I’ve read of the dangers the Me 163 pilots faced when landing, but this is a new one:

Exactly, the Me163 fuel was extremely corrosive, and had more or less that effect on the human body. The fuel was in two components, fuel proper and oxidiser, and each had to be loaded separately [T-Stoff (80 percent hydrogen peroxide and 20 percent water) and C-Stoff (hydrazine hydrate, methyl alcohol, and water)]. After the first part was loaded the plane had to be completely hosed down before proceeding with the other component. The pilot wore a special flight suit. There was always the danger of a leak in flight, the hydrogen peroxide would set the pilot on fire, the hydrazine would eat him alive. If there were two leaks - boom!

Special care had to be taken at landing because of the need to avoid any schoks that might cause a rupture in the fuel system, or else you know what. Also as the landing gear was no more than a skid, the pilot also had to fear damage to the spine.

Baaaad idea.

Messerschmitt Me 163B
Messerschmitt Me 163 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet - rocket plane

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Bah!

Of course, this was only a real problem for the pilot if the enemy was somehow stupid enough to fly directly over the airfield the Me 163 was flying out of......

The Me163 and the Ba349 Natter, talk about point-defence! At least you had a better chance of walking away from the 349

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Bah!

Hi,
Just shows you how desperate the German Luftwaffe was towards the bitter end.

Matt

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With the Natter I can excuse the Germans more. This was more like a manned SAM than an interceptor aircraft. As a system it makes more sense.

I wouldn't call it desperate at all........more like some stupid idiotic idea from some LW techs. both were suicidal.

Exactly what I was thinking. There is a Ba 349 Natter replica at the Fantasy of Flight museum in Florida. It was constructed from plans found at a German furniture factory.

Great site on the 163:
Me 163B Komet,
some good pictures showing bailouts and slightly worrying potential/flying replicas.

Microsoft bloke's 'Flying Heritage Collection' recently (year or 2 ago?) bought a 163 from Duxford, it was on their list of things to be restored to flying condition .

Cheers,
Adam.

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"Wars cannot be fought with dream stuff" - Sir Percy Hobart.

What I don't understand is the lack of wheeled landing gear. Why the skid?

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

Willi Messerschmidt was truly resorting to desperate measures to try and get a successful design accepted by the Luftwaffe!!! What a deathtrap

Being a numbers guy, I cannot see the return on investment out of this aircraft? With the limited airtime and the expense of fuel and support, did this aircraft actually down enough aircraft per flight?

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

Me 163 JG 400 - 12 US a/c to it's credit

whooooooooo-hoo

a waste of resources, human especially.

Totally agree. It is nice to have expensive space age weapons but if they don't do any better than Fred Flinstone's club, then let me have 10,000 clubs.

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

the rocket pudgie should of been scrapped and further developments of a longer range 262

ah but who am I, just my opinion

The link isn't working for me.

Do you have 'pop up blocker' on? It opens up as a separate window.

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American by birth, TEXAN by the grace of GOD!

out of hopeful interest

2 Me 163's shot down by the 4th fg
2 Me 163's shot down by the 359th fg
1 Me 163 shot down by the 364th fg

E ~

Did you see the size of that airframe? There simply wouldn't be much space to shoehorn in a conventional landing gear. Besides the thing was a powered glider, and I imagine they would suppose that at landing time with the fuel expended remaining weight and wing loading would allow for low landing speeds.

All gliders with only a few exceptions had skids, even the great Hamilcar. Only larger gliders had wheels (Me 321), the Gotha 242 and the Waco CG-4 had both wheels and skids, I presume as a safety measuer when the regular landing gear broke on a tough landing.

The Me 163 took off on a wheeled dolly dropped right after take off.

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Bah!

I gave it another try with success. Thank God the Nazi's invested their money, time and effort in such limited endeavors.

Impressive the Allies were able to get a piece of the little bird.

from the 364th fg files

Lt. Elmer Taylor sets this Me 262 out to Lunch. Rudi Zimmermann tries in vain to avoid the .50's and crash lands the sucker while W. Erfkamp and Farrel strafe the thing to pieces

Attached Images

me163364.jpg (181.7 KB, 6 views)

163 perhaps?