Heinkel He 162

Heinkel He 162A-2
Missing image He162_color010.jpg
Description
Role	Fighter
Crew	One, pilot
First Flight	6 December 1944
Manufacturer	Heinkel
Dimensions
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	14.5 m²	156 ft²
Weights
Empty	1,660 kg	3,660 lb
Loaded
Maximum takeoff	2,800 kg	6,180 lb
Powerplant
Engines	1x BMW 003E-1 or E-2 turbojet
Power	800 kg	1,764 lb
Performance
Maximum speed	900 km/h	562 mph
Maximum range	975 km	606 miles
Service ceiling	12,000 m	39,370 ft
Rate of climb	1405 m/min	4615 ft/min
Armament
Guns	2x 20mm MG 151, 120 rounds each

The Heinkel He 162 Volksjäger (People's Fighter) was the second jet engined fighter aircraft to be fielded by the Luftwaffe in WWII. It was a rival to the Messerschmitt Me 262 and was the fighter with the highest tactially useful Mach number of the first generation of Axis and Allied jets. Volksjäger was the official Reichsluftfahrtministerium name given to the He 162. 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.

Contents

1 Development

Development

When the US 8th Air Force re-opened the bombing campaign on Germany in early 1944, the bombers returned to the skies along with the P-51 Mustang in escort. General der Jäger Adolf Galland reasoned that superior numbers had to be countered with superior technology, and demanded production of jet fighters.

His favourite was the Messerschmitt Me 262, which even when employed in small numbers could be devastating to the bomber streams. Galland did in fact point out that he would prefer one jet over five propeller fighters. While the Me 262 was delayed due to development problems with the engines, which couldn't rely on high-quality alloys due to the scarcity of raw materials (especially tungsten), it met competition by a new line of jet fighters. Though Galland opposed the project which he felt was diverting resources away from the Me 262, a specification for a single-engined jet fighter that was suited for cheap and rapid mass production was established under the name Volksjäger ("People's Fighter"), and the Heinkel He 162 won the contract.

Heinkel had designed a neat, sporty-looking little aircraft, with a sleek streamlined fuselage, the BMW 003 engine carried in a nacelle on the back of the aircraft, twin tailfins to allow the vertical tailplanes to clear the jet exhaust, a high-mounted straight wing with a shallow dihedral, an ejection seat for the pilot and tricycle landing gear that retracted into the fuselage. The plane was flying in an astoundingly short period of time; the design was chosen on 25 September and first flew on December 6th, less than 90 days later.

The He 162 suffered a setback when one of the planes crashed during a demonstration flight when one of the wooden wings failed. Though the He 162 was improved on subsequently, it still was troublesome with regard to lateral control in low-speed flight, and was restricted in the amount of permissible rudder input in this part of the flight envelope.

Operations

In January 1945 the Luftwaffe formed a special "Erprobungskommando 162" He 162 test pilot evaluation group to which the first 46 aircraft were delivered. The group was based at the Luftwaffe test center at Rechlin and under the command of Heinz Bär, an experienced combat pilot, credited with 200 kills, he and his men familiarized themselves with the new airplanes.

February saw deliveries of the He 162 to its first operational unit, I/JG-1, the 1st Group of Jagdgeschwader 1 (fighter squadron), which had previously flown the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. I/JG-1 was transferred to Parchim, near the Heinkel factory at Marienhe, where the pilots could pick up their new jets and begin intensive training in March, while the transportation network and fuel supply of the Third Reich was collapsing under the pressure of Allied air attacks. On April 7, the USAAF bombed the field at Parchim with 134 B-17 Flying Fortresses, inflicting serious losses and damage to the infrastructure. Two days later, I/JG-1 transferred to a nearby airfield at Ludwigslust and moved again in less than a week to an airfield at Leck, near the Danish border. In the meantime, on April 8 the 2nd Group of JG-1 (II/JG-1) had moved to the Heinkel airfield at Marienhe and begun conversion from FW 190s to He 162s. The 3rd Group of JG-1 (III/JG-1) was also planed to convert to He 162, but it was disbanded on April 24 and its personnel used to fill in the vacancies in other units.

The He-162 finally saw combat in mid-April. On April 19, a captured Royal Air Force fighter pilot informed his Germans interrogators that he had been shot down by a jet fighter matching the description of a He 162. The Heinkel and its pilot were lost as well, shot down by a RAF Hawker Tempest while on the landing approach. Though still in training, from mid-April I/JG-1 had scored a number of kills, but had also lost thirteen He 162s and ten pilots. Ten of the aircraft losses were due to various technical malfunctions, such as engine flameouts and sporadic structural failures, and just two were shot down. The He 162's 30-minute fuel capacity also caused problems, as at least two of JG-1's pilots were killed making emergency landings after exhausting their fuel.

In the last days of April, as the Soviet troops approached, II/JG 1 evacuated from Marienhe and on May 2 joined the I/JG 1 at Leck. On May 3, all of JG-1's surviving He 162s were restructured into two groups, I. Einsatz (Combat) and II. Sammel (Replacement). All the JG-1's aircraft where grounded on May 5 when General Admiral von Friedeburg signed the surrender of all German armed forces in Holland, Northwest Germany and Denmark. On May 6 when the British reached their airfields, JG-1 turned their He 162s over to the Allies, and examples of the fighter were then shipped to the US, Britain, France, and the USSR 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 the jets from falling into Allied hands. By the German unconditional surrender on May 8 1945, 120 He 162s had been delivered with a further 200 aircraft completed, awaiting collection or flight-testing and about 600 more in various stages of production.

The difficulties with the He 162 where mainly because it was rushed into production, not that it was an inherently bad design. One experienced Luftwaffe pilot who flew it called it a "first-class combat aircraft". Though a RAF pilot was killed in November 1945 when one of the tailfins broke off during the Farnborough air show, a British pilot who evaluated the He 162 praised it.

Variants

Heinkel He 162A2

A-1 - armed with 2 × 30 mm MK 108 cannons, 50 rounds each.
A-2 - armed with 2 × 20 mm MG 151/20 cannons, 120 rounds each.
A-3 - proposed upgrade with reinforced nose mounting twin 30 mm MK 108 cannons.
A-8 - proposed upgrade with the more powerful Jumo 004D-4 engine.
B-1 - a proposed follow on planned for 1946, was to include more powerful Heinkel-Hirth 011A turbojet, a stretched fuselage to provide more fuel and endurance as well as increased wingspan, with proper dihedral and discarding the turned-down wingtip extensions. The He 162B-1 was to be armed with twin 30 mm MK 108 cannon.
He 162B airframe was also used as the basis for possible designs powered by one or two Argus As-044 pulsejet engines.
C - proposed upgrade featuring the B-series fuselage, Heinkel-Hirth 011A engine, swept wing, a new V shaped tail assembly, and twin MK 108 cannon featuring a Schräge Musik weapons assembly.
D - proposed upgrade with a configuration similar to C-series but a forward-swept wing.
E - He 162A fitted with the BMW 003R mixed power plant, a BMW 003A turbojet with an integrated BMW 718 liquid-fuel rocket engine for boost power. At least one prototype was built and flight-tested for a short time.
S - two-seat training glider.