Jet fighters of the second world war. Introduction

Recently, interest in jet aircraft of the Third Reich has been especially great. After all, it can be considered the progenitor of modern aircraft.

The Soviet pilots, as well as the pilots of their allies, were very lucky that the leadership of Nazi Germany, hoping for a blitzkrieg, realized a little late the logical conclusion from the "battle for England" - the war dragged on, and the Luftwaffe needed aircraft with higher flight data to achieve in quality what number could not achieve. When this fact was finally realized, the German aircraft industry had already taken an impressive step in the field of research and development of fundamentally new aircraft, but these efforts were nullified by the lack of coordination of work and the hesitation of senior leadership and could no longer affect the outcome of the war.

This was most clearly manifested in the creation of turbojet fighters - a sad story marked by political struggle, petty envy and shying from side to side. Until his suicide, Colonel General Ernst Udet stubbornly held the view that jet fighters did not fit the requirements of the Luftwaffe. These views were shared by General - Field Marshall Erhard Milch, who raised the question of stopping work in general. As a result, although the first non-280 jet fighter successfully flew on April 2, 1941 and demonstrated its complete advantage over conventional fighters in a number of aspects, the complete apathy of senior officials and personal dislike for Ernst Heinkel of some officials of the Technical Department of the RLM nullified the success of creating the most advanced combat aircraft of the time. Real support for jet aircraft was provided only in 1944.

Ernst Heinkel showed his interest in a gas turbine suitable for installation on an aircraft back in the spring of 1936, when Hans-Joachim Pabst von Ohain, a former assistant professor at the University of Göttingen, started to create gas turbines of his own design. His first HeS-2A engine was successfully demonstrated in September 1937. His thrust was 80 kg. It was followed by the "HeS-2B" with a thrust of 130 kg and work began on the "HeS-3A". At the same time, a suitable aircraft was selected for its testing. "HeS-ZA" developed a thrust of 450 kg and was tested in the spring of 1939 in flight under the fuselage of the He-118 V2. The second engine "HeS-3B" developed a thrust of 500 kg. It was installed on an experienced Non-178 V1. The first flight of the car took place on August 24, 1939, and the flight in a circle took place on August 27 in Marien under the control of Erich Warzitz. This was the first flight of an aircraft with a turbojet engine.

When designing the Non-178, the designers "squeezed" the car as much as possible. Its length is 7.48 meters, the wingspan is 7.2 meters, its area is 9.1 square meters. meters, while the specific load on the wing was 219 kg / sq. meter. Empty weight - 1620 kg, takeoff - 1998 kg. During the tests, a maximum speed of 700 km / h was reached.

By this time, work was already underway on the turbojet "HeS-8A" with a centrifugal compressor, which had a smaller diameter and greater thrust, and the technical director of "Heinkel" Robert Lusser in the spring of 1939 conducted a study of a twin-engine, single-seat fighter for this engine. All work was then carried out on an initiative basis. The technical department was not even informed. The Non-178 V1 was demonstrated to Udet and Milch on November 1, 1939 at Marien, but both were very skeptical about the use of a turbojet engine as the main propulsion system of the aircraft.

Later, work on jet and rocket aircraft will be carried out on a larger scale. Each design bureau will present its developments to the experts. The results achieved by the Germans during this period, as will become clear after processing all the captured documents and samples, will allow us to conclude that Germany in the second half of the 1930s and early 1940s was the undoubted leader in this area.

But the leadership of the Third Reich was in no hurry to actively finance the jet project. Germany, which had the most combat-ready army in 1939, developed the theory of "Blitzkrieg", in which there was no place for jet aircraft.

Despite the lack of understanding in the Milch department, work progressed on both the fighter and the engine. In March 1940, Messerschmitt received a contract for 3 experimental aircraft under Project 1065, which was developed independently of Heinkel. In the end, the Ernst Heinkel Flygzeugwerke received official support for its fighter, called the Non-280.

By September 1940, the airframe of the first He-280 V1 (DL+AS) aircraft was ready. Work was underway on two more aircraft. In addition to the turbojet engines of Pabst von Ohain, the Non-280 had a number of non-standard, if not revolutionary ideas. The cockpit was equipped with an ejection seat using compressed air - the first development of its kind in the world.

The cabin itself had to be airtight. The fighter had a retractable nose wheel, which allowed the aircraft to steer horizontally on the ground, thus avoiding the problems encountered on the first Me-262s, which had their engines pointing straight into the ground. The design was all-metal with a working skin, with an oval-section monocoque fuselage and two-keel plumage. The engines were attached under the main wing spar, just behind the landing gear hinge, which was hydraulically retracted to the line of symmetry. There were flaps on either side of the engine nacelle.

To evaluate the aerodynamic qualities of the Non-280 V1 before the first motor flight, fairings with ballast were installed instead of engine nacelles to simulate the weight of the engine and fuel. On September 11, 1940, the aircraft was lifted into the air in tow behind a Non-111H. Glider tests were conducted by a pilot from Rechlin Bader. In total, 41 glider flights were made until March 17, 1941, after which the He-280 V1 was returned to the hangar to install two HeS-8A turbojet engines with a thrust of 585 kg each.

Up to 1000 liters of fuel could be filled into the fuselage tank, but on the first flight on April 2, 1941, the tank was only half filled - enough for takeoff and one pass over the airfield at moderate speed. The non-280 V1 aircraft was lifted into the air by Fritz Schafer. Turning around over the mouth of Varnov, he made a circle at the airfield and went to land when the fuel was almost running out. During the first flight, the engines were without cowlings, as runs on the ground showed that fuel accumulated at the bottom of the engine nacelles, threatening a fire. The landing gear was not removed, and the flight altitude did not exceed 300 meters.

Three days later, on April 5, with the engines already hooded, the plane lifted Bader into the air - the Non-280 V1 was demonstrated in front of Udet, the head of the Luftwaffe engineering department Lucht and the head of the L.C.3 (propulsion department) Eissenlohr. They showed some interest in the aircraft, though not for long. Udet doubted the need for such an unusual fighter until the end of his tenure, and this opinion was shared by Milch, who replaced him.

With a gross weight of 4285 kg, the He-280 V1 reached a speed of 775 km / h at an altitude of 6000 meters, however, it was expected that the HeS-8A engines would produce up to 720 kg of thrust and speed up to 925 km / h - very optimistic estimates. The second experimental Non-280 V2 (GJ+CA) was ready in May 1941. In July finished He-280 V3 (GJ+CB). 6 more cars were ordered.

Meanwhile, serious difficulties were encountered in fine-tuning the HeS-8A engine, also known as the Heinkel-Hirt 001 (Heinkel acquired the former Hirta plant in Zuffenhausen on April 9, 1941). The engines mounted on the Non-280 V1 produced 600 kg of thrust, which made it possible to reach a speed of 800 km / h, but in one of the first flights of this aircraft, under the control of Fritz Schafer, one of the turbine blades came off. The engine shook, flames shot out of it. Schafer quite successfully landed the plane on the "belly", the damage was minor and the plane flew after repairs after 3 days.

In January 1942, the He-280 V1 was transferred to the test center in Rechlin, where the HeS-8A were replaced by 4 Argus As 014 impulse engines - they were tested under the Fi-103 program. With these engines, the Non-280 V1 could not even get off the ground.

Despite the problems with the HeS-8A, by the spring of 1942, Ernst Heinkel already believed that the He-280 was ready for service, at a time when its rival Me-262 had not yet even flown on jet propulsion. But the Ministry of Aviation ignored his proposal. To speed up the decision, Heinkel organized a training battle between the FW-190A, which took off from the Arado airfield near Warnemünden, and the Non-280. The jet fighter won the fight against his opponent without any problems.

After several major defeats, in 1942 Germany finally stepped up its jet program. As a result, the RLM agreed to release 13 pre-production He-280A-0s.

At the beginning of the summer of 1942, the tests of the He-280 aircraft were transferred from Mariene to Schwechat. By this time, the Technical Department agreed that the Jumo 004 turbojet engine had noticeable advantages over the Heinkel-Hirt 001, which never produced the planned thrust. As a result, in June 1942, the He-280 V2 was re-equipped with the "Jumo 004A" with a thrust of 840 kg.

The take-off weight of the car increased to 5200 kg, and the speed reached 785 km / h. Flight testing resumed in July. At the same time, armament of three 20-mm MG 151 cannons was first installed in the forward fuselage.

Meanwhile, the He-280 V4 (GJ+CC) and V5 (CJ+CD) were completed. The latter retained the Heinkel-Hirt 001 engines, while the former had the BMW 003A-0 with a thrust of 750 kg. The Non-280 V5 was proposed by Heinkel as a prototype for the serial Non-280A-1, which had an empty weight of 3060 kg, and a take-off weight of 4300 kg. It was stated that the maximum speed reached 815 km / h (however, this is doubtful), the flight range at this speed and an altitude of 6000 meters is 650 km, and at an altitude of 10,000 meters - 950 km, the rate of climb is 19 m / s, the ceiling is 11500 meters . Landing speed was - 140 km / h.

Aircraft Non-280 V6 (NU+EA) from the very beginning received weapons and engines "Jumo 004". It was tested in Rechlin in early 1943. Heinkel proposed to the Technical Department a He-280V-1 fighter-bomber with two "Jumo 004B" 900 kg thrust. The maximum speed was estimated at 875 km / h. The armament of the Non-280A was planned to be doubled at once - by installing up to 6 x 20-mm MG 151 cannons, and the two-keel plumage was replaced with a single-keel one. The RLM and the Milch department, only 3 months ago, who concluded that preparations for the mass production of the Me-262 were premature and that, given the Heinkel's heavy workload with other work, the production of the He-280 was not realistic, they suddenly made a "turn around", ordering 300 machines Non-280V-1. Since Heinkel did not have the necessary capacity, it was decided to transfer the contract to Siebel.

However, by that time tests of the Me-262 V2 had shown that the Messerschmitt fighter had an advantage in flight performance over the He-280 with the same propulsion system, especially in terms of flight range - the main drawback of the Heinkel fighter. As a result, on March 27, 1943, the Technical Department ordered Ernst Heinkel to stop all work on the Non-280. It was allowed to finish only 9 experimental aircraft ...

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In 1944, training centers for training pilots for jet aircraft and the first combat units were formed. Jet aircraft took an active part in combat operations almost until the very end of the war.

The main target for the Luftwaffe jets were Allied bombers, which constantly attacked cities and industrial sites in Germany. Aircraft of the Soviet Air Force encountered the latest developments of the Germans only at the very end of the war, when the front was already in Germany.

