Hello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “Messerschmitt Me 262: Last Hope of the Luftwaffe?” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/messerschmitt-me-262/.
Messerschmitt Me 262: Last Hope of the Luftwaffe?
- Thread starter Mike H.
- Start date
Warrior9(Ret)
Professional
Definitely ahead of there timesHello all, here is today's article posted on TheArmoryLife.com. It is titled “Messerschmitt Me 262: Last Hope of the Luftwaffe?” and can be found at https://www.thearmorylife.com/messerschmitt-me-262/.
My father in law, Russ Schleeh (USAF/Col) flew a captured 262 and said it was a very nice flying airplane. Planes can be twitchy to fly, or well rigged, balanced and harmonious in control as apparently this was. B-17s were nice flying; B-24s were a lot of work.
Engines for the 262 though were tweaky and spooling them up to gain power once they were wound down/throttled back required you to pack a lunch for the wait. If you can find a suitable picture of the nose of the 262's engines, you'll see a pull handle for the little gas engines that were used to spin them up for start.
I saw my first one during a tour of the USAF museum, before it was open, in the early '60's as I recall, when most aircraft were unrestored. The 262 was not a large airplane. The Gloster Meteor was a teeny bit faster as it had a 60% better thrust to weight ratio than the Schwalbe. Amazing really, since the Meteor didn't have any wing sweep. Some photos I've seen show the 262 had leading edge slats, which would have improved its turning rate, probably a better fighter than the Brit plane.
Engines for the 262 though were tweaky and spooling them up to gain power once they were wound down/throttled back required you to pack a lunch for the wait. If you can find a suitable picture of the nose of the 262's engines, you'll see a pull handle for the little gas engines that were used to spin them up for start.
I saw my first one during a tour of the USAF museum, before it was open, in the early '60's as I recall, when most aircraft were unrestored. The 262 was not a large airplane. The Gloster Meteor was a teeny bit faster as it had a 60% better thrust to weight ratio than the Schwalbe. Amazing really, since the Meteor didn't have any wing sweep. Some photos I've seen show the 262 had leading edge slats, which would have improved its turning rate, probably a better fighter than the Brit plane.
Yes i visited it back in 2010, was a two seater B-1a. It is now at the National Naval Aviation museum in Pensacola. Vera 35
Sprintdude
Alpha
An amazing plane and far ahead of its time. But it would not have turned the tide of war even if available in 1940. Like the Tiger and Panther tanks overwhelmed by Shermans and T-34s, Germany just could not make enough to match the production levels of the allies.
