Dr. Herbert Wagner's missile group at Henschel Aircraft in World War II Germany designed this small, experimental, air-to-air missile. A Schmidding solid rocket propelled the Hs 298 for about 25 seconds, and the pilot in the launch aircraft guided it using a joystick and transmitter.

The initial Hs 298 V1 design, first tested in 1944, had a different wing, square fins, a warhead on top, and a generator propeller below. Henschel built more than 300 V1s model and over 100 V2s, but the project was cancelled in early 1945 in favor of the Ruhrstahl X-4, which performed better. The Smithsonian obtained this missile from the U.S. Navy in 1948.