And the war was coming to an end, the "raw" and unfinished Luftwaffe jet planes could not withstand the perfect ones: La-7, Yak-9 and so on. And the training of German pilots left much to be desired ... The absence of permanent jet aircraft on the Eastern Front is explained by the fact that all jet aces were in the westerly direction and protected the German sky from constant bombing attacks by the allies.

Pilots of the 176th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment were the first to encounter jet aircraft on the Eastern Front.

This meeting took place on February 14, 1945. A. S. Kumanichkin, together with the regiment commander P. F. Chupikov, met in the air with an unusual aircraft. The guards tried to attack the enemy, but the German aircraft unexpectedly quickly broke away from their pursuers. After developing the film of the photo-machine gun, it became clear that the pilots of the 176th GIAP met with the latest Me-262 jet fighter. This was the first, but not the last meeting of the pilots of the 176th GIAP with the German jet technology.

The first jet at his own expense was recorded by the famous ace Hero Soviet Union Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub.

Kozhedub Ivan Nikitovich He was born on June 8, 1920 in the village of Obrazhievka, now in the Shostka district of the Sumy region, in a peasant family. He graduated from the chemical - technological college. Since 1940 in the Red Army. In 1941 he graduated from the Chuguev Military Aviation Pilot School. On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War since March 1943. The squadron commander of the 240th Fighter Aviation Regiment (302nd Fighter Aviation Division, 5th Air Army, Steppe Front) Senior Lieutenant I.N. Kozhedub by October 1943 made 146 sorties, shot down 20 enemy aircraft. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded on February 4, 1944. By the middle of 1944, the deputy commander of the 176th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (302nd Fighter Aviation Division, 16th Air Army, 1st Belorussian Front) of the Guard, Captain I.N. 48. On August 19, 1944, he was awarded the second Gold Star medal. By the end of the war, Major I.N. Kozhedub brought his account of sorties to 330 and downed aircraft 62. For high military skill, personal courage and courage on 18.8.1945 he was awarded the third Gold Star medal. In 1949 he graduated from the Air Force Academy, in 1956 - from the Military Academy of the General Staff. Since 1971 in the Central Office of the Air Force, since 1978 - in the General Inspection Group of the USSR Ministry of Defense. Air Marshal. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd - 5th convocations. Member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of DOSAAF. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin (twice), the Red Banner (seven), Alexander Nevsky, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st class, the Red Star (twice), "For Service to the Motherland in the USSR Armed Forces" 3rd class, medals, as well as foreign orders and medals . Honorary citizen of the cities of Balti, Chuguev, Kaluga, Kupyansk, Sumy and others. A bronze bust was erected in the village of Obrazhievka.

This event took place on February 19, 1945 in the sky over the Oder and, according to the description of I. Kozhedub himself, it happened like this:

“It was like this. We were conducting aerial hunting not far from the front line. I carefully monitor the air. From the south, from Frankfurt, at an altitude of 3500 meters, an airplane suddenly appears. It flies along the Oder at a speed limit for our Lavochkins. Yes, this is jet plane! I quickly turn around. I give the engine full throttle, chasing the enemy. The pilot, obviously, did not look back, relying on high speed. I "squeeze" maximum speed out of the car, try to reduce the distance and approach with a slight decrease under the "belly" of the enemy aircraft. I would like to examine it in detail; if I manage to open fire and shoot it down. I approach from the side of the tail at a distance of 500 meters. Successful maneuver, speed of action, speed allowed me to approach the jet aircraft. But what is it? Tracks are flying into it: clearly - my partner I mercilessly scold the "Old Man" to myself, I am sure that my plan of action is irreparably violated. But its routes unexpectedly - unexpectedly helped me: the German plane became a turn left, towards me. The distance shortened sharply, and I got close to the enemy. With involuntary excitement, I open fire. And the jet, falling apart, falls."

In this air battle, I.N. Kozhedub shot down a Me-262. German sources confirm the loss, even the aircraft number is WNr.900284.

Let's try to look at that meeting with the Luftwaffe jet fighter, which ended in one of the mysteries of the history of aviation.

Many, and often everyone, believe that I. N. Kozhedub shot down non-commissioned officer Kurt Lange from I. / KG (j) 54. But this is unlikely, since I / KG (j) 54 at that time (02/22/1945 - 03/28/1945) was based at the airfield in Giebelstat near Würzburg. And the battle of Ivan Nikitovich with a jet plane took place north of Frankfurt an der Oder. If one of the readers does not have the opportunity to look at the map of Germany, then I will allow myself to remind you that Würzburg is Bavaria, which means the southern part of Germany. Frankfurt an der Oder - northern. And the distance between them is quite decent. About 600 km (the practical range of the Me-262 is 1040 km). The question is why KG (j) 54 will send an aircraft across Germany to "hunt" when the more experienced (in terms of pilots) JV44 periodically operates there (the fact is that there was a so-called "training zone" of this unit near the Oder, there young pilots were trained)? But wait, JV44 was officially formed on February 24, 1945, and the jet fighter battle took place on February 19, 1945. Well, JV44 doesn't fit. Let's look at the next parts.

Maybe JG7. Let's consider this option. In February, this unit was engaged in repelling attacks by allied aircraft from the western direction, but there were frequent cases of JG7 flying near the Eastern Front. Fortunately, the location allowed: Brandenburg - Brist.

This means that the plane from JG7 most likely met with Ivan Nikitovich. It is known that the camouflage of this fighter consisted of random spots and with a number behind the cockpit: the number "9" in red. Recall the designations in the Luftwaffe. The red number indicates belonging to the 2nd squadron in each group. So Ivan Nikitich, most likely, shot down the Me-262 from the 2nd squadron JG7. But even skeptics have reason to doubt, for example: why Ivan Nikitich did not declare victory immediately upon landing at the airfield. Or, where is the FKP film that filmed the Me-262? Why is there not a word about a jet aircraft in the regiment's documents, at least in the monthly summary. And one more argument: in the typewritten list of victories, the victory over the Me-262 is inscribed in the margins with a pen, which raises doubts about the authenticity of this document.

Well, this issue is very complex and requires separate consideration. And I just tried to slightly - slightly open the veil of this mystery.

But other pilots also had meetings with the Me-262, someone shot down this "miracle weapon of retaliation", and someone died from his "hands".

Merkviladze Garry Alexandrovich. He was born on February 17, 1923 in the city of Batumi (Adjar ASSR). Graduated from 9 classes. Since 1941 in the Red Army. In the same year he graduated from the Tbilisi, and in 1942 - Armavir military aviation pilot school. From March 1943 on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Deputy squadron commander of the 152nd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (12th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, 1st Guards Assault Aviation Corps, 2nd Air Army, 1st Ukrainian Front) Guards Senior Lieutenant G. A. Merkviladze by May 1945 made 386 sorties, in 87 air battles he personally shot down 13 and in a group 2 enemy aircraft. The title of Hero of the Owls. Union was assigned on 27.6.1945. In 1952 he graduated from the Air Force Academy, in 1961 - from the Military Academy of the General Staff. Since 1970, Major General of Aviation G. A. Merkviladze has been in reserve. Lived in the city of Tbilisi. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner (three times), Alexander Nevsky, the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the Red Star (three times), and medals. He died on April 2, 1971.

The pilot of the 152nd GvIAP, Garry Aleksandrovich Merkviladze, also has a downed Me-262 on his account. The battle took place as follows: Harry Alexandrovich, while flying, noticed a new enemy aircraft, according to the description, suitable for the Me-262. The German pilot also spotted the Soviet fighter and prepared to attack. Merkviladze realized that without cunning this plane "from heaven to earth" could not be lowered.

The enemy fighter went into the tail of the Merkviladze fighter and prepared to shoot, the Soviet pilot took advantage of the maneuverability of his fighter, and when the Me-262 rushed at high speed to the tail of Harry Alexandrovich's plane, he applied the same trick, making a sharp jerk to the side.

Merkviladze changed the flight path of his plane, and the enemy fighter rushed past at breakneck speed and went ahead. The Soviet pilot had only to catch the enemy fighter in sight and fire a line of machine-gun and cannon fire at the enemy, which Garry Alexandrovich did, chalking up the "miracle of German engineering".

German twin-engine jet aircraft Messerschmitt Me-262.

On February 27, 1945, a conference was held in the 16th Air Army on the topic: "The struggle of piston fighters of the Red Army Air Force against the new enemy jet technology." The conference was attended by pilots who had already met in the sky with the Me-262, everyone shared their impressions of the new creation of the Luftwaffe. By the way, Ivan Nikitich Kozhedub also spoke there, but he didn’t say anything about the downed Me-262, he only described how it was possible to shoot it down.

The conference was opened by the commander of the 16th Air Army, General - Commander of Aviation S.I. Rudenko with the following words:

"We have gathered to talk about some of the features of the fight against high-speed German aircraft, including the Messerschmitt-262, which have jet engines. Some of the comrades present here have already met with such aircraft in the air. I would like these pilots shared their impressions of air battles, told how the new enemy planes look in flight, what tactics are needed to better hit and shoot them down. This is required in the interests of the final victory over Nazi Germany."

Novikov Alexey Ivanovich. Born on November 7, 1916 in Moscow in a working class family. He graduated from the 7 classes, the FZU school, the flying club, and in 1936 - the Ulyanovsk school of pilots - instructors. Since 1939 he was in the Red Army, in the same year he graduated from the Borisoglebsk military aviation school for pilots. On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War from the first day. By August 1942, the squadron commander of the 17th Fighter Aviation Regiment (205th Fighter Aviation Division, 2nd Air Army, Voronezh Front) Captain A.I. Novikov made 242 sorties, shot down 11 enemy aircraft in 34 air battles. On February 4, 1943 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In total, during the war he made about 500 sorties, shot down 22 enemy aircraft personally and 5 in a group. After the war he continued to serve in the Air Force. In 1960 he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. Since 1970, Major General of Aviation A.I. Novikov has been retired. Lived and worked in Moscow. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner (three times), the Patriotic War of the 1st degree (twice), the Red Star (four times), and medals. He died on October 23, 1986.

The first to speak was the assistant commander of the 3rd Fighter Air Corps, Lieutenant Colonel AI Novikov. He spoke about the encounter with the jet plane:

“The aircraft had a long, thin tail and an elongated nose with a low suspension of two gondola mounts under the wings. The meeting took place on intersecting courses. The enemy quickly slipped past me and disappeared from view. In the process of searching, I met him again and went to approach. German pilot, probably noticed me and broke away again, left.. For the third time he met the enemy on the same course as for the first time.

