WW2 German Jet Plane: WW2 German Jet Plane

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1 ME-262 Swallow/ schwalbe

The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed Schwalbe (German: "Swallow") in fighter versions, or Sturmvogel (German: "Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft.^[5] Design work started before World War II began, but problems with engines, metallurgy and top-level interference kept the aircraft from operational status with the Luftwaffe until mid-1944. The Me 262 was faster and more heavily armed than any Allied fighter, including the British jet-powered Gloster Meteor.^[6] One of the most advanced aviation designs in operational use during World War II,^[7] the Me 262's roles included light bomber, reconnaissance and experimental night fighter versions.

Me 262 pilots claimed a total of 542 Allied kills,^[8] although higher claims are sometimes made.^{[Note 1]} The Allies countered its potential effectiveness in the air by attacking the aircraft on the ground and during takeoff and landing. Engine reliability problems, from the pioneering nature of its Junkers Jumo 004 axial-flow turbojet engines—the first ever placed in mass production—and attacks by Allied forces on fuel supplies during the deteriorating late-war situation also reduced the effectiveness of the aircraft as a fighting force. In the end, the Me 262 had a negligible impact on the course of the war as a result of its late introduction and the consequently small numbers put in operational service.^[10]

While German use of the aircraft ended with the close of the Second World War, a small number were operated by the Czechoslovak Air Force until 1951. Captured Me 262s were studied and flight tested by the major powers, and ultimately influenced the designs of a number of post-war aircraft such as the North American F-86 Sabre and Boeing B-47 Stratojet.^[7]A number of aircraft have survived on static display in museums, and there have also been several privately built flying reproductions.

Design and development[edit]

Origins[edit]

Several years before World War II, the Germans foresaw the great potential for aircraft that used the jet engine constructed by Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain in 1936. After the successful test flights of the world's first jet aircraft—the Heinkel He 178—within a week of the Invasion of Poland to start the war, they adopted the jet engine for an advanced fighter aircraft. As a result, the Me 262 was already under development as Projekt 1065 (P.1065) before the start of World War II. The project originated with a request by the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM, Ministry of Aviation) for a jet aircraft capable of one hour's endurance and a speed of at least 850 km/h (530 mph; 460 kn).^[11] Dr Waldemar Voigt headed the design team, with Messerschmitt's chief of development, Robert Lusser, overseeing.^[12]

Plans were first drawn up in April 1939, and the original design was very different from the aircraft that eventually entered service, with wing root-mounted engines,^[12] rather than podded ones, when submitted in June 1939.^[12] The progression of the original design was delayed greatly by technical issues involving the new jet engine. Because the engines were slow to arrive, Messerschmitt moved the engines from the wing roots to underwing pods, allowing them to be changed more readily if needed; this would turn out to be important, both for availability and maintenance.^[13] Since the BMW 003 jets proved heavier than anticipated, the wing was swept slightly, by 18.5°, to accommodate a change in the center of gravity.^[13] Funding for the jet engine program was also initially lacking as many high-ranking officials thought the war could easily be won with conventional aircraft.^[14] Among those were Hermann Göring, head of the Luftwaffe, who cut the engine development program to just 35 engineers in February 1940 (the month before the first wooden mock-up was completed);^[12] Willy Messerschmitt, who desired to maintain mass production of the piston-powered, 1935-origin Bf 109 and the projected Me 209; and Major General Adolf Galland, who had initially supported Messerschmitt through the early development years, flying the Me 262 himself on 22 April 1943. By that time, problems with engine development had slowed production of the aircraft considerably. One particularly acute problem arose with the lack of an alloy with a melting point high enough to endure the high temperatures involved, a problem that by the end of the war had not been adequately resolved.^[14] The aircraft made its first successful flight entirely on jet power on 18 July 1942, powered by a pair of Jumo 004 engines, after a November 1941 flight (with BMW 003s) ended in a double flameout.^[15]

Hans Guido Mutke's Me 262 A-1a/R7 on display at the Deutsches Museum

The project aerodynamicist on the design of the Me 262 was Ludwig Bölkow. He initially designed the wing using NACA airfoils modified with an elliptical nose section.^[16] Later in the design process, these were changed to AVL derivatives of NACA airfoils, the NACA 00011-0.825-35 being used at the root and the NACA 00009-1.1-40 at the tip.^[17] The elliptical nose derivatives of the NACA airfoils were used on the horizontal and vertical tail surfaces. Wings were of single-spar cantilever construction, with stressed skins, varying from 3 mm (0.12 in) thick at the root to 1 mm (0.039 in) at the tip.^[18] As a conservation measure, late in the war, wing interiors would not be painted.^[19] The wings were fastened to the fuselage at four points, using a pair of 20 mm (0.79 in) and forty-two 8 mm (0.31 in) bolts.^[19]

In mid-1943, Adolf Hitler envisioned the Me 262 as a ground-attack/bomber aircraft rather than a defensive interceptor. The configuration of a high-speed, light-payload Schnellbomber ("fast bomber") was intended to penetrate enemy airspace during the expected Allied invasion of France. His edict resulted in the development of (and concentration on) the Sturmvogel variant. It is debatable to what extent Hitler's interference extended the delay in bringing the Schwalbe into operation;^[20]^[21] it appears engine vibration issues were at least as costly, if not more so.^[15] Albert Speer, then Minister of Armaments and War Production, claimed in his memoirs that Hitler originally had blocked mass production of the Me 262 before agreeing in early 1944. He rejected arguments that the aircraft would be more effective as a fighter against the Allied bombers that were destroying large parts of Germany, and wanted it as a bomber for revenge attacks. According to Speer, Hitler felt its superior speed compared to other fighters of the era meant it could not be attacked, and so preferred it for high altitude straight flying.^[22]

Silhouette of the V3 prototype - V1 through V4 similar

Although the Me 262 is often referred to as a "swept wing" design, the production Me 262 had a leading edge sweep of only 18.5°, too slight to achieve any significant advantage in increasing the critical Mach number.^[23] Sweep was added after the initial design of the aircraft, when the engines proved heavier than originally expected, primarily to position the center of lift properly relative to the center of mass. (The original 35° sweep, proposed by Adolph Busemann, was not adopted.)^[24] On 1 March 1940, instead of moving the wing backward on its mount, the outer wing was repositioned slightly aft; the trailing edge of the midsection of the wing remained unswept.^[25]Based on data from the AVA Göttingen and wind tunnel results, the middle section's leading edge was later swept to the same angle as the outer panels, from the "V6" sixth prototype onwards throughout volume production.^[26]

Test flights[edit]

The first test flights began on 18 April 1941, with the Me 262 V1 example, bearing its Stammkennzeichen radio code letters of PC+UA, but since its intended BMW 003 turbojets were not ready for fitting, a conventional Junkers Jumo 210 engine was mounted in the V1 prototype's nose, driving a propeller, to test the Me 262 V1 airframe.^[27] When the BMW 003 engines were installed, the Jumo was retained for safety, which proved wise as both 003s failed during the first flight and the pilot had to land using the nose-mounted engine alone.^[1] The V1 through V4 prototype airframes all possessed what would become an uncharacteristic feature for most later jet aircraft designs, a fully retracting conventional gear setup with a retracting tailwheel — indeed, the very first prospective German "jet fighter" airframe design ever flown, the Heinkel He 280, used a retractable tricycle landing gear from its beginnings, and flying on jet power alone as early as the end of March 1941.

This airframe, Wrknr. 111711, was the first Me 262 to come into Allied hands when its test pilot defected in March 1945. It was subsequently lost in August 1946, the US test pilot parachuting to safety.^[28]

The V3 third prototype airframe, with the code PC+UC, became a true jet when it flew on 18 July 1942 in Leipheim near Günzburg, Germany, piloted by Fritz Wendel.^[29] This was almost nine months ahead of the British Gloster Meteor's first flight on 5 March 1943. Its retracting conventional gear, a feature shared with the first four Me 262 V-series airframes, caused its jet exhaust to deflect off the runway, with the wing's turbulence negating the effects of the elevators, and the first takeoff attempt was cut short.^[30]

On the second attempt, Wendel solved the problem by tapping the aircraft's brakes at takeoff speed, lifting the horizontal tail out of the wing's turbulence.^[30] The aforementioned initial four prototypes (V1-V4) were built with the conventional gear configuration. Changing to a tricycle arrangement — a permanently fixed undercarriage on the fifth prototype (V5, code PC+UE), with the definitive fully retractable nosewheel gear on the V6 (with Stammkennzeichen code VI+AA, from a new code block) and subsequent aircraft corrected this problem.^{[Note 2]}

Test flights continued over the next year, but engine problems continued to plague the project, the Jumo 004 being only marginally more reliable than the BMW 003. Airframe modifications were complete by 1942 but, hampered by the lack of engines, serial production did not begin until 1944, and deliveries were low, with 28 Me 262s in June, 59 in July, but only 20 in August.^[32]

The engine operating lifetime of 50 hours was severely decreased due to the shortages of strategic material especially in metals for ferritic heat-resistant steel with addition of silicon or aluminium, that could resist high temperature up to 1700° Celsius. However, with adequate maintenance between the major overhauls, a pilot could expect an engine life of 20–25 hours from the 004's. While Junker's axial compressor turbojet engine are characterised by a sophisticated design that could offer considerable advantage; the lack of rare materials, put it at a severe disadvantage compared to the axial-flow W2/700 turbojet engine which provided an operational life span of 125 hours. Frank Whittle concludes in his final assessment over the two engines: "it was in the quality of high temperature materials that the difference between Germans and British engines was most marked"^[33]

Me 262 cockpit

Operationally, carrying 2,000 l (440 imp gal; 530 US gal) of fuel in two 900 l (200 imp gal; 240 US gal) tanks, one each fore and aft the cockpit, and a 200 l (44 imp gal; 53 US gal) tank beneath,^{[Note 3]} the Me 262 would have a total flight endurance of 60 to 90 minutes. Fuel was usually brown coal-derived J2, with the option of diesel oil or a mixture of oil and high octane B4 aviation petrol.^[34] Fuel consumption was double the rate of typical twin-engine fighter aircraft of the era, which led to the installation of a low-fuel warning indicator in the cockpit that notified pilots when remaining fuel fell below 250 l (55 imp gal; 66 US gal).^[34]

Unit cost for an Me 262 airframe, less engines, armament, and electronics, was RM87,400.^[35]^{[Note 4]} To build one airframe took around 6,400 man-hours.^[35]

Operational history[edit]

Introduction[edit]

On 19 April 1944, Erprobungskommando 262 was formed at Lechfeld just south of Augsburg, as a test unit (Jäger Erprobungskommando Thierfelder, commanded by Hauptmann Werner Thierfelder)^[3]^[37] to introduce the 262 into service and train a corps of pilots to fly it. On 26 July 1944, Leutnant Alfred Schreiber with the 262 A-1a W.Nr. 130 017 damaged a Mosquito reconnaissance aircraft of No. 540 Squadron RAF PR Squadron, which was allegedly lost in a crash upon landing at an air base in Italy.^[38] Other sources state the aircraft was damaged during evasive manoeuvres and escaped.^[39]

Major Walter Nowotny

Major Walter Nowotny was assigned as commander after the death of Thierfelder in July 1944, and the unit redesignated Kommando Nowotny. Essentially a trials and development unit, it holds the distinction of having mounted the world's first jet fighter operations. Trials continued slowly, with initial operational missions against the Allies in August 1944, and the unit made claims for 19 Allied aircraft in exchange of six Me 262s lost.^[40]

