MichaelJP wrote:
I always think flying an Me-163 in combat must have been one of the most
crazy experiences in wartime aviation, firstly you have all the explosive
fuel around you, secondly you are shortly to be boosted at tremendous climb
rates into the middle of a heavily armed B-17 formation, thirdly if you
survive all that and manage to get a shot in before the couple of minutes
before the motor dies, you have to glide back like a brick to a tiny
airfield and land on a skid!


As a glider it was superb, thanks to Lippisch's background as a glider
designer.
Although the pilots tended to dive away at high speed to escape enemy
fighters once their fuel was gone (and to get back to base ASAP for the
same reason), it had a really good gliding performance, and the pilots
who flew it said its handling qualities were superior to any other
German aircraft.
It's only drawback in gliding flight was that it was _too_ good at it -
once it got down in ground effect near landing, it had a tendency to
just float along above the ground till speed bled off and it would
settle down. Even the addition of underwing extensible spoilers didn't
completely solve the problem, and a lot of pilots were injured or killed
by the aircraft remaining stubbornly airborne down the whole length of
the landing field (they landed on grass generally) and not touching down
till it arrived on the rough ground outside the field's boundaries.

Pat