ME-163A Komet

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sunny91

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Apr 2, 2005
ww2 footage, Spanish speaking.

Sunny
 

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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.
 
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 said:
I was worried that the Komet was going to explode, belly landing like that.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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...?
 
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)
 
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.
 
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.
 
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
 
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