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Me-262s didn't enter combat in Gruppe strength until March 1945. That doesn't allow much time to obtain and analyze guncam footage.
However, there was a major lag between things going on in the combat groups and information getting to aerodynamics researchers in the ground. It was the 1940s, information transfer was much slower than we take for granted nowadays.
IIRC, the big deal to western engineers about the swept wings was the German's transonic wind tunnel and flight data compiled during the war. AFAIK, allied engineers were somewhat aware of the benefits of swept wings but hadn't acquired much actual data or experience in the transonic flight regime. German test data (on models?) may have included some larger sweep angles, but I would expect transonic data on any sweep angle would be a boon to western engineers.
In general, it's my impression that the importance of the Me 262 wing sweep had been blown out of proportion. I may have missed something and as in most cases, remain open to being convinced otherwise...
I don't believe in the swept wing CG adjusting theory, it would have been much easier to move the engines front or back a little bit
regards
cimmex
I found that hard to belive. Engineers were probably the main persons interested in the Me 262. As soon as it appear, informations about it were the highest priority.
Salvaged Me 262 slat hardware was in fact used in the first 7 F-86 Sabre.
Good information but are you saying that the first 7 F-86s used 262 hardware or 262 hardware was "fitted" to the "6-3" wing?
Actual Me 262 slat mechanism taken from salvaged Me 262.
http://sabre-pilots.org/classics/v53sabre.htm
"Slowly but surely, North American's engineers brought the design to its final shape. But the slat design remained a problem. Finally, an entire Me-262 wing was flown in from Wright Field. North American's engineers disassembled the slats and modified the slat track mechanism to fit the XP-86 wing, using the Me-262 slat lock and control switch. Although not perfect, it was a start and the slat worked. In fact, the first seven aircraft used Me-262 slat locks and tracks. "
Its fairly obvious I think that by the time they got the the Me 262 Messerschmitt were pretty good at the difficult art of slat mechanism design. Thye NA engineers just took what they saw would work. I think most F-86 had slats but some eventually received droop snoot leading edge flaps.