FREE MESSERSCHMITT ME 262 A SCHWALBE PDF Robert Peczkowski | 128 pages | 19 Jun 2014 | Mushroom Model Publications | 9788363678173 | English | Sandomierz, Poland The Messerschmitt Me Jet Fighter | Defense Media Network By Robert Messerschmitt Me 262 A Schwalbe. Dorr - July 6, An Me reproduction in flight at an air show. The only flying Me s are replicas that use modern, and safer, jet engines. Photo by Matthias Kabel. Its pilots — intrepid men all, for the Me was cantankerous and dangerous to fly — claimed allied warplanes shot down while sustaining just combat losses. The Me did take a toll from its adversaries. Luftwaffe ace Hauptmann Capt. Franz Schall was credited with 17 aerial victories, including six four-engine bombers and ten P Mustangs. An engineless Me captured at an airfield in the area of Frankfurt. Lack of engines was a major obstacle to fielding more Messerschmitt Me 262 A Schwalbe s. Next to the plane is ammunition for the Mk cannon. Army photo. Generalleutnant Maj. Based on design work that began in and first flown on April 18,initially with a piston engine, the Me evolved into a turbojet fighter with slatted, partially swept wings, tricycle landing gear, and a variety of armament configurations. In most versions, it carried heavy cannon, and all variants used low-pressure tires to allow operation from grass airstrips. It became a formidable weapon in the hands of Messerschmitt Me 262 A Schwalbe exceedingly skilled pilot, but the Me was prone to engine failures, and its landing gear frequently Messerschmitt Me 262 A Schwalbe. Valmore P. Beaudrault shot down an Me on Oct. Air Force photo. During the Insterburg demonstration, the Fuehrer asked whether his new jet could carry bombs and was told that it could. The idea of making the Me a bomber had genuine consequences and possibly owes less to Hitler than to engineer-planemaker Wilhelm E. On Sept. Me A-1 was brought into U. This aircraft was assembled at the Schwabisch-Hall-Hessental factory and lacked camouflage because bombs from U. B Liberators destroyed the paint shop building. Air Force photo courtesy of Robert F. During his conversation with Hitler, Messerschmitt, never hesitant to curry favor, touted the Me II vigorously and also suggested to the Fuehrer that the Me could be modified to carry bombs, apparently because Messerschmitt was promoting it in competition with the Arado Ar and Dornier Do in the fighter-bomber role. This was two months before the Insterburg demonstration, when Hitler had not yet received a detailed briefing about, or seen, the jet. In Mayfollowing up on a subsequent conversation at the Insterburg demo, Hitler ordered the Me fleet converted into fighter-bombers. Only a few dozen were so modified. Belatedly, in Julythe first Me s entered service. In its first combat on July 25,an Me attacked a British Mosquito flying a reconnaissance mission over Munich. Nowotny was killed in a Nov. A new unit under Galland fared better, but the Me was difficult to handle by even the most experienced pilots. Messerschmitt Me 262 A Schwalbe Me replica at an air show in July Note the deployed full-span slats. Galland said that persistent allied attacks on Axis fuel supplies also hindered Me operations. Toward the end of the war, Me s were often towed to the end of the runway by draft horses in order to conserve fuel. In addition, many airframes sat idle Messerschmitt Me 262 A Schwalbe for engines that never arrived. Although it was the first by a considerable margin, the Me was not the best jet of its era. The first practical U. A fully loaded Me weighed about 14, pounds. After the war, captured Me s influenced western Messerschmitt Me 262 A Schwalbe designs. Today, the only flying Me s are a handful of replicas powered by American 2,pound thrust General Electric JCJ turbojet engines. A fine summary. Many had never fired the 30mm cannon before engaging enemy aircraft. My grandfather was s truck driver during the war. While unloading ammunition from a train to the trucks, they were straifed by a He went into the burning train and rescued two fallen soldiers, earning him the Soldiers Medal. He has been gone for 17 years now, but I will never forget sitting with him and talking about his life. Tillman, Your last point is especially well taken. When Hitler witnessed the V6 flying, no one told him the other five had crashed mainly to engine problems etc. Having in his mind defeated the American daylight bombing raids in October, defeating the expected invasion next spring was his next concern, so an unstoppable jet bomber seemed of greater importance than a clear air superiority fighter, when what he had seemed Messerschmitt Me 262 A Schwalbe at that moment. To do that, the Westinghouse engineers were