The Insane Power of the World’s First Jet Fighter

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The Me262 was the world’s first combat-operational jet fighter. 100mph faster than any Allied plane and with ferocious 30mm cannons it was a terrifying encounter in the skies above Europe. This is the story of it’s development, use and the problems that prevented it having a major impact on the outcome of the Second World War.

Checkout another story on the giant Japanese Battleship Yamato: https://youtu.be/udRzCzE_dE0

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this video was made possible by War Thunder 1943 a fleet of us flying fortresses conducts a sorty over Northern Germany they experienced something extraordinary break breaking 9:00 coming [Music] around what was that what the hell was that it went by like we were standing still what the hell is it blue leader group get off the air this is the me262 [Music] [Applause] it’s the world’s first jet fighter [Applause] it’s mid 1940 a year after the start of World War II Hitler’s taken over most of France and decides to attack Britain with 10,000 PLS what becomes known as the Battle of Britain initially taken a a surprise attacked by the British on Berlin deeply angers Hitler and he switches targets from military to civilian giving the British Air Force chance to recover it then became very apparent to the Germans that without the element of surprise most of their aircraft was seriously outclassed after suffering severe losses the Nazi chain of command Hitler Goring milch and spear urgently requested the design of a superior plane unfortunately back in 1935 a German Hans van ohine had uh borrowed some ideas from a British engineer Frank Whitt’s payon for the world’s first working jet engine wht’s engine didn’t work in a jet he was using the wrong fuels but in 19 39 the German company hle cracked the problem to prototype the first ever jet play the h178 2 years later M Smith tested the 262 the world’s first operational jet fighter a plane that would end up being 100 mph faster than any Allied plane this is his actual closing speed it’s hard to tell how many variants of the 262 there actually were because in 1945 Hitler started renaming equipment with epic names to help the war effort like this the a class the fighter variant code name schala the swallow carried four Rin metal Mark 1083 mm cannons the Allies dubb them the pneumatic [Music] Hammer fired in sendry with typen Min and gas high explosive shells one or two hits could take down a four engine bomber compared with 2020 millimet hits they disintegrated bombers that fast they had to put these conical mes Shields over the air intakes because debris were causing 262s to crash the Cannons only had a 600 M range and a six-story building ballistic drop so he only had 2 seconds to aim and fire the b class was the bomber variant code named Sturm fogal storm bird I think the idea was to replace the Aging but iconic stuck a dive bomber Hitler only wanted this variant but the rest of the high command seeing the plane work better as a fighter Interceptor created the other variants anyway Hitler found out about this few months later and flew into a rage at milch to which a brave milch replied fura even the smallest child can see that this is a fighter not a bomber to make the plane a better Interceptor the C-Class the high mat shutzer Homeland Defender was built it had a rocket engine in the tail so the planes could scramble faster making them less vulnerable to rat catching by Allied planes scouting the airfields with the Rockets though the plane could take off with a th000 kg payload on a standard Runway these bombs were kind of clever the wheels broke off after takeoff to make them more aerodynamic never made it into full production though because there was a bit of a problem with the rocket fuel tending to dissolve Pilots usually happen in this little toy plane actually the me163 that’s a that’s a real plane by the way I don’t know who designed that but they used to fill them with this nasty stuff called SE stuff and t- stuff used as an oxidizer and fuel in the rocket engines and they were Aliens level [Music] corrosive now as if the 30 mm cannons weren’t enough the Germans built this the E-Class the formation Destroyer it’s got a 50 mm Mark 214 canon in the nose in case you meet a flying tank or something it was never properly tested though because German production been hit so hard late in the war there were only six rounds in the entire Munich area for that type of Cannon a better invention was these R4 Oran hurricane Rockets cheap to make from press steel and one hit could take down a bomber they also used the 30 mm sight so you’d release the rocket at 1,000 M out when the bomb has filled two notches on the reticule and then when the bomb has filled the circle you need were 600 M out could start firing with the Cannons before we get any further though thanks to today’s sponsor War Thunder which of course has the me262 in it because it’s the most comprehensive vehicle combat game ever made available now for free on PC and consoles featuring 2,500 tanks planes helicopters and ships of 10 major Nations ranging from armored cars of the 1920s to fighter jets and modern main battle tanks the game puts you at the Helm of the most powerful war machines of our time with intense combat incredibly detailed Vehicles realistic graphics and authentic