Turning around, I picked up a speed of 570 km per hour and went to approach. However, the jet aircraft again left me. General E. Ya. Savitsky tried to attack him. But this attempt remained equally unsuccessful: the speed of the German car reached 800 km per hour. Traces of the work of his jet engines were not visible because of the heavy haze."

Summing up his speech, Alexei Ivanovich gave some advice on the technique of dealing with new aircraft. First, to attack only using the method of surprise, it is better from the direction of the sun. Secondly, when conducting a battle, it is necessary to use the maneuver of your aircraft, no matter what to allow targeted firing by the enemy. During the attack of the enemy, it is necessary to make a turn, and when the attacker slips forward, only then open cannon fire.

Alexei Ivanovich also noted the rather poor maneuverability of this aircraft due to its very high speed. Oddly enough, but one of the weak features of this fighter was precisely its speed. According to Novikov, the sight that was on Soviet aircraft was suitable for firing at new enemy aircraft only from short distances. It was pointless to fire at long distances. But still, it makes no sense to remake the sight specifically for the new enemy aircraft. The volume of confrontation between the Me-262 and the Soviet Air Force was so small and ineffective that the jet "Messer" could no longer influence the course of the war.

Makarov Valentin Nikolaevich Born on August 30, 1919 in Sevastopol in a working class family. He graduated from 7 classes and Simferopol flying club. Since 1937 in the Red Army. In 1938 he graduated from the Kachin Military Aviation Pilot School. Member of the Great Patriotic War since June 1941. Squadron commander of the 511th Fighter Aviation Regiment (220th Fighter Aviation Division, 16th Air Army, Don Front) Captain V.N. 7 enemy aircraft. On January 28, 1943, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In total, he completed 635 sorties, conducted 150 air battles, shot down 30 aircraft personally and 9 in a group. In 1947 he graduated from the Higher Officer Flight and Tactical Courses, in 1956 - from the Military Academy of the General Staff. Since 1975, Major General of Aviation V. N. Makarov has been in reserve. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin (twice), the Red Banner (thrice), Alexander Nevsky, the Patriotic War 1st degree, the Red Star (twice), "For Service to the Motherland in the USSR Armed Forces" 3rd degree, and medals. He died on May 20, 1978.

“While covering the ground troops on the northern bridgehead of the Oder River, I also met an unfamiliar plane. At first I recognized it as the Rama, but when I turned around and went on the attack, I was convinced that it was not the Focke-Wulf. Gondolas were suspended under the planes of the car. installations. They probably contained jet engines, as white smoke streamed from the nacelles. The unknown aircraft quickly moved away from me, and I lost sight of it. "

Valentin Nikolaevich agreed with Novikov: in order to shoot down such an aircraft, it is necessary to use the surprise factor using the sun and clouds. According to Makarov, one of the weak features of the new car was the poor visibility of the pilot, and especially the lower hemisphere. The opinions of the speakers also agreed that there was no need to change the sight, but to fire only from small angles.

Also, Makarov made a proposal that it is necessary to send pairs or fours to destroy the Me-262, since they are easier to manage than large groups. And that the battle order, when escorted by attack aircraft and bombers, must be built in such a way as to prevent the enemy from suddenly attacking. Groups should be strengthened and pulled back.

Kobyletsky Ivan Ivanovich Born on August 10, 1916 in the city of Birzula (now Kotovsk, Odessa region) in a working class family. He graduated from 7 classes, school FZU. Worked as a driver's assistant. Since 1936 in the Red Army. In 1938 he graduated from the Orenburg Military Aviation Pilot School. Participated in the national liberation war of the Chinese people against the Japanese invaders. Member of the Great Patriotic War since June 1941. Deputy squadron commander of the 43rd Fighter Aviation Regiment (220th Fighter Aviation Division, 8th Air Army, South-Eastern Front) Senior Lieutenant I.I. -1 rammed an enemy fighter. Made a landing at the airport. He fought on the Southwestern, Don, Central, Belorussian fronts. Deputy commander of the 53rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (1st Guards Fighter Aviation Division, 16th Air Army, 1st Belorussian Front) Major I. I. Kobyletsky by February 1945 made 451 sorties, in 94 air battles personally shot down 15 and as part of a group of 9 enemy aircraft. On May 15, 1946, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Since September 1948, Lieutenant Colonel I. I. Kobyletsky - retired due to illness. Lived in Kiev. He worked as a locksmith - patternmaker, senior control foreman, engineer. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin (twice), the Order of the Red Banner (twice), Alexander Nevsky, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the Red Star, and medals. Died July 25, 1986.

From the 53rd Guards IAP, Major Ivan Ivanovich Kobyletsky and Captain Gennady Sergeevich Dubenok took part in the conference.

I. I. Kobyletsky gave an interesting idea. He proposed to arrange something like an "ambush", or rather, to study the enemy's routes and organize an ambush, thereby the enemy would be taken by surprise and, taking the air combat initiative into his own hands, shoot down or force the enemy aircraft to land.

Captain G.S. Dubenok, on the contrary, developed the idea of ​​Lieutenant Colonel V.N. Makarov that in order to successfully fight the enemy, all the advantages of building a formation of attack aircraft and fighters must be used.

In addition, one or two pairs of fighters must follow in front of the main group and destroy enemy fighters, which will be carried at high speed through the formation of bombers or attack aircraft. Head-on attacks by inexperienced pilots are unsuccessful, because the duration of these attacks is so short that an inexperienced pilot will not be able to aim and hit the target.

Summing up the results of the last conference, the commander of the 16th Air Army, General - Colonel of Aviation S. I. Rudenko, recommended that the command of the units continue the process of training in the tactics of combating Luftwaffe jet aircraft. He also expressed the hope that battles with jet aircraft would be fought at short distances (from 20 to 600 meters).

At the end of his speech, the General urged everyone to keep the proud name - the falcons of the country of the Soviets.

The conference was over, the victorious spring of 1945 was on fire. But the resistance of Hitler's army continued, in the sky there were frequent clashes with enemy aircraft. New encounters with Luftwaffe jet technology were no exception.

Dubenok Gennady Sergeevich. Born on January 1, 1920 in the village of Kraskovo, Pustoshkinsky District, Tver Region. After graduating from the Chuguev Military Aviation School in 1939, he was sent to the position of a fighter pilot on the Southwestern Front. Member of the Battle of Stalingrad. He was an aviation commander, and then deputy squadron commander of the 512th Fighter Aviation Regiment, deputy squadron commander of the 55th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 16th Air Army. He fought on the Don, Central and 1st Belorussian fronts. He made 372 sorties in total. After more than 100 air battles, he shot down 12 enemy aircraft personally and 11 in a group. On August 24, 1943, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war, he completed postgraduate studies at the Red Banner Air Force Academy. He served as a teacher and senior lecturer at the academy. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner (twice), the Patriotic War 1st and 2nd degree, the Red Star, "For Service to the Motherland in the USSR Armed Forces" 3rd degree, the medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad" and many others.

So on March 22, 1945, in a battle with a pair of Me-262s, pilot Lev Ivanovich Sivko (photo provided by A.V. Stankov) shot down a "jet". I would like to dwell on this episode for a moment.

The battle took place in the evening at 18:20 near the town of Tsekhin. Four Yak-9s from the 812th IAP, covering the ground troops, were at an altitude of 2000 meters, and the flight speed was 550 km / h. At the head of this four was Captain V. I. Melnikov. Suddenly, Lieutenant L. I. Sivko, who was flying in a group on the left, saw how fire was bursting out from under his "Yak" towards the leader. The next moment, an unknown plane without propellers passed by them at high speed, with a climb.

When the enemy plane began to turn around, Lev Ivanovich damaged the right wing plane of the Me-262, between the engine and the console, with a burst from 100 meters. The enemy fighter rolled over and crashed to the ground 5 km west of Tsekhin.

According to some sources, L. I. Sivko himself soon died:

"But L. Sivko's car was also damaged, the pilot could not leave it and died a hero's death. Now fighting friends in the skies of Berlin avenged the death of a brave Komsomol member."

On March 22, the US Air Force raided targets in Germany. On this day, the Germans announced 3 downed German fighters. Perhaps these were aircraft from JG7 from the Bradenbug-Brist airfield.

So, on this day, 3 aircraft of the Luftwaffe jet fleet were lost. The first aircraft from 11./JG7 was lost during a bomber attack (pilot August Lübking, WNr. 111541), the second between Cottbus and Bautzen near Alt-Döbern (pilot Heinz Eichner, WNr. 500462). And what about the third, you ask? I will answer that there is very little data on this loss, only the serial number Me-262 is known. WNr. 900192. And the fact that this plane was lost in the Tsekhin area on March 22, 1945. Coincidence? Hardly, considering that this is the territory where Soviet pilots "hunted". So Lev Sivko most likely shot down this particular Me-262. Another argument for the truth of this victory is the confirmation of the battle from the ground.

And where did the second Me-262 from a pair of attackers go? If he returned to the airfield, then why didn't he announce that his partner was shot down by a Soviet fighter? Although he may have notified, but this is already March 1945, less than 2 months before the end of the war. Perhaps the message from the pilot of the second fighter was simply lost in the confusion of German military documents. It's the end of the war...

German twin-engine jet aircraft Messerschmitt Me-262A.

Less than a month remained before the end of the war, but the resistance of the Luftwaffe pilots did not cease to weaken (we must pay tribute to the German pilots, they continued to resist the enemy, as they say until the last "drop of blood").

In the spring of 1945, Soviet pilots were lucky to shoot down a few more Me-262s. One of these lucky ones turned out to be Egorovich Vladimir Alekseevich. In April 1945, in the skies of Berlin, he shot down the Me-262 with his Yak-9T.

He was born on May 19, 1919 in the village of Sutiski, now a village in the Tyvrovsky district of the Vinnitsa region, in a peasant family. Studied at the construction college. Since 1939 in the Red Army. In 1940 he graduated from the Odessa Military Aviation School. From April 1943 on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Squadron commander of the 402nd Fighter Aviation Regiment (265th Fighter Aviation Division, 3rd Fighter Aviation Corps, 16th Air Army, 1st Belorussian Front) Captain V. A. Egorovich made 248 sorties by February 1945, in 71 air battles he shot down 22 enemy aircraft. On May 15, 1946, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war he continued to serve in the Air Force. Since 1949, he was the head of the flight department of the DOSAAF flying club in the Zaporozhye region. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner (thrice), Alexander Nevsky, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree, and medals. He died tragically on April 27, 1953.

