Messerschmitt Me 262: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a
Description
Role	Fighter/Bomber
Crew	One, pilot
First Flight	July 18 1942
Manufacturer	Messerschmitt
Dimensions
Length	10.58 m	34 ft 8 in
Wingspan	12.5 m	41 ft 1 in
Height	3.83 m	12 ft 7 in
Wing area	21.7 m²	233 sq ft
Weights
Empty	3,800 kg	8,636 lb
Loaded
Maximum takeoff	6,400 kg	14,454 lb
Powerplant
Engines	2x Junkers Jumo 004B-1 turbojets
Thrust	18 kN	4091 lb
Performance
Maximum speed	870 km/h	540 mph
Range	1050 km	650 miles
Service ceiling	11,450 m	37,664 ft
Rate of climb	1,200 m/min	3,937 ft/min
Wing loading	kg/m²	lb/sq ft
Thrust/Weight
Armament
Guns	4x 30 mm MK 108 cannon
Bombs
Rockets	24x 55 mm R4M rockets

The Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe (Swallow) was the first operational jet powered aircraft. It was mass-produced in World War II and saw action from late 1944 on in both bomber/reconnaissance and fighter/interceptor roles. German pilots nicknamed it the Turbo, while to the allies they were known as Stormbird but referred to in radio code as blow jobs .

Development

Although often viewed as a last ditch superweapon, the Me 262 was already being developed as project P.1065 before the start of WWII. Plans were first drawn up in April 1939, and the original design was very similar to the plane that would eventually enter service.

During development, when an increase of the weight of the still unfinished jet engines was anticipated in March 1940, Messerschmitt used this as an opportunity to turn the Me 262 into a swept-wing fighter by sweeping back the outer wings. In 1942, the leading edges of the inner wings were extended, too, to turn the Me 262 into a true swept-wing aircraft. Swept wings had been proposed as early as 1935 by Adolph Busemann, and Willy Messerschmitt had researched the topic from 1940. In April 1941, he actually proposed to fit a 35° swept wing (Pfeilflügel II) to the Me 262. Though this suggestion wasn't implemented, he continued this line of thought with the projected HG II and HG III high-speed derivatives of the Me 262 in 1944, which were designed with a 35° and 45° wing sweep respectively.

The first test flights began in April 1941, but since the BMW 003 turbojets were not ready for fitting, a conventional Junkers Jumo 210 engine was mounted in the nose, driving a propellor, to test the airframe. When the BMW 003 engines were finally installed the Jumo was retained for safety which proved wise as both 003s failed during the first flight and the pilot had to land using the nose mounted engine alone.

The third prototype airframe became a true jet plane when it flew on July 18 1942 in Leipheim near Günzburg, Germany, piloted by Fritz Wendel. The 003 engines which were proving unreliable were replaced by the newly availabe Junkers Jumo 004.

Test flights continued over the next year but the engines continued to be unreliable. Although airframe modifications were completed by 1942, production never began until 1944 when the production engines - which due to the shortage of strategic materials like Tungsten had to be completely redesigned to employ alloys of inferior temperature resistance - finally started to work.

Jet engines have less thrust at low speed than piston or turboprop engines. Acceleration is relatively poor and for the Me 262 it was worse because all early jet engines responded only slowly to throttle changes. Conversely, the higher power of jet engines at higher speeds meant the Me 262 enjoyed a much higher climb speed. Used tactically, this gave the jet fighter an even greater speed advantage than level flight at top speed.

Operationally, the Me 262 had an endurance of 60 to 90 minutes.

Despite its deficiencies the plane was clearly pointing to the end of the propeller aircraft as a fighting machine. Once airborne it quickly accelerated to speeds well over 800 km/h, over 150 km/h faster than anything in the air. As long as the pilot flew the plane well, it simply flew right past the opposing fighters and tore into the bombers with its heavy armament of four 30 mm cannons. In the hands of an even better pilot, the plane could run down P-51s so fast that the allied pilots simply couldn't get out of the way in time.

Willy Messerschmitt regarded the Me 262 as it went into production only as an interim type. His interest in high-speed flight that had led him to initiate work on swept wings starting in 1940 is evident from the advanced developments he had on his drawing board in 1944. While the Me 262 HG I (Hochgeschwindigkeit - high speed) that was actually flight-tested in 1944 had only small changes compared to combat aircraft, most notably a low-profiled canopy to reduce drag, the HG II and HG III designs were far more radical. The projected HG II variant combined the low-drag canopy with a 35° wing sweep and a butterfly tail. The HG III aircraft had a conventional tail, but a 45° wing sweep and the jet turbines embedded in the wing root.