sound effects join today a worldwide community of 70 million players in Epic PVP battles and discover a wealth of high quality content in one of the most immersive games for fans of military history please sign up using the limited time Link in the description or pin comment for a massive V pack for new players and those who haven’t played for 6 months including an exclusive vehicle Eagle of Valor decorator 100,000 silver lions and 7 Days of premium account thank you for checking out the game your support makes these videos possible the 262s main role against Hitler’s orders was to intercept B17 flying fortresses and boy oh boy did those big boys live up to their name this is their actual turret coverage and they are all 50 Cals got a bit of a short straw there if you took the ball turret cuz Not only was there no space in there for a parachute there was also a lever that ejected the whole ball turret usually so the plane could do a wheels up Landing but I guess you’d be sat there thinking what if a bullet hits that you were protected though by these beautiful Chrome beasts P-51 Mustangs the 262s you see with their speed could get through the fighter screen but they couldn’t hang around because if the p-51s dropped their drop tanks they could comfortably outmaneuver them compared to piston propeller engines though these jumo dou4 jet engines were like something from Star Trek honestly she produced 3200 horsepower with both engines double that of the P-51 you start it by pulling this little handle on the front like a LMO it’s got a little starter motor in it that gets the engine sucking and my goodness could she suck like you would not believe we’re talking like literally the air out of a two-story house every minute this air is then compressed 10 to 40 times before liquid fuel vapor is sprayed in and ignited producing a stream of super heated gases which turns this turbine and Powers the compressor the amount of gas ejected to push the plane forwards is controlled by this vble or onion Contraption and these gases are like 2,000 de it’s actually why the plane has a nose wheel they tried it with a rear wheel but with the Jets angled onto the runway they ended up setting fire to the tarmac jet engines have tens of thousands of components so as you can imagine there were great delays the first 262 prototypes actually had propellers on their noses because the engines weren’t ready and the race was on the UK was prototyping their own jet the gluster meteor the fuel tanks were positioned before and after the cockpit now you might be thinking what if that gets hit by a high explosive Ram well fortunately the cockpit was armored and designed to break free they were going to put in ejector seat but they didn’t so it was kind of more like they called it the vany the tub there wasn’t even space in there for a seat cushion the pilots had to sit on their parachutes because of the shortage of strategic metals like nickel and Cobalt the turbines in the jet engines only had a run time of 25 hours before they had to be replaced they did consider supplementing them with this crazy Lauren Ramjet design but it would have taken a ton and a half of fuel to get to cruising altitude so they decided against it could have gone a th kmers an hour though but that speeds problem for Pilots the Allies had the Frank’s flying Jesu which had inflatable bladders to push blood back to your head the Germans on the other hand preferred to look cool whilst unconscious in their Hugo Boss L weather leather jackets as the 262s engineers found there’s actually a lot of problems even for modern planes traveling at the speed of sound which is MAA 1 2 3 4 km an hour that’s an easy one to remember you see air is viscus which means when you fly there’s a very thin layer which kind of sticks like water to the wing is called the boundary layer when the angle of the wing becomes too steep those air particles can’t hang on anymore and they tumble off becoming turbulent this causes drag reduce maneuverability and potentially causes the plane to have less lift a plane flies because the shape of the wing causes air particles to go faster over the top than the bottom creating low pressure above and then the plane is basically sued upwards but this means you might only be going Mark .6 but the air over the wings could be way over Mark 1 in fact pretty much anything past Mark .8 which is called transonic air speeds air particles really struggle to hold on so they tumble and you end up with something called wave drag which causes massive vibration and shock waves through the plane it’s why helicopters don’t have insanely long roted blads because you can get transonic air speeds at the tips and the turbulence can cause them to crash and this drag is really strong it’s it’s actually where the concept of a sound barrier came from because in World War II they thought that engines would actually never be powerful enough to overcome it you can reduce the effects with a thin wasp waist fuselage design which was actually discovered by a German uto frenzel in 1943 it’s why the Germans made this monstrosity the ju 287 you see it’s also got forward swept wings and swept Wings help as well if you sweep them back a little bit like the 262 they help a bit but if you sweep them forwards they help a lot and some Modern jet designs like the su47 Burk could have tried this you see the tradeoff though is you lose a lot of