DerGiLLster
Airman
- 70
- May 1, 2015
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In regards to a turning fight with the Me262, Luftwaffe flight instructor Hans Fey did state that: "The 262 will turn much better at high than at slow speeds and, due to its clean design, will keep its speed in tight turns much longer than conventional type aircraft."
I put a lot of stock in the opinions of people who were there.
Greg, in my earlier comment:
This wasn't some guy reminescing, this was Hans Fey, a well established test pilot and flight instructor. That quote of his that I posted, was given to Allied interrogators when they were gathering data on the Me262.
So I'd imagine that Mr. Fey wasn't talking out his azz when he explaining how to properly fly the Me262...
He did not speak at Greg's museum, so it does not count and is not true.
Seem to me like I agreed with him. "All jets turn better at lower speeds than higher speeds."
This is too much like talking with me ex-wife ...
There's a sizable camp that thinks the Me 262 was the most important fighter of the war or even the best fighter of the war.
It was neither.
It was probably the most important fighter of the second world war with respect to post-war jet fighter development but, in WWII itself, the Me 262 was not very important or very good.
When both engines were running it could attack or withdraw at will, but did NOT stem the tide of 1,000 plane raids or even make a real dent in them. It came up quite short when attempting to pick on Mustangs most of the time, and would have come up the same if attempting to pick on Spitfires ... but the Spitfire wasn't exactly a long-range escort fighter. It would have similar lack of success against Tempests. But if it concentrated on one-pass attacks and regain altitude for another attack on bombers
until fuel got short was effective enough to be a thorn in our side.
The Me 262 had speed and good armament. Against a nonmaneuvering target, like a B-17 or B-24, or Lancaster / Halifax, it was dynamite period within range of fuel quantity and engine reliability. Against a maneuverable fighter who knew it was coming, it was not much trouble to avoid and a counter-strike was possible easily, especially when the Me 262 needed to slow down and land. If bounced when slow, it was a fat, slow-moving target.
But it DID lead to F-84s, F-86s, Hunters, MiG-15s, and many other jet fighters that owed their very good design features to the Me 262's pioneering design. The lack of ability to maneuver and/or accelerate was not all that big of a fault when the competition had similar aircraft with similar power and wing loading and similar powers of maneuver. By leading the way, I'd call the Me 262 the most important WWII fighter that influenced post-war jet fighter design. Paradoxically, the Me 163, which outperformed the Me 262 in almost all areas except endurance and range, had almost no effect at all on post-war fighter design and even less effect on WWII. Rockets simply weren't, and still aren't, the way to go. But the DID scare the hell out of a bunch of guys for awhile.
Just my opinion and opinions vary.