Another "April lucky" Kuznetsov Ivan Aleksandrovich.

The battle took place as follows: the Me-262 group wished to attack the Il-2 attack aircraft when cover fighters took off. "Messers" began to try to get out of the battle. And then the regiment commander gave the order: "Shoot down a jet plane!" I. A. Kuznetsov directed his "Yak" to intercept the jet and fired a long burst at the German aircraft. Messer's right engine smoked. But the jet "Messer" was still trying to get out of the battle, picking up speed. But 3 more fighters took off to help their commander. They simultaneously opened fire on the Me-262. The German pilot could not get away from such an attack, his plane tilted and crashed to the ground.

This victory was recorded on the personal account of Ivan Kuznetsov, although it was a group one. This event took place on April 30, 1945 near Berlin.

And here is how the pilot-attack aircraft describes this battle, Hero of the Soviet Union, the only full holder of the Orders of Glory of all 3 degrees (among pilots), Ivan Grigoryevich Drachenko, who himself shot down 5 enemy aircraft in air battles (including 1 - by ramming) in his book "On the Wings of Courage":

He was born on 01/05/1917 in the village of Repnoye, now the Uvarovsky district of the Tambov region, in a peasant family. Graduated from 2 courses of agricultural technical school. In 1936 - 1938 and since 1942 in the Red Army. In 1938 he graduated from the Kachin Military Aviation School. He worked as a pilot-instructor of the Donetsk flying club. On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War since December 1942. Squadron commander of the 107th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (11th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, 2nd Air Army, 1st Ukrainian Front) Senior Lieutenant I. A. Kuznetsov made 219 sorties by May 1945. In 59 air battles, he shot down 10 enemy aircraft, destroyed a lot of enemy manpower and military equipment with assault strikes. 06/27/1945 was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war he continued to serve in the Air Force. In 1953 he graduated from the Higher Officer Flight and Tactical Courses, served in the Air Defense Forces of the country, commanded a unit. Since 1972, Major General of Aviation I. A. Kuznetsov has been in reserve. Living in Astrakhan, he was the chairman of the regional committee of DOSAAF. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner (four times), Alexander Nevsky, the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degrees, the Red Star (twice), Soviet and foreign medals.

“It was much more difficult for us, attack aircraft, to fight the Me-262. Jet planes swept over our formation, watching for Ilys on turns when approaching a target or when leaving an attack. They also attacked damaged aircraft going to land.

One pair got used to intercepting the Ilyushins in such a way that at least do not return from the mission alone. The corps commander ordered to stop these impudent attacks of hunters. We came up with a simple plan: they decided to use me and my partner as bait, to deceive the enemy with the appearance of easy prey.

One morning, at 8 o'clock, I raised my Il into the air. Ammunition is full, but without bombs. Three pairs of "Yakov" climbed up to 5000 meters. I began to walk over the airfield at speed. Suddenly, from the side of the front line, 2 silver dots began to grow. The leading Me-262 went on the attack. Maneuvering, I fired a cannon burst at him. Then our fighters arrived from above.

The "Messer" that attacked me quickly went up, and our guys still covered the second one. The fascist had no choice but to eject.

Drachenko Ivan Grigorievich Born on 11/15/1922 in the village of Velyka Sevastyanovka, now the Khristinovsky district of the Cherkasy region, in a peasant family. He graduated from high school and the Leningrad flying club. Since April 1942 in the Red Army. In 1943 he graduated from the Tambov Military Aviation Pilot School and was sent to the front. Senior pilot of the 140th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment (8th Guards Assault Aviation Division, 1st Guards Assault Aviation Corps, 2nd Air Army, 1st Ukrainian Front) Guards Junior Lieutenant I. G. Drachenko by August 1944 made 100 sorties for reconnaissance, destruction of enemy manpower and equipment. Participated in 14 air battles. On August 14, 1944, while performing a combat mission, he was seriously wounded and taken prisoner. Managed to run. Upon recovery, he returned to the front. On October 26, 1944 he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war, Senior Lieutenant I. G. Drachenko retired. In 1953 he graduated from the law faculty of Kiev University, worked as the director of an evening high school, deputy director of the Palace of Culture "Ukraine" in Kiev. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the Red Star, Glory (all three degrees), medals. Author of books: "For the sake of life on earth", "On the wings of courage".

Why didn't his parachute open? When we arrived at the place where the Nesetsk pilot had fallen, we immediately noticed that the parachute was out of order. So, the pilot was doomed to death in advance ... "

But perhaps the most interesting clash occurred with Major A.V. Vorozheikin.

Arseny Vasilyevich is the only Soviet Air Force pilot who shot down a German Arado Ar-234 jet bomber. In addition, Vorozheykin is also a wonderful writer: from his pen came such wonderful works as: "Soldiers of the Sky", "Private Aviation", "Berlin Under Us". It is in his book "Soldiers of the Sky" that Arseniy Vasilyevich describes how he shot down a jet "Arada". I bring to the attention of the reader the same passage:

"Unusually, some kind of aircraft is sliding under us unusually quickly. My eyes are firmly clinging to it. Under the wings I see 4 twin engines. rockets.

The speed of this car is about 900 km/h. This is the latest novelty of German military equipment. Although we flew on the best "Yaks" - the Yak-3, they are piston-powered and are inferior to the new German jets at a speed of 200 kilometers. You cannot take this fascist with the old tricks. Experience told him how best to attack him.

Vorozheikin Arseny Vasilievich Born on October 28, 1912 in the village of Prokofievo, now the Gorodetsky district of the Gorky region, in a peasant family. Since 1931 in the Red Army. In 1937 he graduated from the Kharkov Military Aviation Pilot School. Participated in the battles on the Khalkhin-Gol River in 1939. Spent 30 air battles, shot down 6 Japanese aircraft personally and 12 - in the group. During the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940 he was a military commissar of an aviation squadron. In 1942 he graduated from the Air Force Academy. On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War since 1942. To the squadron commander of the 728th Fighter Aviation Regiment (256th Fighter Aviation Division, 5th Fighter Aviation Corps, 2nd Air Army, 1st Ukrainian Front) for 78 sorties and participation in 32 air battles, in which he personally destroyed 19 enemy aircraft, 02/04/1944 was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The second medal "Gold Star" was awarded to Captain A.V. Vorozheikin on 19.8.1944 for 28 sorties, 14 air battles and 11 downed aircraft. Since 1944, he has been a senior instructor - a pilot in the combat training department of front-line aviation. After the war, he commanded an aviation regiment, division, was the first deputy commander of the air defense of the Black Sea Fleet. In 1952 he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. Since 1957, Major General of Aviation A.V. Vorozheykin has been in reserve. He was awarded the orders of Lenin, the Red Banner (four times), Suvorov 3rd degree, Alexander Nevsky, World War 1st degree, Red Star (twice), foreign orders.

"Arada" rushes towards. I have an altitude of 6000 meters. When the reactive enemy is in front of me at an angle of 45 degrees, I will go straight down and intercept him there.

As always, "Yak" easily, like a toy, rolled over and went steeply to the ground, quickly picking up speed. The enemy was behind. Why doesn't he contrive and hit me with 4 cannons, and maybe even with rockets? He has only to raise his nose, and he, having great speed, will immediately overtake me. And I sharply twist the car into a dive to see how the Arada reacts to me.

The plane is still flying low and will soon overtake me. This is where I have to catch him. And I spin the car again. "Yak" obeys with difficulty, as if complaining: "Enough to test me" - and is eager to get out of the dive. I hold on tight as I keep losing height. The speedometer needle is already vibrating at the round and dangerous number - "700". And my "Yak", as if having renounced life, lost its agility and no longer rushes up into the sky, but with cold doom goes to the ground.

The car is not designed for such a high speed: it can fall apart. And if there is enough strength, it will not come out of a dive: it will suck.

With full muscle tension, I begin to withdraw. Listens hard, but listens. True, it darkens in the eyes from overload, but I know from experience that this will pass, one has only to ease the pressure on the handle. Just a little more effort. If only the "Yak" could stand it! Must! So I want. And I pull. Although in the eyes of the night, but I feel everything is in order.

"Yak" well done, survived! It clears up in my eyes, I see the horizon, the sky, the earth. There must be "Arad" here somewhere. Here she is! Nearby. Calculated well. And then something happened that I no longer feared. There was an explosion, a blow to the head. I choked on something thick and cold. His eyes darkened again. Consciousness clearly noted: this is the last attack. A shell burst in the cockpit... But why was it cold and not hot, and I don't feel any pain or scorching fire? Did the plane crumble?.. However, I again have the sky, the earth, the horizon and the "Arad" in front of me. My "Yak" is intact. And what about the explosion, the blow?.. That's it - the lantern was torn from the cockpit, and cold air whipped into the face. I take "Arada" at gunpoint!

Here's a failure. Already far away, I can not get. I'm shooting. Fabulous! Cords of tracers and bullets caught up with the enemy and dug into his body. Sparks, fire, thick smoke poured out of the Arada, and the plane disappeared into the burning Berlin ... "

It is very difficult to trace this loss from German sources. But in fact it is impossible, because it is not even known whether this plane was shot down, since its remains were not found. And there are no witnesses either. One can only guess what happened to that jet "Arada". Of course, the probability that the Ar-234 landed is practically zero, since landing in a city is not very convenient, especially on a bomber. But, if the wreckage of the aircraft was not found and there are no witnesses to the victory, then the victory will not be counted. They did the same with Arseny Vasilyevich. This victory was simply not counted.

Soviet pilots undoubtedly gained experience in dealing with enemy jet equipment (which came in handy a little later in the war with the United States in North Korea), but what about the Germans themselves? Do they have any mention of such incidents in the history of front-line jet aviation? Let's try to figure it out.

Of course, it is unlikely that it will be possible to find out who shot down the first Soviet fighter. We will try to consider all episodes of meetings with Soviet aircraft on the Eastern Front.

So let's start, and we'll start with such an eminent pilot as Johannes Steinhof.

In his memoirs "At the Last Hour", Oberst Steinhof describes encounters with Soviet pilots in the skies over the Oder in February 1945:

"We are flying eastward in the direction of the highway that led to Frankfurt an der Oder. Suddenly, a Russian fighter appeared in front of me, and I did not manage to coordinate the position of the Me-262 and fix the target in sight in a few seconds. Only a few meters separated me from the Russian fighter as I rushed past and went up.Looking back I saw the flashes of his weapons.He continuously pulled his fighter up.