Despite orders to stay grounded, Nowotny chose to fly a mission against an enemy bomber formation flying some 30,000 feet above, on 8 November 1944. He claimed two P-51Ds destroyed before suffering engine failure at high altitude.^[41] Then, while diving and trying to restart his engines, he was attacked by other Mustangs, and forced to bail out. Historians Morgan and Weal proposed Nowotny's victor was P-51D pilot Lt. Robert W. Stevens of the 364th Fighter Group.^[42] The exact circumstances surrounding the death of Walter Nowotny remain uncertain to this day. It is also possible he was hit by "friendly" flak.^[42]^[43] The Kommando was then withdrawn for further training and a revision of combat tactics to optimise the 262's strengths.^{[citation needed]}

Me 262 A, circa 1944

On 26 November 1944, a Me 262A-2a Sturmvogel of III.Gruppe/KG 51 Edelweiß based at Rheine-Hopsten Air Base near Osnabrück was the first confirmed ground-to-air kill of a jet combat aircraft. The 262 was shot down by a 40/L60 40mm Bofors gun of B.11 Detachment of 2875 Squadron RAF Regiment at the RAF forward airfield of Helmond, near Eindhoven. Others were lost to ground fire on 17 and 18 December when the same airfield was attacked at intervals by a total of 18 Me 262s and the guns of 2873 and 2875 Squadrons RAF Regiment damaged several, causing at least two of them to crash within a few miles of the airfield. In February 1945, Sergeant Pollards's B.6 gun detachment of 2809 Squadron RAF Regiment shot down another Me 262 over the airfield of Volkel. The final appearance of 262s over Volkel was in 1945, when yet another fell to 2809's guns.^[44]

Me 262 A-1a, W.Nr. 112372, on display at RAF Cosford, 2002. Some Me 262 A-1a aircraft, like the A-2a bomber variant, attached additional hardpoints, such as twin bomb racks under the nose of the aircraft, one rack apiece flanking the nose gear well.^[45]This was accomplished by having two slots near the ejector chutes of the MK 108 cannons where bomb racks could be attached. W.Nr. 112372, which is currently on display at the Royal Air Force Museum London, is a surviving example of this type.

By January 1945, Jagdgeschwader 7 (JG 7) had been formed as a pure jet fighter wing, although it was several weeks before it was operational. In the meantime, a bomber unit—I Gruppe, Kampfgeschwader 54 (KG 54)—had re-equipped with the Me 262 A-2a fighter-bomber for use in a ground-attack role. However, the unit lost 12 jets in action in two weeks for minimal returns.^{[citation needed]} Jagdverband 44 (JV 44) was another Me 262 fighter unit, of Staffel (squadron) size given the low numbers of available personnel, formed in February 1945 by Lieutenant General Adolf Galland, who had recently been dismissed as Inspector of Fighters. Galland was able to draw into the unit many of the most experienced and decorated Luftwaffe fighter pilots from other units grounded by lack of fuel.^[46]

During March, Me 262 fighter units were able, for the first time, to mount large-scale attacks on Allied bomber formations. On 18 March 1945, 37 Me 262s of JG 7 intercepted a force of 1,221 bombers and 632 escorting fighters. They shot down 12 bombers and one fighter for the loss of three Me 262s. Although a 4:1 ratio was exactly what the Luftwaffe would have needed to make an impact on the war, the absolute scale of their success was minor, as it represented only 1% of the attacking force. In 1943 and early 1944, regardless of the presence of the small numbers of Me 262s, the USAAF was able to keep up offensive operations at loss ratios of roughly 5%.^{[citation needed]}.

In the last days of the war, Me 262s from JG 7 and other units were committed in ground assault missions, in an attempt to support German troops fighting Red Army forces. Just south of Berlin, halfway between Spremberg and the German capital, Wehrmacht’s 9.Armee (with elements from 12.Armee and 4.Panzerarmee) was assaulting the Red Army’s 1st Ukrainian Front. To support this attack, on 24 April, JG 7 dispatched 31 Me 262s on a strafing mission in the Cottbus-Bautzen area. Luftwaffe pilots claimed six lorries and seven Soviet aircraft, but three German jets were lost. On the evening of the 27 April, 36 Me 262s from JG 7, III.KG(J)6 and KJ(J)54 were sent against Soviet forces that were attacking German troops in the forests north-east of Baruth. They succeeded in strafing 65 Soviet lorries, after which the Me 262s intercepted low flying IL-2 Sturmoviks searching for German tanks. The jet pilots claimed six Sturmoviks for the loss of three Messerschmitt. During operations between 28 April and 1 May Soviet fighters and ground fire downed at least 10 more Me 262 from JG 7.^[47] However, JG 7 managed to keep its jets operational until the end of the war. And on the 8th of May, at around 4 p.m. Oblt. Fritz Stehle of 2./JG 7, while flying a Me 262 on Erzegebirge, attacked a formation of Soviet aircraft. He claimed a Yakovlev Yak-9, but the plane shot down was most probably a P-39 Airacobra. Soviet records show that they lost two Airacobras, one of them downed probably by Stehle, that thereby scored the last Luftwaffe air victory of the war. ^[48]

Me 262B-1a/U1 night fighter, Wrknr. 110306, with Neptun radar antenna on the nose and second seat for a radar operator. This airframe was surrendered to the RAF at Schleswig in May 1945 and taken to the UK for testing

Several two-seat trainer variants of the Me 262, the Me 262 B-1a, had been adapted through the Umrüst-Bausatz 1 factory refit package as night fighters, complete with on-board FuG 218 Neptun high-VHF band radar, using Hirschgeweih ("stag's antlers") antennae with a set of shorter dipole elements than the Lichtenstein SN-2 had used, as the B-1a/U1 version. Serving with 10 Staffel, Nachtjagdgeschwader 11, near Berlin, these few aircraft (alongside several single-seat examples) accounted for most of the 13 Mosquitoes lost over Berlin in the first three months of 1945.^{[citation needed]} However, actual intercepts were generally or entirely made using Wilde Sau methods, rather than AI radar-controlled interception. As the two-seat trainer was largely unavailable, many pilots made their first jet flight in a single-seater without an instructor.^{[citation needed]}

Despite its deficiencies, the Me 262 clearly signaled the beginning of the end of piston-engined aircraft as effective fighting machines. Once airborne, it could accelerate to speeds over 850 km/h (530 mph), about 150 km/h (93 mph) faster than any Allied fighter operational in the European Theater of Operations.^{[citation needed]}

The Me 262's top ace^{[Note 5]} was probably Hauptmann Franz Schall with 17 kills, which included six four-engine bombers and 10 P-51 Mustang fighters, although night fighter ace Oberleutnant Kurt Welter claimed 25 Mosquitos and two four-engine bombers shot down by night and two further Mosquitos by day flying the Me 262. Most of Welter's claimed night kills were achieved in standard radar-less aircraft, even though Welter had tested a prototype Me 262 fitted with FuG 218 Neptun radar. Another candidate for top ace on the aircraft was Oberstleutnant Heinrich Bär, who claimed 16 enemy aircraft while flying the Me 262.^{[citation needed]}

Anti-bomber tactics[edit]

Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress of the 815th Bombardment Squadron was lost on the mission to Ruhland, Germany on 22 March 1945, it was hit by Flak, then finished off by an Me 262. Eight of the crew survived as POWs

The Me 262 was so fast that German pilots needed new tactics to attack Allied bombers. In the head-on attack, the closing speed of about 320 m per second (350 yd) was too high for accurate shooting. Even from astern, the closing speed was too great to use the short-ranged 30 mm cannon to maximum effect. Therefore, a roller-coaster attack was devised. The 262s approached from astern and about 1,800 m higher (5,900 ft) than the bombers. From about 5 km behind (3.1 mi), they went into a shallow dive that took them through the escort fighters with little risk of interception. When they were about 1.5 km astern (0.93 mi) and 450 metres (1,480 ft) below the bombers, they pulled up sharply to reduce their excess speed. On levelling off, they were 1,000 m astern (1,100 yd) and overtaking the bombers at about 150 km/h (93 mph), well placed to attack them.^[49]

Since the 30mm MK 108 cannon's short barrels and low muzzle velocity of 540 m/s (1,800 ft/s) rendered it inaccurate beyond 600 m (660 yd), coupled with the jet's velocity, which required breaking off at 200 m (220 yd) to avoid colliding with the target, Me 262 pilots normally commenced firing at 500 m (550 yd).^[50] Turret gunners of Allied bomber aircraft found that their manned electrically powered gun turrets had problems tracking the jets. Target acquisition was difficult because the jets closed into firing range quickly and remained in firing position only briefly, using their standard attack profile, which proved more effective.^{[citation needed]}

Me 262 with R4M underwing rockets on display at the Technikmuseum Speyer, Germany.

The Royal Navy's best test pilot, Captain Eric Brown, chief naval test pilot and commanding officer of the Captured Enemy Aircraft Flight Royal Aircraft Establishment, who tested the Me 262 noted: "This was a Blitzkrieg aircraft. You whack in at your bomber. It was never meant to be a dogfighter, it was meant to be a destroyer of bombers... The great problem with it was it did not have dive brakes. For example, if you want to fight and destroy a B-17, you come in on a dive. The 30mm cannon were not so accurate beyond 600 metres. So you normally came in at 600 yards and would open fire on your B-17. And your closing speed was still high and since you had to break away at 200 meters to avoid a collision, you only had two seconds firing time. Now, in two seconds, you can't sight. You can fire randomly and hope for the best. If you want to sight and fire, you need to double that time to four seconds. And with dive brakes, you could have done that."^[50]

Eventually, German pilots developed new combat tactics to counter Allied bombers' defences. Me 262s, equipped with up to 24 unguided folding-fin R4M rockets — 12 in each of two underwing racks, outboard of the engine nacelle — approached from the side of a bomber formation, where their silhouettes were widest, and while still out of range of the bombers' machine guns, fired a salvo of rockets with strongly brisant Hexogen-filled warheads, exactly the same explosive in the shells fired by the Me 262A's quartet of MK 108 cannon. One or two of these rockets could down even the famously rugged B-17 Flying Fortress,^[51] from the "metal-shattering" brisant effect of the R4M rockets' explosive warheads, weighing only 520 g (18 oz) per projectile out of a total launch weight of 4 kg (8.8 lb).

Though this tactic was effective, it came too late to have a real effect on the war, and only small numbers of Me 262s were equipped with the rocket packs.^[52] Most of those so equipped were Me 262A-1as, members of Jagdgeschwader 7.^[53] This method of attacking bombers became the standard, and mass deployment of Ruhrstahl X-4 guided missiles was cancelled. Some nicknamed this tactic the Luftwaffe's Wolf Pack, as the fighters often made runs in groups of two or three, fired their rockets, then returned to base. On 1 September 1944, USAAF General Carl Spaatz expressed the fear that if greater numbers of German jets appeared, they could inflict losses heavy enough to force cancellation of the Allied bombing offensive by daylight.^{[citation needed]}

Counter-jet tactics[edit]

The Me 262 was difficult for its opponents to counter because its high speed and rate of climb made it hard to intercept. However, as with other turbojet engines at the time, the Me 262's engines did not provide sufficient thrust at low air speeds and throttle response was slow, thereby, the aircraft became a vulnerable target. Another disadvantage that pioneered jet aircraft of the Second World War Era shared, was the high risk of compressor stall, and if the providing throttle movements were too rapidly, the engine would suffer from flame extinction. The coarse opening of the throttle will, however, cause fuel surging and lead to excessive jet pipe temperature. Pilots were instructed to operate the throttle gently and avoid quick changes. German engineers introduced an automatic throttle regulator later in the war but it only partly alleviated the problem.

