delcyros
Tech Sergeant
I think we agree all that the He-162 wasn´t the most advanced jet of ww2 (both, the P-80 and Me-262 were more advanced, not to speak of the Ho-IX and Ju-287). It was specifically designed for fast deployment (altough the story that it had been drawn, designed, constucted and done it´s maiden flight in 2 months is a myth, the design based on Heinkels 1078 project series, started in early 1944), as an urgency measure to counter the ground attack thread. Hence it suffered shortcomings (Revi-16D instead of EZ 42 makes aiming more challenging). Nethertheless it finally went into a useful plane despite the fact that a lot of good pilot´s died flying a Salamander (compare the losses of the first combat ready Me-262 unit, Kdo. Nowotny, and the first He-162 combat unit and You will find them all very comparable-at least they had serially equipped ejection seats in the Salamander). The most advanced He-162 prototype was a half finished study prototype with interchangable swept back swept forward wings, found by advancing allied ground troops at Schwechau plant. I do personally agree with Glider others that a combination of Me-262 fighting bombers and He-162 covering starts&landings and dealing with escorts would have been a tough opposition.