On 22 Sep 2003 09:55:54 -0700, (robert arndt) wrote:

The USAF likes to cover up everything and they are very good at it.
But answering your question- an emphatic "No" will suffice.
It was the Luftwaffe that broke Mach 1 back in the closing days of
WW2. Check out the Wright Patterson Official Manual on Flying the
Me-262 (circa 1946). It says that the Me-262 can break the sound
barrier in a shallow dive. So either one of the captured 262s flown by
a US pilot broke Mach 1 or the information came from German sources in
1945. Anyway, the official manual precedes Yeager's official flight-
fact.

There's a small problem with this myth. At speeds beyond Mach 0.88, the
Me 262 begins shedding major components, wings and such.

The highest speed ever attained by the F-80 was Mach 0.92, and it had a lower
drag coefficient than the 262. Hell, the 262 didn't even have a laminar flow
wing! Moreover, that slight degree of wing sweep was added simply for CG
purposes.

Unlike the XP-86, the Me 262 wasn't capable of even coming close to Mach 1.
Neither was the Me 163.

My regards,

Widewing (C.C. Jordan)
http://www.worldwar2aviation.com
http://www.netaces.org
http://www.hitechcreations.com