MIflyer
Captain
This is a well done video giving detailed technical info on the Me-163 Komet. Looks accurate but they do not mention that the aircraft was capable of going so fast in level flight that it encountered real compressibility problems, so much so that combat in level flight was just about impossible. On its first combat mission a Me-163 tried to sneak up on two P-47 but the pilot was able to attain only two speeds. One was too slow to catch the Thunderbolts and the other was so fast as to be all but out of control. The P-47's apparently never even noticed the Me-163. The Luftwaffe realized that by climbing at high throttle settings (a climb rate of 266 ft/sec according to the video) they could get to altitude incredibly fast, switch off the rocket engine, and then dive, unpowered, in order to attack from above. Then they could power the engine back up, climb and do it all over again. So its maximum speed was all but useless and only the climb rate was of real value.
The video says the aircraft has a 30 ft 6 inch wingspan, which is almost the same as my Ercoupe and that is a surprise to me. The Me-163 looks smaller. I still have a couple of those old Hwak Me-163 1/48 kits.
The video says there were only 9 confirmed kills by the Me-163's while suffering 14 combat losses as well as many more non-combat mishaps.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVxtHLTJXTA
The video says the aircraft has a 30 ft 6 inch wingspan, which is almost the same as my Ercoupe and that is a surprise to me. The Me-163 looks smaller. I still have a couple of those old Hwak Me-163 1/48 kits.
The video says there were only 9 confirmed kills by the Me-163's while suffering 14 combat losses as well as many more non-combat mishaps.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVxtHLTJXTA
