ME-163A Komet

[sunny91]

ww2 footage, Spanish speaking.

Sunny

 

[Amsel]

What a great video.

 

[Thorlifter]

Anyone know the flight characteristics of the Komet? Did it handle well once at altitude? I know once it ran out of fuel it was just a glider and landing it could "ruin your day" if you weren't careful.

 

[Colin1]

Take-off looked like fun
I wouldn't want to be bouncing around like that in a kite full of T-stoff and C-stoff, even if the German engineers were likely very thorough about their isolation from one another.

The dolly seemed to have a mind of its own too, achieving a good old bounce when it hit the ground, it almost re-joined the aircraft!

Skilled pilot obviously, he made the landing look easy.

 

[Amsel]

I was worried that the Komet was going to explode, belly landing like that.

 

[Colin1]

I was worried that the Komet was going to explode, belly landing like that.

It ditches its main landing gear (the dolly) on take-off and lands on a skid
I believe pilots were under strict instructions to empty the tanks before attempting a landing but a rough landing must have been just that; I've read of a condition among Me163 drivers called 'Komet back' so I guess spinal problems must have been a feature of the type.

 

[RabidAlien]

Great vid! Yeah....landing that thing doesn't leave much room for oopsies and do-overs. Dropping the gears off like that makes one wonder if they even expected the pilots to return...?

 

[Matt308]

If I recall correctly they only shot down 7 bombers in total (can someone verify this?). Operational profile was climb like hell above the bomber formation, make a single pass and glide to land. Apparently most pilots were not killed in air-to-air combat, but during the precarious landing. It was one of the most deadly airplanes to fly in WWII (for its own pilots)

 

[vikingBerserker]

According to "The Encyclopedia of Weapons of WWII", of the 300 ME-163B C's, there were only 9 confirmed victories. For as much press coverage as this plane has gotten, such a low number is really surprising to me. Rest of your post is dead on.

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

That Komet can climb like a rocket, pretty impressive. Yep, prop planes would have trouble doing that.

 

[Matt308]

According to "The Encyclopedia of Weapons of WWII", of the 300 ME-163B C's, there were only 9 confirmed victories. For as much press coverage as this plane has gotten, such a low number is really surprising to me. Rest of your post is dead on.

And Viking, I think that was JG400 if I recall.

 

[Flyboy2]

there were only 9 confirmed victories.

Heard the same number, I also heard that through the whole Me-163 career more pilots were killed from accidents than Allied airmen killed from being shot down by the Me-163

 

[Matt308]

If you guys are relying upon Wiki for the 7 or 9 kills, I would not trust it. The Wiki post also states this...

"The Komet was equipped with two 30 mm MK 108 cannons which had a relatively low muzzle velocity, with the characteristic ballistic drop of such a weapon, which meant they were only accurate at short distance, and that it was almost impossible to hit a slow-moving bomber when the Komet was traveling very fast (four or five hits were typically needed to take down a B-17)."

The bold text has no basis in fact nor reality. Perhaps Erich can weigh in here, but I would suspect that those 30mm hits/B-17 kill numbers are VERY conservative. I suspect in reality the Mk 108 cannon was much more effective.

 

[vikingBerserker]

And Viking, I think that was JG400 if I recall.

Affirmative.

 

[Butters]

The Komet had excellent handling qualities but landing the thing was extremely dangerous due to the explosive/corrosive nature of the fuels used. It was also at the mercy of the marauding Allied fighters during the landing phase.

Mano Ziegler's, "Rocket Fighter", is an excellent first-hand account of the training and combat methods of Me 163 pilots. I don't know if it's still in print, but I've seen the Bantam paperback fairly often in used-book stores. Definitely worth a read.

JL