Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe

This Me 262 landed in Dübendorf, Switzerland on April 25th 1945, with nearly empty fuel tanks.

• Role: single-seat jet fighter
• Conception: Dr Woldemar Voigt and his team, for Messerschmitt AG.
• Production: 1433 planes built by Messerschmitt AG; however, because of the chaos caused by allied bombings in Germany in 1945, most of these planes never reached operational units or could not be used because of fuel shortage.
• First flight of prototype: With a Jumo 210 piston engine (Me 262 V1): April 1941.
  With a Jumo 210 piston engine and a pair of BMW 003 jet engines: March 1942.
  With a pair of Jumo 004 jet engines (Me 262 V3): July 18, 1942.

Development

• Me 262A-1a Schwalbe: the Schwalbe ("Swallow") is the fighter version of the Me 262. The first unit to use the Me 262, starting in June 1944, was the Erprobrungskommando 262 under the command of Hauptmann Werner Thierfelder, and manned with pilots from III./ZG26, because of their experience in two-engined planes. This unit's duty was to gain experience with the Me 262, and to find the best tactics to use this revolutionary fighter plane.
  The first months of the EKdo 262 were quite difficult, because of a low nomber of operational machines, (early production planes went to bomber units, on Hitler's orders), and Thierfelder's death in a Me 262 crash.
  On September 26, 1944, III./ZG 26 became III./JG 6 under the command of Major Walter Nowotny, a brilliant young pilot already credited with 225 victories. The new Gruppe quickly became famous as the Kommando Nowotny.
  Another famous Me 262 jet squad was Jagdverband 44 (JV44), created by Generalleutnant Adolf Galland, and manned with experienced fighter aces and talented young pilots.

	Me 262A-1a Schwalbe
	Engines	Two Jumo 004B jet engines	900 kg of thrust (each)
	Armament	Four nose-mounted Mk108 30mm cannons.
	Performance	Max speed: 870 km/h (540 mph)	Ceiling: 11500 m (37730 ft)

• Me 262A-1b: this fighter was equiped with the same 4x 30mm cannons as the Me 262A-1a, plus twenty-four underwing 50mm R4/M air-to-air rockets.
• Me 262A-2 Sturmvogel: The Sturmvogel ("Petrel", or "Stormbird") was the bomber version of the Me 262. It was armed with a pair of Mk108 30mmm cannons, and featured two underchin racks for one 250kg (500 pounds) bomb each. In July 1944 was created, as a part of KG51, the Erprobungskommando Schenk under the command of Major Wolfgang Schenk; it was the first jet bomber squad.
• The Me 262B-1a was a night interceptor, fitted with a SN-2 radar and a two-seat cockpit for the pilot and a radar operator.

This Me 262B-1a was captured by the Americans, who added the FE-610 "Foreign Evaluation" code.

• The Me 262B-2a is an improved version of the Me 262B-1a with a longer fuselage, and two more Mk108 30mm cannons firing upwards, mounted behind the cockpit (a weapon system nicknamed Schräge Musik).

Stof's notes about this plane in iMOL's WarBirds©

The opinions expressed below are only my own, and nothing more...

Strong points:

• The Me 262 offers unmatched top speed and firepower.
• Without the air drag of a propeller, it quickly gains speed when diving, allowing to disengage from a fight at will.

Weak points:

• Carefully watch your speed when landing: the jet engines have a lot of inertia, which can be dangerous if you find yourself in need for power to correct your approach.
• The cannons have a slow muzzle velocity, which means you have to aim ahead of your targets as the 30 mm shells will show a tendency to "fall".
• The Me 262 does not have the dogfighting abilities of a lighter propeller plane, so keep it high and fast, and never follow planes that try to escape you by doing a sharp turn.
• The engines are very vulnerable to gunfire.