Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe

The Messerschmitt Me 262 was the first jet fighter to enter operational service. It was a superb day and night bomber interceptor, with a speed advantage so great, and armament so powerful, that it could easily intercept and destroy allied heavy bombers while practically ignoring the bombers' gun turrets and their swarms of piston-engined escort fighters.

As with other advanced weapons produced by the German industry in World War II, its contribution to the German war effort came far too little and too late due to great delays caused initially by Hitler's overconfidence in a quick victory, and later by his obsession with bombers, and by rivalries in the German Air Force and military industry. Allied bombardments of the Messerschmitt factories and of the German fuel industry, and later of Me 262 air bases, also greatly contributed to delay and minimized its operational activity.

Performance, armament, types:

When it did fly in air combat, the Me 262 was unstoppable at high speed but vulnerable at low speed, after takeoff and before landing, because of its very sensitive and immature jet engines. That's when allied fighters ambushed it, in addition to attacking it on the ground.

It was not a classic agile fighter aircraft. A fast twin-jet aircraft, it was designed to be a powerful bomber interceptor, what the Germans called Zerstorer (destroyer). It had a speed of 540 mph (870 km/h), decisively faster than the 437 mph (700 km/h) of the allied P-51 Mustangs which escorted the allied bombers.

The fighter version, named Schwalbe (swallow), was armed with four 30 mm guns in the nose, giving it an enormous punch which easily destroyed a heavy bomber, and also a stand-off firing range advantage against the bombers' defensive weapons. Before the end of the war it was also armed with R4M unguided 50 mm air-to-air rockets, which also proved very lethal against bomber formations from stand-off range.

The two-seater night fighter version was also equipped with an air intercept RADAR and a passive homing device that homed on the transmissions from allied aircraft. Its speed advantage over the slow heavy bombers was so great that it caused problems for conditions of a RADAR-based night intercept. To offset those problems, its pilots specialized in intercepting the much faster Mosquito bombers, easily intercepting many of the previously almost invincible Mosquitoes.

The bomber version that was produced only because of Hitler's command, was named Sturmvogel (storm bird). In addition to the 30 mm guns, it also carried two 500 lb. bombs. It was generally inefficient as a bomber, due to its low precision (it was limited to high altitude level bombing), low bomb load and low range. Without bombs, the bomber version was still efficient as a bomber interceptor, but initially they were simply not used as interceptors. Later they were, but Hitler demanded that they be flown by bomber pilots even in interception missions and this proved a total failure since the bomber pilots simply lacked the necessary fighter pilot training to perform and survive this type of mission.

There was also a photo reconnaissance version, and several other versions which never passed the prototype stage.

A history of political intervention, delays, and misuse:

The German advantage in jet and rocket technology and in many other fields of military technology in the beginning of World War II was not a coincidence. Since 1933 when Adolf Hitler became dictator of Germany, with a firm and declared intention to go to war, Germany was making a maximum national effort to prepare for a major war. The German military industry, which was already one of the world's leading industries, was given enormous budgets and other national resources in a major national effort to equip the German military with the most advanced weapons possible, and such an effort was bound to produce results.

During those same pre-war years, the United Kingdom, France and the United States were led by nationwide pacifism which preferred to ignore the rapidly rising threat, and their defense budgets were miserably low. Russia did not ignore the threat, but Stalin's paranoid totalitarian regime was then busy in self-destruction by murdering most senior officers, sending many leading scientists and engineers and millions of other citizens to jail, and destroying initiative of any kind by fear.

It's no wonder that between 1933 and 1939, Germany achieved a significant advantage in military technology over its future enemies, an advantage it partially lost during the war, not just by the allied efforts but also by it own errors. In jet and rocket technology, the Germans kept the technological advantage until the end of the war, but its errors greatly reduced the actual military benefit from it, as was the case with the Messerschmitt Me 262.

Overall, about 1,430 Messerschmitt Me 262 aircraft were produced, but the number of operational aircraft was usually below 100, mostly due to lack of fuel. The top scorer with the Me 262 was Heinz Baer of JV44 (220 victories), who scored 16 victories with it.

Facts and General Characteristics of the Me 262:

Contractor: Messerschmitt, Germany
Type: Fighter and bomber
Crew: 1
Wingspan: 40 ft. 11 in. (12.5 m)
Length: 34 ft. 9 in. (10.6 m)
Height: 12 ft. 7in. (3.83 m)
Weight Empty: 8,738 lb. (3,800 kg), Loaded: 14,110 lb. (6,400 kg)
Powerplant: 2 Junkers Jumo 004B jet engines
Max speed: 540 mph (870 km/h)
Rate of climb: 3,940 ft./min. (1,200 m/min.)
Ceiling: 37,500 ft. (11,450 m)
Range: 650 miles (1,050 Km) at 30,000 ft. (9,000 m)
Armament: Four 30 mm Rheinmetall-Borsig MK 108 cannons mounted in nose; twelve R4M air-to-air rockets; two 226 kg (500 lb.) bombs or one 452 kg (1,000 lb.) bomb.

Facts and General Characteristics of the Model:

This model is a reproduction of a Me 262 A-1a flown by Oberfeldwebel Heinz Arnold with III./Jagdgeschwader 7 (JG 7) Nowotny. It is believed to be the only Me 262 to display combat victories. On April 16, 1945, Arnold went missing on a transfer flight in another plane, his plane being out of commission on that day. Arnold’s Me 262 was ultimately acquired by the Allies and was refurbished for display in the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum.

Manufacturer: Revell/AG Germany
Scale: 1/48
Wingspan: 10"
Length: 8.5"
Height: 3"
Hours to build and paint: 10.5
Mistakes: 1. I forgot to spray with clear coat first to make the decals looks better.
2. I should have used an airbrush for the lower fuselage camouflage scheme.