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97-523: The R4M was used on several late war German combat aircraft, most notably the Messerschmitt Me 262 , and could be fired from open ramps under aircraft wings or from tubes inside under-wing rocket pods . It featured a high capacity " mine shell " equivalent warhead filled with 520 g (1.15 lb) of the explosive-mixture HTA 41 (also known as HTA 15 ), which consists of 40% Hexogen ( RDX ), 45% TNT and 15% aluminium . The shell-walls of

194-625: A 35° swept wing ( Pfeilflügel II , literally "arrow wing II") to the Me 262, the same wing-sweep angle later used on both the North American F-86 Sabre and Soviet Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 fighter jets. 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. Interest in high-speed flight, which led him to initiate work on swept wings starting in 1940,

291-545: A B.6 gun detachment of 2809 Squadron RAF Regiment shot down another Me 262 over the airfield of Volkel . The final appearance of Me 262s over Volkel was in 1945 when yet another fell to 2809's guns. By January 1945, Jagdgeschwader 7 (JG 7) had been formed as a pure jet fighter wing, partly based at Parchim , although it was several weeks before it was operational. In the meantime, a bomber unit—I Gruppe , Kampfgeschwader 54 (KG(J) 54)—redesignated as such on 1 October 1944 through being re-equipped with, and trained to use

388-513: A ballistic cap, and Panzerblitz 3 ( PB 3 ), consisting of the original 55 mm mine-warhead modified to be a shaped-charge. The R4M was developed in order to deal with the increasing weight of anti-bomber weapons being deployed by Luftwaffe fighters. The primary anti-bomber weapon of the Luftwaffe for much of the war was the 20 mm MG 151/20 autocannon , which was compact enough to be mounted in an internal wing bay mounting in

485-662: A combat box formation of a typical USAAF heavy bomber raid possessed, from nearly any approach direction. The more powerful MK 103 cannon had higher muzzle velocity and increased range, at the cost of greatly increased weight, size (barrel length of 1.34 meters, or 52-3/4 inches) and much lower rate of fire: 380-420 RPM vs. 600-650 RPM for the MK 108 . Also, the Nebelwerfer 42-derived Werfer-Granate 21 (Wfr. Gr. 21, or Bordrakete BR 21) rockets fitted to Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Bf 110 , and Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters, used to break up

582-742: A defensive interceptor. The configuration of a high-speed, light-payload Schnellbomber ("fast bomber") was intended to penetrate enemy airspace during the expected Allied invasion of France. His edict resulted in the development of (and concentration on) the Sturmvogel variant. Hitler's interference helped to extend the delay in bringing the Schwalbe into operation; (other factors contributed too; in particular, there were engine vibration problems which needed attention). In his memoirs , Albert Speer , then Minister of Armaments and War Production, claimed Hitler originally had blocked mass production of

679-554: A density that made it almost certain that the target would be hit. The R4Ms were usually fired in four salvos of six missiles at intervals of 70 milliseconds from a range of 600 m, and would supersonically streak towards their target at a sixty percent higher velocity than the Wfr. Gr. 21 's rockets would (the BR 21's projectile travelled at some 1150 km/h post-launch), as the R4M typically had

776-440: 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. 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. The first four prototypes (V1-V4) were built with

873-543: A flight speed of roughly 1,890 km/h (1,170 mph). Two warheads were available for the R4M, the common PB-3 with a 0.4 kg charge for anti-aircraft use and the larger shaped charge, similar in construction to the Panzerschreck , the Panzerblitz (PB-2/3), for anti-tank use. The Panzerblitz III , mounting a gigantic 210 mm hollow charge warhead (the same calibre as the BR 21), can be seen as

970-426: A nose-down trim that the pilot could not counter. The resulting steepening of the dive would lead to even higher speeds and the airframe would disintegrate from excessive negative g loads. Brisance Brisance ( / b r ɪ ˈ z ɑː n s / ; from French briser  'break, shatter' ) is the shattering capability of a high explosive , determined mainly by its detonation pressure. Brisance

1067-421: A prototype Me 262 fitted with FuG 218 Neptun radar . Another candidate for top ace on the aircraft was Oberstleutnant Heinrich Bär , who is credited with 16 enemy aircraft while flying Me 262s out of his total of 240 aircraft shot down. The Me 262 was so fast that German pilots needed new tactics to attack Allied bombers. In a head-on attack, the combined closing speed of about 320 m/s (720 mph)

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1164-644: A retractable tricycle landing gear from its beginnings and flew on jet power alone as early as the end of March 1941. The V3 third prototype airframe , with the code PC+UC, became a true jet when it flew on 18 July 1942 in Leipheim near Günzburg , Germany, piloted by test pilot Fritz Wendel . This was almost nine months ahead of the British Gloster Meteor 's first flight on 5 March 1943. Its retracting conventional tail wheel gear (similar to other contemporary piston-powered propeller aircraft),

