The Delay of the Me262

PR,

If you are not aware of this document already you will enjoy reading it-

http://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com/Images/Me262/262PilotHandbook.pdf


Regards
Tom

 

On page 11:

Spins

a. No spins are to be attempted on this airplane.

Permissible acrobatics

a. No acrobatics are to be performed

Better to be on the safe side...

 

Tom, if you look elsewhere on that site, you'll also find the VERY interesting debriefing report on Fey's defection

 

PR,

Yes it's a good site and one I found quite a few years ago and has maintained a high standard.

Regards
Tom

 

Tom, take a look at the top of P.5. I was still wondering a bit about the hydraulic pump issue when I read THIS...

In other words, the instruction to bale out if the port engine failed was because of the good chance the undercarriage wouldn't lower-and-lock, and the landing flaps wouldn't lower...not because the aircraft became uncontrollable (as might be the case nowadays on a jet fighter) given that the Me262 was still flying by tensioned control lines

Interestingly, the "Pilot's Notes" elsewhere on that source note that the Germans regarded the hydraulic pump as being of a too-small capacity, for lowering BOTH the undercarriage and the landing flaps...meaning that the nosewheel in particular was very slow to lower and lock, so a flyer had to give himself PLENTY of time...and they intended to fitted a larger-capacoty pump to the starboard engine...

Just as a thought - lowering the flaps and undercarriage early and WELL downrange of the runway would of course contribute to the ME262's lack of agility and speed on its' long (and vulnerable) approach run...!

 

One of the reasons for the order was to preserve the lives of experienced pilots who could not be replaced, unlike the plane itself.

Modifications take time, but I am sure that the problems would have been sorted if the engineers had more time.

As it was the war ended before the German technology came on stream, which was just as well.

It was reckoned that the German aircraft technology was several years in advance of the Allies and so it is no wonder that the Designers and Engineers were offered work with the Allies.

Regards
Tom

 

I'm certain it would be exactly the same thing if it were the other way round and the Reich had won (spit, spit, cough, cough!).

Grass is always greener on the other side (I know, I was there already once)

 

One of the reasons for the order was to preserve the lives of experienced pilots who could not be replaced, unlike the plane itself



Oh I dunno - when you look at the Pilot's Notes, and some of Fey's recollections, and the listed fates of some of the Me262 pilots in "German Jet Aces"...even taxiing put their lives at risk! :mellow:

Modifications take time, but I am sure that the problems would have been sorted if the engineers had more time


I'm not sure if this isn't being a tad generous to said designers....after all, the 262 had had a remarkably long gestation period for all the various reasons, Messerschmitt had flown and was STILL flying in the last two months of the war a whole series of mark prototypes....and yet something as simple as an inability to LAND the thing safely couldn't be identified and dealt with properly by fitting said replacement hi-flo hydraulic pump?...to rectify a problem that had at least a 50-50 chance of occurance depending on WHICH engine failed, times the failure rate of the Jumo004?

They should ALSO have rushed in a known cure...given that by early 1945 there was no guarantee that an "experienced pilot" who baled over Germany wasn't baling out over or behind enemy lines.... A very different situation to when the Me262 was first designed and flown...

 

That article seems to say that Hitler's orders for a Me 262 Blitz Bomber or even a fighter bomber were ignored completely.
Was it ever used even once as a bomber of any sort?

 

The Luftwaffe made a number of attacks with both Me 262's in a light bomber role, and Ar 234's to attack the Remagen bridge.

 

Indeed it was.


Osprey has a book detailing its use as a fighter-bomber.

Wolfgang Schenck (pilot) - Wikipedia

Kampfgeschwader 51 - Wikipedia

Excellent online overview here of the early days of its bomber use:
http://www.ghostbombers.com/kf4/KG 51/schenck_01.html

 

That was the case initially but during the spring of 1944 (IIRC) Hitler found that out and got one of his fits of rage and ordered all efforts to be put on the fighter-bomber version Me 262 A-2a and the fighter developments were put on the back burner.

 

Yes, Nick Beale's site is excellent, he does original research based on documents not recycling myths.