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

Sort of an unfair comparison, don't you think, CAC? If engaging the enemy over their home is the criteria for determining their use as a fighter in combat, how many 262's flew over London?

 

Sorry, you"ve lost me...its downing aircraft in combat, not accidentally but delberatley...not as part of training, as part of operations. If this is what you are referring to...Doesnt have to be over anyones home...

 

I see your point CAC, although the Meteor didn't have the range to reach Germany and back, but then, the ME262 also didn't have the range to reach England by the time the respective aircraft were flying in units past the prototype stage. I have heard it said that during the war, the 262 was a better aircraft than the Meteor as an interceptor but I guess we will never really know which was superior in air combat. I would say off hand that the 262 was a better bomber destroyer due to its heavy caliber armament, with the faster firing guns on the Meteor being more suited in air to air combat.

England probably had the means to deploy the Meteor to the continent once the invasion of Normandy pushed to the German border, but seemed to be doing well without it, and asking the Meteor to be a bomber escort might be a bit out of its forte. Maybe if the ME262 was more effective than they were, the Meteor might have been in the fray more than it was.

History shows that the Germans were on the right track with axial flow turbojets as opposed to the centrifugal flow type on the Meteor, but didn't really have the time or the availability of strategic metals to give it many hours of flight between overhauls.

 

Indeed...personally I think the meteor wasn't deployed in case it crashed...giving the Germans a PR victory, the details of how far and behind the English were...and not to jeopardise future sales...the meteor was flown by the Australians during the Korean War...probably the only British type used...and was bread and butter for the swept wing jets. The type was changed to ground attack...

 

Apart from emotional responses, the Meteor was unlikely to be deployed into a fast-moving tactical environment such as NW Europe without adequate logistical support ( ie it had no parts whatsoever in common with any other type of aircraft and even used different fuel... )

 

lwd,

The Germans in WW2 had a system whereby a new airplane was given to a special unit in order to test it in combat. This unit had two major goals: Find any bugs or problems not already found and two, to get a sense of how to use the advantages of the new plane to the detriment of opposing aircraft. These lessons would be then passed on to the regular squadrons when they converted to the new manchine. SO, it depends on how you define "operational". If you define it as being committed to combat then the German jet was slightly ahead of the British jet in that matter. If you define it by getting to regular squadrons then the British were first. I think we discussed this before somewhere here.

 

We did...I think my 262 tat looks better than a meteor would anyway : )

 

That's pretty much what I thought. I was just wondering how or if the Germans defined it.

 

Maybe because the first version of the Meteor didn't have a better performance than contemporary propeller fighters. The top speed of the Mk.I was only 660 km/h compared to 870 of the 262. The Mk.III was much better at 795 km/h, still significantly less than its rival. Of course speed isn't the only important characteristic in a fighter but the difference was big. Anyway a Mk.III squadron was deployed on the continent in 1945 to intercept German jets, but it never managed to meet any aircraft in combat (apparently it destroyed some on the ground). The 262 instead downed a number of allied aircraft (over 100 according to some sources).

I have noticed however that most books on WW2 aircraft heavily focus on German state of the art models and ignore those from the Allies. For instance Bill Gunston "Fighting Aircraft of WW II" includes several experimental German machines that never became operational. But it doesn't include the P-80, which entered service before the end of the war (four YP-80A were deployed experimentally in Europe in Project Extraversion). This gives the impression that Allied technological achievements were less than it was the case. It seems there exist a particular fascination for WW2 German weapons.

 

The F86 Sabre and Mi15 (First flights 1947) were as superior to the Me262 and Meteor (first flights 1942-43) as they were in turn to to piston engine fighters.