The British also had a Jet operational in 1944, so why does the Me 262 get all the credit?

Every WWII show and book I read or see always talks about the Germans pioneering jet propulsion and had the world's first operational jet, etc... But the British had the Gloster Meteor that was active in the summer of 1944, in which work first began on it in the mid-to-late 1930s. Why does the Me 262 get all the credit for the jet during WWII when the British were in the same situation in regards to jet power?

 

The Meteor was actually operational before the Me 262.

 

This is being argued back and forth in:
http://www.ww2f.com/topic/51586-messerschmitt-me-262/
In part I think it's the swept wings of the Me-262 give it a more modern appearance even though they were not swept for any aerodaynamic effect. The fact that the Meteors were killing V-1s while the Me-262s were going after manned craft may have had some effect as well. My understanding is that both the US and Britain cut back on their jet programs by the way when it became apparent that they wouldn't be ready in time to make much of a contribution to the war.

 

Other than knocking down V-1s, did the Meteor ever engage in aerial combat in WWII? I'm not aware that it did, and that's probably a lot of the explanation why it doesn't get as much press as the Me262 (or -163).

Of course there's also the "Germans are cool" factor And the Me262 is a great-looking airplane.

 

The Meteor was initially used to counter the V-1 flying bomb threat. 616 Squadron Meteors saw action for the first time on 27 July 1944. The first two V1 "kills" were made on 4 August.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster_Meteor

 

That must have been some sight, chasing down cruise missiles for the first time.

 

Yes, rabbit hunting it must have been. The trouble is that they were not allowed to fly over Germany to avoid a jet being captured by the Germans in case of a forced landing

 

Where were the launching sites for the V-1's?

 

North western France , Belgium , Holland and Germany.

 

I thought Spits were already doing that and using their wing tipping technique on them, no?

 

They were but they had to be in a favoreable position to have a decent chance of intercepting. Meteors could intercept over a wider flight envelope and had the time to make it a bit safer I think.

 

The posters above all gave you good replies, but they forgot to tell you the Universal Truth: "Germans are cooool"

 

Maybe people feel sorry for the Germans because they had a great weapon that could have used to defend their city's but didn't.

 

A. Galland, who by the way flew both the ME and the Meteor, felt that if someone had put the Meteor's engines on the 262, it would have been a much better airplane than either one as they were.

 

The meteor was treated much like the proximity fuse. Used only where the Germans wouldn't be able to salvage one if shot down. By the time they were allowed to operate over German held territory they had little left to do. As to why the 262 gets the credit just check my signature.

 

They did use them to defend their cities. That is what the bombers were attacking

 

of over 2,200 V-1s downed by Allied fighters only around *ten* fell to the Meteor ! In his monumental 350-page history "V-1 Arme du desespoir" Delefosse states that it was only three. Incidentally less than *five* V-1s were downed as a result of being up-ended by an attacking aircraft's wingtip - another myth. The Meteor did set a World Air speed record in 1945 and extended it during 1946...British jet engine technology was as already pointed out superior to that of the Germans..

 

Well....the VT proximity fuse HAS already been mentioned

By the time the Meteor came into service, the AA Command "box barrage" gathered in Kent was very effective against V-1s courtesy of the VT fuse; the Meteor was only used for intercepting V-1s that got through the barrage, because from a standing start I.E. getting word of a V-1 exiting the barrage box, the Meteor had the speed to chase it down BETWEEN there and London. Other aircraft used for interception before the VT fuse arrived had needed many miles to chase down a V-1...

Engine technology, yes...but have you read James Hamilton-Paterson's Empire Of The Skies?

Airframe-wise.....the Meteor was an awful aircraft; It's terribly cramped cockpit made it difficult for the pilot to actually fly it....and there were a number of sharp edges and components that frequently gashed unwary pilots!

Behaviour-wise it was unpredictable to fly, and in a particular...and all too common...set of circumstances would make an unrecoverable bunt nose-down straight into the ground!

The nickname "Meatbox" was NOT given out of affection, but because that's what the Meteor did; it killed pilots...

 

Actually, the Meteor's engines during WWII were really no more powerful than the Jumo 004s. Both engines developed about 2000 lbs of thrust. Also, the engines of the Meteor I were only rated at 1700 lbs of thrust. The Meteor III's engines got the 2,000 lbs of thrust. What the British engines had going for them was that they were more dependable than the Jumos but the German's axial flow engines were what people eventually went with after the war. The British Rolls Royce engines had a larger cross section and thus more drag than the German ones. Interestingly, it was the Meteor I that downed, according to my source, the 13 V-1s credited to jets.

On further reflection, I realized the comment made by Adolph Galland was several years after the war when he was in Argintina. Thus, he probably flew the Mark of Meteor that had the 3500 lbs of thrust that came out after the war. Can you imagine a ME-262 with those engines? It would take the pilot about a year to slow down enough to make a landing! The German jet had a lot better aerodynamic design than the Meteor. The only downside to that was that Willie M. forgot to put on air brakes.

 

I think their landing speed was only about 100 MPH though, wasn't it? Typical of a late war piston engined fighter. They had leading edge slats like a 109 (not sure about that)