Messerschmitt Me.163 Komet is a very unusual aircraft. In essence, this is a manned missile with a record speed of up to 3600 m / min. In addition, it is the first aircraft in history to reach a speed of more than 1000 km / h – in early July 1944, German pilot Heini Dittmar (Heini Dittmar) reached 1130 km / h.

In the first “comets” a liquid rocket engine was installed, later these devices were equipped with an HWK 109-509A-2 engine with two combustion chambers: a powerful starting and marching with a constant thrust of 300 kg.

The flight time was only 8 minutes. Due to a small supply of fuel, the interceptor could not perform a second approach to the target, which greatly reduced its effectiveness as a combat unit. The plane took off from a special cart and landed on a retractable ski. Given that the landing speed reached 220 km / h, this was a non-trivial task and very dangerous for the pilot.

The spacecraft made its first flight on September 1, 1941. During the war, 370 copies of all modifications were released. Despite the outstanding characteristics at the time, the “comets” shot down only a dozen Allied aircraft, so their impact on the outcome of the war was almost zero. However, the Messerschmitt Me.163 Komet remained unique in its kind – after the war, radio technology began to develop rapidly and the pilot’s place in the missile was taken by a remote control unit from the ground, and after a while – a computer control and guidance unit.

Technical characteristics Messerschmitt Me.163 Komet

Weight of empty aircraft, kg: 1905
Maximum take-off weight, kg: 4110
Engines: 1 × jet Walther HWK 109-509A-2
Thrust: 1 × 17 kN
Top speed: at sea level 830 km / h, at an altitude of 3000 m - 960 km / h
Landing speed, km / h: 220
Practical range km: 200
Flight duration, minutes: ≈8
Practical ceiling, m: 12000
Lifting speed, m / min: 3600

By 1943, Germany had lost too many fighters on the battlefield, and it turned out that the Soviet Union and the Allies were able to establish production of reciprocating aircraft, no longer inferior to Messerschmitt Bf.109 and other best Luftwaffe machines. The losses had to be made up urgently, and the Wehrmacht decided to rely on a new generation of aircraft that would be significantly ahead of the Allied aircraft, even if inexperienced pilots were put at the helm. The technical task for the new fighter was formed in September 1944, and in just 3 months the single-engine jet Heinkel He 162 Volksjager was ready for production.

The fighter was made mainly of wood, because in 1944 the German production was catastrophically lacking. The wing was made of wood with plywood, the tail, the rudder of height and turn were made of light alloy, and the keel was also made of wood. The narrow gauge chassis was folded hydraulically and produced mechanically by a spring. The turbojet engine BMW 003E-1 with a thrust of 800 kgf was mounted on top of the fuselage. One of the innovative developments of the He-162 is a catapult seat for the pilot, it was fired from the cockpit with a pyrocartridge.

A total of 320 He 162 aircraft were produced, but officially the Luftwaffe took up only 120 units. Due to the upper location of the engine, the He 162 proved to be very difficult to operate and required long training. As a result, the Nazis simply did not have time to train the required number of pilots. The idea of ​​putting 162 graduates of glider schools in the cabins of He proved to be unfeasible.

Technical characteristics Heinkel He 162

 Engine: BMW 003E-1, traction: 800 kg
 Weight of empty aircraft, kg: 1664
 Take-off weight, kg: 2600
 Maximum speed, km / h: 900 (at an altitude of 6000 m)
 Lifting speed, m / min: 1150
 Practical ceiling, m: 12000
 Practical flight range, km: 975

In 1943, the head of the Luftwaffe Hermann Goering announced the beginning of the program “1000x1000x1000”, which aimed to develop an aircraft capable of carrying 1000 kg of bombs at a distance of up to 1000 km at a speed of 1000 km / h. These were completely unusual figures for the early 1940s, recall that the vast majority of aircraft then flew at speeds of 500-550 km / h.

However, the car that met such requests was built – Horten Ho 229. On March 1, 1944, the aircraft made its first flight. The glider of the device is made according to the “flying wing” scheme – a kind of scheme “tailless” with a shortened fuselage, the role of which is played by the wing, which carries all the equipment, crew and payload. In the Horten Ho 229, the wing was a wooden frame placed around a frame made of steel pipes. The space between the wooden beams was filled with a composite material of a mixture of sawdust and charcoal. Such utensils reduced visibility to radar, as coal is able to absorb electromagnetic waves. In fact, the Horten Ho 229 was the first “invisible aircraft”, because the radar equipment of that time was not sensitive.

In front of the wing was the cockpit, which housed only one pilot. The aircraft was equipped with 2 jet engines Junkers Jumo 004B. On March 1, 1944, the Horten Ho 229 V1 made its first flight, and about a year later a second model took to the air. By the end of the war, the company had released 18 more kits, but did not have time to make them.

It is noteworthy that the American corporation Northrop Corporation also experimented with aircraft such as “flying wing”. The result was a Northrop XP-79 jet. The first flight of this aircraft took place on September 12, 1945, but 15 minutes after takeoff lost control and crashed. It was decided to close the XP-79 project.

But another corporation project, the Northrop B-2 Spirit strategic bomber, was much more successful. A total of 21 copies were built, they are still in use today. The cost of each device was $ 2.1 billion.

Technical characteristics Horten Ho 229:

Wings area: 50.2 square meters. m
Weight of the aircraft empty: 4600 kg, takeoff: 6912 kg
Maximum weight: 8100 kg
Top speed: 977 km / h (estimated) at 12000 m
Practical ceiling: 16000 m (estimate)
Lifting speed: 1320 m / s (estimated)