1261-418: A shallow dive that took them through the escort fighters with little risk of interception. When they were about 1.5 km (0.93 mi) astern and 450 m (1,480 ft) below the bombers, they pulled up sharply to reduce speed. On levelling off, they were one km (1,100 yd) astern and overtaking the bombers at about 150 km/h (90 mph) relative speed, well placed to attack them. Since

1358-408: A similar type, helped increase the overall lift produced by the wing by as much as 35% in tight turns or at low speeds, greatly improving the aircraft's turn performance as well as its landing and takeoff characteristics. 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

1455-551: A slow pace; it was not until August 1944 that initial operational missions were flown against the Allies; the unit made claims for 19 Allied aircraft in exchange for six Me 262s lost. Despite orders to stay grounded, Nowotny chose to fly a mission against an enemy bomber formation flying some 9,100 m (30,000 ft) above, on 8 November 1944. He claimed two P-51Ds destroyed before suffering engine failure at high altitude. Then, while diving and trying to restart his engines, he

1552-435: A steep right-hand turn, his pale blue underside standing out against the purple sky. Another banked right in front of the Me's nose. Violent jolt as I flew through his airscrew eddies. Maybe a wing's length away. That one in the gentle left-hand curve! Swing her round. I was coming from underneath, eye glued to the sight (pull her tighter!). A throbbing in the wings as my cannon pounded briefly. Missed him. Way behind his tail. It

1649-525: A tactic known to the Tempest-equipped No. 135 Wing RAF as the "Rat Scramble": Tempests on immediate alert took off when an Me 262 was reported airborne. They did not intercept the jet, but instead flew towards the Me 262 and Ar 234 base at Hopsten air base . The aim was to attack jets on their landing approach, when they were at their most vulnerable, travelling slowly, with flaps down and incapable of rapid acceleration. The German response

1746-439: A test unit ( Jäger Erprobungskommando Thierfelder , commanded by Hauptmann Werner Thierfelder ) to introduce the Me 262 into service and train a corps of pilots to fly it. On 26 July 1944, Leutnant Alfred Schreiber , while flying over Munich, with the 262 A-1a W.Nr. 130 017, encountered a Mosquito PR Mark XVI reconnaissance aircraft, of No. 540 Squadron RAF , piloted by Fl. Lt. A.E. Wall. Schreiber attempted to shoot down

1843-468: A warhead similar to that of the cannon shell. Although each "round" was heavier than the corresponding gun-fired shell, the absence of a gun reduced the overall weight considerably. The weight difference was so great that even a much larger and longer-ranged rocket was still lighter than the guns it could replace, although the total number of rounds carried was also reduced from 65 rounds of 30 mm ammunition to only 24 rockets. The anti-aircraft version of

1940-557: Is evident from the advanced developments Messerschmitt had on his drawing board in 1944. While the Me 262 V9 Hochgeschwindigkeit I (HG I) flight-tested in 1944 had only small changes compared to combat aircraft, most notably a low-profile canopy —tried as the Rennkabine (literally "racing cabin") on the ninth Me 262 prototype for a short time—to reduce drag, the HG II and HG III designs were far more radical. The projected HG II combined

2037-456: Is necessary. In shattering hard rock or military defences, high brisance generally is necessary, so high explosives with extremely high detonation velocity are used as far as is practical. One of the most brisant of the conventional explosives is cyclotrimethylene trinitramine (also known as RDX or Hexogen). RDX is the explosive agent in the plastic explosive commonly known as C-4 , constituting 91% RDX by mass. Fragmentation occurs by

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2134-458: Is of practical importance in explosives engineering for determining the effectiveness of an explosion in blasting and quarrying , and in weaponry such as fragmenting shells, bomb casings, grenades , and plastic explosives . The sand crush test and Trauzl lead block test are commonly used to determine the relative brisance in comparison to TNT (which is considered a standard reference for many purposes). The value of brisance depends on

2231-559: The 357th Fighter Group was one of the first American pilots to shoot down an Me 262, which he caught during its landing approach. On 7 October 1944, Lt. Urban Drew of the 365th Fighter Group shot down two Me 262s that were taking off, while on the same day Lt. Col. Hubert Zemke , who had transferred to the Mustang equipped 479th Fighter Group , shot down what he thought was a Bf 109, only to have his gun camera film reveal that it may have been an Me 262. On 25 February 1945, Mustangs of

2328-567: The 55th Fighter Group surprised an entire Staffel of Me 262As at takeoff and destroyed six jets. The British Hawker Tempest scored several kills against the new German jets, including the Me 262. Hubert Lange, a Me 262 pilot, said: "the Messerschmitt Me 262's most dangerous opponent was the British Hawker Tempest—extremely fast at low altitudes, highly manoeuvrable and heavily armed." Some were destroyed with

