Model Description
Oxford Diecast 1/72nd scale AC073 Messerschmitt ME163 Komet – RAF Captured Eric ‘ Winkle ‘ Brown. Buy now online at Flying Tigers.
The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, was designed by Alexander Lippisch. This was a German rocket-powered fighter aircraft. It is the only rocket-powered fighter aircraft ever to have been operational. Its design was revolutionary, and the Me 163 was capable of performance which was unsurpassed at the time.
German test pilot Heini Dittmar in early July 1944 reached a staggering 700 mph, which was a flight airspeed record. Over 300 aircraft were built, but the Me163 Komet proved ineffective as a fighter and was responsible for the destruction of only about nine Allied aircraft.
Once on the ground, the aircraft had to be retrieved by a Scheuch-Schlepper, a converted small agricultural vehicle towing a special retrieval trailer that rolled on a pair of short, triple-wheeled continuous track setups (one per side), with twin trailing lifting arms, that lifted the stationary aircraft off the ground from under each wing. Another form of trailer, known also to have been trialled with the later B-series examples, was tried during the Komet ’s test phase, which used a pair of sausage-shaped air bags in place of the lifting arms and could also be towed by the Scheuch-Schlepper tractor, inflating the air bags to lift the aircraft. The three-wheeled Scheuch-Schlepper tractor used for the task was originally meant for farm use, but such a vehicle with a specialized trailer was required as the Komet was unpowered after exhausting its rocket propellants, and lacked main wheels after landing, from the jettisoning of its “dolly” main gear at take- off.
Captain Eric “Winkle”Brown RN, Chief Naval Test Pilot and commanding officer of the Captured Enemy Aircraft Flight, and who tested the Me 163 at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, said, “The Me 163 was an aeroplane that you could not afford to just step into the aircraft and say ‘You know, I’m going to fly it to the limit.’ You had very much to familiarise yourself with it because it was state-of-the-art and the technology used.” Acting unofficially, after a spate of accidents involving Allied personnel flying captured German aircraft resulted in official disapproval of such test flights. However Eric Brown was determined to fly a powered Komet. On around 17 May 1945, he flew an Me 163B at Husum with the help of a co-operative German ground crew, after initial towed flights in an Me 163A to familiarise himself with the handling. The day before the flight, Eric Brown and his ground crew had performed an engine run on the chosen Me 163B to ensure that everything was running correctly, the German crew being apprehensive should there be an accident. Eric Brown gave them a disclaimer signed by him to the effect that they were acting under his orders. On the rocket-powered “scharfen-start” take-off the next day, after dropping the take-off dolly and retracting the skid, Brown later described the resultant climb as “like being in charge of a runaway train”. The aircraft reached 32,000 ft. in 2 minutes, 45 seconds. During the flight, while practicing attacking passes at an imaginary bomber, he was surprised at how well the Komet accelerated in the dive with the engine shut down. When the flight was over Eric Brown had no problems on the approach to the airfield, apart from the rather restricted view from the cockpit due to the flat angle of glide, the aircraft touching down at 125 mph. Once down safely, Eric Brown and his much-relieved ground crew celebrated with a drink. Apart from Eric Brown’s unauthorised flight, the British never tested the Me 163 under power themselves and due to the danger of its hypergolic propellants it was only flown unpowered. Eric Brown himself piloted RAE’s Komet VF241 on a number of occasions, the rocket motor being replaced with test instrumentation. When interviewed for a 1990s television programme, Eric Brown said he had flown five tailless aircraft in his career (including the British de Havilland DH 108). Referring to the Komet, he said “this is the only one that had good flight characteristics”; he called the other four “killers”.
RRP £15.00
