G-loads in WW2

In article ,
Cub Driver writes:

Why does everyone get so bent out of shape over the Me-262? Its
contemporary, the P-80 in its two-seat trainer version, is still in
service as a recce and light-attack aircraft with several air forces
around the world, 60 years of continuous service after its first
flight. If that's not the better aircraft, or indeed the best turbojet
ever built, I scratch my head as to what standards are being applied.

Note - more on the various turbojets later tonight - I'm checking
references and lining up ducks.

I don't think there's a single reason. I'll throw out some that popped
into my head, though.

Novelty - the Me 262 was the first jet fighter to engage in combat.
The difference in the performance envelopes of any jet vs. any
piston-propeller pwered fighter are such that on that day, Air Combat
changed. If the Meteor had engaged airplanes first, we'd be talking
about it the same way.

Mysticism/Mythology/Psychology - However you want to put it.
This works on several levels. The Germans themselves had an almost
pathological belief that they could pull off some kind of "Hammer
Blow" that would psychologically paralyze their enemies, and allow
them to win at the last second. Some of this was manifested in
weapons development - pursuing rediculous projects on the vain hope of
their succeeding, such as th Maus and E.100 tanks, or the hopes placed
on the employment of the V-1 and V-2, or, for that matter, pushing the
Me 262 into service long before it was ready. It was also strategic -
the Ardennes Offensive, or Galland's husbanding the Luftwaffe's
strength in the Autumn of 1944, hoping to strike a single strong blow
that would stop the Eighth Air Force in its tracks. Of course, by the
time he'd managed to scrape up a sizable number of pilots, the Eighth
wa flying raids where the number of escort fighters alone exceeded the
strength of Luftflotte Reich. These carefully husbanded, and, for the
most part, half-trained forces were squandered in Operation
Bodenplatte over the turn of the New Year into 1945. (Another
Mystical Hammer Blow)

This wasn't a recent phenomenon - they went through the same process
in World War One, culminating in the Kaiserschlacht of 1918, which
finished the Imperial German Army as a fighting force.

You'd think that after 3 years of constantly backpedalling against the
Soviets. Brits and Commenwealth, and Americans, who all absorbed these
"Hammer Blows" as they were struck, they'd get to thinking that they
wouldn't work. The didn't learn the lesson.
(Too much Wagner, I think. Or perhaps Wagner touched on somehing in
the German culture up through that time.)

Esthetics - it just plain looks cool.

Promise - this sort of ties in with Novelty and Mysticism. The advent
of teh jet fighter was a watershed in air combat. Properly developed,
with properly prepared pilots, and all of that occuring in a timely
manner, the Me 262, or any jet, would have had far-sweeping
consequences. For various reasons, the Germans were unable to get
things together before their entire system started falling apart.
They couldn't produce engines, they couldn't tranistion pilots, and
they couldn't support airplanes in the field by the time the 262
became operational. The Germans were, on the best day they ever had
(for jets) able to put about 60 jets in the air. These were facing
over 3000 Allied bombers and fighters.

And for some, it's just plain racism/nationalism - It was German, and
therefore it had to be better/more advanced/superduper.

--
Pete Stickney
A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
bad measures. -- Daniel Webster