2425-491: The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 (up to 4 cannon, or 6 with optional twin-gun underwing pods) and also fitted on the centerline of Bf 109G fighters, firing through the propeller spinner as a Motorkanone . This could be supplemented by an additional pair of cannon in drag-inducing underwing gun pods , but it was found that it took an average of twenty 20 mm hits to shoot down a typical four-engined Allied bomber. The MG 151/20

2522-531: The Sukhoi Su-9 (1946) and Nakajima Kikka . Many captured Me 262s were studied and flight-tested by the major powers, and influenced the designs of production aircraft such as the North American F-86 Sabre , MiG-15 , and Boeing B-47 Stratojet . Several aircraft have survived on static display in museums. Some privately built flying reproductions have also been produced; these are usually powered by modern General Electric CJ610 engines. Before World War II,

2619-483: The USAAF combat box bomber formations, had launch tubes that were not only drag-producing, due to their exposed five-strut under-wing mounting, but also from the fact that the launch tubes needed to be aimed upwards at some 15° from level flight, to counter the BR 21 rocket projectile's considerable ballistic drop after firing. This added to the already considerable drag the launch tube mountings created, and contributed to

2716-618: The 13 Mosquitoes lost over Berlin in the first three months of 1945. Intercepts were generally or entirely made using Wilde Sau methods, rather than AI radar-controlled interception. As the two-seat trainer was largely unavailable, many pilots made their first jet flight in a single-seater without an instructor. Despite its deficiencies, the Me 262 clearly marked the beginning of the end of piston-engined aircraft as effective fighting machines. Once airborne, it could accelerate to speeds over 850 km/h (530 mph), about 150 km/h (93 mph) faster than any Allied fighter operational in

2813-765: 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. Allied pilots soon found that the only reliable way to destroy the jets, as with the even faster Me 163B Komet rocket fighters, was to attack them on the ground or during takeoff or landing. As the Me 262A's pioneering Junkers Jumo 004 axial-flow jet engines needed careful nursing by their pilots, these jet aircraft were particularly vulnerable during takeoff and landing. Luftwaffe airfields identified as jet bases were frequently bombed by medium bombers , and Allied fighters patrolled over

2910-492: The European Theater of Operations. The Me 262's top ace was probably Hauptmann Franz Schall with 17 kills, including six four-engine bombers and ten P-51 Mustang fighters, although fighter ace Oberleutnant Kurt Welter claimed 25 Mosquitos and two four-engine bombers shot down by night and two further Mosquitos by day. Most of Welter's claimed night kills were achieved by eye, even though Welter had tested

3007-746: The German capital, the Wehrmacht's 9th Army (with elements from the 12 Army and 4th Panzer Army ) was assaulting the Red Army's 1st Ukrainian Front . To support this attack, on 24 April, JG 7 dispatched thirty-one Me 262s on a strafing mission in the Cottbus - Bautzen area. Luftwaffe pilots claimed six lorries and seven Soviet aircraft, but three German jets were lost. On the evening of 27 April, thirty-six Me 262s from JG 7, III.KG(J)6 and KJ(J)54 were sent against Soviet forces that were attacking German troops in

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3104-538: The Germans saw the potential for aircraft powered by the jet engine constructed by Hans von Ohain in 1936. After the successful test flights of the world's first jet aircraft—the Heinkel He 178 —within a week of the invasion of Poland which started the conflict, they adopted the jet engine for an advanced fighter aircraft. As a result, the Me 262 was already under development as Projekt 1065 (or P.1065) before

3201-520: The Jumo 004A engine had passed several 100-hour tests, with a time between overhauls of 50 hours being achieved. However, the Jumo 004A engine proved unsuitable for full-scale production because of its considerable weight and its high utilization of strategic materials (nickel, cobalt, molybdenum), which were in short supply. Consequently, the 004B engine was designed to use a minimum amount of strategic materials. All high heat-resistant metal parts, including

3298-595: The Luftwaffe in mid-1944. The Me 262 was faster and more heavily armed than any Allied fighter, including the British jet-powered Gloster Meteor . The Allies countered by attacking the aircraft on the ground and during takeoff and landing. One of the most advanced WWII combat aircraft, the Me 262 operated as a light bomber , reconnaissance aircraft , and experimental night fighter . The Me 262 proved an effective dogfighter against Allied fighters; German pilots claimed 542 Allied aircraft were shot down, data also used by

3395-508: The Me 262 V1 example, bearing its Stammkennzeichen radio code letters of PC+UA, but since its intended BMW 003 turbojets were not ready for fitting, a conventional Junkers Jumo 210 engine was mounted in the V1 prototype's nose, driving a propeller, to test the Me 262 V1 airframe. When the BMW 003 engines were installed, the Jumo was retained for safety, which proved wise as both 003s failed during

