Messerschmitt Me 262
The Swallow
“The first operational jet fighter in the world.”
Messerschmitt · military
The Me 262 reached combat in 1944 with a swept wing, two Jumo turbojets and a speed no Allied fighter could match. It came too late and in too few numbers to change the war, but it changed everything that came after it. No original Me 262 flies. A small number of exact reproductions, built in the United States and now flying in Germany and America, carry modern GE engines inside period-correct nacelles.
The Me 262's Jumo 004 engines had a service life of only about 25 hours, and pilots had to move the throttles slowly or the engines would catch fire.
A triangular fuselage cross-section, two engine nacelles slung under a swept wing, and a tail set high on the fin. The shape of the first jet fighter is unmistakable once seen.
One might be overhead right now.
Bogey turns the The Swallow from a dot in the sky into a card in your logbook.
