In 1938, Germany had flown the first jet aircraft, the Heinkel He 178. Plans began immediately to field jet fighters, which would be an entire generation ahead of any propeller-driven fighter. It was a radical proposal—too radical, in fact: Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering thought jets too costly, while Willy Messerschmitt saw no practical use for a jet fighter. Only knowledge that the British had begun work on jet fighters and the inability of the Luftwaffe to stop the growing number of Allied bomber raids rekindled interest in jet fighters. Messerschmitt’s design, ironically, beat out other companies and the first Me 262 flew in April 1941—and, in a taste of things to come, had to land using a backup propeller engine, as both its BMW 003 turbojets flamed out. Engine trouble was to be the curse of the Me 262: the initial plan of using BMW 003s failed because the BMW engines rarely worked at all, while the Junkers Jumo 004 engines were not much better. No early jet engine was very reliable, but poor metallurgy and rushed production made a bad problem worse. Ironically, the fact that the engines were heavier than Messerschmitt intended led to the 262 being given swept wings to compensate—which in turn gave the 262 excellent high speed performance.
General of Fighters Adolf Galland flew the 262 in May 1943 and pronounced it the best fighter he had ever flown. Even with this endorsement, Messerschmitt resisted full-scale production, preferring the Bf 109, until ordered to by Albert Speer, the Reich Minister of the Economy. The 262 ran into yet another delay when Adolf Hitler, impressed by the speed of the design, ordered that it be used as a fighter-bomber, a role the 262 had never been intended for. Nonetheless, by late 1943, Messerschmitt had built 100 Me 262As, and more airframes were ready, if only reliable engines could be found.
In combat, the Me 262, which acquired the nicknames Sturmvogel (Stormbird) and Schwalbe (Swallow) from its pilots, had mixed results. The flat-out speed of the jet allowed German pilots to easily outdistance any Allied fighter, but speed also worked against the 262: its primary purpose was to shoot down four-engined bombers, and with closure rates of nearly 600 mph, a pilot had barely two seconds to aim and shoot. Though the 262 was a remarkably stable gun platform, pilots usually missed even large targets like a B-17. New tactics, such as the “rollercoaster” roll-and-dive through a B-17 combat box, had to be developed, while 262s began to be armed with R4M rockets, only one of which was required to blow the wing off a bomber. 262 pilots also learned the hard way that attempting to dogfight with escort fighters such as the P-51 Mustang was a bad idea, as the P-51 could easily turn inside the 262; however, 262 pilots learned that, if they kept their speed up, their performance was equal to the Mustang even in turns; the mistake was attempting to slow down.
While the Me 262 still remained a rare sight over Europe due to a chronic lack of jet engines, and the fact that even those that were delivered rarely lasted longer than 12 hours, there was worry in the Allied high command that, if employed in numbers, the 262 would force the 8th Air Force to end operations over Germany. The 8th quickly devised tactics to counter the 262: knowing that the jet engines required concrete runways—only a handful of which existed in Germany—the 8th “flooded the zone” with P-51s that would catch the jets on takeoff or landing, when they were most vulnerable. Those 262s that did get in the air could often claim three or four bombers at a time, but by the time sufficient numbers of jets were in action—once again, late 1944—even these losses were easily made up. While Me 262s equipped at least three wings of Luftwaffe fighter units, including the elite JV 44, they were not enough.
At war’s end, the Allies captured a large number of intact Me 262s and quickly began testing them against their jet designs, namely the Meteor and the Lockheed P-80. The 262 was found to be better than both designs, and these lessons were incorporated into the adversaries of the Korean War: the F-86 Sabre and MiG-15. As for the Me 262s, only a handful escaped the scrapper’s torch. Though Avia of Czechslovakia produced a handful of postwar 262s as the Avia S-92, engine problems grounded these as well by 1951. Only about ten 262s survived to the present day, none flyable. This changed in 2003, when the Me 262 Project of Everett, Washington, began producing limited numbers of new-build Me 262s, in both Me-262A single-seat and Me-262B two-seat versions. These aircraft, given the designation Me 262C, are powered by 1950s-era J85 engines, which are far more reliable than the Jumo 004s.
Dad got this picture of a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a at Frankfurt-Main International Airport in 1979. It was not a real 262, but a replica built especially for the airport display; at the time, the only actual Me 262 in Europe was at the RAF Museum in Great Britain. This 262 wears a nonstandard camouflage of two shades of mottled gray over blue-gray, but by 1945, Luftwaffe aircraft were generally painted with whatever was available. Like the Smithsonian's Me 262, this Sturmvogel wears the colors of JG 7, with the running greyhound crest of the wing and former 262 testing unit, Kommando Nowotny. Walter Nowotny scored 258 victories before he was shot down and killed in 1944; both units were named in his honor.
Sadly, Frankfurt closed down their outdoor museum sometime in the late 1980s, and the various aircraft on display were moved to other museums. This 262 was an exception: as it was a replica and had suffered from years in open display, it was scrapped.