The plane had, by contemporary standards, a high wing loading (294.0 kg/m², 60.2 lbs/ft²) that required higher takeoff and landing speeds. Due to poor throttle response, the engines' tendency for airflow disruption that could cause the compressor to stall was ubiquitous. The high speed of the Me 262 also presented problems when engaging enemy aircraft, the high-speed convergence allowing Me 262 pilots little time to line up their targets or acquire the appropriate amount of deflection. This problem faces any aircraft that approaches another from behind at much higher speed, as the slower aircraft in front can always pull a tighter turn, forcing the faster aircraft to overshoot.

"I passed one that looked as if it was hanging motionless in the air (I am too fast!). The one above me went into a steep right-hand turn, his pale blue underside standing out against the purple sky. Another banked right in front of the Me's nose. Violent jolt as I flew through his airscrew eddies. Maybe a wing's length away. That one in the gentle left-hand curve! Swing her round. I was coming from underneath, eye glued to the sight (pull her tighter!). A throbbing in the wings as my cannon pounded briefly. Missed him. Way behind his tail. It was exasperating. I would never be able to shoot one down like this. They were like a sack of fleas. A prick of doubt: is this really such a good fighter? Could one in fact, successfully attack a group of erratically banking fighters with the Me 262?"

Johannes Steinhoff, Luftwaffe fighter ace.^[54]

Luftwaffe pilots eventually learned how to handle the Me 262's higher speed, and the Me 262 soon proved a formidable air superiority fighter, with pilots such as Franz Schall managing to shoot down 12 enemy fighters in the Me 262, 10 of them American P-51 Mustangs. Other notable Me 262 aces included Georg-Peter Eder, also with 12 enemy fighters to his credit (including nine P-51s), Erich Rudorffer also with 12 enemy fighters to his credit, Walther Dahl with 11 (including three Lavochkin La-7s and six P-51s) and Heinz-Helmut Baudach with six (including one Spitfire and two P-51s) amongst many others.^{[citation needed]}

Pilots soon learned that the Me 262 was quite maneuverable, despite its high wing loading and lack of low-speed thrust, especially if attention was drawn to its effective maneuvering speeds. The controls were light and effective right up to the maximum permissible speed and perfectly harmonised. The inclusion of full span automatic leading-edge slats,^{[Note 6]} something of a "tradition" on Messerschmitt fighters dating back to the original Bf 109's outer wing slots of a similar type, helped increase the overall lift produced by the wing by as much as 35% in tight turns or at low speeds, greatly improving the aircraft's turn performance as well as its landing and take off characteristics.^[57] As many pilots soon found out, the Me 262's clean design also meant that it, like all jets, held its speed in tight turns much better than conventional propeller-driven fighters, which was a great potential advantage in a dogfight as it meant better energy retention in maneuvers.^[58] Luftwaffe test pilot and flight instructor Hans Fey stated, "The 262 will turn much better at high than at slow speeds and, due to its clean design, will keep its speed in tight turns much longer than conventional type aircraft."^[59]

Me-262 being shot down. Note jettisoned canopy and empty cockpit. As seen from USAAF P-51 Mustang gun camera

Too fast to catch for the escorting Allied fighters, the Me 262s were almost impossible to head off. ^{[Note 7]} As a result, Me 262 pilots were relatively safe from the Allied fighters, as long as they did not allow themselves to get drawn into low-speed turning contests and saved their maneuvering for higher speeds. Combating the Allied fighters could be effectively done the same way as the U.S. fighters fought the more nimble, but slower, Japanese fighters in the Pacific.^{[citation needed]}

Allied pilots soon found that the only reliable way to destroy the jets, as with the even faster Me 163 Komet rocket fighters, was to attack them on the ground or during takeoff or landing. Luftwaffe airfields identified as jet bases were frequently bombed by medium bombers, and Allied fighters patrolled over the fields to attack jets trying to land. The Luftwaffe countered by installing extensive flak alleys of anti-aircraft guns along the approach lines to protect the Me 262s from the ground—and by providing top cover during the jets' takeoff and landing with the most advanced Luftwaffe single-engined fighters, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190D and (just becoming available in 1945) Focke-Wulf Ta 152H.^[61] Nevertheless, in March–April 1945, Allied fighter patrol patterns over Me 262 airfields resulted in numerous jet losses.^{[citation needed]}

The British Hawker Tempest scored a number of kills against the new German jets, including the Messerschmitt Me 262. Hubert Lange, a Me 262 pilot, said: "the Messerschmitt Me 262's most dangerous opponent was the British Hawker Tempest — extremely fast at low altitudes, highly manoeuvrable and heavily armed."^[62] Some were destroyed with a tactic known to the Tempest 135 Wing as the "Rat Scramble":^[63] Tempests on immediate alert took off when an Me 262 was reported airborne. They did not intercept the jet, but instead flew towards the Me 262 and Ar 234 base at Hopsten air base.^[64]^{[Note 8]} The aim was to attack jets on their landing approach, when they were at their most vulnerable, travelling slowly, with flaps down and incapable of rapid acceleration. The German response was the construction of a "flak lane" of over 150 emplacements of the 20 mm Flakvierling quadruple autocannon batteries at Rheine-Hopsten to protect the approaches.^[65]^{[Note 9]} After seven Tempests were lost to flak at Hopsten in a single week, the "Rat Scramble" was discontinued.^[66]

High-speed research[edit]

Scale model of one of the Me 262 HG III versions at the Technikmuseum Speyer

Adolf Busemann had proposed swept wings as early as 1935. Messerschmitt researched the topic from 1940. In April 1941, Busemann proposed fitting a 35° swept wing (Pfeilflügel II, literally "arrow wing II") to the Me 262,^[67] the same wing sweep angle later used on both the American F-86 Sabre and Soviet MiG-15 Fagot fighter jets. Though this was not implemented, he continued with the projected HG II and HG III (Hochgeschwindigkeit, "high-speed") derivatives in 1944, which were designed with a 35° and 45° wing sweep, respectively.^[68]

Interest in high-speed flight, which led him to initiate work on swept wings starting in 1940, is evident from the advanced developments Messerschmitt had on his drawing board in 1944. While the Me 262 V9 Hochgeschwindigkeit I (HG I) actually flight tested in 1944 had only small changes compared to combat aircraft, most notably a low-profile canopy — tried as the Rennkabine (literally "racing cabin") on the ninth Me 262 prototype for a short time — to reduce drag, the HG II and HG III designs were far more radical. The projected HG II combined the low-drag canopy with a 35° wing sweep and a butterfly tail. The HG III had a conventional tail, but a 45° wing sweep and turbines embedded in the wing roots.^[69]

Messerschmitt also conducted a series of flight tests with the series production Me 262. In dive tests, they determined that the Me 262 went out of control in a dive at Mach 0.86, and that higher Mach numbers would cause a nose-down trim that the pilot could not counter. The resulting steepening of the dive would lead to even higher speeds and the airframe would disintegrate from excessive negative g loads.^{[citation needed]}

The HG series of Me 262 derivatives was believed capable of reaching transonic Mach numbers in level flight^{[citation needed]}, with the top speed of the HG III being projected as Mach 0.96 at 6,000 m (20,000 ft) altitude. Despite the necessity to gain experience in high-speed flight for the HG II and III designs, Messerschmitt made no attempt to exceed the Mach 0.86 limit for the Me 262. After the war, the Royal Aircraft Establishment, at that time one of the leading institutions in high-speed research, re-tested the Me 262 to help with British attempts at exceeding Mach 1. The RAE achieved speeds of up to Mach 0.84 and confirmed the results from the Messerschmitt dive tests. The Soviets ran similar tests.

After Willy Messerschmitt's death in 1978, the former Me 262 pilot Hans Guido Mutke claimed to have exceeded Mach 1, on 9 April 1945 in a Me 262 in a "straight-down" 90° dive. This claim is disputed because it is only based on Mutke's memory of the incident, which recalls effects other Me 262 pilots observed below the speed of sound at high indicated airspeed, but with no altitude reading required to determine the actual speed. Furthermore, the pitot tube used to measure airspeed in aircraft can give falsely elevated readings as the pressure builds up inside the tube at high speeds. Finally, the Me 262 wing had only a slight sweep, incorporated for trim (center of gravity) reasons and likely would have suffered structural failure due to divergence at high transonic speeds. One airframe — the aforementioned Me 262 V9, Werknummer 130 004, with Stammkennzeichen of VI+AD,^[70] was prepared as the HG I test airframe with the low-profile Rennkabine racing canopy and may have achieved an unofficial record speed for a turbojet-powered aircraft of 975 km/h (606 mph), altitude unspecified,^[71] even with the recorded wartime airspeed record being set on 6 July 1944, by another Messerschmitt design — the Me 163B V18 rocket fighter setting a 1,130 km/h (700 mph) record, but landing with a nearly disintegrated rudder surface.^[72]^[73]

Production[edit]

Underground manufacture of Me 262s

About 1,400 Me 262s were produced, but a maximum of 200 were operational at any one time. According to sources they destroyed from 300 to 450 enemy planes, with the Allies destroying about 100 Me 262s in the air.^[61] While Germany was bombed intensively, production of the Me 262 was dispersed into low-profile production facilities, sometimes little more than clearings in the forests of Germany and occupied countries. Through the end of February to the end of March 1945, approximately 60 Me 262s were destroyed in attacks on Obertraubling and 30 at Leipheim;^[74] the Neuburg jet plant itself was bombed on 19 March 1945.^[75]

Large, heavily protected underground factories were constructed to take up production of the Me 262, safe from bomb attacks, but the war ended before they could be completed. Wings were produced in Germany's oldest motorway tunnel at Engelberg, to the west of Stuttgart. At B8 Bergkristall-Esche II at St. Georgen/Gusen, Austria, forced labourers of concentration camp Gusen II produced fully equipped fuselages for the Me 262 at a monthly rate of 450 units on large assembly lines from early 1945.^[76]

Postwar history[edit]

Reproduction of a Messerschmitt Me 262 (A-1c) at the Berlin Air Show 2006

After the end of the war, the Me 262 and other advanced German technologies were quickly swept up by the Soviets, British and Americans, as part of the USAAF's Operation Lusty. Many Me 262s were found in readily repairable condition and were confiscated. The Soviets, British and Americans wished to evaluate the technology, particularly the engines.

During testing, the Me 262 was found to be faster than the British Gloster Meteor fighter jet, and had better visibility to the sides and rear (mostly due to the canopy frames and the discoloration caused by the plastics used in the Meteor's construction), and was a superior gun platform to the Gloster Meteor F.1 which had a tendency to snake at high speed and exhibited "weak" aileron response.^[77] The Me 262 had a shorter range than the Meteor and had less reliable engines.

The USAAF compared the P-80 Shooting Star and Me 262, concluding that the Me 262 was superior in acceleration and speed, with similar climb performance. The Me 262 appeared to have a higher critical Mach number than any American fighter.^[78]

The Americans also tested a Me 262A-1a/U3 unarmed photo reconnaissance version, which was fitted with a fighter nose and a smooth finish. Between May and August 1946, the aircraft completed eight flights, lasting four hours 40 minutes. Testing was discontinued after four engine changes were required during the course of the tests, culminating in two single-engine landings.^[79] These aircraft were extensively studied, aiding development of early US, British and Soviet jet fighters. The F-86, designed by engineer Edgar Schmued, used a slat design based on the Me 262's.^[80]

Avia S-92, Kbely Museum, Prague, 2012.