There were many fighters maneuvering around me, it was a temptation to get one of their guns, but as soon as I flew up to them, they began to maneuver even more vigorously, which made it extremely difficult to attack. And I was forced to hide from their sight."

Me-262A jet fighter, spring 1945.

"Flying west at an altitude of 1000 meters, I crossed the Oder. Now I must climb again to be among the Russian fighters. When I put the Me-262 on the wing and moved the gas sector levers to turn around, I saw a group of Il- 2, there were 7 or 8 of them, despite the camouflage coloring, their silhouettes were clearly visible.They fired cannons and dropped bombs on the highway, the trucks going along this highway turned into the side of the road, and the soldiers scattered in different directions.I caught sight of one of the attack aircraft , pressed the button of the guns, the queue was short, and immediately pulled the control stick towards himself so as not to touch the tops of the trees.

A few hundred meters in front of the edge of the forest, he touched the snow with a screw, a huge snow cloud rose completely hiding the IL-2, when the snow was blown away by a gust of wind, I saw a distinct silhouette of an attack aircraft in the snow and at that moment a small black figure of the pilot got out of the plane , which first jumped on the wing, and then ran through the deep snow towards the forest.

30-mm cannon, which was on the Me-262.

This meeting took place on February 25, 1945. Steinhof took off from the airfield Brandenburg - Brist. In March, he also mentions meetings with pilots of the Red Army Air Force. Here is another quote from his memoirs:

“On one of the March days, I wanted to teach one of the newcomers to fly in pairs. After takeoff, we headed for the “training zone” near the Oder. We flew over the river and on the other side saw a group of Russian fighters. I want to attack, but the lead angle when firing let me down again, the fact is that the Me-262 jet has a different one than the Me-109. I flew unsuccessfully through the formation several times. Then something appeared in front of me that turned out to be a Russian fighter. Instinctively, I fired from four 30- mm cannons. Like lightning, the remnants of a Russian fighter flew around my cockpit. It literally crumbled in the air!

Looking back, I saw the rest of the Russian fighters go home at full throttle. I turn around, descend and see below me a lone fighter with red stars flying to the west. I catch him in the scope and shoot. His pilot twitched, tried to get away at low level, but crashed into the top of the hill."

As we can see from the above quotes, Steinhof claims two Russian planes shot down.

However, Steinhof was not alone in claiming downed Soviet fighters, there were other Luftwaffe pilots flying the Me-262, who also claimed victories won on the Eastern Front.

So, in the last days of April, Ober - Lieutenant Herbert Schluter shot down one Yak-9 near the city of Breslau, and Ober - Fenrich Günther Wittbold destroyed 2 Soviet Il-2 attack aircraft in the vicinity of Baerwalde. He later recalled:

“Everything happened very quickly and at low altitude. I was very surprised to meet Russians there. The gunner of the first Il did not even have time to open fire. "I saw him until the tracer bullets from his cannons flew past my ears. After receiving several hits, the Il-2 fell apart into many small parts."

During the last weeks of the war, JG7 pilots destroyed about 20 Soviet aircraft.

But the most interesting thing is that the last victory in the Second World War, which was won by the Luftwaffe pilots, was on a jet plane, and besides, a Soviet fighter was shot down. Presumably, this is a pilot from the 129th GvIAP G. G. Stepanov. This victory was won on May 8 at 15:20.

In conclusion, I would like to say that the Luftwaffe jet aircraft did not bring the desired result to Hitler. Too late, he "gave the green light" to the mass production of aircraft with jet and rocket engines. Nothing could save Germany.

Pilots died not so much from the fact that they were shot down by enemy aircraft, but because they became victims of man-made disasters.

On the Eastern Front, jet planes did not bring any success, and their use there is comparable to the dying convulsions of a dying man. In this case, the role of the dying was the Third Reich and its war machine.

Nevertheless, experience, courage and loyalty to the Motherland did not even psychologically break the pilots of the Red Army Air Force in front of the "jet monster" of the Luftwaffe, the Russian pilots drove off this beast and put an end to the ambitions of the Luftwaffe.

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The Me-262 aircraft was not the only serial Luftwaffe jet fighter that took part in the battles of the Second World War. And although another aircraft of the same company, we are talking about the missile Me-163 "Kometa", did not meet in air battles with Soviet pilots, it is worth telling a little about it.

This aircraft is known in the history of world aviation as "Messerschmitt-163". However, its creator was not Willy Messerschmitt, whose name he began to bear, but Alexander Lippish, a very talented scientist in the field of aviation. This machine was conceived and designed by Lippisch, but built at the Messerschmitt factories. The idea of ​​Lippisch, embodied in metal, began to bear the designation Me-163. There are countless children in the world who bear the names not of their parents, but of those who took care of them. The main thing in this case is the essence, not the name.

Everyone who flew on this jet miracle felt "heat in the chest and cold in the back." This plane in a short time could lift a person to a great height or throw him into the underworld. It was for this temper that he was loved. Here is what test pilot Mano Ziegler writes in his memoirs:

"Almost not a single flight day passed without the loss of one of us. But oddly enough, we all loved this rocket monster, like a windy woman who could deceive you and leave you at any moment, but nevertheless we remained faithful to him ".

The German fighter-interceptor Me-163, which entered service with the German Air Force in May 1944, was one of the most unusual, but at the same time the most promising fighters in the world. In the subsequent decades of aviation development, not a single serial aircraft was created that could be directly compared with this fighter.

The prototype aircraft had the designation DFS-194. Rather, it was a DFS-33 glider, developed by the German Research Institute of Gliding Technology, equipped with a rocket engine. At the same time, the design of the aircraft had to be thoroughly redone, after which it received the designation DFS-194. While it was being built in Darmstadt, Alexander Lippisch and several of his employees had to move to Augsburg to the firm of Willy Messerschmitt (since the institute was mainly a research institution, it was decided to start mass production of the aircraft on the basis of the Messerschmitt company, the leading developer and manufacturer of German fighters). The aircraft was assigned the corporate designation Me-163. Work on this aircraft began on January 2, 1939. A team of 6 people began to work on it. Heini Dittmar agreed to become a test pilot.

Meanwhile, the DFS-194 built in Darmstadt began to undergo towing tests. Then a rocket engine was installed on it, running on "T-fuel" (hydrogen peroxide) and "Z-fuel" (potassium permanganate). Test flights with such a power plant were carried out at the missile base in Peenemünde. Despite the great difficulties that accompanied the tests, encouraging results were obtained. On a DFS-194 rocket glider, Heini Dittmar reached a speed of 550 km/h.

Tests of the first experimental aircraft Me-163 V1 in a gliding flight began in the spring of 1941. Flight tests of the aircraft were initially carried out in tow. The twin-engine aircraft Me-110 was chosen as a towing vehicle. The first towing flights showed that the Me-163 had a too small glide angle. There was not enough landing strip on the first landing, and Dittmar was forced to slip between two hangars at the end of the airfield. Everyone who saw this landing had their hair on end. A number of improvements in the design of the aircraft followed, and again towing tests for planning.

Until that time, not a single aircraft that did not have a tail had flown at a speed above 350 km / h. At speeds greater than this, there was a dangerous flutter on the rudder. When this was managed, it turned out that at a speed exceeding 520 km / h, he appeared on the elevator. It took more than 15 towing flights until these problems were fixed. In general, in terms of aerodynamic properties, the Me-163 aircraft turned out to be unusually good and reliable. In a gentle flight, he easily reached a speed of about 900 km / h.

Once, Ernst Udet, who was in charge of new equipment at the Ministry of Aviation, came to test the aircraft. At this time, Dittmar, at an altitude of 5000 meters, was carrying out another program on the Me-163, which was raised there in tow. Lippisch, seeing the arrival of Udet, showed him his finger up.

What is it, Lippisch? asked Udet.

Our experienced Me-163...

At that moment, Dittmar sent the car down and at a great speed, about 800 km / h, having leveled it, flew over the airfield, and then went up like a candle.

What engine is in this car? asked Udet.

There is no engine on this plane yet,” Lippisch replied.

No engine? - asked Udet. - Do you take me for a fool, Lippisch?

During this test flight, Dittmar made several dive flights and climbed up.

This cannot be, - every time the plane was lifted up, Udet said, - You are lying to me, Lippisch!

When Dittmar landed, Udet approached the plane and began to carefully examine it. Finally, making sure that he was not being deceived, he said:

Indeed, there is no engine ...

The unpowered flight Udet saw made a strong impression on him. From that time on, he began to vigorously promote further work on it and did not lose sight of it until his death.

The rocket engine created by Walter for the Me-163 had a thrust of 750 kg. The first flights with such an engine were carried out at the missile base in Peenemünde. The car showed an unprecedented rate of climb. But, since the jettisoned take-off Iassi did not have shock-absorbing devices, the pilot was subjected to large vibration overloads during the launch. The same thing happened on landing. There was an urgent need to create a seat for the pilot, able to withstand such overloads. Test flights were temporarily suspended.

Despite the fact that a sufficiently reliable pilot's seat was not made, test flights were resumed. Already in the 4th flight, Dittmar managed to reach a speed of 800 km / h. But this is not yet the limit. Upon reaching a speed of 920 km / h on the plane as a result of flutter, the rudder flew off. Landing the plane was out of the question. Dittmar had to leave it and jump out by parachute.

On the next experimental aircraft Me-163 V4, Heini Dittmar made a record flight and reached a speed of over 1000 km / h. If flights were not carried out in the greatest secrecy, they could become a world achievement. Dittmar himself spoke about these flights as follows:

“Achieving record speeds was not easy. The engine turned off every time, I could barely reach a speed of about 500 km / h. When I managed to find out his whim, I decided to conduct high-speed flights at an altitude of 4000 meters. I monitored the speed indicator. The pressure gauge showed normal pressure. At this altitude, the engine did not let me down. In one of the flights over the measured distance, I began to increase the speed. The arrow began to creep up: 950 - 960 - 970 ... I looked at the pressure gauge, the engine is in order "I barely looked at the speed indicator, the needle was already over 1000 km / h. The plane began to vibrate strongly. I felt that he stopped obeying the control stick. I immediately turned off the engine and waited for the plane to collapse. Some time passed. Suddenly I I felt that the plane began to obey the control. Then I finally realized that I had entered the sound barrier zone. After landing, I found out that on the measuring line sa the aircraft showed a speed of 1004 km/h.

One of the first test flights of the Me-163 rocket aircraft.

Thus, already in 1941, an aircraft with a person on board exceeded the 1000-km mark. After achieving such success, Heini Dittmar was awarded the Lilienthal Prize for research in the field of aviation. This was a well-deserved reward for his flight tests, during which he was on the verge of death more than once.

