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cheddar cheese said:I agree that more 190's would have been better, but you cannot say the 262 didnt play its part in the war. Also in the long run, if it wasnt for the 262 then I dont think a lot of the modern jets we have today would even exist.
Well, the move to Jet power was underway, I'm not sure the 262 was the big influence, but certainly German efforts were a big impetus. I think that FW 1111 (or whatever it was) really had more influence, as it was the influence for the Mig-15.
I am saying the 262 played its part in WWII. It hurt Germany! Any time a country takes its eyes off reality and devotes so much resources to wonder weapons that they cannot produce enough servicable weapons, it is making a blunder.
The Me-262 should have stayed in the experimental and testing stage another 2-3 years, while German industry developed the base technology to mass produce jet engines that worked. I figure each Me-262 airframe laid down represents at least two FW190 or three Bf109 aiframes that did not get built. Of the 2500 Me262 airframes laid down, 1500 or so were actually completed and about 300 actually saw combat service. This is not a wise utilization of scarce resources. Not only that, but engineering talent spent on the 262 could have been used to improve other German fighters and bombers.
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