Messerschimitt Me 262

Video from the channel Stefano Ticci about Messerschmitt Me 262, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 44:42. Language: Italian. Video type: Documentary.

Italian-language TV documentary on the Messerschmitt Me 262, presented as the first jet fighter to see combat. It combines archive footage, colour reconstructions and testimony from German and Allied pilots to trace the race for jet engines in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, the aircraft's development, its use in 1944 and 1945, and its postwar influence.

The story begins with the parallel work of Hans von Ohain, backed by Ernst Heinkel, and Frank Whittle, whose company Power Jets clashed for years with official British scepticism. The Heinkel He 178 flew on 27 August 1939 and the Gloster E.28 on 15 May 1941. General Arnold took one of Whittle's engines to General Electric, the basis for the Bell XP-59A, which flew in October 1942 with disappointing performance. In Germany, the He 280 flew in March 1941, but official backing went to Willy Messerschmitt. The documentary highlights Hitler's order to convert the Me 262 into a bomber, revoked in late 1944 when it was already too late, as a serious mistake.

The Me 262 made its debut on 18 July 1942. In trials it exceeded 3,800 metres and reached 720 km/h; the documentary credits it with speeds near 900 km/h and four 30 mm cannon. Adolf Galland flew it in May 1943. The testimonies describe very brief training, difficult landings and more than 200 pilots killed during training alone. The documentary places the first jet combat on 25 July 1944, against a reconnaissance Mosquito over Munich. The Allies learned to catch it in dives and turns and, above all, to attack it during takeoff and landing. With the factories destroyed, more than 800 aircraft were assembled in the forests. After the war, Operation Lusty brought examples to the United States; the documentary links their study to the F-86 Sabre and the MiG-15.