Which Allied aircraft scored the most air-to-air kills against the Me 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. 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. This one was delivered to the Messerschmitt Foundation and was presented at the ILA airshow in 2006. Wings were of single-spar cantilever construction, with stressed skins, varying from 3mm (0.12in) skin thickness at the root to 1mm (0.039in) at the tip. This claim relies solely 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 speed. Me 262 production was delayed "because Hitler intervened in 1944 with an ill-timed order to convert the Me 262 to a fighter-bomber," stated the US Strategic Bombing Survey. The jet pilots claimed six Sturmoviks for the loss of three Messerschmitts. It may not display this or other websites correctly. [131] The third replica, a non-flyable Me 262 A-1c, was delivered to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in May 2010. [47] 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. Summary of debriefing of Me-262 test pilot and flight instructor Hans Fey. 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. Is Linux swap still needed with Ubuntu 22.04. Me 262 Losses and Kills - Axis History Forum [104], Adolf Busemann had proposed swept wings as early as 1935; Messerschmitt researched the topic from 1940. On levelling off, they were onekm astern (1,100yd) and overtaking the bombers at about 150km/h (93mph), well placed to attack them. 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. After limited use during the fall, the Luftwaffe created several new Me 262 formations in the early months of 1945. [44], 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. Do we know how many 262's were shot down? (The original 35 sweep, proposed by Adolf Busemann, was not adopted. Me 262s, equipped with up to 24 unguided folding-fin R4M rockets12 in each of two underwing racks, outboard of the engine nacellesapproached 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, the same explosive in the shells fired by the Me 262A's MK 108 cannon. Between 20 and 30 Me 262s were built here, the underground factory being overrun by Allied troops before it could reach a meaningful output. The Messerschmitt Me 262 Jet Fighter | Defense Media Network In the head-on attack, the combined closing speed of about 320m/s (720mph) was too high for accurate shooting with ordnance that could only fire about 650 rounds/min from each cannon, (~44 rounds/sec in total from the quartet of cannon). His edict resulted in the development of (and concentration on) the Sturmvogel variant. Did the United States taxpayer fund the development of China's backbone fighter plane? Could one in fact, successfully attack a group of erratically banking fighters with the Me 262? The aircraft had reliability problems because of strategic materials shortages and design compromises with its Junkers Jumo 004 axial-flow turbojet engines. The Me 262 was faster and more heavily armed than any Allied fighter, including the British jet-powered Gloster Meteor. Though this was not implemented, he continued with the projected HG II and HG III (Hochgeschwindigkeit, "high-speed") derivatives in 1944, designed with a 35 and 45 wing sweep, respectively. I do not have bomber losses as I have not examined all the 8th 9th BC MACR's. http://www.luftwaffe-experten.com/aircr _text.html, http://www.angelfire.com/biz/cqradio/page7.html, http://www.kotfsc.com/aircraft/me-262.htm. Another candidate for top ace on the aircraft was Oberstleutnant Heinrich Br, who is credited with 16 enemy aircraft[76] while flying Me 262s out of his total of 240 aircraft shot down. Me262 Shot down by p-51 (Gun Camera Coloured video) - YouTube [15][17], During April 1939, initial plans were drawn up and, following their submission in June 1939, the original design was very different from the aircraft that eventually entered service. Fritz Stehle of 2./JG 7, while flying a Me 262 on the Erzgebirge, attacked a formation of Soviet aircraft. 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. [82] This method of attacking bombers became the standard and mass deployment of Ruhrstahl X-4 guided missiles was cancelled. Messerschmitt Me 262 Used by the Luftwaffe - ThoughtCo The "c" suffix refers to the new CJ610 powerplant and has been informally assigned with the approval of the Messerschmitt Foundation in Germany[129] (the Werknummer of the reproductions picked up where the last wartime produced Me 262 left off a continuous airframe serial number run with a near 60-year production break). Post German engineers introduced an automatic throttle regulator later in the war but it only partly alleviated the problem. Plot multiple lines along with converging dotted line, Generating X ids on Y offline machines in a short time period without collision. Most of Welter's claimed night kills were achieved by eye, even though Welter had tested a prototype Me 262 fitted with FuG 218 Neptun radar. [37], Testing showed that the Me 262 handled much better than previous fighters, such as the Bf 109 or Fw 190. [50] While BMW's and Junkers' axial compressor turbojet engines were characterised by a sophisticated design that could offer a considerable advantage also used in a generalized form for the contemporary American Westinghouse J30 turbojet the lack of rare materials for the Jumo 004 design put it at a disadvantage compared to the "partly axial-flow" Power Jets W.2/700 turbojet engine which, despite its own largely centrifugal compressor-influenced design, provided (between an operating overhaul interval of 6065 hours[51]) an operational life span of 125 hours. The coarse opening of the throttle would cause fuel surging and lead to excessive jet pipe temperatures. Luftwaffe air units and Luftwaffe in general, Life in the Third Reich & Weimar Republic, Kriegsmarine surface ships and Kriegsmarine in general, Luftwaffe air units and Luftwaffe in general, German Strategy & General German Military Discussion, NSDAP, other party organizations & Government, The Dieter Zinke Axis Biographical Research Section, The