This aircraft was also the first aircraft in the history of aviation to encounter problems with the compressibility of the air flow at high speeds in level flight. Therefore, when developing the machine, a number of new aerodynamic problems had to be solved. The scheme chosen for the "Kometa" - "tailless" with a swept wing - facilitated their decision. Since that time, the use of swept wings has become one of the traditional solutions to the problems of high-speed flight.

The modification of the Me-163 aircraft, which received the designation "B", had a jet thrust, almost 2 times greater than the first. The speed increased, and with it the danger. Knowing full well that every flight could end in death, Dittmar turned to Udet with a request for a partner whom he could teach to pilot a rocket plane. Goes made sure that Dittmar's friend, Rudolf Opitz, was transferred from the front to the Messerschmitt company as a test pilot.

The designers still faced the problem of cushioning the pilot's seat. Already at the end of the tests of the rocket plane with Heini Dittmar, an accident occurred that chained him to a hospital bed for 2 years. When landing, the shock absorber on the landing ski could not stand it. The plane remained unscathed, but Dittmar broke his spine. Tests of the aircraft continued Opitz. Soon he was joined by the famous pilot ace Wolfgang Spathe, recalled from the front. When the tests were completed, in the summer of 1943, "Test Detachment No. 16" was formed in Bad Zwischenahn for training in piloting a rocket aircraft.

It can be said that the members of the anti-Hitler coalition were lucky that the technical difficulties that arose during the development of the aircraft (mainly associated with the creation of a liquid-fuel rocket engine), as well as the political difficulties of that time, made it difficult for the Comet to enter the arsenal of the fascist Air Force .

According to its scheme, the Me-163 was a rather conservative "tailless" with a swept wing, which was designed by Alexander Lippisch, who had gained considerable experience by this time. Single-section elevons were installed on the wing (of a wooden structure), and on the tail section of a short all-metal (aluminum alloy) fuselage - a vertical tail with a rudder. The designers solved the problem of the retractable landing gear by abandoning it altogether. The plane took off from a detachable two-wheeled cart, and landing was carried out on a single ski, similar to the landing gear of gliders. The aircraft did not have supporting wing supports of a ski or wheel type, so almost every landing ended with a turn of the aircraft, and often with a coup.

The Me-163 rocket plane was transported over the ground on a transport trolley.

All available volumes of the fuselage were given over to the tanks, which housed the LRE fuel. The fuel components of the Me-163 fighter were a mixture of methyl alcohol, hydrazine and water (fuel) and hydrogen peroxide (oxidizer). Several Me-163 accidents occurred due to the contact of rocket fuel components outside the engine combustion chamber (Walter HW 509 C-1, thrust 20 kN). Sometimes the engine exploded even just from a rough landing.

Despite a significant fuel reserve (2000 kg), the efficiency of the engine was very low, so that it could only work for 12 minutes; this means that the interceptor had to be based directly under the air corridors followed by the enemy bombers. By the time the Me-163 reached an altitude of 9760 meters, he had only 6.5 minutes of fuel left. In some cases, fully fueled "Comets" were towed to a height behind heavy German aircraft, after which the engine was started in the air, and the fighter-interceptor began to attack the bomber.

Serial fighter - interceptor Me-163V, spring 1945.

The armament of the aircraft consisted of 2 cannons of 20 mm caliber, installed in the wing. Me-163 was one of the smallest fighters of World War II. The wingspan of the aircraft was 9.81 m, the wing area of ​​the aircraft was 20.37 sq.m, the take-off weight was 5299.8 kg, the load per unit area of ​​the wing was 260.9 kg / sq.m. The maximum speed of the serial Me-163S was 858 km / h, the aircraft was able to climb 12,100 meters in 3 minutes 20 seconds; the rate of climb near the ground was 60 m / s.

364 aircraft were produced in mass production. Subsequently, a number of aircraft with rocket engines were created, but none of them ever became a serial combat aircraft of the Air Force.

The Me-163 aircraft was in service with only one fighter squadron - JG400 [commander - famous German pilot ace Wolfrang Spate; ended the war flying on the Me-262, had 99 air victories to his credit] and was used exclusively to combat enemy heavy bombers on the Western Front. By the end of 1944, the combat activity of the JG400 dropped sharply due to the constant bombing of airfields, poor pilot training, and a critical situation with the delivery of fuel. In reality, only the 1st group was fighting, which managed to achieve 9 victories with the loss of 14 aircraft. The 2nd group, due to a lack of fuel, ended the war without making a single sortie ...

The Me-163 rocket plane was not covered with the glory of victories. Many vehicles were lost due to engine failure. Many of them died in air battles. The rest were captured by the Allies and for some time were tested in the research institutes of the Air Forces of the victorious countries. This indicated that his flight performance was of interest.

In our country, test flights of a two-seat training version of the machine - Me-163S were carried out.

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In the years when the speed of 700 - 750 km / h was considered very good for serial fighters, in Germany, the designers already knew what would happen to the aircraft when it reached a speed of twice, four times as much, how the car would behave in the sound speed zone and far for her. All the years of the war, the Germans, it turns out, stubbornly carried out relevant research, and not only theoretical, but already in laboratories and at test sites, "purging" in the wind tunnels of Göttingen, Hamburg, Volkenrode, Detmold, Travemünde, Pienemünde, in the giant Otzale tube in the Alps, they shot detailed films about the flights of cruise missiles, about the fall of experimental bombs from a great height (so that when they fall, they have time to accelerate to the desired speed). They learned to reliably, with an error of no more than 1%, determine the parameters of a supersonic air flow at any point in the profile flowing around it, take into account the influence of various physical and geometric factors on such a flow, and much more - and as a result, in 1944, Germany was already building at least 8 experienced jet aircraft, at least 7 were in the design stage.

In 1944 - 1945, our Western allies discovered in Germany a ready-made scavenging aerodynamic model of the Jaeger R-13 fighter (chief designer Alexander Lippisch) and an experimental glider DM-1 - a simplified "analogue" of this fighter, a narrow tailless triangle.

The Americans have already flown on the DM-1. The speed of the R-13 would be, according to some sources, 1650, according to others - 1955, according to others - 2410 km / h. In the powerful wind tunnel of Göttingen, the Germans blew the R-13 model in a flow more than 2.5 times the speed of sound.

Designed by Alexander Lippisch, the DM-1 glider had a 60° leading edge sweep and a 15° trailing edge sweep. The glider was created at the end of the Second World War as a full-scale gliding model of the projected fighter aircraft with a ramjet. The DM-1 was developed in order to test the possibility of providing acceptable flight characteristics of an aircraft of such a scheme at low flight speeds. In the absence of a prototype aircraft equipped with a sufficiently powerful power plant, it was planned to obtain high-speed aerodynamic data in a wind tunnel. Aerodynamic data in the region of intermediate speeds were obtained during flight tests, during which the DM-1 was towed to a high altitude (approximately 7600 meters or more), after which the aircraft separated and free-flyed. The DM-1 was supposed to accelerate to the speed required by the test program during a protracted dive. The relatively small mass of this glider did not allow it to develop a very high speed in a dive. The maximum speed in a dive was approximately 558.7 km / h.

Wooden glider A. Lippisha DM-1, created at the end of the war.

When creating the DM-1 glider, Lippisch was assisted by two groups of engineers - aviation technology enthusiasts from the universities of Darmstadt and Munich (the glider got its name from the initial letters of these cities).

Apart from the lack of an engine, the DM-1 was a fully completed aircraft, including a tricycle retractable landing gear. To ensure the minimum mass of the structure, the aircraft was made of wood, and thin aircraft plywood was used as skin. In addition to the innovative wing shape, a unique design feature was that the cockpit was a root part of the leading edge of the vertical tail of a large relative thickness.

The DM-1 fell into the hands of the American occupying forces, after which it was used in the United States for testing in 1945. The results obtained were so encouraging that Conver received a contract to design and build a jet modification of this airframe. The DM-1 is currently in the US Air Force Museum near Dayton, Ohio.

Immediately after the war, the United States removed 86 German military designers and scientists from Germany. An incomplete list of them (only the "leaders" are listed) was given in December 1946 by the Aviation News magazine. Named among them was Wernher von Braun, the chief designer of the V-2 rocket, later the head of the development of the American Saturn launch vehicles and the Apollo series spacecraft, and the first was Dr. Alexander Lippisch ...

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In conclusion of our story, I would like to return to the developments in the field of jet technology by designer Ernst Heinkel, or rather, to the Heinkel He-162 "Salamander" aircraft.

The history of this car is very interesting. In the last year of the war, when the inevitability of the defeat of Germany was already obvious, two "great ideas" owned Hitler - the creation of a total retaliation weapon and the total mobilization of the entire country. During this period, one after another, "extremely simple" and at the same time, it would seem, very effective means of fighting the enemy appear. One of them was the "total" He-162 fighter. One of the leaders of the Ministry of Armaments had the idea to create a small jet fighter, later called "people's", designed to "defend the fatherland." It was required that it be easy to manage. It was supposed to fly, after a short training, mostly boys from the glider schools of the "Hitler Youth".

The task for the development and tactical and technical requirements for such an aircraft were issued simultaneously to five companies: Blom and Foss, Heinkel, Junkers, Arado and Focke-Wulf. According to the requirements, the speed of the aircraft was to be 750 km / h, armament - 2 guns, flight time 20 minutes, weight 2000 kg., Power plant - one BMW 003 turbojet engine with a thrust of 810 kg.

On September 8, 1944, Heinkel employees received an order for the design of the aircraft. Even before proceeding with its layout, they already knew that it was not advisable to place a single engine in the fuselage. Having experience in building a single-engine He-178 aircraft, they understood how many different linkages would be required with this placement of the engine. It was easier to install the engine above the fuselage, as was already done by the Fizler designers on the Fi-103 projectile. In order to simplify production, the wing and plumage were decided to be made of wood. Even the fuel tank was veneered. It was decided to make the landing gear with a nose wheel, which was supposed to provide good take-off and landing qualities of the car.

German serial jet fighter Heinkel He-162А.

The design study of the Non-162 aircraft began on September 24, 1944, and already on December 6, that is, just 2 months later, the first prototype of the aircraft was flown into the air by pilot Peters, who had an engineering education. When it was tested, a maximum flight speed of 840 km / h was obtained at an altitude of 6000 meters. Unfortunately, this talented pilot later died during the testing of the second prototype He-162 aircraft due to the destruction of the wing in flight. However, Hitler hurried Heinkel, and therefore, after a slight strengthening of the wing structure, even without additional flight tests, the aircraft was put into production simultaneously at several factories of Heinkel and the Junkers company.

