Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe (Swallow)

[David]

The story of the Me 262 Schwalbe (Swallow) is one of "what could have been". The weapon system was the first operational fighter of jet-powered origin to ever see combat with the one lingering drawback of it being released too late in the war to make much difference.
The Me 262 saw its share of problems during development - from dealing with new, and potentially fatal technology, to the bureaucracy of war from the top leaders. If given the chance to compete on a level playing field, the Me 262 would most certainly had changed the face of the war and forced the Allies to increase efforts on their own jet-powered creations before their true time came.
The Me 262 was the product of the Messerschmitt group. It was a twin-engine fighter piloted by a single crew member (a later bomber variant would come into production featuring a pilot and a bomber crew member). The Me 262 V1 was actually ready before its engines were, thus it had its inaugural flight under a single piston engine (Jumo 210G) in April of 1941 (Gas-powered jet engine development was already underway before the beginning of the war in 1938 but was such an unstable technology, it would be years before the fruits would be seen).
The original versions of the Me 262 featured a more standard tail landing gear with two main gears under the fuselage (ala the Fw 190 fighter). Later production models would feature the groundbreaking retractable tri-cycle landing gear that is so common in aircraft design of today. The base Me 262 was armed with a powerful quad-formation of Mk 108 30mm cannons in the nose. Though prone to jamming, the system was devastatingly effective when working properly.
Original powerplants of the BMW 003 turbojets proved extremely unreliable and eventually would give way to the more standard Junkers 004As. Though the Junkers model was far heavier and larger than the initial BMW 003s, the engine proved far more powerful and reliable to the overall system. Famed German flying ace Adolph Galland for the first time in May of 1943, declaring that the Me 262 needed to go into production as soon as possible, obviously understanding the effect it would have against the piston-driven Allied aircraft designs of the time. Even with this endorsement, the Me 262 project would see major delays in development, most stemming from the fact that the relentless Allied bombing campaign was destroying vital supply and production facilities tied directly to the Me 262.
Many factors worked against bringing the Me 262 to operational status against Allied aircraft and bombers. The popular reasoning is that Hitler wanted to relegate the development of the Me 262 into a bomber design to payback the British mainland for its non-stop bombing sorties against Germany. Though this be true, and many Me 262s would await conversion to bomber acceptance on the ground (vulnerable to enemy strafing), the Me 262 was a new development all the way around. The swept-wing design was a new concept in itself, as was the tricycle landing gear system, which was prone to collapse. As mentioned, the four 30mm cannons were prone to jamming and the powerplants were prone to failure in mid-flight. The powerplants themselves were a completely new concept in the realm of aircraft design, engineering and production. Jet power was a concept of the future, but it had found its roots in the Second World War.
The Me 262 saw limited combat towards the end of the war. It faced some troubles when squaring off against the nimble American P-51 Mustangs as the Mustangs could take a tighter turn radius than the fast moving, heavier Me 262s. But when facing off against the slower-moving formations of Allied bombers, the Me 262 was king. It's 30mm quad-cannon assembly in the nose could rip apart the formations with ease, accomplishing pass after pass (as opposed to the Me 163 Komet rocket-powered aircraft which had about 14 minutes of airtime). Later models of the Me 262 were armed with the more fatal air-to-air high-explosive rockets of which 12 could be carried under each wing assembly. The best month for the Me 262 Schwalbe came in March of 1945 when, between the dates of March 18 through the 21st, the Me 262 flew an average of 40 combat sorties against Allied aircraft formations.
Operational status of the Me 262 Schwalbe began in July of 1944 with instatement in the Kommando Nowotny air group in October of that year. Of the total (more than 1,400 produced) only about 300 would ever truly see operational combat status on the front by VE Day. Many themselves would be destroyed while on the ground, as parts supplies, fuel, crew personnel and effectively trained fighter pilots were in extremely short supply by war's end. Though produced at roughly the same time as the British Gloster Meteor (the first allied jet-powered aircraft), the two would never see combat against one another. The first meeting of jet fighters in combat would have to wait until 1950, when American jet fighters would square off against Soviet-produced MiGs in the Korean War.
Any military historian or flight aficionado would love to dream about the affect that such a new and powerful weapon such as the Me 262 would have had in the Second World War given more time and energy to the project. The imagination can take that picture further by placing the Me 262 in operation alongside the other ground breaking developments of the time, including the Go 229 jet-powered bomber, the AR 234 jet-powered bomber, the Me 163 Komet rocket-powered fighter and the He 162 jet-powered fighter. The result would have been a longer, more drawn conflict than what it actually was.
With all that stated, the Me 262 did, in fact, revolutionize jet fighter design and production the world over, with Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, Japan and Germany all pushing jet fighter designs forward, either during the war or post-war.
Specifications for the Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe:

Designation: Me 262A-1a
Manufacturer: Messerschmitt
Powerplant: 2 x Junkers Jumo-004B Turbojet Engines delivering 1,984lbs of thrust
Length: 34.79 feet
Wing Span: 41.01 feet
Weight: 8,820lbs (empty); 14,938lbs (Maximum Take-Off Weight)
Maximum Speed: 536 mph
Maximum Range: 524 miles
Armament: 4 x 30mm Cannons; 24 x Air-to-Air Rockets; 1,102lbs of external bomb loadout.
Crew: 1
Models: Me 262 V1 (Developmental model featuring tail landing gear and piston engine); Me 262 V3; Me 262A-1a Schwalbe (first operational status model); Me 262A-1a/U1 (additional 2 x 20mm cannons added); Me 262A-1a/U2 ("Bad Weather" Fighter Variant); Me 262A-1a/U3 (Unarmed Reconnaissance Variant); Me 262A-2a Sturmvogel (Bomber variant could carry 1,102lbs of external bombload); Me 262A-2a/U2 (Two-seat bomber variant with prone bomb-aimer position).

The Japanese-produced Nakajima Kikka jet aircraft of World War
Two showing some similarities to the German design.

More Pictures of the Me 262 Schwalbe Jet Fighter / Bomber

A captured Me 262 in post-war America.		The Junkers Jumo-004B tubojet engine on display at the US Air Force Museum (shown in front of the Me 262 on display).
The Soviet-built MiG-15 Fagot jet aircraft is based on captured German jet-power technology from war's end.