The Czechoslovak aircraft industry continued to produce single-seat (Avia S-92) and two-seat (Avia CS-92) variants of the Me 262 after World War II. From August 1946, a total of nine S-92s and three two-seater CS-92s were completed and test flown. They were introduced in 1947 and in 1950 were supplied to the 5th Fighter Squadron, becoming the first jet fighters to serve in the Czechoslovak Air Force. These were kept flying until 1951,^[4] when they were replaced in service by Soviet jet fighters. Both versions are on display at the Prague Aviation museum in Kbely.

Flyable reproductions[edit]

Me 262 (A-1c) replica of (A1-a), Berlin air show, 2006.

In January 2003, the American Me 262 Project, based in Everett, Washington, completed flight testing to allow the delivery of near-exact reproductions of several versions of the Me 262 including at least two B-1c two-seater variants, one A-1c single seater and two "convertibles" that could be switched between the A-1c and B-1c configurations. All are powered by General Electric CJ610 (civil J85) engines and feature additional safety features, such as upgraded brakes and strengthened landing gear. The "c" suffix refers to the new CJ610 powerplant and has been informally assigned with the approval of the Messerschmitt Foundation in Germany^[81] (the Werk Number of the reproductions picked up where the last wartime produced Me 262 left off – a continuous airframe serial number run with a 50-year production break).

Flight testing of the first newly manufactured Me 262 A-1c (single-seat) variant (Werk Number 501244) was completed in August 2005. The first of these machines (Werk Number 501241) went to a private owner in the southwestern United States, while the second (Werk Number 501244) was delivered to the Messerschmitt Foundation at Manching, Germany. This aircraft conducted a private test flight in late April 2006, and made its public debut in May at the ILA 2006. The new Me 262 flew during the public flight demonstrations.^[82] Me 262 Werk Number 501241 was delivered to the Collings Foundation as White 1 of JG 7; this aircraft offered ride-along flights starting in 2008.^[83] The third replica, a non-flyable Me 262 A-1c, was delivered to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in May 201

Me 262 A-0: Pre-production aircraft fitted with two Jumo 004B turbojet engines, 23 built.
Me 262 A-1a "Schwalbe": Primary production version, usable as both fighter (interceptor) and fighter-bomber.^[27]
Me 262 A-1a/U1: Single prototype with a total of six nose mounted guns, two 20 mm (0.787 in) MG 151/20 cannon, two 30 mm (1.181 in) MK 103 cannon, and two 30 mm (1.181 in) MK 108 cannon.^[27]
Me 262 A-1a/U2: Single prototype with FuG 220 Lichtenstein SN-2 90 MHz radar transceiver and Hirschgeweih (stag's antlers) antenna array, for trials as a night-fighter.^[27]
Me 262 A-1a/U3: Reconnaissance version modified in small numbers, with Rb 20/30^[86] cameras mounted in the nose or alternatively one Rb 20/20^[86]and one Rb 75/30^[86] (Rb - Reihenbildmesskammer - series-picture, topographic camera). Some retained one 30 mm (1.181 in) MK 108 cannon, but most were unarmed.
Me 262 A-1a/U4: Bomber destroyer version, two prototypes with an adapted 50 mm (1.969 in) MK 214 (intended armament) or BK 5 (test ordnance only) anti-tank gun in the nose.^[27]
Me 262 A-1a/U5: Heavy jet fighter with six 30 mm (1.181 in) MK 108 cannon in the nose.^[27]
Me 262 A-1b: Trio of A-1a evaluation versions, starting with Werknummer 170 078, re-engined with two BMW 003 turbojets in place of the Jumo 004s, maximum speed 800 km/h (500 mph; 430 kn).^[87]
Me 262 A-2a "Sturmvogel": Definitive bomber version retaining only the two lower 30 mm (1.181 in) MK 108 cannon.^[27]
Me 262 A-2a/U1: Single prototype with advanced bombsight.
Me 262 A-2a/U2: Two prototypes with glazed nose for accommodating a bombardier.^[27]
Me 262 A-3a: Proposed ground-attack version.
Me 262 A-4a: Reconnaissance version.
Me 262 A-5a: Definitive reconnaissance version used in small numbers at end of the war.^[27]
Me 262 B-1a: Two-seat trainer.^[27]
Me 262 B-1a/U1: Me 262 B-1a trainers converted into provisional night fighters, FuG 218 Neptun radar, with Hirschgeweih (eng:antler) eight-dipole antenna array.^[88]
Me 262 B-2: Proposed night fighter version with stretched fuselage.
Me 262C: Proposed development prototypes in four differing designs, meant to augment or replace the Jumo 004 jets with liquid-fueled rocket propulsion, as the "Home Protector" (Heimatschützer) series.
Me 262 C-1a: Single prototype [made from Me 262A Werknummer 130 186] of rocket-boosted interceptor (Heimatschützer I) with Walter HWK 109-509 liquid-fuelled rocket in the tail, first flown with combined jet/rocket power on 27 February 1945.^[89]
Me 262 C-2b: Single prototype [made from Me 262A Werknummer 170 074] of rocket-boosted interceptor (Heimatschützer II) with two BMW 003R "combined" powerplants (BMW 003 turbojet, with a single 9.8 kN (2,200 lbf) thrust BMW 109-718 liquid-fuelled rocket engine mounted atop the rear of each jet exhaust) for boosted thrust, only flown once with combined jet/rocket power on 26 March 1945.^[90]
Me 262 C-3: Heimatschützer III - proposed version with Jumo 004 turbojet engines replaced with Walter HWK RII-211 Liquid-fuelled rocket engines.^[91]
Me 262 C-3a: Heimatschützer IV - a rocket-boosted interceptor with a Walter HWK 109-509S-2 rocket motor housed in a permanent belly pack. Prototypes and initial production aircraft were captured before completion.^[92]
Me 262 D-1: Proposed variant to carry Jagdfaust mortars.
Me 262 E-1: Proposed variant based on A-1a/U4 with a 55 mm (2.165 in) MK 114 cannon.
Me 262 E-2: Proposed rocket-armed variant carrying up to 48 × R4M rockets.
Me 262 S: Zero-series model for Me 262 A-1a
Me 262 W-1: Provisional designation for Me 262 with 2x 2.7 kN (610 lbf) Argus As 014 pulse jet engines
Me 262 W-3: Provisional designation for Me 262 with 2x 4.90 kN (1,102 lbf) "square-intake" Argus As 044 pulse jet engines
Me 262 Lorin: Provisional designation for Me 262 with 2x Lorin ramjet booster engines in "over-wing" mounts, one above each of the Jumo turbojet nacelles.

Rüstsätze (field modification kits)[edit]

Rüstsatze may be applied to various sub-types of their respective aircraft type, denoted as a suffix in the form /Rn. Data from:'Messerschmitt Me 262A Schwalbe^[85]^[93]

/R1: Underfuselage pylon for 500 l (110.0 imp gal; 132.1 US gal) external fuel tank.
/R2: Ratog installation for two Rheinmetall 109-502 solid rocket engines.
/R3: BMW 003R rocket boosted turbojet installation.
/R4: Installation of the FuG 350 Zc Naxos radar warning receiver / detector.
/R5: The standard 4x 30 mm (1.181 in) MK 108 cannon installation
/R6: Jabo (JagdBomber) equipment, such as bombsights and bomb racks.
/R7: Underwing installation of 12x R4M rockets carried on wooden racks'
/R8: R110BS Air to air rocket installation
/R9: Ruhrstahl Ru 344 X-4 air-to-air missile installation.

Postwar variants[edit]

Avia S-92^[94]: Czech-built Me 262 A-1a (fighter)^[95]
Avia CS-92: Czech-built Me 262 B-1a (fighter trainer, two seats)

Reproductions[edit]

These reproductions are constructed by Legend Flyers (later Me 262 Project) of Everett, Washington.^[96] The Jumo 004 engines of the original are replaced by more reliable General Electric CJ610 engines. The first Me 262 reproduction (a two-seater) took off for the first time in December 2002 and the second one in August 2005. This one was delivered to the Messerschmitt Foundation and was presented at the ILA airshow in 2006.^[97]

A-1c: American privately built, based on A-1a configuration.
B-1c: American privately built, based on B-1a configuration.
A/B-1c: American privately built, convertible between A-1c and B-1c configuration.

Operators[edit]

Luftwaffe
- Russian Liberation Army Air Force (one or two Me 262 assigned)^[98] (Vlasov's Air Force mentions two Me 262 machines assigned.)^[99]
Czechoslovak Air Force (postwar, nine S-92 and three CS-92)

Surviving aircraft[edit]

Me 262A-2a (Black X), Australia, 2012.

Me 262B-1a/U1 (Red 8), S. Africa, 2008.

Me 262 B-1a (White 35), Willow Grove, Pa., 2007.

Me 262A and its Junkers Jumo 004 turbojet engine (Yellow 5), NMUSAF-Dayton, 2007

Me 262 A-1a/R7, W.Nr.500071 White 3, III./JG 7: Deutsches Museum,^[100] Munich, Germany. This aircraft, flown by Hans Guido Mutke while a pilot of 9. Staffel/JG 7, was confiscated by Swiss authorities on 25 April 1945 after Mutke made an emergency landing in Switzerland due to lack of fuel (80 litres were remaining, 35 litres were usually burnt in one minute).
Me 262 A-1a: Reconstructed from parts of crashed and incomplete Me 262s. Luftwaffenmuseum der Bundeswehr, Germany.
Me 262 A-1a W.Nr.501232 Yellow 5, 3./KG(J)6: National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, USA.
Me 262 A-1a/U3 W.Nr.500453: Flying Heritage Collection, Everett, Washington, USA, currently in US undergoing restoration to flying condition. It is intended to fly using its original Jumo 004 engines.^[101] The aircraft was bought from The Planes Of Fame, Chino, California.
Me 262 A-1a/R7 W.Nr.500491 Yellow 7, II./JG 7: National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA. Possesses twin original underwing racks for 24 R4M unguided rockets.
Me 262 A-1a W.Nr.112372: RAF Museum Hendon, London, United Kingdom.
Me 262 A-2a W.Nr.500200 Black X 9K+XK, 2 Staffel./KG 51: Australian War Memorial, Canberra, Australia. Built at Regensburg in March 1945, same batch from which the Deutsches Museum White 3 was built. Flown by Fahnenjunker Oberfeldwebel Fröhlich and surrendered at Fassberg. She remains the only Me 262 left in existence wearing her original (albeit worn, as seen in the picture) colours. Her markings show both the Unit signatures along with the Air Ministry colours applied at Farnborough, where she was allocated reference Air Min 81. Restoration was completed in 1985 and aircraft was put up on display.^[102]
Me 262 B-1a/U1, W.Nr.110305 Red 8: South African National Museum of Military History, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Me 262 B-1a, W.Nr.110639 White 35: National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, Florida (previously at NAS/JRB Willow Grove, Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, USA)
Avia S-92: Prague Aviation Museum, Kbely, Prague, Czech Republic.
Avia CS-92: Prague Aviation Museum, Kbely, Prague, Czech Republic.

