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TVPE HISTORV mESSERSCHmin me 262 Database

Messerschmitt Me 262 The niesserschmitt Rie 262 had the distinction of heing 's first operational jet . Had it been correctly used, it might meli haue changed the course of the Second Ulorld Ular. Dr ALFRED PRiCE describes the beginnings of this remarkable aeroplane

HE MESSERSCHMin Me 262 intended for flight testing and the testing of the aircraft's handiing This month began lite as fourth for static testing. characteristics, therefore, ttie Project 1065, a 1938 design In the event, BMW's timetable for prototype was fitted with a nose- Welcome to Aeroolane's 32nd study for a researcti aircraft its new proved grossiy over- mounted Jumo 210 piston Database section, our regalar in- T depth examination of a specific powered by two P.3302 optimistic. Not until the end of 1940, engine developing 690 h.p. On Aprii subject, which this rrìorìtti focuses then under development by more than a year late, were the first 18,1941, test pilot Fritz Wendel look on Willl Messerschmitt's innova• the BMW company. The P.3302 was exampies bench-tested. Moreover, the aircraft on its maiden flight from tive jet fighter, the Me 262: expected to produce more than these engines were well down on the Messerschmitt airfield at • Type HJstory 1,300[b-thrust, and BMW confidently power, developing only 570lb-lhrust. in southern Germany, The origins ot the Stormbird expected to bave a pair of the new Because of BMW's problems with Further flights followed, to assess the • Scale Drawings engines available for flight testing by the engines, the first Me 262 aircraft's performance envelope. Three-view drawing byTim Hall the end of 1939, was completed long before Only in November 1941 did the • The Swallow's Anatomy At Messerschmitt, Dr Waldemar its engines were ready. To allow first pair of flight-cleared BMW 003 The Me 262's construction PLUS Voigt and bis team designed a sleek cutaway by Mike Badrocke low-wing monoplane with slightiy • Engine Troubles sweptback , two wing-mounted The Me 262's troublesome Jumos • Hìtier's Edict jet engines and a conventionai tail- The Fuhrer's Blitzbomber decision wheel undercarriage. From the start, • The Sturmvogel Goes To War the Messerschmitt team thed to The service history of the '262 produce a design that wouid be • A Sìnister Beauty suitable for development info an The pilot's perspective interceptor fighter, although the • Schwalbe Survivors requirement had not Museum exhibits and replicas mentioned this. In March 1940 the company received a contract to build RiGHT The un mista kable sleek shape of one of the worid's tour examples of the new aircraft, first operational , now designateti the Messerschmitt the . Me 262; three of the were