low- speed maneuverability you can also change the shape of the wing what’s called a super critical AA four design which helps to soften the shock wave where the boundary layer separates and becomes turbulent you can sometimes see this shock wave line when flying on passenger planes as Walter shook wrenched his 262 to the side to get out the line of fire the Mustang hurtled past all guns blazing smoke started pouring from his port engine and the cin began to peel back like a tin of sardines with a bang this evil the exhaust Cod flew out the back of the engine Walter had to get out the engine could EXP Lo at any moment and ripped the wing off he jeted in the canopy levered himself onto the edge of the cockpit and tried to bail but the jet was too fast the Airstream kept pushing him down into his seat then he remembered the advice of a colleague you’ve got to take the power right off and the moment you pulled yourself up immediately put one foot on the stick and give it a hefty kick so the crate points her nose downwards and you’re thrown clear and won’t hit your head or body on the tail it worked his parachute opened and Walter was able to make it to the ground it sprained his ankles but quickly reeled in his parachute and lay on top of it German Pilots had heard a lot of stories of allies ground strafing parachuters after laying still for a while until he couldn’t hear the sound of bombers anymore he noticed a passing Baker’s boy on a bicycle and asked him to give him a lift to his nearby girlfriend’s house as he stood outside still with his parachute a startled mother opened the door aalter put that thing down it’s all over the war is lost later that evening he got a lift back to Iranian Borg Airfield been heavily bombed but he was pleased to find his quarters were still standing he couldn’t wait to get in there Gaz hands on that bot of Hennessy he kept for special occasions in the suitcase in his room opening the case he found that the carefully hoarded treasure had disappeared fuman he summoned his orderly chiefy and asked him where the cognac had gone with his eyes fixed on the ground chiefy stammered H I didn’t think you’d be coming back and uh so I allowed myself the liberty of uh drinking to your memory but how had it come to this how had Germany’s super plane had such a small impact on the war we’ve probably seen through this video a little of the confli in motives of the parties involved M Smith was struggling at the start of the war they designed a replacement for the bf10 fighter bomber the me210 but it was virtually unflyable and a huge financial failure they may have gone under if their main competitor hle hadn’t been continuously snubbed by Nazi High command in creating the 262 they’ made a product that made their entire stock obsolete not ideal for profits and not a massive incentive to push forwards they hadd no idea of cost which wasn’t helped by Hitler mercilessly conscripting much of their Workforce the L waffer the German air force unrealistically expected a super plane what they actually got was a very good plane but also a plane where overtightening a screw on the nose wheel would stop it retracting causing a catastrophic crash that’s if you hadn’t already accidentally fired the wing Rockets into the cockpit by adjusting your seat because the trigger cable ran too close to it Hitler was determined to have his stormbird a fighter bomber to repel the Allied ground Invasion at the beaches so for months the 262 was forced under silly rules like you couldn’t Fly Above 4,000 M or faster than 750 km an hour you weren’t allowed to dive to bomb things which tended to make Hidden targets a bit difficult despite this by some miracle and by miracle I mean maow and concentration camp labor there is a reason they call these the stairs of death M Smith managed to produce 1,400 but logistical and repair issues men only 100 were ever combat ready it’s not ideal when the Lu waffer needed a 4 to1 KD to Prevail in the skies I’m sure you can see it was all way too little too late but then you got to think well Hitler had a deal with Japan to supply them 262s now that never went through but if it did the war in the Pacific went on much longer after Germany’s surrender the Japanese tried a jet plane with an nakim makika but it was miles behind imagine the Japanese had an uncatchable plane that could intercept say b29 carrying atomic bombs as the Allies took back Germany the US began operation Lusty they took lwaa secret technology and science i s back to the US to study you know keep it out of Soviet hands most of the equipment was sabotaged but a lot of 262s were left in perfect condition and it makes you wonder maybe the Germans left them because they wanted the Allies to see their technological achievement and they should be proud because without their work the F-100 the USA’s first supersonic jet would have been a lot longer coming than just in the 1950s so here’s too one of the most iconic beautiful influential and underutilized pl of the second world [Music] war thank you again to War Thunder for supporting this video they’ve asked me to give you a quick reminder at the end that the limited time Link in the description and pinned comment gives a massive bonus pack for new players and those who haven’t played for 6 months including an exclusive vehicle decorator Eagle of Valor 100,000 silver lions and 7 Days of premium account see you in the next video