Specifications (Messerschmitt Me 262 A-1a)[edit]

Data from Quest for Performance^[23] Original Messerschmitt documents^[103]

General characteristics

Crew: 1
Length: 10.60 m (34 ft 9 in)
Wingspan: 12.60 m (41 ft 6 in)
Height: 3.50 m (11 ft 6 in)
Wing area: 21.7 m² (234 ft²)
Empty weight: 3,795 kg^[104] (8,366 lb)
Loaded weight: 6,473 kg^[104] (14,272 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 7,130 kg^[104] (15,720 lb)
Aspect ratio: 7.32
Powerplant: 2 × Junkers Jumo 004 B-1 turbojets, 8.8 kN (1,980 lbf) each

Performance

Maximum speed: 900 km/h (559 mph)
Range: 1,050 km (652 mi)
Service ceiling: 11,450 m (37,565 ft)
Rate of climb: 1,200 m/min (At max weight of 7,130 kg) (3,900 ft/min)
Thrust/weight: 0.28

Armament

Guns: 4 × 30 mm MK 108 cannon (A-2a: two cannon)
Rockets: 24 × 55 mm (2.2 in) R4M rockets
Bombs: 2 × 250 kg (550 lb) bombs or 2 × 500 kg (1,100 lb) bombs (A-2a variant)

Source : wikipedia free encyclopedia

2. Heinkel he162 Salamander/ Volksjager

He 162

He 162 120230 during post-war trials, USA.
Role	Fighter
Manufacturer	Heinkel
Designer	Heinkel
First flight	6 December 1944
Introduction	1945
Retired	1945
Status	Retired
Primary user	Luftwaffe
Number built	ca 320

The Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger (German, "People's Fighter"), the name of a project of the Emergency Fighter Program design competition, was a German single-engine, jet-powered fighter aircraft fielded by the Luftwaffe in World War II. Designed and built quickly, and made primarily of wood as metals were in very short supply and prioritised for other aircraft, the He 162 was nevertheless the fastest of the first generation of Axis and Allied jets. Volksjäger was the Reich Air Ministry's official name for the government design program competition won by the He 162 design. Other names given to the plane include Salamander, which was the codename of its construction program, and Spatz ("Sparrow"), which was the name given to the plane by Heinkel.

Development[edit]

The crippling of the Luftwaffe fighter arm[edit]

Through 1943 the U.S. 8th Air Force and German Luftwaffe entered a period of rapid evolution as both forces attempted to gain an advantage. Having lost too many fighters to the bombers' defensive guns, the Germans invested in a series of heavy weapons that allowed them to attack from outside the guns' effective range. The addition of heavy cannons like the 30mm calibre MK 108, and even heavier Bordkanone autoloading weapons in 37mm and 50mm calibres on their Zerstörer heavy fighters, and the spring-1943 adoption of the Werfer-Granate 21 unguided rockets, gave the German single and twin-engined defensive fighters a degree of firepower never seen previously by Allied fliers. Meanwhile, the single-engine aircraft like specially equipped Fw 190As added armor to protect their pilots from fire, allowing them to approach to distances where their heavy weapons could be used with some chance of hitting the bombers. All of this added greatly to the weight being carried by both the single and twin-engine fighters, seriously affecting their performance.

When the 8th Air Force re-opened its bombing campaign in early 1944 with the Big Week offensive, the bombers returned to the skies with the long-range P-51 Mustang in escort. Unencumbered with the heavy weapons needed to down a bomber, the Mustangs (and longer-ranged versions of other aircraft) were able to fend off the Luftwaffe with relative ease. The Luftwaffe responded by changing tactics, forming in front of the bombers and making a single pass through the formations, giving the defense little time to react. The 8th Air Force responded with a change of its own, after Major General Jimmy Doolittle had ordered a change in fighter tactics earlier in 1944, amounting to an air supremacy entry into German airspace far ahead of the bombers' combat box formations — when at the end of April, he added additional directives allowing the fighters, following the bombers' flight back home to England, to roam freely over Germany and hit the Luftwaffe's defensive fighters wherever they could be found.

This change in tactics resulted in a sudden increase in the rate of irreplaceable losses to the Luftwaffe day fighter force, as their heavily laden aircraft were "bounced" long before reaching the bombers. Within weeks, many of their aces were dead, along with hundreds of other pilots, and the training program could not replace their casualties quickly enough. The Luftwaffe put up little fight during the summer of 1944, allowing the Allied landings in France to go almost unopposed. With few planes coming up to fight, Allied fighters were let loose on the German airbases, railways and truck traffic. Logistics soon became a serious problem for the Luftwaffe, with maintaining aircraft in fighting condition becoming almost impossible. Getting enough fuel was even more difficult because of a devastating Oil Campaign of World War II against German petroleum industry targets.

Origins[edit]

He 162 120077, surrendered to the British at Leck, pictured at Freeman Field, Indiana, 1945

Addressing this posed a considerable problem for the Luftwaffe. Two camps quickly developed, both demanding the immediate introduction of large numbers of jet fighter aircraft. One group, led by General der Jagdflieger ("General of Fighters") Adolf Galland, reasoned that superior numbers had to be countered with superior technology, and demanded that all possible effort be put into increasing the production of the Messerschmitt Me 262 in its A-1a fighter version, even if that meant reducing production of other aircraft in the meantime.

The second group pointed out that this would likely do little to address the problem; the Me 262 had notoriously unreliable powerplants and landing gear, and the existing logistics problems would mean there would merely be more of them on the ground waiting for parts that would never arrive, or for fuel that was not available. Instead, they suggested that a new design be built - one so inexpensive that if a machine was damaged or worn out, it could simply be discarded and replaced with a fresh plane straight off the assembly line. Thus was born the concept of the "throwaway fighter".

Galland and other Luftwaffe senior officers expressed vehement opposition to the light fighter idea, while Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and Armaments Minister Albert Speer fully supported the idea. Göring and Speer got their way, and a contract tender for a single-engine jet fighter that was suited for cheap and rapid mass production was established under the name Volksjäger ("People's Fighter").

Volksjäger[edit]

Design[edit]

He 162 tail

Heinkel had designed a relatively small, 'sporty'-looking aircraft, with a sleek, streamlined fuselage. Overall, the look of the plane was extremely modernistic for its time, appearing quite contemporary in terms of layout and angular arrangement even to today's eyes. The BMW 003 axial-flow turbojet was mounted in a pod nacelle uniquely situated atop the fuselage,^[7] just aft of the cockpit and centered directly over the wing's center section. Twin roughly rectangular vertical tailfins were perpendicularly mounted at the ends of highly dihedralled horizontal tailplanes - possessing dihedral of some 14º apiece^[8] - to clear the jet exhaust, a high-mounted straight wing (attached to the fuselage with just four bolts)^[3] with a forward-swept trailing edge and a noticeably marked degree of dihedral, with an ejection seat provided for the pilot — which the Heinkel firm had pioneered in a front-line combat aircraft, with the earlier He 219 night fighter in 1942. The He 162 airframe design featured an uncomplicated tricycle landing gear, the first such landing gear system to be present from the very start in any operational Axis Powers single-engined fighter design, that retracted into the fuselage, performed simply with extension springs, mechanical locks, cables and counterweights, and a minimum of any hydraulics employed in its design.^[9] Partly due to the late-war period it was designed within, some of the He 162's landing gear components were "recycled" existing landing gear components from a contemporary German military aircraft to save development time: the main landing gear's oleo struts and wheel/brake units came from the Messerschmitt Bf 109K, as well as the double-acting hydraulic cylinders, one per side, used to raise and lower each maingear leg.^[10] The Heinkel firm's previous experience with designing flightworthy, retractable tricycle undercarriage-equipped airframes extended as far back as late 1939^[11] with the Heinkel He 280 jet fighter prototype, and further strengthened with the unexpectedly successful Heinkel He 219A night fighter, which also used a tricycle undercarriage.

The He 162 V1 first prototype flew within an astoundingly short period of time: the design was chosen on 25 September 1944 and first flew on 6 December,^[7] less than 90 days later. This was despite the fact that the factory in Wuppertal making Tego film plywood glue — used in a substantial number of late-war German aviation designs whose airframes and/or major airframe components were meant to be constructed mostly from wood — had been bombed by the Royal Air Force^{[clarification needed]} and a replacement had to be quickly substituted, without realizing that the replacement adhesive was highly acidic and would disintegrate the wooden parts it was intended to be fastening.

The first flight of the He 162 V1, by Flugkapitän Gotthold Peter — the first German jet fighter aircraft design to be jet-powered from its maiden flight onward — was fairly successful, but during a high-speed run at 840 km/h (520 mph), the highly acidic replacement glue attaching the nose gear strut door failed and the pilot was forced to land. Other problems were noted as well, notably a pitch instability and problems with sideslip due to the rudder design.^[3] None were considered important enough to hold up the production schedule for even a day. On a second flight on 10 December, again with Peter at the controls, in front of various Nazi officials, the glue again caused a structural failure. This allowed the aileron to separate from the wing, causing the plane to roll over and crash, killing Peter.^[7]

An investigation into the failure revealed that the wing structure had to be strengthened and some redesign was needed, as the glue bonding required for the wood parts was in many cases defective.^[7] However, the schedule was so tight that testing was forced to continue with the current design. Speeds were limited to 500 km/h (310 mph) when the second prototype flew on 22 December. This time, the stability problems proved to be more serious, and were found to be related to Dutch roll, which could be solved by reducing the dihedral. However, with the plane supposed to enter production within weeks, there was no time to change the design. A number of small changes were made instead, including adding lead ballast to the nose to move the centre of gravity more to the front of the plane, and slightly increasing the size of the tail surfaces.

The third and fourth prototypes, which now used an "M" for "Muster" (model) number instead of "V" for "Versuchs" (experimental) number, as the He 162 M3 and M4, after being fitted with the strengthened wings, flew in mid-January 1945. These versions also included — as possibly the pioneering example of their use on a production-line, military jet aircraft — small, anhedraled aluminium "drooped" wingtips, reportedly designed by Alexander Lippisch and known in German as Lippisch-Ohren ("Lippisch Ears"), in an attempt to cure the stability problems via effectively "decreasing" the main wing panels' marked three degree dihedral angle.^[12] Both prototypes were equipped with two 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108 cannons in the He 162 A-1 anti-bomber variant; in testing, the recoil from these guns proved to be too much for the lightweight fuselage to handle, and plans for production turned to the A-2 fighter with two 20 mm MG 151/20 cannons instead while a redesign for added strength started as the A-3. The shift to 20 mm guns was also undertaken because the smaller-calibre weapons would allow a much greater amount of ammunition to be carried.

The He 162 was originally built with the intention of being flown by the Hitler Youth, as the Luftwaffe was fast running out of pilots. However, the aircraft's complexity required more experienced pilots. Both a standard-fuselage length, unarmed BMW 003E-powered two-seat version (with the rear pilot's seat planned to have a ventral access hatch to access the cockpit) and an unpowered two-seat glider version, designated the He 162S (Schulen), were developed for training purposes. Only a small number were built, and even fewer delivered to the sole He 162 Hitler Youth training unit to be activated (in March 1945) at an airbase at Sagan. The unit was in the process of formation when the war ended, did not begin any training, and it is doubtful that more than one or two He 162S gliders ever took to the air.

