New Me262 roll-out

[Monkeysee1]

My God... What a beautiful bird. I bet she flies like a dream. The Germans... Truly artists of an unforgiving art at that time. I'll buy 'er... but only if the 30mm's come with it.

The Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton OH has one but to see one that actually flies..... Speechless....

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

maybe if we all chip in we can buy one between us

 

[Smokey]

The same company are planning to restore two Messerschmitt Bf109 F4s

http://www.aero-news.net/news/milit...da797-85ea-4fe0-9659-1e2b6b24f67c&Dynamic=1#d

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Great pics. Yeah they have a couple of the 262s in museums over here in Germany but it is nothing like seein one fly.

 

[ollieholmes]

They already flew both the single seat and the dual seat, and they crashed the single seat one if I remember right!

my understanding of this is that the undercarrige failed on a proving flight of the now 2 seater when she was flown as a single seater.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Ouch that sucks.

 

[ollieholmes]

Yea i bet the guy/girl (must stay politicaly correct) who was flying it was kicking themselves.

 

[GregP]

Actually, I visited the Stormbirds hangar on Payne Field in Everett, Washington and can tell you what the head of the restoration group told me. Here goes ...

The new-build Me-262s are so accurate that Messerschmitt has issued them six new werksnumers sequential to the end of the line in 1945.

There ARE no landing gear actuators for Me-262s lying around, so they adapted the main gear actuator from a Grumman S2F Tracker. The "crash" of the 2-seat trainer version was due to down lock failure, and the main gear slowly folded as the plane rolled out on the other two wheels plus the engine nacelle.

When I saw it, it was just about ready for flight and has flown since then, and is now in the hands of the owner.

Uniquely, the 2-seater can be configured as a 2-seater or as a single seater by replacing the cockpit canopy.

These planes DO fly, both of them, and are ready for their new owners. One is in private hands and the other went or is going to Messerschmitt AG in Germany.

They have placarded the aircraft to a maximum speed of 540 mph. With the new engines, they will fly faster but, if you buy one and DO fly faster, you are a test pilot. Stormbirds is only checking them out to WWII specifications. Heck, with the excess thrust of the new engines, they can CRUISE faster than that, but the intent is not to build a "Super Me-262," but rather a replica of the Me-262 with modern, safe engines.

They accomplished that quite nicely and the planes fly just fine.

They are building six, and the last four are for sale. $2M and you supply the engines. The workmanship is good, the quality of replication is top notch, and they deserve credit for seeing through something no one else seemed willing finish. Steve Snyder was the driving force, but when he crashed in his F-86 Sabre, the present team took over and is completing Steve's dream. Steve took the project over from the originators, and the entire project is now in the 3rd or 4th set of hands, but the planes are the same airframes that originally started the project.

Great team with good spirits and excellent professionalism.

Oh yeah, for theose who do not know, the guns are black-painted wood, as are the ammo boxes and many other weapons-related items. The gear doors are wood, too ... just like on the original aircraft in WWII. Much of the trim is wood. So, these are not intended for outside storage.

 

[trackend]

Nice looking replica Greg should go down a storm at the airshows.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

I think it is amazing what they are doing. Stormbirds and the gusy in Germany building Bf-109s and Fw-190s right now.

 

[javed_maverick]

awesome man.i love this site

 

[Roter_Baron]

It is not a replica so far I know, it is an old one just restored and with new turbines. I read an article about it.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

No they are not restored Me-262's they are brand new ones that were built and constructed in the United States. Completely new structure everything. There are only 10 original examples of the Me-262 left in the world and they are not flight worthy and will not be made so either do there value. One of hte new Me-262's has been shipped to its new home in Germany.

Building the First of the Last

The Me 262 Project was launched in 1993 with a single objective: to reproduce flying examples of the legendary Me 262. Classic Fighter Industries, Incorporated (CFII) was incorporated specifically to administer this effort, and exercised direct control over the project from 1993 until early 2001, when all assets were transferred to the owner's group in preparation for final assembly, the test flight programs, and delivery.

Production has been strictly limited to five aircraft: once these five are complete, no more will ever be produced, now or in the future.

The airplanes are being manufactured as a continuation of the basic Me 262 design. In fact, they have even been assigned factory serial numbers drawn from the werknummern sequences used on the original 1945 production lines.

Accurate, Authentic and Airworthy

Great pains are being taken to produce aircraft which are not simply replicas, but rather true serial production representative aircraft in every possible respect. Virtually rivet for rivet, the new aircraft are duplicates of the original Me 262. With the ability to examine and copy components from a vintage source, the standard of authenticity has been exactingly maintained.

Of course, the original design suffered from some well-known weaknesses, most notably dealing with the engines and landing gear systems. These areas were studied carefully, and certain subtle modifications have been directed for operator safety and reliability. A cursory visual inspection would never reveal them, however, as these internal modifications have been tightly integrated into the original design characteristics of the aircraft.

In essence, the new Me 262s are simply representative of a natural evolution of the airframe. They are being manufactured using many of the same techniques as the originals (by hand from raw materials), and are to be precision duplicates, even down to the four nose-mounted Mk 108 cannons. The only noteworthy concession will be in the area of engine selection.

From the Jumo 004 to G.E.'s J-85

Clearly, an engine change was necessary to make this project viable, as the original Jumo 004B powerplants were decidedly temperamental and prone to frequent failure. After careful consideration of a wide variety of available engines, the General Electric J-85 / CJ-610 was selected as the replacement for the vintage Jumo powerplants.

Thanks to an innovative engine mounting concept, the J-85s are to be buried deep inside carefully-engineered castings of the original engine, so that correct visual appearance will be retained. The Jumo housings are also necessary to maintain the correct nacelle weight since the J-85 is a much lighter engine than its German predecessor.
http://www.stormbirds.com/project/general/introduction.htm

You can read more on the project at:

http://www.stormbirds.com

 

[Airframes]

I agree Dave. I went back and had another look, for the same reasons. Something struck me as odd overall, including the lighting on the various areas of the aircraft. My first thoughts were that the front end was a flying model, and the rear had either been added, or photo-edited.