me 163 aces was there any

[mike siggins]

does anyone know if somebody made ace in this type or mutpile kills

 

[Erich]

no JG 400 had only 12 kills - maybe.

 

[meatloaf109]

There were a couple of "experten" that flew the death egg, but no-one made the title flying it.

 

[davebender]

Did any Me-163 test pilot manage to crash 5 aircraft? That would make him an Allied fighter ace.

 

[A4K]

Not many survived ONE crash in a 163 Dave!!!

 

[msxyz]

Not many survived ONE crash in a 163 Dave!!!

once it emptied the tanks, it was actually a nice glider to fly. I wouldn't like to seat on top of a 90% peroxide tank, though. Once i had a runaway reaction with 50% peroxide (I use it to clean homemade printed circuits) and it was like sitting near a steaming geyser.

 

[davebender]

I've read that.

Replace the rocket motor with a jet engine and you might have a decent aircraft.

 

[johnbr]

That is what Lippisch thought.

 

[Milosh]

Not many survived ONE crash in a 163 Dave!!!

Many other pilots didn't survive crash landings either.

A good read: Komet Me163 - Chief test pilot Rudy Opitz tells it like it was - Flight Journal.com Page 1

 

[davebender]

There's usually an exception to the rule. Some of the highest scoring Luftwaffe fighter pilots survived being shot down a dozen times.

 

[tyrodtom]

Crash landing a Me163 was different than just your standard crash landing. For one thing the tanks were never completely empty, and what was left could explode on a rough landing.
The landing skid the Me163 had was barely adequate for smooth grass fields wouldn't do the job on rough ground, even with the addition of a collasping seat frame they still had a lot of pilots with spinal injuries.,

 

[Erich]

read a copy of Top Secret Bird by W. Späte, it will be an eye opener to these brave men.......... no thanks ! had a very long interview some years back with Rudi Opitz who flew numerous test flights and later on operation's in JG 400.

 

[CobberKane]

I think the best estimates for allied aircraft destroyed by the 163 is between ten and twenty – hardly a decent return on the time and money invested in the type. By any meaningful standard the Gloster Gladiator was a far more successful aircraft than the 163.
I think it is highly unlikely any pilot would have made it to five kills. In fact, I believe there was only one instance of a Komet scoring two kills in a mission. The obvious targets were B-17s but at least one Mosquito was also claimed.
As an aside, the Komets were largely built using slave labour. One unused example was rebuilt after the war for display and the restorers discovered a hunk of scrap-metal wedged against the fuel tanks, presumably meant to puncture them during take-off or landing. Scrawled nearby were the words 'My heart is not in my work".

 

[davebender]

Me 163 production

Klemm - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Klemm aircraft included:
Klemm (Daimler) L.20, light leisure and training aircraft, 1924
Klemm Kl 25, light leisure and training aircraft, 1928
Klemm Kl 26, light leisure and training aircraft, 1929
Klemm Kl 31, single-engine transport, 1931
Klemm Kl 32, single-engine transport, 1931
Klemm Kl 33, (Klemm L33), single-seat ultra-light sportplane (prototype), 1933
Klemm Kl 35, sportplane and trainer, 1935
Klemm Kl 36, single-engine transport, 1934
Klemm Kl 105, touring plane, development of Kl 35 (prototypes)
Klemm Kl 106, sportsplane, development of Kl 35 (prototypes)
Klemm Kl 107, light leisure and training aircraft
Klemm Kl 151, touring plane (project), 1942
.....Ki 35 trainer was Klemm's most important model with about 2,000 built.

Klemm was probably a poor choice to build the high tech Me-163 as they had little or no experience building high performance aircraft.

 

[61fury]

I wonder why they didn't use catapults. That long take of must have used a lot of fuel. Pitch the catapult up at an angle, light the thing and fling it. Or at least use tow planes, was it too volatile?

 

[tyrodtom]

I wonder why they didn't use catapults. That long take of must have used a lot of fuel. Pitch the catapult up at an angle, light the thing and fling it. Or at least use tow planes, was it too volatile?

Have you ever watched a film of a Me163 take off ? There's no way i'd describe it as a long take off, though it probably does use a lot of fuel. Towing it would save fuel, but in a intercept situation that would slow down response time quite a bit.

On liftoff they keep it in a very shallow climb until it reached 400-450 mph, then they climbed at over 16,000 fpm.

 

[GrauGeist]

At least the Komet was a footnote in history, being the only operational rocket fighter aircraft ever used.

If the propulsion system wasn't so deadly, it would have been taken a little bit more seriously years later when our engineers (and pilots) were learning about high G acceleration...

As far as aces with the Komet, I believe Fw. Schubert was the highest scoring pilot with three bombers to his credit.

 

[stona]

If the propulsion system wasn't so deadly, it would have been taken a little bit more seriously years later when our engineers (and pilots) were learning about high G acceleration...

The Allies,particularly the British,showed a lot of interest in it at the end of the war. I think (I'll check) that they took more Me 163s back to Farnborough than any other type. It turned out to be something of a dead end though rockets were used in a lot of US experimental high speed aircraft as you alluded to above.
The British developed some short lived mixed power designs.
Steve

 

[kettbo]

the follow-ons would have been more useful, more range and landing gear
the Allies knew it was coming far as I can tell. Effect, if any, on those who saw them would be good to hear. Would not be comfortable if you were flight crew to see these beasties blast through the escorts ant high speed

 

[msxyz]

The russians built the mig i-320 mating the fuselage of a me-263 to a pair of... straight wings and adding a T tail; they went to the most possible stable configuration but apparently understood vey little of dr. Lippisch' work.

The me-163 was obviously an experimental design which became operational due to desperation. The me-263 should have been the first rocket plane intended to be a combat ready design.