The 2nd World War was the scene of many military innovations and Nazi willingly or not had a great role in the design and development of unique military equipment that were seen with bold looks and fear by the West.
The German engineers created several projects, some never even got off the ground, others went wrong during the tests, others went right and wrong at the same time, as is the case of the Me 163 Komet, an interceptor with a rocket engine.
It all started with the idea of the German engineer, Alexander Lippisch, who designed this aircraft that aimed to be light and reach high altitudes and intercept the bombers of the time, such as the North American B-17 and B-29 or the English Avro Lancaster. .
In 1926, that is, even before the 2nd World War, Lippisch designed a motorized glider with a reaction engine, more specifically a Walter I-203 that provided the aircraft with a thrust of 400 kg. The idea of the jet and new engine creations emerged until the first Me 163 was actually ready, something that only happened in March 1941.
It was in August of that year (1941), that for the first time the Me-163 made its maiden flight, in the cockpit was pilot Dittmar who managed to reach an impressive 800 km / h in this flight, which at the time was quite a lot.
The tests continued and in October 1941 the Me-163 piloted by Dittmar was launched from a BF-110, in the dive the German pilot started the engine and for the first time in history a human being reached Mach 0,84, that is, 84 % of the speed of sound. In kilometers per hour, the German jet reached an incredible 1024 km/h.
By the time of that championship, Lippisch had already created two versions of the Komet, version A and B, which in certain parts gave more results.
Features of the Me 163B Komet
As we said above, the project was to be a fast aircraft and for that, weight had to be taken off and one of the solutions was to abandon the landing gear on takeoff, as soon as it left the ground the Komet discarded its landing gear and started a climb of 70 degrees, that's clear with the new engine, the II-203 with 750 kg of thrust.
For landing, the aircraft had a retractable ski, something that sometimes did not work out and some pilots were injured when trying to land the small but fast Me 163B Komet.
Another problem was its low autonomy, without fuel the Komet returned to its base gliding and this made it vulnerable to anti-aircraft batteries.
The Allied Discovery of the Komet and the Aircraft's Advances
However, the development of the Komet almost went down the drain as the Allies discovered the Messerschmitt manufactured site, the Allied bomber destroyed all of the pre-series Me-163B. However, it was still possible to transfer the factory to another location so that the tests with the jet could be continued.
It was already 1944, that is, the penultimate year of the world war that ravaged the world for the 2nd time. In this scenario, the US was already in the military conflict and the game for the trio Japan, and Italy, was already getting complicated, but even so the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) was still focused on testing the Komet and more modifications were made to the Me-163B.
One of the most prominent modifications was the installation of the HWK Typ 509A-1 engine, in addition to changes in the wings, control surfaces and fuselage.
In of military power, the then Me-163B-1 (final designation of the Komet) had a 108mm MK30 cannon. Two cannons like these were installed on the wings of the Me-163B-1 and both had a capacity of 30 projectiles.
Me 163B-1 Komet in combat:
The year was still 1944 and finally the Komet was placed in the combat scenario, in the beginning the young pilots of the Luftwaffe could not shoot down the allied bombers because the speed of approach was too high.
But over time the piloting technique was being improved and with that the first positive results in combat happened.
Some German pilots stood out in their killing flights, Feldwebel Sigfried Schubert, managed to shoot down three US B-17s, Leutnant Fritz Kelb already shot down two British Avro Lancasters bombers.
there were none "At" on the Komet (technically the pilot becomes an Ace when he shoots down more than five planes in a mission). But the result must have been quite satisfactory for Nazi .
By the end of the war in 1945 there were about 300 Me-163s in the line of duty. Even at the end of the war, the Me 163D/Ju 248 version was developed, however, this was captured by the Soviets and transformed into what would be the MiG Zh or I-270, which did not have significant success.
2nd World War: The cradle of daring creations:
The 2nd World War was the birthplace of many technologies that were or were not improved in the following years, on both sides there were very interesting creations.
This shows how the war industry can develop at a time when a major conflict is in full swing.
In Japan we can mention the Zero, the famous Kamikaze plane that had a great performance in combat.
In the Allied milieu we can list the great North American bombers, such as the B-17, B-25 or even the B-29, the latter having links with the emergence of another classic bomber that still flies today, the B- 52 Stratofortress. Or even the P-40, P-47 fighters or the dreaded P-51 Mustang.
Still in relation to , we can mention the Me 262, the German jet that had the most positive results during the world conflict.
To read about another daring WWII German air project, click here
Research source: Luftwaffe39-45.historia