Aeroplane, June 200^ 59 TYPE HISTORV

engines (as the P.3302 was now designateci) arrivo at Augsburg for installation in the Me 262 prototype. As a safely measure the Jumo 210 was retained, which was just as well. On March 25,1942, Fritz Wendel took off in the unusual three-engined aircraft, and shortly aftenwards both jet engines flamed out. Wendel skilfully brought the badly under- back to the airfield and landed on the runway. Clearly the BMW 003 engine required a lot more development wori<. By then Junkers had its Jumo 004 turbojet up and running, and at ABOVE The first to fly was the Heìnkel He 178 on August 24, 1939. It was designed the end of 1941 this had completed essentially as an engine proof-off-concept aircraft and was later destroyed in an air raid. its ten-hour running trial and developed 2,200lb of thrust. A few months later a couple of the new engines were delivered to Messerschmitt, and instalied in the Me 262 V3. On July 18,1942, Fritz Wendel took the aircraft up for its first flight solely on jet power. The flight was normal, except for the take-off. With the tailwheel on the runway, the wing blanketed the elevators and rendered them ineffective. So, when the aircraft reached flying speed, he touched the brakes briefly to lift the tail off the ground. Then the elevators functioned normally and he was able to get airborne. An Aircraft Without A Requirement Duhng its early test flights the Me 262 reached maximum speeds ot ABOVE The V3 prototype, PC+UC, was the first Me 262 to fly on jet around 500 m.p.h. Yet, at that hme, power alone, on July 18, 1942. The early Me 262 prototypes were fitted senior Luftwaffe officers couid see no with a tailwheel undercarriage arrangement. worthwhile role for the aircraft. In the LEFT Professor Wìlli Messerschmitt on his 70th birthday in June 1968. summer of 1942 the Focke-Wulf Before the war, Messerschmitt had designed a number off commercial Fw 190A and the Messerschmitt and sports aircraft, ali of which displayed innovative thinking. Bf 109G were equal or superior to anything they encountered from the RAF the USAAF or the V-VS (Soviet "Galland thought the minor technical problems Air Force). There was no sehous uiould be solued in deuelopment; they mere more threat to Germany from daylight bombi ng attacks. deep-seated than anyone belieued at the time" At that time the main battio fronts were deep in the Soviet Union and in Me 262s, increased to 30 in October, In May 1943 GeneralmajorAóoW Me 262, however, he thought these North Afhca, where fighters needed By the spring of 1943 the war Galland, the tnspector of Fighters, were relatively minor technical to operate from primitive fonA/ard situation in Germany had changed visited Lechfeld in Bavaha, where he problems that wouId be solved in the airfields. The Me 262, powered by considerabty since the previous flew the Me 262 V4. The flight made normal course of development. In unproven and temperamental jet autumn, and for the worse. Following a deep impression, and afterwards fact, they were more deep-seated engines and requiring a long hard the disasters at Stalingrad in Russia he urged that the jet fighter be than anyone believed at the time. runway was of little value in that and then El Alamein in Egypt, the placed in full production as soon as On May 25,1943, the Luftwaffe environment, Also at that time, the German Army was switched to the possible. Galland believed that only placed an order for 100 production German aircraft industry was working defensive on the Eastern Front and the Me 262 couId provide the leap in Me 262s, following this three weeks almost at tuli stretch to produce was about to be ejected from North performance necessary to counter later with a further order for 575- sufficienl conventionai fighters to Africa. The USAAF had commenced the enemy air forces' numerical At an aircraft production conference keep pace with losses in combat. daylight shallow-penetration attacks superiority, Generalfeldmarschall in Berlin on June 29, attended by There was little capacity to spare to on targets in Germany, though as yet , in overall charge of Willi Messerschmitt, Milch learned produce the radicai new type. without protection from long-range aircraft production programmes of the current plans to produce the Nevertheless the Lufhwaffe pushed fighter escorts. Moreover the iatest for the LufhA/affe, accepted that Me 262 in quantity: for the development of the new British, American and Soviet fighters recommendation. "Construction of the wings and fighter, so it couId be ready for were equal to or better than their During his flight Galland had been final assembly will take place at production if required. In May 1942 German equivalents. With no rapid aware of the temperamental nature Augsburg and construction of the Messerschmitt received an order victory in sighl, the Luftwaffe had to of the aircraft's Jumo 004 engines. fuselages and tails will take place at for a pre-production batch of 15 shape up for a long, hard hght. Like many others who flew the Regensburg. By concentrating our

6o Aeroplane, June 2003 Aeroplane, June 2003 6^ "Erhard milch expressed the new mood: 'Ule need the me 262 before ali else, before U-boats and tanl(s, because without this aircraft, armament production will no longer be possibte' " effort and if certain suppositions are ABOVE Fritz Wendel starts the Me 262 V3's take-off run, aircraft carned the firepower realised, we can have delivery of the touching the brakes briefly to drop the nose and lift the tail. necessary to knock down the tough first production aircraft by January B-17S and Consolidated B-24 1944. Production will then hse in the Liberators, the defending fighters teli second month to eight, in the third to as easy prey to the American escorts. 21, in Aprii to 40 and in May to 60 Alternatively, if the German hghters aircraft, By the middle of May we were lightiy armed so they couId shall reach the requested number of engagé the escorts, they lacked the 100 aircraft and production will run firepower to knock down . at 60 per month until November." The advantage of the Me 262 was Meanwhile, the test programmo of that it had the speed to outrun the the Me 262 gathered momentum. In American escorts, and four SOmm July the V5, fitted with a fixed tricycle cannon powerful enough to tear apart undercarriage, made its initial flight. the USAAF bombers, Amongst other things this aircraft German fighter commanders were was employed in tests of booster desperate to get the Me 262 info under the fuselage, to action as soon as possible, At a improve take-off performance. The conference in Berlin on January 19, V6 followed it as pre-production Erhard Milch expressed the new prototype, the hrst to be fitted with a mood. He reviewed the deveiopments retractable tncycle undercarriage. in the air war he expected to see in On Augusti?, 1943, the Me 262 1944. He was then asked which programmo suffered a major weapon he thought was the more setback, when a large force of important, the V2 bombardment Boeing 8-17s bombed the Messer• or the Me 262, Milch replied: schmitt plani at Regensburg, More "We need the Me 262 before ali than four hundred members ot the else, before U-boats and tanks, workforce were killed and many because without this aircraft, production jigs were destroyed. armament production will no Following that attack, Me 262 longer be possible." assembly was dispersed info a large By the end of January 1944 the number of relatively small facilities ninth prototype Me 262 had flown. throughout the country. Some 23 airframes comprising the At the beginning of 1944 it pre-production batch had been seemed that the Me 262 might completed, except for their engines. become available just when it was As deschbed elsewhere in this most needed, By then the American Database (see Engine Troubles), escori fighters, and in particular the Junkers was stili having considerable superb Merlin-engined North difficulty in getting the Jumo 004 to American P-51 Mustang, escorted a state where mass production couid TOP The Me 262 V5 was the first prototype equipped with a formations deep info German begin. The shortage of engines and tricycle undercarriage fixed in the down position, and fitted terntory. This posed a conundrum for with a pair of solìd-fuel booster rockets under the fuselage. their unreliability wouId limit the the Luftwaffe fighter force. If its ABOVE An aerial shot of Me 262s on the runway at Lechfeld. number of Me 262s completed

