Me 262 Jet Fighter
In 1939, Messerschmitt was approaching the performance limit of propeller driven aircraft with the Me 209. New propulsion units became available, in the form of Jet engines, which were at various stages of development and testing. Turbine airjet engines wereprimarily being developed at Heinkel, Junkers, and BMW; rocket engines were developed by Walter in Kiel; and pulsation propulsion tubes [pulse jets] were developed by P. Schmidt in Munchen and Argus in Berlin. All three engine types were, therefore, used within a short time at Messerschmitt. Only the turbine airjet engine achieved a substantial breakthrough. Today aviation is no longer thinkable without this engine.
The fighter aircraft Me 262 became a decisive stage in thedevelopment of the "turbine Jet engine aircraft." Without anypredecessors, technical and flight testing, pilot schooling, deploymenttesting, arid combat operation was performed. The Me 262 was the first mass produced and deployed jet powered aircraft in 1944-45. Its origins go back to 1938, when the Reich's Aviation Ministry in the early fall of 1938, called in the important representatives of engine and airframe construction firms to a secret meeting to discussthe state of development of the new propulsion units. The firms Messerschmitt and BMW were asked to collaborate in a "South German Development Association."
A Messerschmitt project P 1065 for a pursuit fighter aircraft with BMW turbine airjet engines with nominal thrust of 600 kg each was presented to the Reich's Aviation Ministry on June 7, 1939. Themaximum flight velocity was to be 900 km/h. A contract was signed after the usual voting about change requests by the customer. The prototype was finished at the end of 1940, but without engines. In order to be able to test the flight; characteristics, at least in the low velocity range, therefore, a normal propeller Jumo 210 was installed and testing was started on April 18, 1941.
It was only a year later, in March 25, 1942, that the first take-off with two BMW-P-3202 turbine airjet engines was carried out, with an additional Jumo propeller motor. It was found that the BMW engines were not yet operating properly. After this the Reich's Aviation Ministry made available a turbine airjet engine of Junkers, the "Jumo 004 A," to Messerschmitt, an engine which had now become mature.
Anselm Franz, while working for the Junkers Engine company in Germany, designed and made operational the world’s first production jet engine, the Junkers Jumo 004, which was the powerplant for the formidable Messerschmitt ME 262 fighter. This remarkable axial flow, 1980 lb (900 kg) thrust engine represented a historic achievement for Anselm Franz and his design team at Junkers. Approximately 6000 engines were built at the end of the Second World War in the face of acute shortages and damage to German industry. The Jumo was brought from conceptual design to production in a span of four years. Franz joined Avco Lycoming in 1952 and worked for 16 years. He retired as Vice President in 1968 after making prolific contributions to the development of several Lycoming engines including the T53, the T55, and the AGT-1500. Anselm Franz died at the age of 94 in Stratford, Connecticut. This jet engine pioneer who, in spite of his extensive contributions to gas turbine technology, will always be remembered as the man who designed the world’s first production turbojet.
The Jumo 004 were installed in the finished airframes of the Me 262 V2 and V3. On April 1$, 1942, theV3 for the first time made a flight with pure turbine airjet engines in Leipheim. The entire program was then continued with Jumo engines. Because of the turbine airjet engine testing, there was a substantial modification to the airframe. The aircraft had to be converted to a nose wheel due to the fact that the elevator was not effective in the low velocity range because of the absence of the propellor wash. This meant that the end of the fuselage was difficultto lift off the ground.
The thrust, fuel consumption, and operational reliability of the Jumo engines were exceptional up to the beginning of 1943. The characteristics and performance of the aircraft satisfied all expecta-tions. However, it was only after officers of the Luftwaffe had flown the machine after the middle of 1943, and had strongly supported its introduction, that the Reich's Aviation Ministry reluctantly decided to run a preliminary mass production. There were further discussions between the armament control office, the Luftwaffe, and the political leaders, which enormously delayed the introduction of this aircraft.
It is clear that because of the unique development performance of men such as Dr. Franz of the Junkers Motor Works, as well as those of Professor Messerschmitt and his team, the Luftwaffe was given an aircraft with which it could have successfully combatted the daytime bombing raids in the Reich's area had it been introduced at the right time.
