Messerschmitt Me 262 - Single-seat fighter/bomber

AIRCRAFT SPECIFICATIONS

Full Name:

Messerschmitt Me 262

Variants:

Me 262A-1a Schwalbe, Me 262A-2 Sturmvogel, Me 262B-1a

Type:

(A-1a) single-seat fighter; (A-2a) single-seat bomber; (B-1a) two-seat night fighter

Country of Origin:

Germany

Manufacturer:

Messerschmitt AG

First Flight:

(262V1 on Jumo 210 piston engine) 4 April 1941; (262V3 on two Jumo 004A-0 turbojets) 18 July 1942; (Me262A-1a) 7 June 1944

Engine(s):

Two 1,980 lb (900 kg) thrust Junkers Jumo 004B single-shaft axial turbojets

Wingspan:

40 ft 11.5 in (12.5 m)

Length:

34 ft 9.5 in (10.6 m); (262B-1a, excluding radar aerials) 38 ft 9 in (11.8 m)

Height:

12 ft 7 in (3.8 m)

Weights:

Empty: (A-1a, A-2a) 8,820 lb (4,000 kg); (B-1a) 9,700 lb (4,400 kg); Maximum loaded: (A-1a, A-2a) 15,500 lb (7,045 kg); (B-1a) 14,110 lb (6,400 kg)

Maximum Speed:

(A-1a) 540 mph (870 km/h); (A-2a, laden) 470 mph (755 km/h); (B-1a) 497 mph (800 km/h)

Initial Climb:

(All) about 3,940 ft (1,200 m) / min

Service Ceiling:

37,565 ft (11,500 m)

Range:

(On internal fuel, at altitude) about 650 miles (1,050 km)

Armament:

(A-1a) four 30 mm MK 108 cannon in nose, two with 100 rounds each, two with 80; (A-1a/U1) two 30 mm MK 103, two MK 108 and two 20 mm MG 151/20; (A-1b) as A-1a plus 24 spin-stabilised R4/M 50 mm rockets; (B-1a) as A-1a; (B-2a) as A-1a plus two inclined MK 108 behind cockpit in Schrage Musik installation; (D) SG 500 Jagdfaust with 12 rifled mortar barrels inclined in nose; (E) 50 mm MK 114 gun or 48 R4/M rockets; bomb load of two 1,100 lb (500 kg) bombs carried by A-2a

AIRCRAFT HISTORY

In the Me 262 the German aircraft industry created a potentially war-winning aircraft which could have restored to the Luftwaffe command of the skies over Germany. Compared with the Allied fighters of its day, including the RAF Meteor 1, which entered service at around the same time, it was much faster and packed a much heavier punch. Radar equipped night fighter versions and sub-types designed to stand off from large bomber formations and blast them out of the sky were also developments aginst which the Allies had no answer. Yet for years the programme was held back by official disinterest, and by the personal insistence of Hitler that the world-beating jet should be used only as a bomber!

It was in the autumn of 1938 that Messerschmitt was asked to study the design of a jet fighter, and the resulting Me 262 was remarkably unerring. First flown on a piston engine in the nose, it then flew on its twin turbojets and finally, in July 1943, the fifth development aircraft flew with a nosewheel. Despite numerous snags, production aircraft were being delivered in July 1944 and the rate of production was many times that of the British Meteor. On the other hand the German axial engines were unreliable and casualties due to engine failure, fires or break-up were heavy. The MK 108 gun was also prone to jam, and the landing gear to collapse. Yet the 262 was a beautiful machine to handle and, while Allied jets either never reached squadrons or never engaged enemy aircraft, the 100 or so Me 262s that flew on operations and had fuel available destroyed far more than 100 Allied bombers and fighters. Even more remarkably, by VE-day deliveries of this formidable aircraft had reached a total of 1,433.

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