Heinkel He 162

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_162

The Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger (German, "People's Fighter"), the name of a
project of the Emergency Fighter Program design competition, was a German
single-engine, jet-powered fighter aircraft fielded by the Luftwaffe in World
War II. It was designed and built quickly and made primarily of wood as metals
were in very short supply and prioritised for other aircraft. Volksjäger was the
Reich Air Ministry's official name for the government design program competition
won by the He 162 design. Other names given to the plane include Salamander,
which was the codename of its construction program, and Spatz ("Sparrow"), which
was the name given to the plane by Heinkel.

When the 8th Air Force re-opened its bombing campaign in early 1944 with the Big
Week offensive, the bombers returned to the skies with the long-range P-51
Mustang in escort. Unencumbered with the heavy weapons needed to down a bomber,
the Mustangs (and longer-ranged versions of other aircraft) were able to fend
off the Luftwaffe with relative ease. The Luftwaffe responded by changing
tactics, forming in front of the bombers and making a single pass through the
formations, giving the defense little time to react. The 8th Air Force responded
with a change of its own, after Major General Jimmy Doolittle had ordered a
change in fighter tactics earlier in 1944, amounting to an air supremacy entry
into German airspace far ahead of the bombers' combat box formations — when at
the end of April, he added additional directives allowing the fighters,
following the bombers' flight back home to England, to roam freely over Germany
and hit the Luftwaffe's defensive fighters wherever they could be found.

This change in tactics resulted in a sudden increase in the rate of
irreplaceable losses to the Luftwaffe day fighter force, as their heavily laden
aircraft were "bounced" long before reaching the bombers. Within weeks, many of
their aces were dead, along with hundreds of other pilots, and the training
program could not replace their casualties quickly enough. The Luftwaffe put up
little fight during the summer of 1944, allowing the Allied landings in France
to go almost unopposed from the air. With few planes coming up to fight, Allied
fighters were let loose on the German airbases, railways and truck traffic.

Addressing this posed a considerable problem for the Luftwaffe. Two camps
quickly developed, both demanding the immediate introduction of large numbers of
jet fighter aircraft. One group, led by General Adolf Galland, the Inspector of
Fighters, reasoned that superior numbers had to be countered with superior
technology, and demanded that all possible effort be put into increasing the
production of the Messerschmitt Me 262 in its A-1a fighter version, even if that
meant reducing production of other aircraft in the meantime.

The second group pointed out that this would likely do little to address the
problem; the Me 262 had notoriously unreliable powerplants and landing gear, and
the existing logistics problems would mean there would merely be more of them on
the ground waiting for parts that would never arrive, or for fuel that was not
available. Instead, they suggested that a new design be built - one so
inexpensive that if a machine was damaged or worn out, it could simply be
discarded and replaced with a fresh plane straight off the assembly line. Thus
was born the concept of the "throwaway fighter".

Galland and other Luftwaffe senior officers expressed vehement opposition to the
light fighter idea, while Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and Armaments Minister
Albert Speer fully supported the idea. Göring and Speer got their way, and a
contract tender for a single-engine jet fighter that was suited for cheap and
rapid mass production was established under the name Volksjäger ("People's
Fighter").

The He 162 was originally built with the intention of being flown by the Hitler
Youth, as the Luftwaffe was fast running out of pilots. However, the aircraft's
complexity required more experienced pilots. Both a standard-fuselage length,
unarmed BMW 003E-powered two-seat version (with the rear pilot's seat planned to
have a ventral access hatch to access the cockpit) and an unpowered two-seat
glider version, designated the He 162S (Schulen), were developed for training
purposes. Only a small number were built, and even fewer delivered to the sole
He 162 Hitler Youth training unit to be activated (in March 1945) at an airbase
at Sagan. The unit was in the process of formation when the war ended, and did
not begin any training; it is doubtful that more than one or two He 162S gliders
ever took to the air.