Messerschmitt also conducted a series of carefully controlled flight tests with the series production Me 262. In these dive tests, it was established that the Me 262 was out of control in a dive at Mach 0.86, and that higher Mach numbers would lead to a nose-down trim that could not be countered by the pilot. The resulting steepening of the dive would lead to even higher speeds and disintegration of the airframe due to excessive negative G loads.

The HG series of Me 262 derivatives was estimated to be capable of reaching transsonic Mach numbers in level flight, with the top speed of the HG III being projected as Mach 0.96 at 6 km altitude. Despite the necessity to gain experience in high-speed flight for the HG II and III designs, Messerschmitt undertook no attempts to exceed the Mach 0.86 limit for the Me 262.

After the war, the Royal Aircraft Establishment - at that time one of the leading instituations in high-speed research - re-tested the Me 262 to help with the British attempts at breaking the sound barrier. The RAE achieved speeds of up to Mach 0.84 and confirmed the results from the Messerschmitt dive tests as accurate. No attempts were made to exceed the Mach limit established by Messerschmitt.

Only after Willy Messerschmitt's death, the former Me 262 pilot Hans Guido Mutke claimed to be the first person to break the sound barrier on April 9 1945 in a Me 262. This claim is only based on Mutke's memory of the airspeed indicator reading. It is disputed.

Initially, only bomber units were equipped with the Me 262 (at Hitler's insistence) despite the aircraft being designed as a fighter. Due to the characteristics of jet engines, dog fighting at low speeds had to be avoided. Good pilots made only small turns, never allowing speed to drop too much, attacking bomber formations on long, zooming passes.

In the end, the overwhelming numbers of allied planes meant that the jets had no overall effect on the war. On March 18 1945. 37 Me 262s intercepted a force of 1,221 bombers and 632 escorting fighters. They managed to shoot down 12 bombers and one fighter for the loss of three Me 262s. Although a four to one ratio was exactly what the Luftwaffe was dreaming about, it represented only one per cent of the attacking force — more were lost to mechanical problems.

After the end of the war, the Me 262 as well as other advanced German technology was quickly swept up by both the Soviets and the Americans. Many Me 262s were found in working conditon by both sides, and were confiscated. These aircraft were extensively studied, aiding development of early US and Soviet jet fighters. The F-86 Sabre and the Sukhoi Su-9 (1946) were directly influenced by the Me 262.

• A-1a Schwalbe - production version Jaeger (fighter) and Jabo (fighter bomber).
  • A-1a/U1 - single prototype with two additional guns in nose, for total of six.
  • A-1a/U2 - single prototype with additional avionics for all-weather operation.
  • A-1a/U3 - reconnaissance version modified in small numbers.
  • A-1a/U4 - two prototypes with 50 mm tank cannons in nose.
• A-1b - as A-1a but powered with BMW 003 engines. Few if any built.
• A-2a Sturmvogel - definitive blitzbomber version with only two guns.
  • A-2a/U1 - single prototype with advanced bombsight.
  • A-2a/U2 - two prototypes with glazed nose for accommodating a bombadier.
• A-3a - proposed ground attack version.
• A-4a - reconnaissance version.
• A-5a - definitive reconnaissance version used in small numbers at end of the war.
• B-1a - two-seat trainer.
  • B-1a/U1 - small number of prototype night fighters adapted from trainers.
• B-2 - proposed night fighter version with stretched fuselage.
• C-1a - single prototype of rocket-boosted interceptor with Walter rocket in tail.
• C-2b - single prototype of rocket-boosted interceptor with BMW rockets mounted in engine nacelles.
• C-3a - single prototype of rocket-boosted interceptor with Walter rockets in belly pack.
• D-1 - proposed variant to carry Jagdfaust mortars.
• E-1 - proposed cannon-armed variant based on A-1a/U4.
• E-2 - proposed rocket-armed variant carrying 48 R4M rockets.

Post-war variants

• Avia S-92 - Czech built A-1a
• Avia CS-92 - Czech built B-1a

• A-1c - American privately built replica based on A-1a configuration
• B-1c - American privately built replica based on B-1a configuration
• A/B-1c - American privately built replica convertible between A-1a and B-1a configuration