WWIIReenacting.co.uk Forums

Hi guys,
Have any of you seen this? I must say it's impressive and what a beautiful aircraft! I don't know if they are restoring it to flying condition but wouldn't that be something? It seems that they might be as it has working landing gear and radio equipment fitted. Anyway check out the link:

http://memorial.flight.free.fr/He162uk.html

The landing gear video is excellent!

Tom

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Damn just saw it says it's going to be static

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That is a brilliant restoration and is a credit to the restoration team, take a look here www.nervenklau.de
to see a full size replica that has been built in Germany, it uses bout 70% original parts and the builders intend to fit a russian built jet engine to enable it to taxi.

Very nice, uncovering history as well with someone who was on the build team signing there name............

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Hadn't seen that Nevervenklau site before, very impressive! It would be great if they could get one in flying order, though it probably isn't one of the safest aircraft to fly even when in good working order, but either way it would be brilliant to see one in the air! Germany have a replica Me163 flying as well but I think it's unpowered.

Tom

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Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown RN, who flew the He162 a number of times, had this to say about the aircraft :-
"In view of the fact that the He162 never saw combat, we are left with the intriguing if purely academic question of how it would have made out if it had been used in anger. It would certainly have made an effective gun platform, and it's small dimensions would have rendered it difficult to hit. Even if somewhat underpowered, it had a good performance - it could certainly have run rings round the contemporary Meteor, but was no aeroplane to let embryo pilots loose on, and it would have demanded simply more than a good pilot to operate it out of a small airfield. Nevertheless, as a back up for the formidable Me262 it could conceivably have helped the Luftwaffe to regain air superiority over Germany had it appeared on the scene earlier.Personally, I shall always recall the He162 with affection as it gave me some exhilarating hours in the air, and I cannot help but feel that the Allies were fortunate, for had another month or two and the necessary fuel been available , the He162 might well have got in among our bombers in numbers at a time when desperate measures might just have achieved sensational results.".

Taken from, "Wings of the Luftwaffe" by Captain Brown and published by Airlife Publishing Limited.

There are also reports that the He162 DID see combat and that two Hawker Tempests were shot down.

I'd agree with that, I believe that the HE162 had better performance in terms of maneuverability and speed over the ME262 but was quite an unstable aircraft and unsuitable for new pilots. There was absolutely no way that the untrained Hitler youth pilots would have had any success in combat, after all they would have had to have completed their flight training in combat, which is ridiculous!
I'm always amazed that Heinkel managed to design and fly the first prototype in just 10 weeks! These days they spend years developing aircraft before they even get anywhere near the flight testing stage and even then should the electronics fail the aircraft would more than likely just fall from the sky!
Also when you see the contemporary photo's of JG1 at Leck after they handed over their FW190s they had the HE162 in quite considerable numbers for saying the short time between the design, construction, the ongoing testing and delivery to frontline a unit. I think that it was the lack of fuel that kept them grounded for the most part. Also I believe that they were under orders to only fly some interceptor missions as the aircraft hadn't been fully tested.
Just looking at a photo in the Luftwaffe at war book German jets 1944-1945 I count 11 aircraft on one side of the runway at Leck with the same lined up on the other side so they would have had at least 20 HE162s based there.
Excellent stuff!

Tom

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KUDOS & SALUTATIONS!

CAN I GET A HOOAH?

A company in the UK has one, last I heard that was planned to return to flight

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That one was sold to Paul Allen (Co-founder of Microsoft) for his Flying Heritage collection in America, I believe all the aircraft in his collection are airworthy.

Wouldn't it look nice with one of the of the new build ME 262s in the states or could that same company do a limited run of the 162 in the same way as the 262s now that would be a sight along with maybe an ME 109 or FW 190 in tow fantastic work so far. It goes to show that there is people out there who want to make something fly where it belongs good luck, I salute you