Ron Klages Panzer & other vehicles Section, Panzer & other vehicles - Photo threads, Axis Documents, Feldpost numbers, Postcards & Other Paper Items, The United Kingdom & its Empire and Commonwealth 1919-45, The Allies and the Neutral States in general, German Colonies and Overseas Expeditions, The end of the Ottoman Empire 1908-1923, Translation help: Breaking the Sound Barrier. Yeager's only option was to fly down the runway low and fast. [80][clarification needed][verification needed]. It also heavily influenced several designs, such as the Sukhoi Su-9 (1946) and Nakajima Kikka. Testing was discontinued after four engine changes were required during the course of the tests, culminating in two single-engine landings. Even briefly reading through books on the Me 262 clearly shows it was shot down by bombers and by fighters when attacking bombings (Red tails anyone?). See also this old Google Groups thread, probably back from Usenet times: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.aviation.military/L7m7gZlpnKQ. The Mosquito, one of the. A very well defended Duck. I have found twelve pairs of duplicate Werknummers, i.e. It's the best information available. The Spitfire? A prick of doubt: is this really such a good fighter? by Trommelfeuer 17 Apr 2003, 22:49, Post 135 Wing RAF as the "Rat Scramble":[101] Tempests on immediate alert took off when an Me 262 was reported airborne. This aircraft conducted a private test flight in late April 2006 and made its public debut in May at the ILA 2006. [88] 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 manoeuvres. Thanks for contributing an answer to History Stack Exchange! And your closing speed was still high and since you had to break away at 200 metres [220yd; 660ft] to avoid a collision, you only had two seconds firing time. Dan O'Connell's Me 262 Production log lists the fate of 1200 of the roughly 1500 Me 262s produced. On August 28, the first Me 262 was lost to enemy action when Major Joseph Myers and Second Lieutenant Manford Croy of the 78th Fighter Group shot one down while flying P-47 Thunderbolts. I believe Me-262's broke the sound barrier. About 30 Meteors were lost to enemy action in Korea, the vast majority shot down by anti-aircraft fire on ground-attack operations. Related Topics World War II. [13][14] After the successful test flights of the world's first jet aircraftthe Heinkel He 178within a week of the invasion of Poland which started the conflict, they adopted the jet engine for an advanced fighter aircraft. [15] The progression of the original design was delayed greatly by technical problems with the new jet engine. And with dive brakes, you could have done that.[79]. Messerschmitt Me 262 - Wikipedia The Me 262 and P-51 Mustang represented the state-of-the-art in terms of design, performance and combat capability for their respective air forces. "According to Egyptian and British intelligence, a jet fighter of unknown type exploded in flight inside Israeli airspace during April 1950. [23] In his memoirs, Albert Speer, then Minister of Armaments and War Production, claimed Hitler originally had blocked mass production of the Me 262, before agreeing in early 1944. Eventually, German pilots developed new tactics to counter Allied bombers. The P-51D Mustang? [146] The Jumo 004 engines of the original are replaced by more reliable General Electric CJ610 engines. @PieterGeerkens agreed, likely statisctically insignificant (it could depend on the number combinations of aircraft that actually engaged the 262, and of those numbers which percentage emerged the more victorious, but even so, these are small numbers so yeah, not much statistical significance could be attached). If you have any questions please contact us. It could reach 515mph without issue, although because it could reach extreme speeds in dives, components such as bomb racks would sometimes tear off. 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. Hubert Lange, a Me 262 pilot, said: "the Messerschmitt Me 262's most dangerous opponent was the British Hawker Tempestextremely fast at low altitudes, highly manoeuvrable and heavily armed." [citation needed], In the last days of the conflict, 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. In April 1941, Busemann proposed fitting a 35 swept wing (Pfeilflgel II, literally "arrow wing II") to the Me 262,[105] the same wing-sweep angle later used on both the American F-86 Sabre and Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 fighter jets. A Me262 Shot down by P-51 mustang over germany in spring 1945.Amazing footage, but R.I.P to the 262 pilot. [137] The RAAF began introducing the locally-built CAC Sabre powered by the Rolls-Royce Avon , in 1955, which relegated Meteors to training and secondary duties. [95] Lt. Chuck Yeager of the 357th Fighter Group was one of the first American pilots to shoot down an Me 262, which he caught during its landing approach. Why are lights very bright in most passenger trains, especially at night? Not including ground kills or 262's that were shot down taking off and landing. Also, Israel may have used between two and eight Me 262s. Stack Exchange network consists of 182 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/piston-engine-aircraft-jet-kills-1226.html. Me-262 SHOOTDOWN - CHUCKYEAGER.ORG [43] Its retracting conventional tail wheel gear (similar to other contemporary piston-powered propeller aircraft), 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. He initially designed the wing using NACA airfoils modified with an elliptical nose section. Data from: Messerschmitt Me 262A Schwalbe[133][144], A series of reproductions was constructed by American company Legend Flyers (later Me 262 Project) of Everett, Washington. Its handling improved with speed and would lose much less speed during turning. 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. [133], Rstsatze may be applied to various sub-types of their respective aircraft type, denoted as a suffix in the form /Rn. Historically, why did the US station their nuclear weapons in Germany for delivery through German pilots?