The Hinterbrühl underground production line for the He 162A was captured in April 1945

Various changes had raised the weight over the original 2,000 kg (4,410 lb) limit, but even at 2,800 kg (6,170 lb), the aircraft was still among the fastest aircraft in the air with a maximum airspeed of 790 km/h (427 kn; 491 mph) at sea level and 839 km/h (453 kn; 521 mph) at 6,000 m (20,000 ft),^[13] but could reach 890 km/h (481 kn; 553 mph) at sea level and 905 km/h (489 kn; 562 mph) /h (562 mph) at 6,000 m (20,000 ft) using short burst extra thrust.^[14] The short flight duration of barely 30 minutes was due to only having a single 695-litre (183 US gallon) capacity flexible-bladder fuel tank in the fuselage directly under the engine's intake.^[15] The original Baubeschreibung document submittal for the He 162 dated mid-October 1944 showed a pair of fuel tanks for the original version of the Spatz's airframe as-designed: a single, smaller capacity 640 litre (169 US gal) fuselage main tank in approximately the same location as the later 695 litre tank was placed, with an additional wing centre-section tank just above and behind it, never produced for the production run, of some 325 litres (86 US gal) feeding by gravity into the main fuselage tank.^[16] The production He 162A-2 was armed with a pair of 20mm MG 151/20 cannon.^[13]

He 162 construction facilities were at Salzburg, the Hinterbrühl, and the Mittelwerk.^[17] Output was expected to be 1,000 a month by April 1945, double that when the Mittlewerk plant began deliveries.^[13]

Operations[edit]

In January 1945, the Luftwaffe formed an Erprobungskommando 162 ("Test Unit 162") evaluation group to which the first 46 aircraft were delivered. The group was based at the Luftwaffe main test center, or Erprobungsstelle at Rechlin and it is frequently stated^{[by whom?]} this unit was under the command of Heinz Bär. Bär, an experienced combat pilot credited with more than 200 kills, gained 16 of his victories with an Me 262 as commander of operational training unit III./Ergänzungs-Jagdgeschwader 2 (EJG 2). However, Bär's personal documents do not confirm his presence at Erprobungskommando 162 or if he ever flew He 162s.^{[citation needed]}

February saw deliveries of the He 162 to its first operational unit, I./JG 1 (1st Group of Jagdgeschwader 1 Oesau — "1st Fighter Wing"), which had previously flown the Focke-Wulf Fw 190A. I./JG 1 was transferred to Parchim, which, at the time, was also a base for the Me 262-equipped Jagdgeschwader 7, some 80 km south-southwest of the Heinkel factory's coastal airfield at "Marienehe" (today known as Rostock-Schmarl, northwest of the Rostock city centre), where the pilots could pick up their new jets and start intensive training beginning in March, all while the transportation network, aircraft production facilities and petroleum, oil, and lubrication (POL) product-making installations of the Third Reich had been collapsing under the pressure of continued Allied air attacks, which had begun to also target the Luftwaffe's jet and rocket fighter bases. On 7 April, the USAAF bombed the field at Parchim (an airfield used by JG 7) with 134 B-17 Flying Fortresses, inflicting serious losses and damage to the infrastructure. Two days later, I./JG 1 moved to an airfield at nearby Ludwigslust and, less than a week later, moved again to an airfield at Leck, near the Danish border. On 8 April, II./JG 1 moved to Marienehe and started converting from Fw 190As to He 162s. III./JG 1 was also scheduled to convert to the He 162, but the Gruppe disbanded on 24 April and its personnel were used to fill in the vacancies in other units.

The He 162 first saw combat in mid-April 1945. On 19 April, Feldwebel Günther Kirchner shot down a Royal Air Force fighter, and although the victory was credited to a flak unit, the British pilot confirmed he'd been downed by a He 162 during interrogation.^[18] The Heinkel and its pilot were lost as well, shot down by an RAF Hawker Tempest while on approach to land, a point at which Allied pilots targeted German jets. Though still in training, I./JG 1 had begun scored kills in mid-April, but had also lost 13 He 162s and 10 pilots. Ten of the aircraft were operational losses, caused by flameouts and sporadic structural failures. Only two of the 13 aircraft were actually shot down. The He 162's 30-minute fuel capacity also caused problems, as at least two of JG 1's pilots were killed attempting emergency deadstick landings after exhausting their fuel.

Captured He 162

Captured He 162 120230 in France

In the last days of April, as the Soviet troops approached, II./JG 1 evacuated from Marienehe and on 2 May joined the I./JG 1 at Leck. On 3 May, all of JG 1's surviving He 162s were restructured into two groups, I. Einsatz ("Combat") and II. Sammel ("Collection"). All JG 1's aircraft were grounded on 5 May, when General Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg signed the surrender of all German armed forces in the Netherlands, Northwest Germany and Denmark. On 6 May, when the British reached their airfields, JG 1 turned their He 162s over to the Allies, and examples were shipped to the U.S., Britain, France, and the Soviet Union for further evaluation. Erprobungskommando 162 fighters, which had been passed on to JV 44, an elite jet unit under Adolf Galland a few weeks earlier, were all destroyed by their crews to keep them from falling into Allied hands. By the time of the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945, 120 He 162s had been delivered; a further 200 had been completed and were awaiting collection or flight-testing; and about 600 more were in various stages of production.

The difficulties experienced by the He 162 were caused mainly by its rush into production, not by any inherent design flaws.^[19] One experienced Luftwaffe pilot who flew it called it a "first-class combat aircraft." Eric "Winkle" Brown of the Fleet Air Arm, who flew a record 486 different types of aircraft, said the He 162 had "the lightest and most effective aerodynamically balanced controls" he had experienced.^[20] Brown had been warned to treat the rudder with suspicion due to a number of in-flight failures. This warning was passed on by Brown to RAF pilot Flt Lt R A Marks, but was apparently not heeded. On 9 November 1945 during a demonstration flight from RAE Farnborough one of the fin and rudder assemblies broke off at the start of a low-level roll causing the aircraft to crash into Oudenarde Barracks, Aldershot killing Marks and a soldier on the ground.^[21]

He 162 Mistel[edit]

The Mistel series of fighter/powered bomb composite ground-attack aircraft pre-dated the He 162 by over two years, and the Mistel 5 project study in early 1945 proposed the mating of an He 162A-2 to the Arado E.377A flying bomb. The fighter would sit atop the bomb, which would itself be equipped with two underwing-mounted BMW 003 turbojets. This ungainly combination would take off on a sprung trolley, derived from that used on the first eight Arado Ar 234 prototypes, with all three jets running. Immediately after take-off, the trolley would be jettisoned, and the Mistel would then fly to within strike range of the designated target. Upon reaching this point, the bomb would be aimed squarely at the target and then released, with the jet turning back for home. The Mistel 5 remained a "paper project", as the Arado bomb never progressed beyond the blueprint stage.

Variants[edit]

He 162 A-0 — first ten pre-production aircraft.
He 162 A-1 — armed with two 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108 cannons with 50 rounds per gun.
He 162 A-2 — armed with two 20 mm MG 151/20 cannons with 120 rounds per gun.
He 162 A-3 — proposed upgrade with reinforced nose mounting twin 30 mm MK 108 cannons.
He 162 A-8 — proposed upgrade with the more powerful Jumo 004D-4 engine of 10.3 kN (2,300 lbf) top thrust levels. Muster (model) prototype airframes M11 and M12's testing revealed a top speed of 885 km/h (550 mph) at sea level at normal thrust and 960 km/h (597 mph) with maximum thrust,^[22] close to the Me 163B rocket fighter's top velocity figures.
He 162 B-1 — a proposed follow on planned for 1946, meant to use the Heinkel firm's own, more powerful 12 kN (2,700 lb) thrust Heinkel HeS 011A turbojet, a stretched fuselage to provide more fuel and endurance as well as increased wingspan, with reduced dihedral which allowed the omission of the anhedral wingtip devices. To be armed with twin 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108s.

The He 162B airframe was also used as the basis for the Miniature Fighter Project design competition powered by one or two "square-intake" Argus As 044 pulsejet engines. The pulsejet, however didn't provide enough thrust for takeoff and neither Heinkel nor the OKL showed much enthusiasm for the project.^[23]

He 162C — proposed upgrade featuring the B-series fuselage, Heinkel HeS 011A engine, swept-back, anhedraled outer wing panels forming a gull wing, a new V-tail stabilizing surface assembly, and upward-aimed twin 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108s as a Schräge Musik weapons fitment,^{[citation needed]} located right behind the cockpit.
He 162D — proposed upgrade with a configuration similar to C-series but a dihedraled forward-swept wing.
He 162E — He 162A fitted with the BMW 003R mixed power plant, a BMW 003A turbojet with an integrated BMW 718 liquid-fuel rocket engine — mounted just above the exhaust orifice of the turbojet — for boost power. At least one prototype was built and flight-tested for a short time.
He 162S — two-seat training glider.
Tachikawa Ki 162 — proposed license-built version of He 162A in Japan, projected with Lorin ramjet and Argus pulsejet for first design.

Operators[edit]

Nazi Germany

Luftwaffe

France (Test plane)

French Air Force

Aircraft on display[edit]

Media related to Heinkel He 162 museum aircraft at Wikimedia Commons

An He 162 A-2 (Werknummer 120227) of JG 1 is on display at the Royal Air Force Museum London, Hendon, London.
An He 162 A-2 (Werknummer 120077) is displayed at the Planes of Fame Museum on static display in Chino, California. This aircraft was captured by the British at Leck and sent to the United States in 1945 where it was given the designation FE-489 (Foreign Equipment 489) and later T-2-489.^[24]
An He 162 A-2 (Werknummer 120230), thought to have been flown by Oberst Herbert Ihlefeld of 1./JG 1, is currently owned by the American Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. This He 162A, after being captured by the British at Leck and sent to the US on board HMS Reaper escort carrier, is currently fitted with the tail unit from Werknummer 120222
Two He 162 A-2s^[discuss] (Werknummer 120086 and 120076) were owned by Canada Aviation and Space Museum, 120086 is assembled, and as of January 2012 on display. Werknummer 120076 was traded to Aero Vintage in the UK for a Bristol Fighter (G-AANM, D-7889) in December 2006. Investigations are currently being made into the practicality of an airworthy restoration of Werknummer 120076. Aircraft in Profile 203 reported that both aircraft as having been refurbished in Canada in the 1960s.^[25]Currently Werknummer 120076 is displayed in Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin.^[26]
An He 162 A-1 (Werknummer 120235) is in Hangar 5 of The Imperial War Museum Duxford.
An He 162 A-2 (Werknummer 120015) formerly of III./JG1, is currently under restoration at the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace near Paris, France, with a fully restored and operable retracting landing gear.^[9]
An He 162 is most likely in storage at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum (Werk Nummer 120222, Air Force number T-2-504).^[24]

Wk. Nr. 120227, RAF Museum, London
Wk. Nr. 120235, Imperial War Museum, London (now moved to Duxford)
Wk. Nr. 120086, Canada Aviation and Space Museum, Ottawa

Reproduction[edit]

He 162, produced by George Lucas (Nunday NY) displayed at National Warplane Museum, Geneseo NY (www.nationalwarplane.org)

Specifications (He 162A)[edit]

He 162A three-view

Data from Wood, Tony; Gunston, Bill. Hitler's Luftwaffe. London: Salamander Books. pp. 194–195. ISBN 0-517-22477-1.