3492-564: The Me 262 had little effect on the war because of its late introduction and the small numbers that entered service. Although German use of the Me 262 ended with World War II, the Czechoslovak Air Force operated a small number until 1951. Also, Israel may have used between two and eight Me 262s. These were supposedly built by Avia and supplied covertly, and there has been no official confirmations of their use. The aircraft heavily influenced several prototype designs, such as

3589-536: The Me 262 started in April 1939, before World War II . It made its maiden flight on 18 April 1941 with a piston engine , and its first jet-powered flight on 18 July 1942. Progress was delayed by problems with engines, metallurgy , and interference from Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler . The German leader demanded that the Me 262, conceived as a defensive interceptor, be redesigned as ground-attack / bomber aircraft. The aircraft became operational with

3686-440: The Me 262 was quite maneuverable despite its high wing loading and lack of low-speed thrust, especially if attention was drawn to its effective maneuvering speeds. The controls were light and effective right up to the maximum permissible speed and perfectly harmonised. The inclusion of full span automatic leading-edge slats , something of a "tradition" on Messerschmitt fighters dating back to the original Bf 109's outer wing slots of

3783-522: The Me 262, before agreeing in early 1944. Similar criticisms were voiced by Lieutenant General Adolf Galland. Hitler rejected arguments that the aircraft would be more effective as a fighter against the Allied bombers destroying large parts of Germany and wanted it as a bomber for revenge attacks. According to Speer, Hitler felt its superior speed compared to other fighters of the era meant it could not be attacked, and so preferred it for high altitude straight flying. Test flights began on 18 April 1941, with

3880-489: The Me 262, ten of them American North American P-51 Mustangs . Me 262 aces included Georg-Peter Eder , with twelve enemy fighters (including nine P-51s) to his credit , Erich Rudorffer also with twelve enemy fighters to his credit, Walther Dahl with eleven (including three Lavochkin La-7s and six P-51s) and Heinz-Helmut Baudach with six (including one Spitfire and two P-51s) amongst many others. Pilots soon learned that

3977-525: The Me ;262A-2a fighter-bomber for use in a ground-attack role. However, the unit lost 12 jets in action in two weeks for minimal returns. Jagdverband 44 (JV 44) was another Me 262 fighter unit, of squadron ( Staffel ) size given the low numbers of available personnel, formed in February 1945 by Lieutenant General Adolf Galland , who had recently been dismissed as Inspector of Fighters . Galland

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4074-439: The R4M used a large warhead of 55 mm with 520 g (18 oz) of the strongly brisant Hexogen explosive charge, nearly guaranteeing a fighter kill with one hit, from the "shattering" force of its explosive warhead — this was the same explosive used in the shells fired by both the MK 103 (30 x 184 mm cartridge) and MK 108 (30 x 90 mm cartridge) autocannons. Each R4M weighed 3.2 kg and

4171-548: The US Navy although higher claims have sometimes been made. The aircraft had reliability problems because of strategic materials shortages and design compromises with its Junkers Jumo 004 axial-flow turbojet engines. Late-war Allied attacks on fuel supplies also reduced the aircraft's readiness for combat and training sorties. Armament production within Germany was focused on more easily manufactured aircraft. Ultimately,

4268-459: The Wfr. Gr 21's relatively slow projectile velocity of 1,150 km/h (320 m/s; 710 mph), approximately 60% of the 505 m/s (1,130 mph) velocity of the MK 108 cannon 's shells. The solution was to replace the underwing gun pods, and the excessively drag-producing large-calibre underwing rocket launch tubes, with a small-diameter solid-fuel rocket-engine-propelled projectile, mounting

4365-463: The World War II era shared, was the high risk of compressor stall and if throttle movements were too rapid, the engine(s) could suffer a flameout. The coarse opening of the throttle would cause fuel surging and lead to excessive jet pipe temperatures. Pilots were instructed to operate the throttle gently and avoid quick changes. German engineers introduced an automatic throttle regulator later in

4462-449: The action of the transmitted shock wave, the strength of which depends on the detonation pressure of the explosive. Generally, the higher this pressure, the finer the fragments generated. High detonation pressure correlates with high detonation velocity, the speed at which the detonation wave propagates through the explosive, but not necessarily with the explosive's total energy (or work capacity), some of which may be released after passage of

4559-562: The application. At one extreme, if an explosive is to be used for propulsion, e.g. by driving a piston or a bullet, brisance is likely to be undesirable, because the objective will be to move the load, not to shatter it or the engine or firearm, nor to produce a loud report. Such propulsive charges are designed to burn controllably, such as carburetted fuel/air mixes in vehicle piston engines, or nitrocellulose fibres or grains of controlled textures in firearm cartridges . For certain types of blasting, as in some civil engineering works,

