Submarines and their Weapons - Aircraft of World War II

was instructed, somewhat baldly, to begin development
work on a fighter aircraft which was to have an
endurance of one hour at 850km/h (530mph).
Responsibility was placed in the hands of Woldemar
Voigt (of whom more later), who examined both single-
and twin-engined arrangements before concluding
that a single centrally mounted engine layout
would present more problems than it would solve. His
view was coloured by the performance of the He 178.
Instead Voigt suggested a design with engines in each
wing root, which crystallised into Project 1065 in
Messerschmitt's Augsburg design office. Detailed
design drawings were produced as early as 7 June
1939, and a wooden mock-up then made. On 3 March
1940 Messerschmitt was awarded a contract to produce
three airframes, designated as the Me 262, for
flight testing.
It was envisioned that the aircraft's power would
come from two BMW P.3302 engines, delivery of
which had been promised for the end of 1939, and
their non-appearance was only the first of a long
series of setbacks associated with the powerplant. In
fact, the prototype BMW engine, now known as the
109-003, did not run until August 1940, and then it
produced only 150kg (3301b) of static thrust instead
of the 600kg (13201b) promised. A year later it was
JET AIRCRAFT
still only producing 450kg (9901b), which was by no
means enough to get the Me 262 into the air. It was to
be mid-1943 before an 003 engine produced sufficient
power to be viable, and a further year before production
units became available, and in due course it was
decided to reserve it for the Heinkel He 162 (see
below). In addition, the BMW engine had proven too
big to fit into the wing-root mount, and the design
team had hurriedly modified the Me 262 to carry it in
under-wing nacelles, though this, in turn, simplified
main spar design. Some sources suggest that this factor,
not the diameter of the BMW engines, underlay
the decision to adopt nacelles rather than faired-in
mountings, even at the expense of increased drag.
FIRST ALL-JET Me 262 FLIGHT
The Jumo 109-004 was always to have been a less
sophisticated design, sacrificing ultimate potential for
a 'fast track' into production. It, too, had its problems,
however. The prototype ran in November 1940, but it
was January 1942 before all the snags were ironed
out, and its first flight, slung under a Messerschmitt
Bf 110, took place on 15 March. The first pilot-production
engines, 004As, which produced 840kg
(185()lb) of static thrust, were rolled out in early summer,
and were fitted to the Me 262 V3, which made