Instead of the ME 262...why not THIS...

[GrauGeist]

Actually, because of production problems, the Jumo 004 had a tendancy to give out at around 12 hours of service.

Keep in mind that the Me262 had a flight time of roughly 80 minutes but this dropped to about 30 minutes if it entered combat. Also, in post 1943 Germany, the front was never away.

So a 25 hour life expentancy would cover quite a few missions.

 

[Civettone]

The Germans built approximately 6,000 Jumo 004s for around 1,350 Me 262s and a few hundred Ar 234s. Of course neither the engines nor the aircraft were delivered in those quantities. But my point is that German production could build sufficient jet engines even if you were to replace most of them after 10-15 missions.

I think we can all agree that it is not an ideal situation. But let's not exaggerate. Many times I hear people portray the Me 262 as an aircraft which will blow its engines at any given time.

Kris

 

[psteel]

I read somewere that they actually built ~14,000 jumo 004 jet engines. The lower figure often quoted is only from one of the two plants that produced them?

I read that the limited engine life was mostly due to training connected to the fuel dumping problem which was supposed to be solved by fuel control device. Since new pilots were only getting 50 hours of training then I can see why this would become a real problem. If it was only 12 hours on two engines, then every 6th hour of flying could see an engine burnout?

Combined with improved alloys this was supposed to allow for up to 150 hours operational usage in later engines....but these designs only appeared at the end of the war.

If the BMW-003 engine had 25-50 hours operational usage [estimated?] and they had a fuel control pump, would that have allowed most of this potential operational hours , to be usable?

Also from reading papers on the Me-262 and these jet engine designs I understand the Jumo 004 engine were being constantly upgraded to iron out problems. So blades used in intitial designs were replaced with improved verions later on.

I gather from reading "The American Raiders" that the YP-80 had similiar engine problems with only 50 hours operational life including a 25 hour rebuild of these engines.

 

[Civettone]

I am not sure if the burnouts are included in the 25 h.
The problem with the burnouts was even more with experienced pilots as these were used to being able to fully open the throttle whenever needed. It took balls to restrain oneself when bounced by a whole bunch of enemy fighters and only being allowed to slowly throttle forward.

Kris