4656-485: The change in the centre of gravity and to position the centre of lift properly relative to the centre of mass. (The original 35° sweep, proposed by Adolf Busemann , was not adopted.) Initially the inboard leading edge retained the straight profile as did the trailing edge of the midsection of the wing. Based on data from the AVA Göttingen and wind tunnel results, the inboard section's leading edge (between

4753-407: The cockpit; and a 200-litre (44-imperial-gallon; 53-US-gallon) ventral fuselage tank beneath, the Me 262 would have a total flight endurance of 60 to 90 minutes. Fuel was usually J2 ( derived from brown coal ), with the option of diesel or a mixture of oil and high octane B4 aviation petrol . Fuel consumption was double the rate of typical twin-engine fighter aircraft of the era, which led to

4850-401: The combustion chamber, were changed to mild steel (SAE 1010) and were protected only against oxidation by aluminum coating. The engine represented a design compromise to minimize the use of strategic materials and to simplify manufacture. With the lower-quality steels used in the 004B, the engine required overhaul after just 25 hours for a metallurgical test on the turbine. If it passed the test,

4947-454: The conventional gear configuration. Changing to a tricycle arrangement—a permanently fixed undercarriage on the fifth prototype (V5, code PC+UE), with the definitive fully retractable nosewheel gear on the V6 (with Stammkennzeichen code VI+AA, from a new code block) and subsequent aircraft corrected this problem. Test flights continued over the next year, but engine problems continued to plague

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5044-482: The end of the war. And on 8 May, at around 4:00 p.m. Oblt. Fritz Stehle of 2./JG 7, while flying a Me 262 on the Ore Mountains , attacked a formation of Soviet aircraft. He claimed a Yakovlev Yak-9 , but the aircraft shot down was probably a P-39 Airacobra . Soviet records show that they lost two Airacobras, one of them probably downed by Stehle, who would thus have scored the last Luftwaffe air victory of

5141-501: The engine nacelles—approached 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. One or two hits with these rockets could shoot down even the famously rugged Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress , from the "metal-shattering" brisant effect of the fast-flying rocket's 520 g (18 oz) explosive warhead. The much bigger BR 21 large-calibre rockets, fired from their tubular launchers under

5238-489: The engine was refitted for a further 10 hours of usage, but 35 hours marked the absolute limit for the turbine wheel. Frank Whittle concludes in his final assessment over the two engines: "it was in the quality of high temperature materials that the difference between German and British engines was most marked" Operationally, carrying 2,000 litres (440 imperial gallons; 530 US gallons) of fuel in two 900-litre (200-imperial-gallon; 240-US-gallon) tanks, one each fore and aft of

5335-474: The engines, Messerschmitt moved the engines from the wing roots to underwing pods, allowing them to be changed more readily if needed. That turned out to be important, both for availability and maintenance. When it became apparent that the BMW 003 jets would be significantly heavier than anticipated, on 1 March 1940, it was decided that instead of moving the wing backward on its mount, the outer wing would be swept slightly rearwards to 18.5 degrees, to accommodate

5432-603: The fields to attack jets trying to land. The Luftwaffe countered by installing extensive " Flak alleys" of anti-aircraft guns along the approach lines to protect the Me 262s from the ground—and by providing top cover during the jets' takeoff and landing with the most advanced Luftwaffe single-engined fighters, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 D and (just becoming available in 1945) Focke-Wulf Ta 152 H. Nevertheless, in March–April 1945, Allied fighter patrol patterns over Me 262 airfields resulted in numerous jet losses. Lt. Chuck Yeager of

5529-399: The first flight and the pilot had to land using the nose-mounted engine alone. The V1 through V4 prototype airframes all possessed what would become an uncharacteristic feature for most later jet aircraft designs, a fully retracting conventional gear setup with a retracting tailwheel—indeed, the very first prospective German "jet fighter" airframe design ever flown, the Heinkel He 280 , used

5626-512: The first kill by a 262, of a reconnaissance Mosquito, PR.IX LR433, of 540 squadron, over Munich, killing the pilot, Fl. Lt. Desmond Laurence Mattewman and navigator Flight Sergeant William Stopford. Major Walter Nowotny was assigned as commander after the death of Thierfelder in July 1944, and the unit redesignated Kommando Nowotny . Essentially a trials and development unit, it mounted the world's first jet fighter operations. Trials progressed at

5723-431: The forests north-east of Baruth . They succeeded in strafing 65 Soviet lorries, after which the Me 262s intercepted low flying Il-2 Sturmoviks searching for German tanks. The jet pilots claimed six Sturmoviks for the loss of three Messerschmitts. During operations between 28 April and 1 May Soviet fighters and ground fire downed at least ten more Me 262s from JG 7. However, JG 7 managed to keep its jets operational until

5820-497: The ground attack version of the Fw 190s , which mounted them on small wooden racks under the wings. On one occasion, a Me 163 A was fitted with several R4M rockets, and this setup was tested for several weeks in 1944, without incident. This was the first time a rocket propelled aircraft has had rocket propelled armament. The Luftwaffe found the R4M missiles to have a similar trajectory to the 30 mm MK 108 cannon 's rounds in flight, so

5917-449: The high-speed convergence allowing Me 262 pilots little time to line up their targets or acquire the appropriate amount of deflection . This problem faces any aircraft that approaches another from behind at much higher speed, as the slower aircraft in front can always pull a tighter turn, forcing the faster aircraft to overshoot. I passed one that looked as if it was hanging motionless in the air (I am too fast!). The one above me went into

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6014-442: The installation of a low-fuel warning indicator in the cockpit that notified pilots when remaining fuel fell below 250 L (55 imp gal; 66 US gal). Unit cost for an Me 262 airframe, less engines, armament, and electronics, was 87,400  ℛ︁ℳ︁ . To build one airframe took around 6,400-man-hours. On 19 April 1944, Erprobungskommando 262 was formed at Lechfeld just south of Augsburg , as

6111-593: The jets. Aiming was difficult because the jets closed into firing range quickly and remained in firing position only briefly, using their standard attack profile, which proved more effective. A prominent Royal Navy test pilot, Captain Eric Brown , chief naval test pilot and commanding officer of the Captured Enemy Aircraft Flight Royal Aircraft Establishment , who tested the Me 262 noted that: This

6208-422: The larger calibre ammunition made it difficult to carry more than one or two "passes" worth. Worse, the low muzzle velocity of this gun meant it had a very short range and suffered a ballistic drop of over 41 metres at 1,000 metres range after firing. In approaching close enough to get hits, the fighters placed themselves within the range of the dozens of AN/M2 "light barrel" Browning defensive machine guns that

6305-461: The loss of three Me 262s. Although a 4:1 ratio was exactly what the Luftwaffe would have needed to make an impact on the war, the absolute scale of their success was minor, as it represented only 1% of the attacking force. 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. Just south of Berlin, halfway between Spremberg and

6402-401: The low-drag canopy with a 35° wing sweep and a V-tail (butterfly tail). The HG III had a conventional tail, but a 45° wing sweep and turbines embedded in the wing roots . Messerschmitt also conducted a series of flight tests with the series production Me 262. Dive tests determined that the Me 262 went out of control in a dive at Mach  0.86, and that higher Mach numbers would cause

6499-526: The nacelle and wing root) was later swept to the same angle as the outer panels, from the "V6" sixth prototype onward throughout volume production. The shallow leading edge sweep of 18.5° may have inadvertently provided an advantage by slightly increasing the critical Mach number however, its Tactical (useable) Mach number remained a relatively modest at Mach 0.82 and both German and British test pilots found that it suffered severe controllability problems as it approached Mach 0.86. The jet engine program

6596-436: The nose of the Me 262A (one either side of the nosewheel well) were only as fast as MK 108 rounds. Though this broadside-attack tactic was effective, it came too late to have a real effect on the war and only small numbers of Me 262s were equipped with the rocket packs; most were Me 262A-1a models, of Jagdgeschwader 7 . This method of attacking bombers became the standard and mass deployment of Ruhrstahl X-4 guided missiles

6693-462: The objective is to loosen the undesired material with the least amount of explosion and expense, both in explosive and safety precautions. Similarly, in quarrying a product such as slate , in which the objective is to loosen it from surrounding rock with as little damage as possible, no more brisance than is necessary to split off the valuable product profitably, without unacceptable waste, is desired. For this purpose blasting powder of low brisance

6790-421: The original design was very different from the aircraft that eventually entered service. Specifically, it featured wing-root-mounted engines, rather than podded ones. The progression of the original design was delayed greatly by technical problems with the new jet engine. Originally designed with straight wings, problems arose when the long delayed engines proved heavier than originally promised. While waiting for

6887-459: The piston-powered, 1935-origin Bf 109 and the projected Me 209 . Major General Adolf Galland had supported Messerschmitt through the early development years, flying the Me 262 himself on 22 April 1943. By that time, the problems with engine development had slowed production of the aircraft considerably. One particularly acute problem was the lack of an alloy with a melting point high enough to endure

6984-558: The project, the Jumo 004 being only marginally more reliable than the lower-thrust (7.83 kN/1,760 lbf) BMW 003. Early engines were so short-lived that they frequently needed replacement after only a single flight. 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. By mid-1943,

7081-432: The root to 1 mm (0.039 in) at the tip. To expedite construction, save weight, and use fewer strategic materials late in the war, the wing interiors were not painted. The wings were fastened to the fuselage at four points, using a pair of 20 mm (0.79 in) and forty-two 8 mm (0.31 in) bolts. During mid-1943, Adolf Hitler envisioned the Me 262 as a ground-attack / bomber aircraft rather than

