Best Jet of the War?

[cheddar cheese]

The Meteor wasnt really necessary dring the war, as thats all it done, and that was a job which could be done just as well by existing planes.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

The Meteor did not have more extensive combat action?

 

[cheddar cheese]

Nope, thats all it was used for. It wasnt allowed to be sent out to Germany.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Were they afraid that the Germans might capture one and study it or something. I think that if you are going to build an advanced fighter you might as well use it.

 

[cheddar cheese]

I think it was some sort of political situation; the war was won and the Spits and 'Stangs were doing fine so I dont think they thought it was necesseary to send it out.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

That might be too.

 

[Darkstalker]

The Me 262 was the best fighter even it was built and redisigned a lot of times during its competition against the He-280. The -178 was the first jet plane to fly, and it made it 1 day before Germany invaded Poland. The He-280 was one of the most promising designs of the Luftwaffe, it included the first launchable sit and the 3rd wheel of the gear was in the nose and not in the tail, the engine of this plane was designed by Ohan and could reach the speed of 758 k/h but needed a lot of fuel and could only fly a 3rd of time than the Me 262, the 280 could solve this problem with bigger engines but this meant more fuel

 

[Darkstalker]

Meanwhile the 262 had 2 Jumo 004 engines built by BMW that could give more speed even 945 km/h and less fuel use. The only problem with these engines was that the change of speeds at high speed could blow them.But the new Luftwaffe strategies solve this problem and made flying strategies designed only for jet fighters. The Jg44 had a score of 50 enemy planes shot down in a a very short operative time.
Also this plane can be used as bomber like the Ju-87, night fighter, fighter and was completely operative before the Meteor.
Thats why it is considered the best jet fighter of the war.

 

[Nonskimmer]

Nice painting!

 

[cheddar cheese]

Indeed!

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I agree with you that the Schwalbe was the best jet fighter built in WW2 however it was plagued by fuel problems and was not the most maneuverable aircraft even less maneuverable then some later piston aircraft. It was highly vunderable when taking off and landing as well.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

But I do think it was the best.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

manouverability was the main advantage the Meteor had over the -262, and don't forget the fact that the -262's engines needed to be replaced every ten hours............

 

[cheddar cheese]

Another point the He-280 had better wing loading the the Me-262.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

The thing the Me-262 had going for it was the its speed. It was still a quite remarkable achievment for its time.

 

[cheddar cheese]

Yup.

 

[Darkstalker]

That painting is the last flight of Adolf Galland, the whole painting shows a group of Marauders ( one of them shot down by Galland), being attacked by him, a few feet above the Me 262 a Thunderbolt is racing after him.

 

[Darkstalker]

The advantage of the Me 262 was that was conceibed as a jet fighter and that the engines were designed for the plane.
Instead of the He 280, that they had to built a plane for the engine Ohain designed still thinking of the traditional piston planes.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

but the munufactures couldn't get hold of the proper metals so the engines had to be made of metals that meant the engines were unreliable
and constantly needed changing..............

 

[Anonymous]

but the munufactures couldn't get hold of the proper metals so the engines had to be made of metals that meant the engines were unreliable
and constantly needed changing..............

That is not true. Germany outright lacked the necessary metalurgy technology to build reliable engines, and more than that, they lacked the machine tool capability to mass produce them. Even with no materials shortages at all, they could not have done much better in terms of jet engine quality and reliability.