Crash of the Bachem Ba 349 Natter

see http://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/my-brilliant-mistake-the-bachem-ba-349-natter/

...Because an experienced test pilot had lost his life, Himmler’s SS canceled the Natter project, and wrote finis to what can only be viewed, with hindsight, as a brilliant mistake.

here's the unhappy ending...

The launch began as planned. On cue, the Walter main rocket motor built up to full thrust. Sieber depressed the switch to ignite the four rocket boosters.

The sound was shattering. The Natter lifted aloft in a cloud of steam and rocket smoke. It climbed rapidly to 500 feet, where it abruptly pitched back into a near upside-down attitude. Now, instead of climbing at 90 degrees it was climbing at 30, but in an inverted curve. Onlookers thought they saw the four boosters detach and fall to earth as they were supposed to, but in fact one failed to break loose.

Sieber executed a roll maneuver but could not make the aircraft recover. Engineers on the ground saw the cockpit canopy fly loose at 1,500 feet, suggesting that Sieber considered the aircraft out of control and had begun the escape sequence.

To the frustration of observers, low hanging stratus clouds swallowed up the Natter. The Walter motor was heard to cut out. The Natter soared to about 5,000 feet and then came straight down. It blasted a 15-foot crater into the earth about five miles from the launch pad. Altogether, the Natter had been in the air for about 50 seconds.

Anxious onlookers searched the sky for Sieber to come descending out of the clouds beneath a parachute canopy. He did not. At the impact site, rescuers found a grisly assortment of body parts, including half of a left arm. Before the main motor cut out, Sieber may have unintentionally become the first human to fly faster than sound (763 miles per hour at sea level. While there are conflicting theories of what led to the pilot’s death, most agree that something went wrong with the canopy.