ordered by their bosses to derate the engines, ie reduce their power to achieve the contracted reliability requirements without telling the USAAF or the Bell company, regardless of what it did to the performance of the Bell PB, whose engineers were constantly confused why its performance declined as they eliminated other problems. By the time the Bell engineers got the Westinghouse engineers to confess and explain their effective sabotage of the program it was too late to save the Bell P Then there are the tactical limitations of its 30mm cannon being slow firing, in part because the front pair had only 80 rounds, the rear onlywhich among other things meant combat was rather brief. Great comments. If there are any mistakes in the article that need to be corrected, they were introduced in the editing process. The weak link was always the engines, which I felt the article stated. The octane situation is a story in itself, and an underappreciated one. Allied fighters enjoyed significant performance advantages due to the availability of higher-octane fuel than the Germans could dream of obtaining in quantity. Was Galland right? I suspect that with time and numbers, the Luftwaffe would have eventually developed the tactics to make the jets extremely lethal, but there were not enough jets, nor was there time. Dorr - July 6, An Me reproduction in flight at an air show. Dorr Robert F. Dorr is an author, U. Air Force veteran, and retired American diplomat who Sharing Options:. Facebook Comments 6 Archived Comments. Barrett Tillman. Edmond W Holcombe. Bill English. It was slower and uglier. Chuck Oldham Editor. Philip Lyon. A few corrections are in order. The Me was put into service too soon. Messerschmitt Me 262 A Schwalbe engines only lasted hours. By comparisons piston engines were expected to last hours between overhauls. Your source for trustworthy defense news Read more about our mission info defensemedianetwork. Get Our Newsletter Email Address. Messerschmitt Me - Wikipedia Cybermodeler Online. Notice: The appearance of U. Air Force, U. Army, U. Navy, U. Marine Corps, U. Three prototypes were ordered inbut these were ready well before the engines, so the airframes were test-flown with piston engines. Bythe Jumos were ready for flight and the Me took to the air for the first time under jet power. By the time the aircraft had entered production and initial quantities were available for operations, there was only ten months left in the war. To delay matters further, Hitler himself protected many US bomber crews by demanding that these aircraft be used as high-speed bombers, despite Willy Messerschmitt, Adolf Galland, and others pleading to the contrary. Thanks Adolf! Adolf Galland was allocated some Me s for air defense and these went to JV 44, which used the Me s to attack the daylight bombing and used Fw D-9s to protect the Me s from the allied fighters that waited for these jets to return home low on airspeed, altitude, fuel, and armament. So the question for the theorists and the Luft 46 crowd is Messerschmitt Me 262 A Schwalbe what would have happened if the Air Ministry had pushed up the priorities on Jumo development and subsequent Me production? What if these aircraft entered service in mid instead of the following year? Scary thought! This is easily one of Trumpeter's best kits yet. The kit is molded in the usual Trumpeter light gray styrene and presented on seven trees, plus a duplicate tree containing the nacelles molded clear, and two additional small parts trees containing the windscreen, canopy, instrument panel, gunsight, etc. The landing gear struts are cast in white metal and nicely Messerschmitt Me 262 A Schwalbe at that! Messerschmitt Me 262 A Schwalbe nosegear struts are provided - one for a narrow tire and one for the wide nosegear tire. If you'd rather use styrene landing gear struts fear not, these are also provided. A small fret of photo-etched parts is included containing seat belts and shoulder harnesses. Look closely - NO photo-etched hinges for the flight control surfaces! While I don't doubt that some enterprising aftermarket company will release a resin cockpit set for this kit, I wouldn't bother! This is the nicest cockpit tub I've seen for the Me and actually one of the nicest I've seen from Trumpeter. The pilot's seat is nicely done, especially with the photo-etched harnesses, and this Messerschmitt Me 262 A Schwalbe into a styrene tub with separate side consoles. The throttles, stick, rudder pedals, and other detailing are all present as separate parts. The kit also uses the same sandwiched acetate instrument faces behind the clear instrument panel. The rear of the instrument panel also has detailing when viewed from above and behind the panel.