Role
Jet fighter

Manufacturer
Heinkel

Designer
Heinkel

First flight
6 December 1944

Introduction
January 1945

Retired
May 1945

Status
Retired

Primary user
Luftwaffe

Number built
ca 320

The He 162 first saw combat in mid-April 1945. On 19 April, Feldwebel Günther
Kirchner shot down a Royal Air Force fighter, and although the victory was
credited to a flak unit, the British pilot confirmed during interrogation that
he had been downed by an He 162. The Heinkel and its pilot were lost as well,
shot down by an RAF Hawker Tempest while on approach to land, a point at which
Allied pilots targeted German jets. Though still in training, I./JG 1 had begun
to score kills in mid-April, but had also lost 13 He 162s and 10 pilots. Ten of
the aircraft were operational losses, caused by flameouts and sporadic
structural failures. Only two of the 13 aircraft were actually shot down. The He
162's 30-minute fuel capacity also caused problems, as at least two of JG 1's
pilots were killed attempting emergency deadstick landings after exhausting
their fuel.

During its exceedingly brief operational service career, the 162's
cartridge-type ejector seat was employed under combat conditions by JG1 pilots
at least three times. The first recorded use was by Lt Rudolf Schmidt on April
20, with Fw Erwin Steeb ejecting from his 162 the following day. Finally, Hptm
Paul-Heinrich Dahne attempted an ejection on April 24, but was killed when the
aircraft's cockpit canopy failed to detach.

In the last days of April, as the Soviet troops approached, II./JG 1 evacuated
from Marienehe and on 2 May joined the I./JG 1 at Leck. On 3 May, all of JG 1's
surviving He 162s were restructured into two groups, I. Einsatz ("Combat") and
II. Sammel ("Collection"). All JG 1's aircraft were grounded on 5 May, when
General Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg signed the surrender of all German
armed forces in the Netherlands, Northwest Germany and Denmark. On 6 May, when
the British reached their airfields, JG 1 turned their He 162s over to the
Allies, and examples were shipped to the U.S., Britain, France, and the Soviet
Union for further evaluation. Erprobungskommando 162 fighters, which had been
passed on to JV 44, an elite jet unit under Adolf Galland a few weeks earlier,
were all destroyed by their crews to keep them from falling into Allied hands.
By the time of the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945, 120 He 162s had
been delivered; a further 200 had been completed and were awaiting collection or
flight-testing; and about 600 more were in various stages of production.

The difficulties experienced by the He 162 were caused mainly by its rush into
production, not by any inherent design flaws. One experienced Luftwaffe pilot
who flew it called it a "first-class combat aircraft." Eric "Winkle" Brown of
the Fleet Air Arm, who flew a record 486 different types of aircraft, said the
He 162 had "the lightest and most effective aerodynamically balanced controls"
he had experienced. Brown had been warned to treat the rudder with suspicion due
to a number of in-flight failures. This warning was passed on by Brown to RAF
pilot Flt Lt R A Marks, but was apparently not heeded. On 9 November 1945,
during a demonstration flight from RAE Farnborough, one of the fin and rudder
assemblies broke off at the start of a low-level roll causing the aircraft to
crash into Oudenarde Barracks, Aldershot, killing Marks and a soldier on the
ground.

Specifications (He 162A)

General characteristics
Crew: 1, pilot with ejection seat
Length: 9.05 m (29 ft 8 in)
Wingspan: 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in)
Height: 2.6 m (8 ft 6 in)
Wing area: 11.16 m² (120 ft²)
Empty weight: 1,660 kg (3,660 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 2,800 kg (6,180 lb)
Fuel capacity of 695 litres (183 US gallons), allowing maximum 30 minute mission
profile
Powerplant: 1 × BMW 003E-1 or E-2 (meant for dorsal fuselage attachment) axial
flow turbojet, 7.85 kN (1,760 lbf)

Performance
Maximum speed: 790 km/h (491 mph) at normal thrust at sea level; 840 km/h (522
mph) at 6000 m (19,680 ft); using short burst extra thrust 890 km/h (553 mph) at
sea level and 905 km/h (562 mph) at 6000 m (19,680 ft).
Range: 975 km (606 mi)
Service ceiling: 12,000 m (39,400 ft)
Rate of climb: 1,405 m/min (4,615 ft/min)

Armament

Guns: 2 × 20 mm MG 151/20 autocannons with 120 rpg (He 162 A-2) OR 2 × 30 mm MK
108 cannons with 50 rpg (He 162 A-0, A-1)




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