually do one.

The one piece solid wings although relatively thick suffers from no sink marks. All in all the He 162 is almost too good a model to "waste" sitting atop the Arado, I'm almost tempted to use one of the original Revell He 162 as most of the highly detailed cockpit and wheel wells on the Dragon offering would be wasted as these details will not be shown sitting atop of the Mistel, and make up the Dragon He 162 as a separate model .Decals are supplied for a He 162 of 6/ KG 200 and as the E 377a was to a expendable weapon like a bullet or bomb only has a few stencils and a tail code number, the decals themselves are typically "new generation" Revell decals printed in Italy and look very nice. 

The E377a has a sum total 29 parts and is molded In typical DML/Dragon style with fine recessed panel lines and detail on par with Hasegawa, Also included in the Kit is the 20 ton launch trolley that is unfortunately marred by ejector pin marks and sink marks around the frame, the wheels on the other hand are well molded and have very nice hub detail.

One thing that got me was the size of the E 377a for a Mistel combination, with a wing span about the same size as a Me 262 it is dwarfed By the Ju88/Bf 109 combo.

With the current trend for 100% historical accuracy these "What-if" and ''Luft 46" models will be snapped up by the modeling fraternity that are looking for a highly detailed model that can have a fair amount of artistic license applied to the color schemes and markings. If you felt so inclined it wouldn't be that hard to convert the Revell E377a back into the non powered E377 by leaving the jet pods off and hanging it under the old Matchbox Arado 234

Highly recommended not only for the quality of the molding but for the fact that it is a model of a interesting and unusual subject   

Paper projects like these are always a hard one to call for accuracy as the He 162 was the only part of the combo to ever be built.

www.luft46. com  http://visi.net/~djohnson/armament/are377.html

Fighting Aircraft of World War II  ISBN 1-84065-092-3 [for the He.162 only )

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