Ah Red, the story evolves around the two seater pictured on their site. It had a major landing accident several months ago and is now in need of desperate repair. Nothing is ready to fly for awhile.... ~E
Bugger yes ! sad but true I am hopeful once I hear of several of the other a/c mainly single seaters flying, I will attend with a camera. Seattle is about 8 hrs north of my abode....
They've had to go 'back to the drawing-board' on the landing gear. See ; - http://www.stormbirds.com/project/general/updates.htm They'll get there !
Erich - If you are seriously interested in seeing a "stormbird rise" in Seattle, give me a jingle, and I'll run up there with you to Boeing field. You can't get to Seattle with out driving by my door. Bill
Another 'piccie' to keep this thread going ; - http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/stormbirdrisingjg_3.htm
that's pretty amazing that after all these years, they actually are going to test fly the Messerschmidt ME 262; and none the less, it was a Nazi airplane and now it's being repaired under American engineers, kind of ironic.
Actually the two seater was suppose to take flight again sometime in October. This was the projection anyway. There are also 6 other single and twin seat configurations that are being worked on from the many parts the firm has in their possession...... ~E
Weird to think of it, really ; the Me262 is so legendary - almost mythical - that it seems rather like raising the Titanic or seeing the Loch Ness Monster at London Zoo....
still cannot fathom why a two seater though instead of a wonderful single seater so typlifying this beautiful a/c. Besides as I pointed out in another earlier thread JG 7 never had any two seaters so the camo is totally bogus ! ~E
Hmm. I very interesting saga indeed. However, there should be some law stating that any vintage WW2 aircraft should have a minimum amount of dirt, grime, and aviation oil stains on it - to be a bit more historically accurate! Just looking at that beautiful 262 being restored, it almost looks like an over-sized Revell model because it is so clean and almost "fake" looking. But that's just me. Kudos to the guys restoring it either way. How much fun would that be for a hobby!
In German-language military history there is rather little material about this... is it known how many kills & losses the Me 262 had against Allied fighters?
I shall leave the field clear for Erich on this one ! But I will say that the excellent book 'The Messerschmitt 262 Combat Diary' by John Foreman and S E Harvey ( Air Research, London 1990 / 1995 ) contains several Appendices detailing known Me262 losses plus claims for Me262 and its' adversaries in the Allied air forces. [ 14. October 2003, 01:06 PM: Message edited by: Martin Bull ]
You are doing great Martin ! keep going.... the best in Deutsche is the book by Manfred Boehme on KG 51 and his epeic JG 7 Geschwader which was translated into English. So yes there are books in German, and also a good one is Strahljäger but not sure of the author, but the book was reproted to be pretty complete. Calssic pubs 4 volumes on the a/c and pilots is a must for us English folk. Our Moskito-Jagd buch will cover 10./NJG 11 under Kurt Welter at great length..... ~E
If these are the same 262s I read about in "Aeroplane" a few months back, they are being produced from scratch, not restored, so not quite raising the titanic, more like building one. I believe the asking price for each bird is 1.5 million dollars. They had 2 orders which were half-built including the completed 2 seater back then but obviously they are being put on hold due to the crash. The 2 seater is a great idea if you think of it, you can charter rich businessmen or use it for a press camera/documentary where the extra room is ideal for a cameraman or reporter.
The 262 flew again on June 29th - this time without any problems, although the undercarriage remained lowered throughout. It gave them a unique photo-opportunity ; - http://www.stormbirds.com/project/images/update_6_04-3.jpg
I believe it was Walter Schuck that said in a 109 book that several 262 pilots actually scored 25-30 victories, but never got credit as they occurred at end of war. It sometimes took a month or 2 for pilots to get credit for kills, so ones that happened at end of war often never credited. Reich was crumbling, so I would imagine that tallying pilot scores was the last thing of importance at that stage of the game. Also with speed of 262, I wonder how well formation flying was maintained & subsequently how easy or difficult it was to get conformation from ones wingman. Any thoughts Erich?
Chrome I do not think we will ever know..........by March 1945 many of the fighter Geschwadern were not keeping score anymore. When JG 7 moved into the Prague-Rasin area in the Spring of 45 it was to counter the Soviet threat into Berlin and although the jet unit scored agasint the Soviet A/F we do not know the official claims and also the daily ground attack routines played by gruppen against Soviet motor transport of which there many. Erich ~
Agreed.It shall forever be unverified. P.S. agree with your comment about the last thing on the pilots minds in closing months of war was anti semitism.