General characteristics

Crew: 1, pilot with ejection seat
Length: 9.05 m (29 ft 8 in)
Wingspan: 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in)
Height: 2.6 m (8 ft 6 in)
Wing area: 11.16 m² (120 ft²)
Empty weight: 1,660 kg (3,660 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 2,800 kg (6,180 lb)
Fuel capacity of 695 litres (183 US gallons), allowing maximum 30 minute mission profile
Powerplant: 1 × BMW 003E-1 or E-2 (meant for dorsal fuselage attachment) axial flow turbojet, 7.85 kN (1,760 lbf)

Performance

Maximum speed: 790 km/h (491 mph) at normal thrust at sea level; 840 km/h (522 mph) at 6000 m (19,680 ft); using short burst extra thrust 890 km/h (553 mph) at sea level and 905 km/h (562 mph) at 6000 m (19,680 ft).
Range: 975 km (606 mi)
Service ceiling: 12,000 m (39,400 ft)
Rate of climb: 1,405 m/min (4,615 ft/min)

Armament

Guns: 2 × 20 mm MG 151/20 autocannons with 120 rpg (He 162 A-2) OR 2 × 30 mm MK 108 cannons with 50 rpg (He 162 A-0, A-1)

Source ; wikipedia

3. Arado Ar-234 blitz ( lightning )

The Arado Ar 234 Blitz (German: lightning) was the world's first operational jet-powered bomber, built by the German Arado company in the closing stages of World War II.

Produced in very limited numbers, it was used almost entirely in the reconnaissance role, but in its few uses as a bomber it proved to be nearly impossible to intercept. It was the last Luftwaffe aircraft to fly over Britain during the war, in April 1945.^[1]

Ar 234 Blitz

Arado Ar 234 B-2 at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
Role	Reconnaissance jet bomber
Manufacturer	Arado Flugzeugwerke
Designer	Walter Blume
First flight	15 June 1943
Introduction	September 1944
Status	Retired
Primary user	Luftwaffe
Number built	214

The Arado Ar 234 Blitz (German: lightning) was the world's first operational jet-powered bomber, built by the German Arado company in the closing stages of World War II.

Design and development[edit]

Background[edit]

In late 1940, the Reich Air Ministry (German: Reichsluftfahrtministerium, abbreviated RLM) offered a tender for a jet-powered high-speed reconnaissance aircraft with a range of 2,156 km (1,340 mi). Arado was the only company to respond, offering their E.370 project, led by Professor Walter Blume.^[2] This was a high-wing conventional-looking design with a Junkers Jumo 004 engine under each wing.

Arado estimated a maximum speed of 780 km/h (480 mph) at 6,000 m (20,000 ft), an operating altitude of 11,000 m (36,000 ft) and a range of 1,995 km (1,240 mi). The range was short of the RLM request, but they liked the design and ordered two prototypes as the Ar 234. These were largely complete before the end of 1941, but the Jumo 004 engines were not ready, and would not be ready until February 1943.^[2] When they did arrive they were considered unreliable by Junkers for in-flight use and were cleared for static and taxi tests only. Flight-qualified engines were finally delivered, and the Ar 234 V1 made its first flight on 30 July 1943 at Rheine Airfield (presently Rheine-Bentlage Air Base).^[3]

By September, four prototypes were flying. The second prototype, Arado Ar 234 V2, crashed on 2 October 1943 at Rheine near Münster after suffering a fire in its port wing, failure of both engines and various instrumentation failures. The aircraft dived into the ground from 1,200 m (3,900 ft), killing pilot Flugkapitän Selle.^[4] The eight prototype aircraft were fitted with the original arrangement of trolley-and-skid landing gear, intended for the planned operational, but never-produced Ar 234A version.

Differences between the pair of four-engined Ar 234 prototype aircraft

The sixth and eighth of the series were powered with four BMW 003 jet engines instead of two Jumo 004s, the sixth having four engines housed in individual nacelles,^[5] and the eighth flown with two pairs of BMW 003s installed within "twinned" nacelles underneath either wing. These were the first four-engine jet aircraft to fly. The twin-Jumo 004 powered Ar 234 V7 prototype made history on 2 August 1944 as the first jet aircraft ever to fly a reconnaissance mission, flown by Erich Sommer.^[6]

Landing gear design challenges[edit]

The projected weight for the aircraft was approximately 8 tonnes (7.9 long tons; 8.8 short tons). In order to reduce the weight of the aircraft and maximize the internal fuel, Arado did not use the typical retractable landing gear; instead, the aircraft was to take off from a jettisonable three-wheeled, tricycle gear-style trolley^[7] and land on three retractable skids, one under the central section of the fuselage, and one under each engine nacelle. This central main skid beneath the fuselage was originally intended to fully retract into the fuselage with skid-bay doors enclosing it, and was originally shown in a 1942-dated Arado engineering drawing, under its overall E 370 airframe factory development designation, as intended to be made from a three-sided channel-section component, featuring a set of nine triple-beaded wooden rollers within the channel-section mainskid, for ground contact purposes.^[8] However, as with the operational Messerschmitt Me 163B rocket fighter which used a landing skid, it was discovered that such a skid-format landing gear for the Ar 234A design's prototypes did not allow mobility after the end of the landing run, which would have left aircraft scattered widely over an airfield's acreage, unable to taxi off the runway without remounting each and every aircraft on a trolley for towing off the landing area. Erich Sommer himself once noted for late 20th-century television that the landing skid-equipped prototypes, when touching down on a wet-turf airstrip, had a landing run characteristic that "was like greased lightning" and "like [landing on] soap", from the complete lack of braking capability of the landing skid system.^[9]

Ar 234B[edit]

Ar 234 B with US markings.

The RLM had already seen the promise of the design and in July had asked Arado to supply two prototypes of a Schnellbomber ("fast bomber") version as the Ar 234B. Since the original skid-equipped Ar 234A's fuselage design was very slender and entirely filled with fuel tanks, there was no room for an internal bomb bay and the bombload had to be carried on external racks.

Since the cockpit was directly in front of the fuselage, the pilot had no direct view to the rear, so the guns were aimed through a periscope, derived from the type used on German World War II tanks, mounted on the cockpit roof. The defensive fixed rear gun system intended for the Ar 234A's prototype series was generally considered useless — much like similar rearward-firing, fuselage mount guns placed on the fuselage of the first five prototypes of the Heinkel He 219 night fighter — and such fixed, rearwards-mount machine guns were omitted in production examples of the Ar 234B, while still retaining the periscope for rearwards vision. The external bombload, and the aforementioned presence of inactive aircraft littering the landing field after their missions were completed (as with the similarly dolly/skid-geared Messerschmitt Me 163) made the skid-landing system impractical, so the B version was modified to have fully retractable tricycle landing gear, with the mid-fuselage very slightly widened to accommodate the forward-retracting main gear units, the nosegear retracting rearwards. The ninth prototype, marked with Stammkennzeichen (radio code letters) PH+SQ, was the prototype Ar 234B, and flew on 10 March 1944.

Production B-series aircraft (like the Ar 234 V9) were slightly wider at mid-fuselage to house the main landing gear, with a central fuel tank present (the middle one of a trio of fuel tanks) in the mid-fuselage location on the eight earlier trolley/skid equipped prototype aircraft having to be deleted for the retracted main gear's accommodation. The 1942-executed engineering drawing of the trio of fuel tanks in the fuselage, when using a skid/trolley undercarriage design, showed a 1,430 litre (378 US gal) forward tank, the aforementioned central tank of some 830 litres (219 US gal) capacity, and an aft tank of 1,540 litres (407 US gal) capacity.^[10] - the V9 and later examples had enlarged forward (1,800 litre/476 US gal) and aft (2,000 litre/528 US gal) fuel tanks to compensate for the omitted 830 litre central fuel tank.^[11] Under tests with full bombload, the Ar 234 V9 aircraft could reach only 668 km/h (415 mph) at altitude. This was still better than any bomber the Luftwaffe had at the time, and made it the only bomber with any hope of surviving the massive Allied air forces. The normal bombload consisted of two 500 kg (1,100 lb) bombs suspended from the engines or one large 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) bomb semi-recessed in the underside of the fuselage with maximum bombload being 1,500 kg (3,310 lb). If the war had continued it is possible that the aircraft would have been converted to use examples of the FuG 203 Kehl MCLOS radio guidance system to deploy and control the Fritz X guided bombs or Henschel Hs 293 air-to-surface missiles.

Production lines were already being set up, and 20 B-0 pre-production aircraft were delivered by the end of June. Later production was slow, as the Arado plants were given the simultaneous tasks of producing aircraft from other bombed-out factories hit during the USAAF's Big Week, and the ongoing license-building and nascent phasing-out of Heinkel's heavy He 177A bomber, even as the Arado firm was intended to be the sole subcontractor for the He 177B-series strategic bomber, meant to start construction at Arado as early as October 1944.^[12] Meanwhile, several of the Ar 234 prototypes - including a few of the surviving six twin-engined Jumo 004-powered "trolley-and-skids" Ar 234A-series prototypes - were sent forward in the reconnaissance role. In most cases, it appears they were never even detected, cruising at about 740 km/h (460 mph) at over 9,100 m (29,900 ft), with the seventh prototype achieving the first-ever wartime reconnaissance mission over the United Kingdom by a Luftwaffe-used jet aircraft.

The few 234Bs entered service in autumn and impressed their pilots. They were fairly fast and completely aerobatic. The long takeoff runs led to several accidents; a search for a solution led to improved training as well as the use of twin HWK-built, jettisonable liquid fueled monopropellant Starthilfe pioneering RATO units, one mounted under each outer wing. The Jumo 004 engines were always the real problem; they suffered constant flameouts and required overhaul or replacement after about 10 hours of operation.

The most notable use of the Ar 234 in the bomber role was the attempt to destroy the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen.^[13] Between 7 March, when it was captured by the Allies, and 17 March, when it finally collapsed, the bridge was continually attacked by Ar 234s of III/KG 76 carrying 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) bombs. The aircraft continued to fight in a scattered fashion until Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945. Some were shot down in air combat, destroyed by flak, or "bounced" by Allied fighters during takeoff or on the landing approach, as was already happening to Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighters. Most simply sat on the airfields awaiting fuel that never arrived.

Overall from mid-1944 until the end of the war a total of 210 aircraft were built.^[2] In February 1945, production was switched to the C variant. It was hoped that by November 1945 production would reach 500 per month.

Ar 234B-2/N night fighter adaptation

In addition, it was intended to modify upwards of 30 Ar 234B-2 airframes for the night-fighting role, from a proposal dated 12 September 1944 between Arado director Walter Blume and Goering's top aviation technologist, Siegfried Knemeyer.^[14] Designated Ar 234B-2/N and code named Nachtigall (Nightingale), these aircraft were fitted with FuG 218 "Neptun" VHF-band radar, with the appropriately reduced-length eight-dipole element version of the standard Hirschgeweih transceiving AI radar antenna system, and carried a pair of forward-firing MG 151/20 autocannon within a Magirusbombe conformal gun pod on the ventral fuselage hardpoint. A second crew member, who operated the radar systems, was accommodated in a very cramped compartment in the rear fuselage. Two of these jury-rigged night fighters served with Kommando Bonow, an experimental test unit attached to Luftflotte Reich. Operations commenced with the pair of 234s in March 1945, but Bonow's team soon found the aircraft to be unsuited for night fighting and no kills were recorded during the unit's very brief life.

Ar 234C[edit]

Two-view silhouette of basic Ar 234C design

The Ar 234C was equipped with four BMW 003A engines, mounted in a pair of twin-engine nacelles based on those from the eighth Ar 234 prototype. The primary reason for this switch was to free up Junkers Jumo 004s for use by the Me 262, but the change improved overall thrust, especially in takeoff and climb-to-altitude performance. An improved cockpit design, with a slightly bulged outline for the upper contour integrating a swept-back fairing for the periscope, also used a much-simplified window design with far fewer glazing panels (8 in total), than the total of 13 separate glazing panels of the Ar 234B cockpit — itself taken almost unmodified in form from the eight A-series "trolley-skid" prototypes — for ease of production. The quartet of BMW jet engines gave the C-series Ar 234s an airspeed that was found to be about 20% higher than the twin-Jumo 004 equipped B series airframes, and the faster climb to altitude meant more efficient flight and increased range.

