Author Description

The Me 262 Schwalbe ('Swallow'), developed from a 1938 design by Messerschmitt, was the world's first operational turbojet aircraft. First flown as a pure jet on 18 July 1942, it proved much faster than conventional aircraft. However, development problems, Allied bombing raids, and cautious Luftwaffe leadership contributed to delays in quantity production. In late 1943, Adolf Hitler agreed to mass production, but insisted the aircraft be used primarily as a fighter-bomber. On 25 July 1944 an Me 262 became the first jet aircraft used in combat when it attacked a British photo-reconnaissance Mosquito flying over Munich. As a fighter, the German jet scored heavily against Allied bomber formations. The bombers, however, destroyed hundreds of Me 262s on the ground. Some 1,500 Me 262s were produced, but less than 20 per cent of these actually flew in combat. Most remained on the ground awaiting conversion to bombers, or were unable to fly because of lack of fuel, spare parts or trained pilots. This is the first time that a detailed summary of every known identified Me-262 has been compiled.The author - an American aided by the world's leading Me-262 research fraternity - has, to date, identified some 1200 of the 1500 machines known to have been built. The book lists sequentially each aircraft by Werknummer (Works Number) from prototypes and test aircraft through to all variants of operational machines, together with known pilots, assigned units and recorded flights, and - where known - the fale of each individual aircraft. Where possible, a photograph of an individual aircraft will accompany its entry in the werknummer log. The book contains more than 200 photographs of known machines, with as many as possible being previously unpublished. The book concludes with a chapter dedicated to previously unpublished photographs of partially identified aircraft. The huge interest in the Messerschmitt Me 262 is evinced both by the success of the earlier quartet of books covering th