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Towards the end of World War II, Germany released the Messerschmitt Me.262 onto the world. Although planes powered with jet engines had been tested before, the Me.262 was the world’s first mass-produced jet plane. Despite being a formidable force compared to the opposition, it appeared too late to change the direction of the war. However, it showed the world the potential of the jet engine and in just a handful of years the piston and propeller engine became almost completely obsolete.
In this article, we take a look at the history of the Me.262 and the function of the plane in World of Warplanes.
The first turbojet engine was invented by Frank Whittle from Britain in 1928. However, due to initial problems with the fuel pump mechanism, the invention was largely ignored by a government and military who were more concerned with impending war. Whittle filed a large number of patents, but development continued slowly.
The first nation to really see the potential of the turbojet engine in aviation was Germany, who started experimenting with their own variants. This work began in the early 1930s during the German military build-up prior to the war. The earliest version of the Me.262 was codenamed Projekt 1065 and was designed in 1939. Yet the finished aircraft didn’t go into production until the end of the war, in 1944.
The reasons for the delay were numerous. Initially, the Germans had been confident enough in their piston aircraft, that they did not see any hurry to bring in the turbojet. It was widely believed that the entire war would be fought with pistons. Whilst development continued slowly, there were always higher priorities – to improve existing aircraft or to streamline production to increase numbers.
Meanwhile, there was a dispute over the functionality of the plane. The original design plans for the Me.262 were for an attack fighter craft called the Schwalbe (swallow). It was designed to be a defensive interceptor, using its high speed to catch up to enemy aircraft and to take them out before they reached their targets.
However, Hitler disagreed with this approach and thought the technology would be better used as a fighter-bomber. As a result a second variant was designed called the Sturmvogel (stormbird). This was designed as a long-range bomber, using high speed to reach the destination before defences could be scrambled. It is unknown how much this disagreement contributed to the delay.
It is known that the main delay was caused by problems with the engines. The original designs featured BMW-003 engines, but it wasn’t until 1942 that these were delivered. Once fitted, they then provided poor performance. Eventually they were replaced with the Junkers Jumo-004 engines which were an improvement. It should be noted that early jet engines had very short operational lives of only 12-25 hours!
The Me.262 eventually went into production in 1944 and started to appear in combat at the end of the year. The plane caused great concern for the Allies, who realised that it was faster than their top speed plane (the P-51 Mustang) by over 120 mph (193 kmph)! A desperate campaign began to eliminate the Me.262 before it could turn the direction of the war, and Allied bombers would seek them out on the ground or during take-off and landing to destroy them.
In total, 1433 Me.262s were produced, although only about 300 of them ever saw combat. As well as using the turbojet engine, the plane was also notable for being the first to experiment with the swept-wing design in order to improve the aerodynamic profile and hence the speed of the plane. Although the amount of sweep was very low compared with what came later, it was very much a novel design for the era.
However, despite its easy superiority over every other aircraft in active use in World War II, the arrival of the Me.262 into the combat theatres was just too late to change the fates for the Germans. The air battle had already been more or less won by the Allies by this point, and there was little that could be done to change that. It is speculated that had the Me.262 been introduced several years earlier, the entire outcome of World War II might have been very different.
The Me.262 showed the world what the jet engine was capable of, but it was by no means perfect. Fuel consumption was extremely high at 35 litres every minute. Naturally, this limited the amount of time that the plane could stay in the air for. Several ended up being captured by the Allies after making emergency landings due to running out of fuel.
The plane’s high speed also presented its own unique problems. In some ways it was just too fast, making its guns inaccurate and close-combat dogfighting impractical. As a result, the German pilots had to develop new tactics that included the ‘roller-coaster’ where they were approach their target from high altitude, dive beneath it, then swerve back upwards to reduce the speed enough to shoot.
Where it truly shone was in striking heavy bombers from long range and even achieved success against the famously tough B-17 Flying Fortress.
Once the war had ended, the Americans, British and Soviets scooped up the remaining Me.262s during a drive to confiscate and investigate all the superior technology that the Germans had developed. The aircraft were extensively studied and the knowledge aided development of the future jet aircraft.
Whilst others took the knowledge and incorporated into their own original designs, the Czech Air Force developed a variant of the Me.262 called the Avia S-92 which flew for a few years before being replaced by more advanced Soviet jet fighters.
The age of the piston engine had ended for good. By the time of the Korean War (1950 onwards), the vast majority of aircraft in service were jet fighters and over the decade after that, the remaining piston aircraft dropped out of use completely, made obsolete by the jet fighter.
Several examples of the Me.262 have survived to the present day, and a couple can be found in Europe. One can be seen at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany. Another can be seen at the RAF Museum in London. Meanwhile, the Aviation Museum in Prague has an example of the Me.262 variant – the Avia S-92.
The Me.262 has found a place in popular culture and has appeared in various films and books, and was even the subject of a song by the Blue Öyster Cult.
The Me.262 is a Tier VIII fighter in the German Tech Tree. Possibly the first thing you’ll notice when flying it is the change in sound – gone is the drone of the propellers to be replaced by the screaming of jet engines. The plane is fast, something that is also instantly noticeable compared to its predecessor, the Me.209A1.
Getting used to this plane may take a little practice as it does handle a little differently to a piston plane. In particular, watch out for the engines overheating when making tight manoeuvres.
On the whole, the plane should be treated much as it was in real life. Use your high speed and sheer power to take out the bombers first and then fall back to your team to help with picking off any remaining fighters.
