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MESSERSCHMITT Me 262
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The Me 262 was the world's first operational jet fighter. It was also the best of its generation, with an advanced aerodynamic design. Its development was much delayed, less by political disagreement than by engines troubles, and the Me 262 arrived too late to influence the end of WWII. Even the series aircraft had extremely unreliable and short-lived engines. The few Me 262 used in combat demonstrated their clear superiority, but were unable achieve much more. Around 1430 built.
Type: Me 262A-1a
Function: fighter
Year: 1944 Crew: 1
Engines: 2 * 900kg Junkers Jumo 004B-1
Wing Span: 12.48 m
Length: 10.60 m
Height: 3.84 m
Wing Area: 21.70 m2
Empty Weight: 3800 kg
Max.Weight:
6400 kg
Speed: 870 km/h
Ceiling: 11450 m
Range: 1050 km
Armament: 4*g30 mm
History:
Being the first jet fighter to enter operational service, the design of the
Messerschmitt Me 262 stemmed from a previous 1938 requirement from the German
Air Ministry, for a plane to be powered by the new BMW gas turbine engines. The
airframe design was produced by Dr Woldemar Voigt. The design was for a low wing
monoplane with a slight sweep on the wing leading edge.The first prototype Me
262 airframe was finished well before it's jet engines. BMW had numerous
problems with this novel form of propulsion. For this reason, the prototype made
it's first flight on 18 April 1941 with a conventional Junkers Jumo 210 G piston
engine mounted in the nose. By November 1941, the BMW 003 engines were ready for
installation into the 262 airframe. On 25 March 1942, an Me 262 prototype took
off under the power of a Jumo 210 piston engine
and two of the jet engines. The
inclusion of the piston engine proved to be a wise decision considering that
shortly after take-off, both jet engines failed one after the other due to
compressor blade failures, leaving the pilot, Fritz Wendel, to land the aircraft
solely under the power of the `old' propeller.Further development was continued
but with use of the new Junkers Jumo 004 Turbojet engine. This new engine was
more reliable, producing 2,200 pounds of thrust. This enabled Fritz Wendel to
take off for the first time solely by jet power on 18 July 1942.The new jet
aircraft proved to be much faster than conventional aeroplanes but development
problems, Allied bombings, and cautious Luftwaffe leadership contributed to
delays in quantity production. In late 1943, Adolf Hitler agreed to put the Me
262 into mass production, but insisted (with great reservations from
Generalleutnant Adolf Galland, Göring and Messerschmitt) that the Me 262 be
configured as a bomber rather than a fighter. Contrary to Hitler's orders, the
Me 262 was exclusively produced as a fighter but when this was discovered by the
Führer, an immediate conversion of all planes was ordered, thus ending all hopes
of repelling the punishing Allied bombing raids for the sake of dropping one or
two bombs. The Me 262 was argued to be an excellent opportunity to inflict
serious damage to the Allied bomber formations as it had already produced superb
results against Allied aircraft and it used diesel fuel which was in less demand
compared with the high-octane fuel used by propeller driven aircraft.The Allied
bombing raids destroyed hundreds of Me 262s on the ground whilst they were being
converted from fighters to bombers or were unable to fly due to lack of fuel,
spare parts, or trained pilots. Therefore, the Me 262 did not get to reach it's
full potential. More than 1,400 Me 262s were produced but fewer than 300 ever
saw combat.
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