Although Hauptmann Diether Lukesch was preparing to form an operational test squadron, only 14 C-series airframes had been completed by the war's end, and of that number fewer than half had been fitted with engines, with a few of them found at the end of the war sitting out in the open, otherwise complete but with empty engine nacelles — about 500 examples of the BMW 003 jet engine were ever built, with priority for their production going to the Heinkel He 162 Spatz emergency fighter's own production program. Comprehensive flight testing of the new sub-type had yet to begin when Germany surrendered. Three basic variants of the C-series were planned for initial construction, with several more laid out as detailed proposals. Some of these would have had different powerplants, while others were intended to feature swept or "crescent"-type wings.

Ar 234D[edit]

The D model was a two-seat aircraft based on the B-series fuselage, but with a new, enlarged two-seat cockpit possessing fewer glazing panels than the C version, intended to be powered by a pair of more powerful Heinkel HeS 011 turbojet engines. The HeS 011 powerplant never reached quantity production, with only 19 examples of the new powerplants ever created for test purposes, and no 234D was produced, beyond a few wooden engineering mockups.

Ar 234P[edit]

The P model was a two-seat night fighter version with a variant of the D-series cockpit, differing in powerplant options and several options of radar. Several were in the planning stage, but none made it into production.

Variants[edit]

Model of an Arado Ar 234 V21 carrying an Arado E.381 at the Technikmuseum Speyer

Data from: Aircraft of the Third Reich Vol.1^[15]

Arado E 370: Draft proposal submitted to the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM) for a fast jet reconnaissance bomber.

Ar 234 V1 to V5: Initial prototypes of the Ar 234A with skid landing gear, take-off tricycle gear trolley with trio of retractable landing skids, and 2 x Jumo 004 engines.

Ar 234 V6 & V8: Prototypes for four-engined designs for the Ar 234, meant to use the alternative choice of the lower-thrust BMW 003 turbojet engines while retaining the A model skid/trolley undercarriage. The V6 was fitted with the quartet of BMW 003s in individual nacelles, unlike the V8 prototype which had the BMW jet engines in a pair of "twinned" nacelles, and essentially "prototyped" what would become the four-engined Ar 234C's engine installation.

Ar 234 V7: Development aircraft for the Ar 234B production aircraft, retaining the A-series' intended skid undercarriage, and saw active service.

Ar 234 V9 to V11: Representative prototypes of the Ar 234B production aircraft, with the V9 being the first retractable tricycle-geared airframe.

Ar 234 V13 & V20: A pair of B-series prototypes fitted with quartets of the BMW 109-003 engines for the C-series aircraft, using the V8 prototype's "twinned" nacelle design, without the V8 example's retractable wing-skids.

Ar 234 V15: A single B-series airframe fitted with 2 x BMW 003 engines for engine development testing, and rumored to have been considered for new wing planform tests.

Ar 234 V21 to V30: C-series development aircraft. V26 and V30 had experimental thick section wooden and thin section metal laminar flow wings.

Ar 234 V16: Intended to be fitted with an experimental crescent wing with sweep back lessening towards the tips, evolved by Dipl.-Ing. R.E. Kosin. The wing was constructed but was destroyed before it could be fitted.

Ar 234 A: The first proposed production reconnaissance bomber fitted with skid undercarriage and take-off dolly, built only as the series of eight trolley-and skid undercarriage V1 through V8 prototypes.

Ar 234 B-0: 20 pre-production aircraft.

Ar 234 B-1: Reconnaissance version, equipped with two Rb 50/30 or Rb 75/30 cameras. No serial production, all reconnaissance variants were converted from B-2 aircraft with Rüstsatz b.

Ar 234 B-2: Bomber version, with a maximum bombload of 1,500 kg (3,307 lb).

Ar 234 B-2/N: Night fighter version, two aircraft converted from B-2.

Ar 234 C-1: Four-engined aircraft – all C-series Ar 234s powered with a quartet of BMW 003 jet engines – as installed on the Ar 234 V8 prototype, otherwise similar to the Ar 234 B-1.

Ar 234 C-2: Four-engined aircraft similar to the Ar 234 B-2.

Ar 234 C-3: Multi-purpose version, armed with two 20 mm MG 151/20 cannons beneath the nose.

Ar 234 C-3/N: Proposed two-seat night fighter version, armed with two forward-firing 20 mm MG 151/20 and two 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108 cannons, fitted with a mid-VHF band FuG 218 Neptun V radar.

Ar 234 C-4: Armed reconnaissance version, fitted with two cameras, armed with four 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon.

Ar 234 C-5: Proposed version with side-by-side seating for the crew. The 28th prototype was converted into this variant.

Ar 234 C-6: Proposed two-seat reconnaissance aircraft. The 29th prototype was converted into this variant.

Ar 234 C-7: Night fighter version, with side-by-side seating for the crew, fitted with an enhanced FuG 245 Bremen O cavity magnetron-based centimetric (30 GHz) radar.

Ar 234 C-8: Proposed single-seat bomber version, powered by two 1,080 kg (2,380 lb) Jumo 004D turbojet engines.

Ar 234 D-1: Proposed reconnaissance version. Not built.

Ar 234 D-2: Proposed bomber version. Not built.

Ar 234 P-1: Two-seater with four BMW 003A-1 engines; one 20 mm MG 151/20 and one 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108.

Ar 234 P-2: Also a two-seater, with redesigned cockpit protected by a 13 mm (0.51 in) armour plate.

Ar 234 P-3: HeS 011A powered P-2, but with two cannon.

Ar 234P-4: as P-3 but with Jumo 004D engines.

Ar 234P-5: Three-seat version with HeS 011A engines, one 20 mm MG 151/20 and four 30 mm (1.18 in) MK 108 cannon.

Ar 234 R: Rocket-powered short range high-altitude reconnaissance version^[16]

Operators[edit]

France

French Air Force - Two captured Luftwaffe aircraft.

Nazi Germany

Luftwaffe
- 1./Versuchsverband OKL, headquarters unit
- Sonderkommando Götz (named for pilot Horst Götz), Two prototype aircraft, was then increased in size and became;
- Sonderkommando Sperling, carried reconnaissance on western front and UK and helped to train crews of;
- 1./Fernaufklärungsgruppe (FAGr) 123 (Long-Distance Reconnaissance unit)
- Sonderkommando Hecht, carried out reconnaissance of southern portion of Western Front and also intended to train crews of;
- 1./FAGr 100 (Reconnaissance unit)
- Sonderkommando Sommer (named for pilot Erich Sommer), carried out reconnaissance in Italy and also intended to train crews of;
- 1./FAGr 33 (Reconnaissance unit)
- Sonderkommando Bonow, (nightfighter unit)
- Kampfgeschwader 76 (Bomber unit)

Surviving aircraft[edit]

140312 on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in 2007

Only one Ar 234 survives today. The aircraft is an Ar 234 B-2 bomber variant carrying Werknummer (manufacturer's serial number) 140312, and was one of nine Ar 234s surrendered to British forces at Sola Airfield near Stavanger, Norway. The aircraft had been operating with 8. Staffel III./Kampfgeschwader 76 (later reorganised as Einsatzstaffel) during the final weeks of the war, having operated previously with the 8th squadron, carrying the full-four-character Geschwaderkennung military code of "F1+GS" on the fuselage sides, with the wing code of "F1" painted on in a much reduced size for sanctioned, late-war "low-visibility" requirements.

This aircraft and three others were collected by "Watson's Whizzers" of the USAAF to be shipped to the United States for flight testing. Two aircraft were given freely but a further two had been traded to Watson by Eric "Winkle" Brown (test pilot and CO of the Enemy Aircraft Flight at the RAE) in exchange for an interview with Hermann Göring who was then being held by the Americans.^[17]^[18]

The aircraft was flown from Sola to Cherbourg on 24 June 1945 where it joined 34 other advanced German aircraft shipped back to the U.S. aboard the British aircraft carrier HMS Reaper. Reaper departed from Cherbourg on 20 July, arriving at Newark, New Jersey eight days later. Upon arrival two of the Ar 234s were reassembled (including 140312) and flown by USAAF pilots to Freeman Field, Indiana for testing and evaluation. 140312 was assigned the foreign equipment number FE-1010. The fate of the second Ar 234 flown to Freeman Field remains a mystery. One of the remaining two was reassembled by the United States Navy at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, for testing, but was found to be in unflyable condition and was scrapped.^[19]

After receiving new engines, radio and oxygen equipment, 140312 was transferred to Wright Field near Dayton, Ohio and delivered to the Accelerated Service Test Maintenance Squadron (ASTMS) of the Flight Test Division in July 1946. Flight testing was completed on 16 October 1946 though the aircraft remained at Wright Field until 1947. It was then transferred to Orchard Place Airport in Park Ridge, Illinois, and remained there until 1 May 1949 when it, and several other aircraft stored at the airport were transferred to the Smithsonian Institution. During the early 1950s, the Ar 234 was moved to the Smithsonian's Paul Garber Restoration Facility at Suitland, Maryland for storage and eventual restoration.^[19]

The Smithsonian began restoration of 140312 in 1984 and completed it in February 1989. All paint had been stripped from the aircraft before the Smithsonian received it, so the aircraft was painted with the markings of an aircraft of 8./KG 76, the first operational unit to fly the "Blitz". The restored aircraft was first displayed at the Smithsonian's main museum building in downtown Washington D.C. in 1993 as part of a display titled "Wonder Weapon? The Arado Ar 234". In 2005 it became one of the first aircraft moved to the new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles International Airport. Today, 140312 is displayed next to the last surviving Dornier Do 335, an aircraft that accompanied it on its voyage across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Reaper over 60 years earlier.^[19]

This aircraft is displayed with a pair of Hellmuth Walter designed, liquid-fueled Starthilfe RATO units mounted under its wings. These World War II-era German liquid fueled RATO units may be the only surviving examples to be mounted on an aircraft design that actually used them during the war.

Specifications (Ar 234B-2)[edit]

Technical drawing of Ar 234B

Data from Aircraft of the Third Reich Vol.1.^[15]

General characteristics

Crew: 1
Length: 12.64 m (41 ft 6 in)
Wingspan: 14.41 m (47 ft 3 in)
Height: 4.29 m (14 ft 1 in)
Wing area: 26.4 m² (284 sq ft)
Empty weight: 5,200 kg (11,464 lb)
Max takeoff weight: 9,800 kg (21,605 lb)
Powerplant: 2 × Junkers Jumo 004B-1 axial flow turbojet engines, 8.83 kN (1,990 lbf) thrust each
Powerplant: 2 × Walter HWK 109-500A-1 Starthilfe liquid fuelled jettisonable JATO rocket pods, 4.905 kN (1,103 lbf) thrust each (optional)

Performance

Maximum speed: 742 km/h (461 mph; 401 kn) at 6,000 m (20,000 ft)
Cruising speed: 700 km/h (435 mph; 378 kn) at 6,000 m (20,000 ft)
Range: 1,556 km (967 mi; 840 nmi) with 500 kg (1,100 lb) bomb load
Service ceiling: 10,000 m (32,808 ft)
Rate of climb: 13 m/s (2,600 ft/min)

Armament

Guns: 2 × 20 mm MG 151 cannon in tail firing to the rear (installed in prototypes only; never used in military service)
Bombs: up to 1,500 kg (3,309 lb) of disposable stores on external racks

Source : Wikipedia free encylopedia

Wednesday, January 18, 2017