Very cool, but is it a real 262? To my eyes it looks like a replica, a bit stubby. I read the comments, but no real answer comes up. I didn't think any existing airframes were certified to fly.
There is no original Me 262 flying. Those that are, came from a project initially launched by the Texas Aircraft Factory of rebuilding five flyable exact replicas. These are exact to the last detail, except that these have modern jet engines, not the original Jumo004. And this thread title is slightly misleading: the first flight of one of the replicas was indeed the first one in 61 years, but that was back in 2006 if my memory, etc...so there is nothing new here. Rgds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_262_Project
I read Paul Allen is rebuilding a 1940's german built one to flying status including the Jumo engines(with some new ineternals).
This is one of the reproductions built in the last decade, started in Texas and completed in Everett, WA. The key part of the video title is the first flight over Berlin in 61 years. The aircraft itself has been flying, first in the U.S. and then in Germany, for a number of years.
Unless plans have changed, I doubt it. Paul had an original which they were using as a pattern for the replicas, and which they restored, but when I visited them some years ago (in the 2006 timeframe), they said the original would never fly.
the 262 at WPAFB in Dayton, OH is original and flyable but it will never get off the ground like all of the rest of the exhibits there.
That wasn't Paul Allen's effort, it was Bob Hammer's. The pattern airplane belonged to the U.S. Navy and Hammer's team restored it to non-flyable museum quality while using it to design parts for the new flyable aircraft. Paul Allen's effort is newer and separate (even though the facilities in Everett are side-by-side) and is supposed to fly (unlike the others) with rebuilt original Jumo engines.
I lived in Doylestown, Pa. for a brief time in 1950 and I drove by Willow Grove Naval Sta. many times. The 262 that you mentioned was there, sitting in the weather for years, and the Navy let it rust away. There was an Arado seaplane there and another that I can't remember. People have told me that aluminum airplanes don't rust. That very true. The ME-262 was made of steel and wood.
My understanding is its an origional airframe, or 85% origional, and the Jumo engines have some new made parts inside like turbine discs. From what I read the issue with the jumo was fuel control units, and alloys. Shortage of nickel meant the turbine blades were coated in an ablative material to try cope with the heat. They lasted something like 8 hours. Some built with proper materials could last hundreds of hours, but those were just experimental. Yep as bob said, the skin was metal not aluminum. Apprently the whole cockpit section was tub. The restorers commented on how intelligently it had been designed in terms of ease of construction. It would be very inetrestign to hear how the replicas perform compared to say sabre jet. From what i understand the 262 was not so much a fighetr as a gun platform whose best defence was its speed not manueverability. Its well worth reading Adolf Gallands biography, "the first and the last" he goes into a lot of detail about how they had to invent tactics for fighting with jets. One thing they had to do was create and umbrella over the airfiels with FW 190s to protect the jets taking off and landing. Galland was an amazing character, started airfighting durign the spanish civil war with the condor legion, and ended the war flying jets. By late 44 Goering and Hitler were done with him, but as national hero it was hard to off him, so they figured after demoting him they would let him form a squadron of jets, which was sure not to last long. He enlisted the elite of the luftwaffe, many of the great combat veterens.
Not new but still a great video. I've had many fun flights with my RC 262, most of them after a dead stick landing while trailing smoke :/ [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLjEuPwb7nw&t=1s[/ame] She flies beautifully on two engines! A gorgeous plane, even better in a non-military color scheme IMO
Well, I'm a stickler for originality, but almost anyone with interest in those first jets know that the main characteristics of the Jumo004 was that it was extremly sluggish at low speeds, particularly during take-offs and landings, so I find the idea to fly these original engines rather asking for trouble... Rgds
Sterling Michael Pavelec in “The Jet race and the Second World War” about the assembly of the five Me-262 replicas: The start of the project was the foundation of “Classic Fighter Industries” in New Jersey in 1993: Steve Snyder has a strong interest in the early german jets, and he managed to convince the US Navy to dedicate their static Me 262 B-1 for study and disassembly, on the condition that the aircraft was to be returned complete and unmolested at their Silver Hill, Maryland facility. After carefully studying it, Herbert Tischler was entrusted with the build and manufacture of three, later five, exact Me 262 reproductions at the Texas Air Factory (except for the engines). Trouble between investors and the design team saw the project relocated to Seattle, Wash. in 1997, where it received some technical input from Boeing. Rgds
Bob Hammer, who was my supervisor when I worked on the 767 program in Everett in 1979-80, retired as a Boeing V.P. and took over what became known as Legend Flyers. I believe they still have parts for another 262 which are in storage waiting for a buyer. Their current project is an A6M3 Zero. https://www.facebook.com/wherelegendsflyagain/ Incidentally, the greater power of the J85 engines in the reproduction 262s would theoretically have allowed the aircraft to reach 600 MPH (the originals were rated at 540) but the airplanes are restricted to, I believe, 500 MPH for safety and reliability. They can still outrun other WW II warbirds!
for reference, some photos I took of the RAF Museum's ME-262 and cutaway Jumo engine outside London. You can see the starting motor on the front of the compressor. Neat design: "One interesting feature of the 004 was the starter system, designed by the German engineer Norbert Riedel, which consisted of a 10 hp (7.5 kW) 2-stroke flat engine hidden in the intake,[4] and essentially functioned as a pioneering example of an APU for starting a jet engine. A hole in the extreme nose of the intake diverter body contained a pull-handle for the cable which "turned-over" the piston engine, which in turn spun up the turbine. Two small gasoline/oil mix tanks were fitted within the upper perimeter of the annular intake's sheet metal housing for fueling the Riedel two-stroke mechanical APU unit. The Riedel unit was also used — but was installed differently — for startup of the competing BMW 003 engine, and for Heinkel's more advanced HeS 011 "mixed-flow" turbojet design." Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
There was a lot of bravery on both sides then. Even as a punk kid then when I was in and trying to do what I could there was a permanent thought in the back of your mind that there was a strong chance that you might not make it home. It was pretty much assumed that you were a piece of fodder but everybody put their heads down and tried to grind it out. The inevitable, which ever way it went, was accepted. I was very fortunate and I did next to nothing but I was in the middle of those who had and it was unbelievable how most simply brushed it off and went ahead with their lives.
Extremely true! It was a different era when people knowingly sat in a cockpit with the understanding it might be the last thing they do on earth. These early "radical" technologies, including rocket power on both sides, was so crude and so unsafe for the time it's hard to imagine anyone doing it today. In the case of the Me163, the pilots literally wore rubber suits so their skin would not burn off if there was a fuel leak. That has to scare the crap out of anyone.
