![]() 07/01/2015 at 02:01 • Filed to: None | ![]() | ![]() |
ME262 with a 50mm cannon
![]() 07/01/2015 at 02:19 |
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Ah, the first ever operational jet fighter.
In hindsight, it was a good thing that the ME262 effort was too little too late, otherwise who knows how the tide will go among the war in the air.
The outcome could have been different once again if Whittle had gotten the faith and the fundings from the British government a few years sooner on advancing the jet turbine, in comparison to the Germans.
![]() 07/01/2015 at 03:06 |
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The Pulkzerstorer.
Shame that it ate dirt on the flight to bring it to the ship to carry it to the US, would have been neat to have as a museum piece. Would have never been effective as a combat aircraft (especially compared to the air to air rockets the 262 already had by that point) but its a neat idea.
![]() 07/01/2015 at 03:42 |
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Just imagine the morale hit if B17s were being taken out by things that were too fast to shoot back at.
![]() 07/01/2015 at 04:04 |
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Indeed. Even the fastest prop fighters at that time would be at least 100 mph slower in speed compared to the jet, a huge disadvantage when discounting other things like rate of climb. The equalizer for prop planes was that the ME262 had horrible range and engine reliability, mainly the high temp resistant materials particularly for the hot side were yet to be discovered or perfected.
The Germans were also planning to secretly transport and deliver a few blueprints and complete engines to the Japanese, which thankfully they never succeeded. But can you imagine a light agile fighter like the Zero powered by jet engines?
![]() 07/01/2015 at 09:24 |
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The
Kikka
, being that the Japanese had to develop the airframe independently and the engine based on a cutaway drawing and photographs, wasn’t ready to test fly until Jun ‘45. The other side of your hypothetical, though, is if through Purple or other intercepts, the US had come into possession of such plans...BRB writing alternate history novel.
![]() 07/01/2015 at 10:33 |
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It’s plausible that the British would share turbojet technical know-how with the US before the war ended. They definitely did after the war (based on what I read), especially since most of the German turbomachineries were captured by the Allie forces including the Russians, thus the Brits and the Americans preferred to work together to get their jet tech up to speed and have a leg up on the Russians.
![]() 07/01/2015 at 10:34 |
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...which got even more odd when tech then slipped from the English to the Russians anyway...
![]() 07/01/2015 at 10:36 |
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Because espionage haha