7178-497: The short barrels of the MK 108 cannon and low muzzle velocity - 540 m/s (1,800 ft/s) - rendered it inaccurate beyond 600 m (660 yd), coupled with the jet's velocity, which required breaking off at 200 m (220 yd) to avoid colliding with the target, Me 262 pilots normally commenced firing at 500 m (550 yd). Gunners of Allied bomber aircraft found their electrically powered gun turrets had problems tracking

7275-624: The standard Revi 16 B gunsight could be utilized. Messerschmitt Me 262 The Messerschmitt Me 262 , nicknamed Schwalbe (German: " Swallow ") in fighter versions, or Sturmvogel (German: " Storm Bird ") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt . It was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft and "the only jet fighter to see air-to-air combat in World War Two". The design of what would become

7372-537: The start of the war. The project had originated with a request by the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM, Ministry of Aviation) for a jet aircraft capable of one hour's endurance and a speed of at least 850 km/h (530 mph; 460 kn). Woldemar Voigt headed the design team, with Messerschmitt's chief of development, Robert Lusser , overseeing. During April 1939, initial plans were drawn up and, following their submission in June 1939,

7469-421: The temperatures involved, a problem that had not been adequately resolved by the end of the war. After a November 1941 flight (with BMW 003s) ended in a double flameout , the aircraft made its first successful flight entirely on jet power on 18 July 1942, propelled by a pair of Jumo 004 engines. Ludwig Bölkow was the principal aerodynamicist assigned to work on the design of the Me 262. He initially designed

7566-481: The ultimate development of the basic Orkan rocket. It was intended to be carried (six or eight rockets per plane) by the tank-busting B model of the Henschel Hs 132 jet dive-bomber - however, neither the missile nor the warplane it was exclusively intended for got beyond the prototype stage before the end of the war. Only a small number of aircraft were fitted with the R4M, mostly Messerschmitt Me 262s and

7663-537: The unarmed Mosquito, though Wall evaded Schreiber's three attack runs, to land safely at Fermo, Italy, after the first air-to-air use of a jet fighter. Sources state the Mosquito had a hatch fall out, during the evasive manoeuvres, though the aircraft returned to RAF Benson on 27 July 1944, and remained in service till it was lost in a landing in October 1950. On 8 August 1944, Lt. Joachim Weber of EKdo 262 claimed

7760-421: The war but it only partly alleviated the problem. The aircraft had, by contemporary standards, a high wing loading (294.0 kg/m , 60.2 lbs/ft ) that required higher takeoff and landing speeds. Due to poor throttle response, the engines' tendency for airflow disruption that could cause the compressor to stall was ubiquitous. The high speed of the Me 262 also presented problems when engaging enemy aircraft,

7857-719: The war. Several two-seat trainer variants of the Me 262, the Me 262 B-1a, had been adapted through the Umrüst-Bausatz 1 factory refit package as night fighters , complete with on-board FuG 218 Neptun high-VHF band radar, using Hirschgeweih ("stag's antlers") antennae with a set of dipole elements shorter than the Lichtenstein SN-2 had used, as the B-1a/U1 version. Serving with 10. Staffel Nachtjagdgeschwader 11 , near Berlin, these few aircraft (alongside several single-seat examples) accounted for most of

7954-451: The warhead were only 0.8 mm (0.0315 in) thick. Besides the air-to-air warhead the rocket could also be outfitted with shaped charge warheads for air-to-ground use, then called R4HL for hohlladung (English: hollow charge ). These warheads were called Panzerblitz (English: Armor-lightning ) and existed in two primary versions: Panzerblitz 2 ( PB 2 ), consisting of an 88 mm Panzerschreck warhead fitted with

8051-538: The wing using NACA airfoils modified with an elliptical nose section. Later in the design process, these were changed to AVL derivatives of NACA airfoils, the NACA 00011-0.825-35 being used at the root and the NACA 00009-1.1-40 at the tip. The elliptical nose derivatives of the NACA airfoils were used on the horizontal and vertical tail surfaces . Wings were of single-spar cantilever construction, with stressed skins , varying from 3 mm (0.12 in) skin thickness at

8148-490: Was a Blitzkrieg aircraft. You whack in at your bomber. It was never meant to be a dogfighter , it was meant to be a destroyer of bombers ... The great problem with it was it did not have dive brakes . For example, if you want to fight and destroy a B-17, you come in on a dive. The 30mm cannon were not so accurate beyond 600 metres [660 yd; 2,000 ft]. So you normally came in at 600 yards [550 m; 1,800 ft] and would open fire on your B-17. And your closing speed

8245-419: Was a great potential advantage in a dogfight as it meant better energy retention in manoeuvres. Too fast to catch for the escorting Allied fighters, the Me 262s were almost impossible to head off. As a result, Me 262 pilots were relatively safe from the Allied fighters, as long as they did not allow themselves to get drawn into low-speed turning contests and saved their maneuvering for higher speeds. Combating

