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Messerschmitt Me P.262 HG III

1945 SECRET WEAPONS OF THE LUFTWAFFE WORLD WAR 2 X-PLANE

History

The Messerschmitt Me 262 HG III (also known as the HG-3) was a short-lived development of the legendary Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter of World War II (1939-1945). The original aircraft entered service in April 1944 as the world's first operational jet fighter and was designed to give the Luftwaffe a considerable advantage over Europe, but the lack of capable pilots, coupled with the war situation Deteriorating Germany resulted in fighter jets having limited impact on the war.

Despite these results, Messerschmitt's engineers continued to advance the design on several fronts, one of which revealed a series of high-speed studies conducted during the war's end. The Me 262 HG II was a modernized and improved version of the original Me 262 - more or less obsolete by 1945 - while the HG III emerged as a complete overhaul of the base design. The HG program is designed to incorporate additional aerodynamic features for improved performance and fuel efficiency.

Work on these aircraft began in 1944 by Woldemar Voight, who was also responsible for the original Me262.

The combat effectiveness of the Me 262 in service during the war was mixed - it was certainly a fast aircraft with powerful weapons, but it used an unreliable and fuel-guzzling jet engine that tended to burn at high altitudes close to 30,000 feet or higher. As a result, it was unable to strike high-flying Allied bomber formations, which had a disastrous effect on Germany's wartime capabilities.

Like it or not, the Luftwaffe found itself directly involved in a defense-oriented war, with deterring Allied bombing becoming the service's primary goal.

To expedite the development of the HG II and HG III, the proven airframe of the existing Me 262 fighter was retained, albeit with some mandatory modifications. A powerful 4 x 30mm MK 108 automatic cannon will be mounted on the nose, with a flat-top canopy over the pilot's position. On the HG III, the wings were swept 45 degrees to achieve the proposed high speeds, and the original conventional tail layout was employed - although one design attempted to give the HG III a "butterfly" tail - essentially a pair of outwards Sloped vertical tail This negates the need for a traditional horizontal tail.

The tricycle landing gear gives this fighter a highly modern look.

Unlike the Me 262 (and the proposed HG II), which kept the turbojets in the underwing nacelles, the HG III integrated its engines into the wing root to fuse the wing and fuselage. These are drawn in through side-mounted air intakes on the leading edge of each wing and are used to keep thrust performance as close to the center mass as possible while eliminating the need for large ductwork that could further degrade thrust performance.

The selected Heinkel HeS 011 turbojet has a projected thrust of 2,866 pounds and a total output of nearly 5,700 pounds.

When the war in Europe ended in May 1945, development of the HG III ended. Many secret German projects were taken over by Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union, and were either continued or abandoned. wartime.

The 35-degree wing sweep of the HG II prototype concept (destroyed in a runway accident in May 1945) was reused in the upcoming classic North American F-86 Saber and Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 fighter jets.

Estimated performance specs for the HG III include a top speed of 620 to 730 mph (sources vary) and a service cap of at least 35,000 feet.

A proposed offshoot of the HG III is a Night Intruder model with a radar in the nose and a second crew member in the extended cockpit. The 4 x 30mm artillery armament will be retained.

The other, the HG III/3, relocated the cockpit to the very end of the fuselage and was moulded to the leading edge of the tail. Horizontal planes are added to the vertical sections of the new rear structure.