On July 17, 1945, an air parade took place at the English airfield in Farnborough, in which captured German-made aircraft also took part. Among others, 8 He-162 aircraft were shown. According to the report of an English pilot who tested the serial He-162, the speed of the machine did not exceed 750 km / h, which was explained by the haste of launching the aircraft into mass production. About the flight and aerobatic properties of this fighter, he expressed himself in just two words: "The best in the world!"

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The original article by Andrey Lyubushkin is on the site "Aviators of World War II". I took the liberty of inserting additional information about the He-178, He-280, He-162, Me-163 aircraft, experimental developments of A. Lippisch into it, supplementing it with some interesting drawings and photographs.

For those who are interested in the history of the creation of jet aircraft in the design bureau of Ernst Heinkel, I suggest reading one of the chapters of his book "In my fast-paced life ..." -

It was one of the main branches of the military and played a very important role in the course of hostilities. It is no coincidence that each of the belligerents sought to ensure a constant increase in the combat capability of their aviation by increasing the production of aircraft and their continuous improvement and renewal. As never before, scientific and engineering potential was widely involved in the military sphere, many research institutes and laboratories, design bureaus and test centers were operating, through the efforts of which the latest military equipment was created. It was a time of unusually rapid progress in aircraft construction. At the same time, the era of the evolution of aircraft with piston engines, which had reigned supreme in aviation since its inception, seemed to be ending. Combat aircraft of the end of the Second World War were the most advanced examples of aviation equipment created on the basis of piston engines.

The essential difference between the peaceful and war periods of the development of combat aviation was that during the war the effectiveness of technology was determined directly by experience. If in peacetime military specialists and aircraft designers, when ordering and creating new types of aircraft, relied only on speculative ideas about the nature of a future war or were guided by the limited experience of local conflicts, then large-scale military operations dramatically changed the situation. The practice of air combat became not only a powerful catalyst in accelerating the progress of aviation, but also the only criterion for comparing the quality of aircraft and choosing the main directions for further development. Each side improved its aircraft based on its own experience of warfare, the availability of resources, the capabilities of technology and the aviation industry as a whole.

During the war years in England, the USSR, the USA, Germany and Japan, a large number of aircraft were created, which played a significant role in the course of the armed struggle. Among them are many outstanding examples. Of interest is the comparison of these machines, as well as the comparison of those engineering and scientific ideas that were used in their creation. Of course, among the numerous types of aircraft that took part in the war and represented different schools of aircraft construction, it is difficult to single out the indisputably best ones. Therefore, the choice of machines to some extent is conditional.

Fighters were the main means of gaining air supremacy in the fight against the enemy. The success of the combat operations of the ground forces and other branches of aviation, the security of rear facilities largely depended on the effectiveness of their actions. It is no coincidence that it was the class of fighters that developed most intensively. The best of them are traditionally called the Yak-3 and La-7 aircraft (USSR), the North American R-51 Mustang (Mustang, USA), the Supermarine Spitfire (Spitfire, England) and the Messerschmitt Bf 109 ( Germany). Among the many modifications of Western fighters, the R-51D, Spitfire XIV and Bf 109G-10 and K-4 were selected for comparison, that is, those aircraft that were mass-produced and entered service with the air force at the final stage of the war. All of them were created in 1943 - early 1944. These machines reflected the richest combat experience already accumulated by that time by the warring countries. They became, as it were, symbols of the military aviation equipment of their time.

Before comparing different types of fighters, it is worth saying a little about the basic principles of comparison. The main thing here is to keep in mind the conditions of combat use under which they were created. The war in the East showed that in the presence of a front line where ground forces were the main force of the armed struggle, relatively low flight altitudes were required from aviation. The experience of air battles on the Soviet-German front shows that the vast majority of them were fought at altitudes up to 4.5 km, regardless of the altitude of the aircraft. Soviet designers, improving fighters and engines for them, could not ignore this circumstance. At the same time, the British Spitfires and the American Mustangs were distinguished by their higher altitude, since the nature of the actions for which they were counting was completely different. In addition, the P-51D had a much longer range needed to escort heavy bombers and was therefore significantly heavier than Spitfires, German Bf 109s and Soviet fighters. Thus, since the British, American and Soviet fighters were created for different combat conditions, the question of which of the machines as a whole was the most effective loses its meaning. It is advisable to compare only the main technical solutions and features of machines.

The situation is different with the German fighters. They were intended for air combat on both the Eastern and Western fronts. Therefore, they can reasonably be compared with all Allied fighters.

So what stood out the best fighters of the Second World War? What was their fundamental difference from each other? Let's start with the main thing - with the technical ideology laid down by the designers in the projects of these aircraft.

The most unusual in terms of the concept of creation were, perhaps, the Spitfire and Mustang.

“This is not just a good plane, this is a Spitfire!” - such an assessment by the English test pilot G. Powell undoubtedly applies to one of the last fighter variants of this family - the Spitfire XIV, the best fighter of the British Air Force during the war. It was on the Spitfire XIV that a German Me 262 jet fighter was shot down in an air battle.

Creating the Spitfire in the mid-1930s, the designers tried to combine seemingly incompatible things: the high speed inherent in the then high-speed monoplane fighters, with the excellent maneuverability, altitude and takeoff and landing characteristics inherent in biplanes. The goal was basically achieved. Like many other high-speed fighters, the Spitfire had a well-streamlined cantilever monoplane design. But this was only a superficial resemblance. For its weight, the Spitfire had a relatively large wing, which gave a small load per unit of bearing surface, much less than other monoplane fighters. Hence, excellent maneuverability in the horizontal plane, high ceiling and good takeoff and landing properties. This approach was not something exceptional: Japanese designers, for example, did the same. But the creators of Spitfire went further. Due to the high aerodynamic drag of such a large wing, it was impossible to count on achieving a high maximum flight speed - one of the most important indicators of the quality of fighters of those years. To reduce drag, they used profiles of a much thinner relative thickness than other fighters, and gave the wing an elliptical shape in plan. This further reduced aerodynamic drag when flying at high altitude and in maneuver modes.

The company managed to create an outstanding combat aircraft. This does not mean that the Spitfire was devoid of any shortcomings. They were. For example, due to the low load on the wing, it was inferior to many fighters in terms of accelerating properties in a dive. Slower than German, American, and even more so Soviet fighters, it reacted to the actions of the pilot in a roll. However, these shortcomings were not of a fundamental nature, and in general, the Spitfire was undoubtedly one of the strongest air combat fighters, which demonstrated excellent qualities in action.

Among the many variants of the Mustang fighter, the greatest success fell on aircraft equipped with English Merlin engines. These were the R-51B, C and, of course, the R-51D - the best and most famous American fighter of World War II. Since 1944, it was these aircraft that ensured the safety of heavy American B-17 and B-24 bombers from attacks by German fighters and demonstrated their superiority in battle.

The main distinguishing feature of the Mustang in terms of aerodynamics was a laminar wing, for the first time in the world practice of aircraft industry, installed on a combat aircraft. About this "highlight" of the aircraft, born in the laboratory of the American research center NASA on the eve of the war, it should be said especially. The fact is that the opinion of experts on the advisability of using a laminar wing on fighters of that period is ambiguous. If before the war high hopes were placed on laminar wings, since under certain conditions they had less aerodynamic resistance compared to conventional ones, then the experience with the Mustang reduced the initial optimism. It turned out that in real operation such a wing is not effective enough. The reason was that in order to implement a laminar flow on a part of such a wing, a very careful surface finish and high accuracy in maintaining the profile were required. Due to the roughness that arose when applying a protective color to the aircraft, and even a small inaccuracy in the profiling, which inevitably appeared in mass production (small wave-like thin metal skin), the effect of laminarization on the R-51 wing was greatly reduced. In terms of their load-bearing properties, laminar airfoils were inferior to conventional airfoils, which caused difficulties in ensuring good maneuverability and takeoff and landing properties.

At low angles of attack, laminar wing profiles (sometimes called laminated wing profiles) have less aerodynamic drag than conventional type profiles.

In addition to reduced resistance, laminar profiles had better speed qualities - with an equal relative thickness, the effects of air compressibility (wave crisis) manifested themselves at higher speeds than on conventional type profiles. This already had to be reckoned with. In dives, especially at high altitudes, where the speed of sound is much lower than near the ground, aircraft began to reach speeds at which the features associated with approaching the speed of sound were already manifested. It was possible to increase the so-called critical speed either by using faster profiles, which turned out to be laminar, or by reducing the relative thickness of the profile, while putting up with the inevitable increase in the weight of the structure and reducing the volume of the wing, often used (including on the P-51D) for placement of gas tanks and. Interestingly, due to the much smaller relative thickness of the airfoils, the wave crisis on the wing of the Spitfire occurred at a higher speed than on the wing of the Mustang.

Research at the British Aviation Research Center RAE showed that due to the significantly smaller relative thickness of the wing profiles, the Spitfire fighter at high speeds had a lower drag coefficient than the Mustang. This was due to the later manifestation of the wave flow crisis and its more “soft” character.

If air battles were fought at relatively low altitudes, the crisis phenomena of air compressibility almost did not manifest themselves, so the need for a special high-speed wing was not acutely felt.

The way of creating the Soviet aircraft Yak-3 and La-7 turned out to be very unusual. In essence, they were deep modifications of the Yak-1 and LaGG-3 fighters, developed in 1940 and mass-produced.

In the Soviet Air Force at the final stage of the war there was no fighter more popular than the Yak-3. At the time it was the most light fighter. The French pilots of the Normandie-Niemen regiment, who fought on the Yak-3, spoke of its combat capabilities in the following way: “The Yak-3 gives you complete superiority over the Germans. On the Yak-3, two can fight against four, and four against sixteen!

A radical revision of the Yak design was undertaken in 1943 in order to dramatically improve flight performance with a very modest power plant. The decisive direction in this work was the lightening of the aircraft (including by reducing the wing area) and a significant improvement in its aerodynamics. Perhaps this was the only opportunity to qualitatively promote the aircraft, since the Soviet industry had not yet mass-produced new, more powerful engines suitable for installation on the Yak-1.

Such an exceptionally difficult path for the development of aviation technology was extraordinary. The usual way to improve the aircraft flight data complex was then to improve aerodynamics without noticeable changes in the dimensions of the airframe, as well as to install more powerful engines. This was almost always accompanied by a marked increase in weight.