The Me 262 A-1 was up to 200 km/h faster than all allied fighter aircraft used up to the time. The aircraft had two jet engines Jumo004 B with 900 kp static thrust each and reached a maximum velocity of 870 km/h at an altitude of seven kilometers. The range was about 850 km depending on flight altitude. The weaponry consisted of four 30-mm-MK 108.
Production of the Me-262 began in March 1944, and during April either 13 or 16 were manufactured and delivered to the Luftwaffe. The Me-262 that the Luftwaffe accepted was a single-seat, low-wing monoplane, with sharply swept back wings, a single tail, and powered by two Jumbo turbo-jet units. It had maximum speeds of 515 mph at 1,640 feet; 530 mph at 10,000 feet; 540 mph at 20,000 feet; and, 550 mph at 30,000 feet. It was about 100 mph faster than the American P-51. It had an endurance of 50-90 minutes depending on speed and altitude. It had four 30mm cannon fitted in the nose and had a maximum bomb load capacity of 2,200 pounds. The heavy armament was deadly to bomber formations and the speed made evasion of escorting fighters fairly easy.
In April 1944 at an armament conference, Galland stated that with respect to fighters, the Americans had gained air superiority, and that development was almost to the point of air supremacy. He said something had to be done. He stated “We need quality of performance, if only to restore in our own force the sense of superiority, even if our numbers are smaller.” “At the moment,” he added, “I would rather have one Me-262 than five Me-109’s.”
However, Adolf Hitler, at this point, was still obsessed with the production of bombers over fighters. Hitler, in late April or early May 1944, during a discussion about the emergency aircraft program, asked how many Me-262s were able to carry bombs. Milch answered “None, my Fuhrer; the Me-262 is being built exclusively as a fighter aircraft.” Hitler foamed with rage. According to Galland officers who were close to Hitler told him later that they had rarely witnessed such a fit of temper. Hitler raged against Milch, Goering, and the Luftwaffe at length, accusing them of unreliability, disobedience, and unfaithfulness. Hitler ordered Goering to have the Me-262 be made as a bomber. To avoid all misunderstanding, Goering said, no one in the future was allowed to refer to the Me-262 as a fighter or even as a fighter-bomber, but only as the “Blitz bomber.”
At some point in the early summer 1944 Luftwaffe General Karl Koller explained to Hitler that the Me-262 was too fast to be used effectively for bombing. Koller pointed out that if it were used against Allied advancing columns in France, most of the bombs would fall at some distance from the roads and would be wasted. Hitler’s reply was “’there are so many Allied vehicles on the roads that if you drop a bomb it is sure to hit something.’”
Late in July 1944 Johannes Steinhoff came from Italy, where he served as commander of the 77 fighter wing, to Wolfsschanze to receive the Swords pendant to the Knight’s Cross Oak Leaf Cluster. There were two other officers also present to receive their decorations. Hitler said he wanted to know from them how things really were. Steinhoff jumped in stating they need a new and better aircraft, adding he was thinking of the jet fighter.
Steinhoff wrote: " His voice suddenly had a metallic, threatening edge to it: ‘I don’t wish to hear any more of this nonsense! I’ve had enough of it! Fate hands me this one chance of wreaking a terrible vengeance-and here are you people trying to deprive me of it with short-sighted squabbles between bomber and fighter pilots. My decision is made. This aircraft is a bomber, a Blitz bomber-my instrument of revenge! It is not a fighter and it never can be a fighter.’"
It was necessity that prompted, in October 1944, aircraft production concentrating almost solely on fighters. Because of their relative success, Hitler was convinced that the Me-262 was really an excellent fighter plane, and in November he permitted the formation of the first jet-fighter wing. At the beginning of November Speer and Saur succeeded in persuading Hitler to allow the Me-262 to be produced and used as a fighter.
During November, 101 Me-262s were built as fighters and during December the number increased to either 124 or 125. During those two months none were produced as bombers. But of the Me-262s produced as fighter during the last quarter of 1944, the number that actually went into combat was small – probably only 40 actually saw combat. Even those that were flown were relatively ineffective because of poorly trained pilots.
