The Messerschmitt Me-262 Schwalbe / Sturmvogel

http://spiney.me.uk/262
The first documented air combat involving an Me-262 took place on 25 July 1944, when a Schwalbe pounced on an RAF Mosquito that escaped only by the hardest. One Me-262 was shot down near Brussels on 28 August by a pair of USAAF P-47 Thunderbolts, the first Me-262 to be lost to direct enemy action. An operational fighter squadron, the "Kommando Nowotny", was established out of Erprobungskommando 262 in September 1944, under experienced ace Major Walter Nowotny. Kommando Nowotny became operational on 3 October.

The Me-262 was highly vulnerable on takeoff and landing since the Jumo engines took a long time to throttle up, and since the engines tended to set asphault runways on fire, the Me-262 was restricted to operations at airfields with concrete runways. On 7 October two were shot down on takeoff by Lieutenant Urban L. Drew of the USAAF, flying a P-51 Mustang. The Luftwaffe eventually assigned FW-190s, when they were available and had fuel, to fly air patrols around the air bases to protect the Me-262s, and the airfields were ringed by heavy flak defenses. The flak installations were a mixed blessing, however, since they were often staffed by poorly-trained and nervous troops who were just as likely to fire on friends as foes.
Over 1,400 Me-262s were built, but only a relatively small portion of them ever saw action. Fuel was scarce, and Allied aircraft strafed and bombed at will. It appears that the Luftwaffe never had more than 200 on strength at any one time. The Me-262 shot down about 150 Allied aircraft, versus the loss of 100 Me-262s in action, an uninspiring war record.

The Me-262 had no real effect on the course of the war, though it would provide the Allies with plenty of inspiration in the postwar period. It was well in advance of anything the Allies had or had plans to build. Adolf Galland flew British Gloster Meteors in Argentina after the war and felt that if the Meteor's reliable engines had been mated to the Me-262's advanced airframe, the result would have been the most formidable of the first-generation jet fighters.

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Autos & Vehicles

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[extremelyfatass]

if this plane was mass produced or made earlier in the war, the outcome could have been quite different...

[ChevyLover1990]

@barnbersonol Tesla made radio, Marconi stole his inventions...It's common knowledge, even US Patent court made that decision.

[ColaWhiski]

a goddess of the German fighter pilots... in the quiet memory of all fallen pilots of all countries...

warbirds-power.de

[OPE08]

@Mottenfresser The 262 "could" have been a better plane, it did suffer from having terrible engines, as to which would have bested the other we can only guess. It is however true that the meteor and P80 were better designed as fighters, where the 262 was a fighter/bomber. Future generations of fighters would not use the 262's configuration.

Outnumbered does not mean out-fought, and both saw second generation variants that did well, especially the Meteor II, until the next gen

[Mottenfresser]

@OPE08 The Me 262 was a much better Plane than the Meteor and the P80 ....

The Meteor and the P80 where outnumbered in Korea. Thats the fact.

*Pfeilflügel* thats the Key.

[OPE08]

@Wolfen443 by the time the Me262 flew its first sortie the Meteor I has already been in service for a week and the P80 was almost ready for service. Whats more telling is that while the P80 and Meteor went on to see service in Korea, nobody followed up on the Me262, even the Argentine Air Force with dozens of former Nazi Pilots used the Meteor.

[barnbersonol]

@Wolfen443 there'd be no jets without the 262...no radio without Marconi .... TV without JLB...No. These were the just the names that got there first.. there were similar projects going on elsewhere

[Wolfen443]

@barnbersonol, last I checked the Wright Brothers Plane was not so impressive itse4lf,. Buts just it started the age of plane fying, the ME262 started the age of rocket & later jet engine flight . Without either of them we could not be flying anything faster than a ballon by now. The ME262 was a work in progress indeed, but its design made it the future of air combat no questions about it. .I wish that with modern technology availabke now it could be reisited, just for technological sake.

[Wolfen443]

@madcitymcflyern if it had been given the chance to be just a fighter aqnd been develop earlier with more time to perfect it it might have made a difference.