8342-427: Was able to draw into the unit many of the most experienced and decorated Luftwaffe fighter pilots from other units grounded by lack of fuel. During March, Me 262 fighter units were able, for the first time, to mount large-scale attacks on Allied bomber formations. On 18 March 1945, thirty-seven Me 262s of JG 7 intercepted a force of 1,221 bombers and 632 escorting fighters. They shot down 12 bombers and one fighter for

8439-414: Was attacked by other Mustangs, forced to bail out, and died. The Kommando was then withdrawn for further flight training and a revision of combat tactics to optimise the Me 262's strengths. On 26 November 1944, a Me 262A-2a Sturmvogel of III. Gruppe / KG 51 'Edelweiß' based at Rheine-Hopsten Air Base near Osnabrück was the first confirmed ground-to-air kill of a jet combat aircraft. The Me 262

8536-467: Was cancelled. Some nicknamed this tactic the Luftwaffe's Wolf Pack , as the fighters often made runs in groups of two or three, fired their rockets, then returned to base. 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. The Me 262

8633-404: Was difficult to counter because its high speed and rate of climb made it hard to intercept. However, as with other turbojet engines at the time, the Me 262's engines did not provide sufficient thrust at low airspeeds and throttle response was slow, so that in certain circumstances such as takeoff and landing the aircraft became a vulnerable target. Another disadvantage that pioneering jet aircraft of

8730-476: Was exasperating. I would never be able to shoot one down like this. They were like a sack of fleas. A prick of doubt: is this really such a good fighter? Could one in fact, successfully attack a group of erratically banking fighters with the Me 262? Luftwaffe pilots eventually learned how to handle the Me 262's higher speed and the Me 262 soon proved a formidable air superiority fighter, with pilots such as Franz Schall managing to shoot down seventeen enemy fighters in

8827-524: Was provided with enough fuel to be fired from 1000 m, just outside the range of the bomber's defensive guns. The main body of the rocket consisted of a simple steel tube with eight base-hinged flip-out fins on the tail for stabilisation (patented by Edgar Brandt in 1930 and also used on the contemporary M8 rocket ), deployed immediately after launch. A battery typically consisted of two groups of 12 rockets and when all 24 were salvoed in an attack, they would fill an area about 15 by 30 m at 1000 m,

8924-471: Was shot down by a Bofors gun of B.11 Detachment of 2875 Squadron RAF Regiment at the RAF forward airfield of Helmond, near Eindhoven . Others were lost to ground fire on 17 and 18 December when the same airfield was attacked at intervals by a total of 18 Me 262s and the guns of 2873 and 2875 Squadrons RAF Regiment damaged several, causing at least two to crash within a few miles of the airfield. In February 1945,

9021-594: Was still high and since you had to break away at 200 metres [220 yd; 660 ft] to avoid a collision, you only had two seconds firing time. Now, in two seconds, you can't sight. You can fire randomly and hope for the best. If you want to sight and fire, you need to double that time to four seconds. And with dive brakes, you could have done that. Eventually, German pilots developed new tactics to counter Allied bombers. Me 262s, equipped with up to 24 unguided folding-fin R4M rockets —12 in each of two underwing racks, outboard of

9118-453: Was subsequently supplemented with or replaced by the 30 mm MK 108 cannon , which replaced the centerline Motorkanone -mount MG 151/20 on many Bf 109's, and could be fitted into slightly larger underwing pods, which could be used on either the Bf 109 or Fw 190. This heavier- caliber cannon could bring down a bomber with an average of one to three hits. However, the MK 108 was much heavier and

9215-425: Was the construction of a "flak lane" of over 150 emplacements of the 20 mm Flakvierling quadruple autocannon batteries at Rheine-Hopsten to protect the approaches. After seven Tempests were lost to flak at Hopsten in a week, the "Rat Scramble" was discontinued. Adolf Busemann had proposed swept wings as early as 1935; Messerschmitt researched the topic from 1940. In April 1941, Busemann proposed fitting

9312-470: Was too high for accurate shooting with the relatively slow firing 30mm MK 108 cannon - at about 650 rounds/min this gave around 44 rounds per second from all four guns. Even from astern, the closing speed was too great to use the short-ranged cannon to maximum effect. A roller-coaster attack was devised, the Me 262s approached from astern and about 1,800 m higher (5,900 ft) than the bombers. From about five km (3.1 mi) behind, they went into

9409-463: Was waylaid by a lack of funding, which was primarily due to a prevailing attitude amongst high-ranking officials that the conflict could be won easily with conventional aircraft. Among these was Hermann Göring , head of the Luftwaffe, who cut the engine development program to just 35 engineers in February 1940 (the month before the first wooden mock-up was completed). The aeronautical engineer Willy Messerschmitt sought to maintain mass production of

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