From what I've read, the Saenger atmospheric skipper was a single mission vehicle that would have dropped its bomb on New York and then ditched at sea. Supposably a U-boat would have picked up the pilot. We (the United States) used a similar tactic with the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo shortly after the beginning of World War Two, i.e. a one-way bomber attack.

From a strategic standpoint, the Saenger atmospheric skipper made no sense, i.e. the vehicle's expense was far greater than any harm it could have caused to New York. Something like the Saenger would have made military sense only if it carried a nuclear weapon. Also it is clear from the original drawings that the Saenger's designers didn't realize the need for a reaction control system (they thought flaps and ailerons alone would have provided adequate control authority). Also there was no outer wall thermal protection and the wings stuck out into the bow shock (the Saenger would have certainly gone supersonic and possibly hypersonic). An atmospheric skipper was way beyond 1940s technology. However it was still a very clever piece of aeronautical engineering (those old German aeronautical engineers really knew their trade).

Gary