British v. German jet engines (Pete Stickeny)

Thanks for the information. You might be interested in a book called
American Raiders, by Wolfgang Samuel, about Project Lusty that
gathered up German "stuff" after the war, and especially the Me-262.
They got a whole squadron of them, and two Arado Blitzs, which with
other planes were loaded onto HMS Reaper and taken back to the U.S. I
assume one of the Arados is the restored model in the Udvar-Hazy annex
of NASM out at Dulles airport.

all the best -- Dan Ford
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On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 00:05:07 GMT, "The Enlightenment"
wrote:

The BMWs translating exhaust cone was opperated electrically rather than
hydraulicaly and was not automatic though this was planed. The pilot
simply had 3 position switch to select closed, open and intermediate. (it
was needed mainly during startup and idle)

As I recall, the American pilots flying the Me-262 (Jumo engines) were
instructed to watch the cone so they would know how much thrust the
engine was putting out.

all the best -- Dan Ford
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On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 06:44:27 -0400, Cub Driver
wrote:

two Arado Blitzs

Make that four. Two of them went to the navy.

It seems they almost never flew the Blitz. The tires were so bad they
blew at inopportune moments.

The other continual problem with all the German war trophies was the
brakes. One pilot wrecked an Me-262 at Philadelphia? when he came in a
bit hot, landed long, and couldn't brake to a stop before running off
the end into the ditch.

One of the things the Americans loved about the 262 was its modular
construction. Most bad landings could be salvaged by bringing in a new
nose or wing. (The front landing gear was weak, evidently, and they
collapsed a couple of them.) The Philadelphia? (it was in PA anyhow)
crash couldn't be salvaged, however.


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

The Warbird's Forum www.warbirdforum.com
Expedition sailboat charters www.expeditionsail.com

It seems they almost never flew the Blitz. The tires were so bad they
blew at inopportune moments.

The other continual problem with all the German war trophies was the
brakes. One pilot wrecked an Me-262 at Philadelphia? when he came in a
bit hot, landed long, and couldn't brake to a stop before running off
the end into the ditch.

One of the points of contrast that Brits like to draw is that the German jets
were all rushed into production, and nearly killed as many German airmen as
Allied, while the Meteor and Vampire were brought into use normally, and had
long successful service careers and development.

In article ,
Cub Driver writes:
On Wed, 11 Aug 2004 06:44:27 -0400, Cub Driver
wrote:

two Arado Blitzs

Make that four. Two of them went to the navy.

It seems they almost never flew the Blitz. The tires were so bad they
blew at inopportune moments.

The other continual problem with all the German war trophies was the
brakes. One pilot wrecked an Me-262 at Philadelphia? when he came in a
bit hot, landed long, and couldn't brake to a stop before running off
the end into the ditch.

One of the things the Americans loved about the 262 was its modular
construction. Most bad landings could be salvaged by bringing in a new
nose or wing. (The front landing gear was weak, evidently, and they
collapsed a couple of them.) The Philadelphia? (it was in PA anyhow)
crash couldn't be salvaged, however.

Dan, you might want to check out the Defence Technical Information
Center site at:
http://stinet.dtic.mil/

Documant ADA800524.PDF is the final report of the flight evaluation of
Me 262s conducted by the USAAF Air Technical Intelligence Branch.

Some of the high points: 2 aircraft tested (T-2-711 and T-2-4012)
711 flew 12 flights for a total of 10 Hrs 40 Min, 4012 made 8 flights
for 4 Hrs 40 Min. Five engine changes were required for 711, and four
on 4012. A double engine failure resulted in the loss of 711 (Sp, I
guess, you _could_ make a case for 7 engine changes being required),
with the pilot bailing out successfully. Testing was halted on 4012
after 2 single-engine landings due to engine failure in flight.
It was determined that the benefits of further testing did not justify
the risks. (And they were running out of engines.) I quoted the
comparative handling characteristics and performance with the F-80A
last night. The systems abard teh aircraft were considered generally
satisfactory, with the exception of dismal brakes.

Note that they felt no need to conduct specific single-engine testing
- they ended up with plenty of single-engine flight time anyway.

And yes, the engine failure rate was a tad high. This was due in
large part to teh USAAF not recovering the engine logs with the
engines. (They tended to get lost in the Surrender Shuffle or
detroyed) This meant they had no way of knowing how close a
particular engine was to being close to a critical point in its
lifetime.

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

(Tom Cervo) wrote in message ...
It seems they almost never flew the Blitz. The tires were so bad they
blew at inopportune moments.

The Germans had synthetic rubber but it needed a small admixture of
natural rubber to become good quality. This the allies cut of from
the Germans.

One RAF ace of French background Clostermann describes the desperate
and sacrificial attacks the allies made on the 33 knot fast merchant
ship (munster I think) right at the end of the war becuase it had a
load of natural rubber form the far east that might have re-energised
the araments industry.


The other continual problem with all the German war trophies was the
brakes. One pilot wrecked an Me-262 at Philadelphia? when he came in a
bit hot, landed long, and couldn't brake to a stop before running off
the end into the ditch.

Poor brakes was also a problem of all German late war aircraft.
Another material shortage I suspect.


One of the points of contrast that Brits like to draw is that the German jets
were all rushed into production, and nearly killed as many German airmen as
Allied, while the Meteor and Vampire were brought into use normally, and had
long successful service careers and development.

It wasn't just the rushing into service it was the war situation. The
engines worked in Reichlin test but when mass produced by unskilled
labour with inferior and substituted materials they just didn't work.

For instance something like 30% of accidents were related to nose
wheel collapses. This wasn't the designe but simply the low grade of
steel which was substituted.

On 12 Aug 2004 21:51:20 -0700, (Eunometic)
wrote:

For instance something like 30% of accidents were related to nose
wheel collapses. This wasn't the designe but simply the low grade of
steel which was substituted.

At least one of the Operation Lusty pilots got bitten by a nosewheel
collapse.

Interesting, some of the planes (not a 262, I don't think) were
booby-trapped. One had an explosive charge in the wing which was set
to go off when the plane took off. A wire was defective, and it wasn't
until the plane was being disassembled in the U.S. after a successful
life as a demonstrator that the explosive charge went off, destroying
the wing and its potential as a museum piece. Since the plane had been
in service with the Luftwaffe, there was speculation that one of
Germany's "guest workers" had planted the charge at the factory.


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

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