62 Aeroplane, June 2003 mESSERSCHmin me 262 Database during Itie months to follow. The first Me 262A-1 production aircraft did not reach the Luftwaffe until Aprii 1944. Dunng that month 16 jet fighters were delivered, followed by seven more in May. The Luftwaffe now possessed sufficient Me 262A-1s to form a service triais unit, designated 262 (Ekdo, or test detachment, 262). The unit assembied at Lechfeld, ciose to the Messerschmitt plants, under the command of Hauptmann Wemer Thiertelder. Oberleutnant GiJnther Wegmann, one of the hrst to join Ekdo 262, described his initial impressions when flying the Me 262. He said il was important to advance the throttles extremely slowly, otherwise there was a hsk that the eady jet engines wouId overheat and catch tire, Another problem arose when a pilot lined up on the landing approach. Once he throttied back and started to lose speed, he was committed to landing. If he had lost too much speed and reopened the throttles to go round again, the Jumo 004s accelerated so slowly that the aircraft was likely to strike the ground before the aircraft gained sufficient speed for a climb away. Apart from these problems Wegmann had little difficulty with the Me 262, but it must be pointed out that he had considerable flying The Me 262A-2a, the production ABOVE An Me 262 in flight, showing the distinctive wing with expenence in twin-engined fighter-bomber version, carhed only its 18° sweepback. The wing fitted to the first prototypes had Messerschmitt Bf 1 lOs before he two 30mm cannon. Since the aircraft a tapered mid-section with only the outer panels swept back. arrìved at the unit. Also, he had built up speed too rapidly, it was received a thorough training in unsuitable for steep diving attacks. instrument ftying — a factor whose Moreover, because the pilot had no significance will become clear later. view of the ground immediately Gradually the pilots of Ekdo 262 below and ahead of the aircraft, amassed experience in handiing the borizontal attacks from medium or new fighter and its temperamental high altitude were grossiy inaccurate. engines. They appreciated the The Me 262A-2a couId only be advantages of its superb per- effective when delivehng low-alhtude fomiance; maximum speed 540 borizontal or shallow-dive attacks. m.p.h. at about 20,000ft, initial rate Other problems centred on the of climb of 3,940ft/min. Moreover, 132 Imp gal extra fuel tank fitted in the four 30mm MKl 08 cannon in the the rear fuselage, to increase the nose gave it excellent firepower. fighter-bomber's radius of action, To assist pilot training, a small That tank was well to the rear of the batch of early production Me 262s aircraft's centro of gravity, and when ABOVE Me 262A-1a "White 10" of Ekdo 262 takes off from was delivered to the Blohm und Voss full it weighed about as much as the Lechfeld. The undercarriage was retracted early to reach the plant, for conversion info Me 262B hwo 550lb bombs under the nose. single-engine safety speed of 180 m.p.h. as soon as possible. dual-control trainers. The fuel from the rear tank had to be That was the position at the end of burned eady in the mission, for if the May 1944, when issued bombs were released when the tank his much-quoted order that initially was full, the aircraft wouId become the Me 262 shoultì be sent into dangerously tail-heavy. combat only in the high-speed Despite these limitations, the Me bomber role. 262A-2a fulfilied Hitler's requirement Following Hitler's announcement for a high speed counter-invasion (see separate chapter), work began "Blitzbomber". In June 1944 the first in great baste to convert Me 262s batch of these aircraft was delivered into fighter-bombers, and the V10 to Lechfeld in , where pilots prototype was immediately modified who had been selected to form the to carry racks for \vio 550lb bombs worid's first jet fighter-bomber K1 ABOVE Ekdo 262 Me262A-1as at Lechfeld in 1944. The unit's under the forward fuselage. unii began to gather. uJ first combat was agaìnst a Mosquito near Munich on July 26.

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