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Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet (Comet)

1944 SECRET WEAPONS OF THE LUFTWAFFE WORLD WAR 2

History

The German Messerschmitt Me 163 "Komet" was probably the most unique front-line fighter design of WWII. Always seeming to be at the forefront of evolving warfare technology, German engineers developed rocket-powered aircraft based on earlier tests done with engineless gliders. The resulting research resulted in a single-seat swept-wing fighter that was just as dangerous to enemy bomber crews as Me 163 pilots. The Me 163 first flew on September 1, 1941, and was officially included in the Luftwaffe inventory in 1944. Maneuvering flight is imminent.

The idea of ??fast interceptors also quickly gave way to ground-based homing/guided missile technology.

Me 163 was born from the idea of ??Dr. Alexander Lippisch, who pioneered the data study of tailless glider design in the 1920s, before joining the Messerschmitt Group in 1939. Work on this tailless design began with a DFS 194 glider equipped with a Walter rocket engine. The engine relies on a volatile but powerful combination called "C-Stoff" and "T-Stoff".

The new Messerschmitt design will use chemical blasts to propel small fighter jets at breakneck speed - able to fly easily over any bomber escort fighter.??? What's more, the design could take off in seconds to deal with waves of Allied bombers that emerged in day and night operations, disrupting German industry and supply lines. By 1944, the German initiative that had existed at the beginning of the war was all but lost and they began to wage a more defensive war for survival.

Early combat operations in July 1944 attempted to demonstrate the Me 163 as a true fighter breed capable of flying twice as fast as any available Allied fighter type. However, the plane was found to be approaching the flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress too quickly, giving the Me 163 pilots no chance to properly aim their weapons and engage, causing them to overshoot without causing death.

Only then was it discovered that the Me 163 could be controlled - more efficiently used - by performing the aforementioned steep climb on takeoff, reaching the desired attack altitude until the rocket motor ran out of fuel, and then diving - depending on gravity and air in the process resistance.

The Me 163 interceptors are thought to have destroyed only 9 enemy aircraft (some sources say as many as 16) in the latter part of the war, compared to the 370 Me 163s produced. Another Axis member, Imperial Japan, also attempted (very successfully) to replicate the Me 163 design. However, one of the two U-boats that transferred the Me 163 design and related plans from Germany to Japan was sunk by the Allies.

Although the Japanese managed to develop their own working variant of the Me 163 (as the Mitsubishi J8M "Shusui") using the plans they received, the aircraft never entered service.

The Germans also planned to revise the basic design of the Me 163 into a two-seat trainer form, called the "Me 163S", which evolved from the streamlined Me 163B production model.

Despite the impressive performance of the Me 163, the Me 163 itself fell victim to enemy fire nine times, and another 14 were reported as "missing" during the war. Allied fighter pilots came to understand the limitations of the rocket-powered fighter and simply adjusted their strategy to wait for the plane to finally descendan operation that the Me 163 pilots could not abort. Another good fortune for the Allies was that fuel for the Me 163s was in short supply throughout the end of the war, which led to the prolonged grounding of many available Me 163 fighters.

By the end of the war, the focus had also shifted to more advanced and traditional jet-powered aircraft, such as Messerschmitt's own Me 262 "Schwalbe" fighter-bomber.

After the war, many of the available Me 163 airframes were salvaged and extensively studied by the Allies, which no doubt influenced many of the strange projects seen in the postwar years, especially in the United States. Many others ended up as museum exhibits.