Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet

As the only operational rocket-powered fighter of Second World War, the Komet was designed to exceed the performance of conventional aircraft. Originally tested as a glider, the tailless design incorporated a wheeled dolly dropped during takeoff, and a landing skid under the fuselage. The Komet first flew operationally in May 1944. Though the Komet was not a significant factor in German air defence, the German Air Force took delivery of 339 and flew them until the end of the war.

The Messerschmitt Me-163 has earned a place in aviation history as a revolutionary plane. It had it's problems, but it did have amazing performance. In production form it could attain speeds of up to 597mph, and at full throttle accelerate from 250mph to almost 600mph in seconds!

The Me 163

The development and use of the Luftwaffe's jet aircraft was crippled by interservice wrangles and Hitler's maniacal meddlings, such as his concept of the Messerschmitt Me-262 as a bomber rather than a fighter. All this ensured that the four operational Luftwaffe jets, to which Messerschmitt made another contribution, the Me-163, were never employed to their full potential.

Of the four, the Me-163 seems the most futuristic in the context of contemporary piston-engined aircraft. Its arrowhead, delta-shaped outline foreshadowed the jets of the post-war period, as did the speed of 623 mph (1002.5 kph) which it reached on its first full-power test on 2nd October 1941. On this test, too, the pilot experienced the effects of flying too close to the 'sound barrier' - vigorous tail flutter, and buffeting as pressure waves built up to hammer the insufficiently streamlined outline of his plane. The dangers facing pilots flying the operational version, the Me-163B 'Komet', were hardly less.

These pilots belonged to the Luftwaffe's first rocket interceptor unit, and were flying a plane powered by a literally explosive fuel: T-Stoff (hydrogen peroxide) mixed with C-Stoff (alcohol/ hydrazine). Many were killed when their aircraft blew up on landing after the last of their fuel ignited in the tanks. Operationally, the great drawback of the Me-163 was that full power duration lasted only about eight minutes. However, the diminutive, gnat-like jet, which had a wing-span of 30 ft 7.5 ins (9.33 meters), length of 19 ft 2.5 ins (5.85 meters) and height of 9 ft (2.76 meters), could go spearing up on its Walter HWK508-A-1 or -2 bi-fuel rocket motor (thrust-rating 3,748 lbs or 1,700 kgs) at a then phenomenal rate of 29,370 ft (8952 meters) in three minutes 25 seconds.

This remarkable little plane, nicknamed 'the Powered Egg' did not enter combat until 16th October 1944, and when the war ended was still being developed towards the efficiency it would certainly have reached given more time. However, an increase to 12 minutes' endurance was as far as its designers got, in the Me-163C.