The designers of the Yak-3 coped brilliantly with this difficult task. It is unlikely that in the aviation of the period of the Second World War one can find another example of a similar and so effectively performed work.

The Yak-3 compared to the Yak-1 was much lighter, had a smaller relative profile thickness and wing area, and had excellent aerodynamic properties. The power-to-weight ratio of the aircraft has increased significantly, which has dramatically improved its rate of climb, acceleration characteristics and vertical maneuverability. At the same time, such an important parameter for horizontal maneuverability, takeoff and landing as the specific load on the wing has changed little. During the war, the Yak-3 turned out to be one of the easiest fighters to fly.

Of course, in tactical terms, the Yak-3 by no means replaced aircraft that were distinguished by stronger weapons and longer combat flight duration, but perfectly complemented them, embodying the idea of ​​a light, high-speed and maneuverable air combat vehicle, designed primarily to fight fighters. enemy.

One of the few, if not the only air-cooled fighter, which can rightly be attributed to the best air combat fighters of the Second World War. On the La-7, the famous Soviet ace I.N. Kozhedub shot down 17 German aircraft (including the Me-262 jet fighter) out of 62 destroyed by him on La fighters.

The history of the creation of La-7 is also unusual. At the beginning of 1942, on the basis of the LaGG-3 fighter, which turned out to be a rather mediocre combat vehicle, the La-5 fighter was developed, which differed from its predecessor only in the power plant (the liquid-cooled motor was replaced with a much more powerful two-row “star”). In the course of further development of the La-5, the designers focused on its aerodynamic improvement. During the period 1942-1943. fighters of the La brand were the most frequent "guests" in full-scale wind tunnels of the leading Soviet aviation research center TsAGI. The main purpose of such tests was to identify the main sources of aerodynamic losses and to determine design measures that help reduce aerodynamic drag. An important feature of this work was that the proposed design changes did not require major alterations to the aircraft and changes in the production process and could be relatively easily carried out by serial factories. It was a truly "jewelry" work, when, it would seem, a rather impressive result was obtained from mere trifles.

The fruit of this work was the La-5FN, which appeared at the beginning of 1943, one of the strongest Soviet fighters of that time, and then the La-7, an aircraft that rightfully took its place among the best fighters of the Second World War. If during the transition from La-5 to La-5FN the increase in flight data was achieved not only due to better aerodynamics, but also due to a more powerful engine, then the improvement in the performance of La-7 was achieved solely by means of aerodynamics and a reduction in the weight of the structure. This aircraft had a speed of 80 km / h more than the La-5, of which 75% (that is, 60 km / h) was given by aerodynamics. Such an increase in speed is equivalent to an increase in engine power by more than a third, and without increasing the weight and dimensions of the aircraft.

The best features of an air combat fighter were embodied in the La-7: high speed, excellent maneuverability and rate of climb. In addition, compared with the rest of the fighters discussed here, it had greater survivability, since only this aircraft had an air-cooled engine. As you know, such motors are not only more viable than liquid-cooled engines, but also serve as a kind of protection for the pilot from fire from the front hemisphere, since they have large cross-sectional dimensions.

The German fighter Messerschmitt Bf 109 was created around the same time as the Spitfire. Like the English aircraft, the Bf 109 became one of the most successful examples of a combat vehicle during the war and went through a long evolutionary path: it was equipped with more and more powerful engines, improved aerodynamics, operational and flight characteristics. In terms of aerodynamics, the last major change was made in 1941 with the introduction of the Bf 109F. Further improvement of flight data was mainly due to the installation of new motors. Externally latest modifications of this fighter - the Bf 109G-10 and K-4 differed little from the much earlier Bf 109F, although they had a number of aerodynamic improvements.

This aircraft was the best representative of the light and maneuverable combat vehicle of the Nazi Luftwaffe. Throughout almost the entire second world war, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters were among the best examples of aircraft in their class, and only towards the end of the war did they begin to lose their positions. It turned out to be impossible to combine the qualities inherent in the best Western fighters, designed for a relatively high combat altitude, with the qualities inherent in the best Soviet "medium-altitude" fighters.

Like their British counterparts, the designers of the Bf 109 tried to combine a high top speed with good maneuverability and takeoff and landing qualities. But they solved this problem in a completely different way: unlike the Spitfire, the Bf 109 had a large specific load on the wing, which made it possible to obtain high speed, and to improve maneuverability, not only well-known slats were used, but also flaps, which at the right time battles could be deflected by the pilot at a small angle. The use of controlled flaps was a new and original solution. To improve takeoff and landing characteristics, in addition to automatic slats and controlled flaps, hovering ailerons were used, which worked as additional sections of the flaps; a controlled stabilizer was also used. In a word, the Bf 109 had a unique system of direct lift control, largely characteristic of modern aircraft with their inherent automation. However, in practice, many of the designers' decisions did not take root. Due to the complexity, it was necessary to abandon the controlled stabilizer, hanging ailerons, and the flap release system in battle. As a result, in terms of its maneuverability, the Bf 109 did not differ much from other fighters, both Soviet and American, although it was inferior to the best domestic aircraft. Takeoff and landing characteristics were similar.

The experience of aircraft construction shows that the gradual improvement of a combat aircraft is almost always accompanied by an increase in its weight. This is due to the installation of more powerful, and therefore heavier engines, an increase in fuel supply, an increase in the power of weapons, the necessary structural reinforcements and other related activities. In the end, there comes a time when the reserves of this design are exhausted. One of the limitations is the specific load on the wing. This, of course, is not the only parameter, but one of the most important and common to all aircraft. So, as the Spitfire fighters were modified from version 1A to XIV and Bf 109 from B-2 to G-10 and K-4, their specific wing load increased by about a third! Already in the Bf 109G-2 (1942) it was 185 kg/m2, while the Spitfire IX, which was also released in 1942, had about 150 kg/m2. For the Bf 109G-2, this wing loading was close to the limit. With its further growth, the aerobatic, maneuvering and takeoff and landing characteristics of the aircraft deteriorated sharply, despite the very effective mechanization of the wing (slats and flaps).

Since 1942, German designers have been improving their best air combat fighter under very strict weight restrictions, which greatly narrowed the possibilities for qualitative improvement of the aircraft. And the creators of the Spitfire still had sufficient reserves and continued to increase the power of the installed engines and strengthen the weapons, without particularly considering the increase in weight.

The quality of their mass production has a great influence on the aerodynamic properties of aircraft. Careless manufacturing can negate all the efforts of designers and scientists. This doesn't happen very often. Judging by the captured documents, in Germany, conducting a comparative study of the aerodynamics of German, American and British fighters at the end of the war, they came to the conclusion that the Bf 109G had the worst quality of production, and, in particular, for this reason, its aerodynamics turned out to be the worst, which with a high probability can be extended to the Bf 109K-4.

From the foregoing, it can be seen that in terms of the technical concept of creation and the aerodynamic features of the layout, each of the compared aircraft is quite original. But they also have many common features: well-streamlined shapes, careful engine cowling, well-developed local aerodynamics and aerodynamics of cooling devices.

As for the design, Soviet fighters were much simpler and cheaper to manufacture than British, German and, especially, American aircraft. Scarce materials were used in them in very limited quantities. Thanks to this, the USSR managed to ensure a high rate of aircraft production in the face of the most severe material restrictions and a lack of skilled labor. I must say that our country is in the most difficult situation. From 1941 to 1944 inclusive, a significant part of the industrial zone, where many metallurgical enterprises were located, was occupied by the Nazis. Some factories managed to be evacuated inland and set up production in new places. But a significant part of the production potential was still irretrievably lost. In addition, a large number of skilled workers and specialists went to the front. At the machines they were replaced by women and children who could not work at the appropriate level. Nevertheless, the aircraft industry of the USSR, although not immediately, was able to meet the needs of the front in aircraft.

Unlike all-metal Western fighters, wood was widely used in Soviet aircraft. However, in many power elements, which actually determined the weight of the structure, metal was used. That is why, in terms of weight perfection, the Yak-3 and La-7 practically did not differ from foreign fighters.

In terms of technological sophistication, ease of access to individual units and ease of maintenance in general, the Bf 109 and Mustang looked somewhat preferable. However, Spitfires and Soviet fighters were also well adapted to the conditions of combat operation. But in terms of such very important characteristics as the quality of equipment and the level of automation, the Yak-3 and La-7 were inferior to Western fighters, the best of which were German aircraft (not only Bf 109, but others) in terms of automation.

The most important indicator of high flight performance of the aircraft and its overall combat capability is the power plant. It is in the aircraft engine industry that the latest achievements in technology, materials, control and automation systems are first of all embodied. Engine building is one of the most science-intensive branches of the aircraft industry. Compared to an aircraft, the process of creating and fine-tuning new engines takes much more time and requires a lot of effort.

During the Second World War, England occupied a leading position in aircraft engine building. It was the Rolls-Royce engines that equipped the Spitfires and the best versions of the Mustangs (P-51B, C and D). It can be said without exaggeration that just the installation of the English Merlin engine, which was produced in the USA under license by Packard, made it possible to realize the great capabilities of the Mustang and brought it into the category of elite fighters. Prior to this, the R-51, although original, was a rather mediocre aircraft in terms of combat capabilities.

The peculiarity of English engines, which largely determined their excellent performance, was the use of high-grade gasoline, the conditional octane number of which reached 100-150. This made it possible to apply a large degree of air pressure (more precisely, the working mixture) into the cylinders and thereby obtain high power. The USSR and Germany could not meet the needs of aviation in such high-quality and expensive fuel. Typically, gasoline with an octane rating of 87-100 was used.

A characteristic feature that united all the engines that were on the compared fighters was the use of two-speed drive centrifugal superchargers (PTsN), providing the required altitude. But the difference between Rolls-Royce engines was that their superchargers had not one, as usual, but two successive compression stages, and even with intermediate cooling of the working mixture in a special radiator. Despite the complexity of such systems, their use turned out to be fully justified for high-altitude motors, since it significantly reduced the power losses spent by the motor for pumping. This was a very important factor.

The original was the DB-605 motor injection system, driven through a turbo coupling, which, with automatic control, smoothly adjusted the gear ratio from the motor to the blower impeller. In contrast to the two-speed drive superchargers that were on Soviet and British engines, the turbo coupling made it possible to reduce the power drop that occurred between the injection speeds.

An important advantage of German engines (DB-605 and others) was the use of direct fuel injection into the cylinders. Compared to a conventional carburetor system, this increased the reliability and efficiency of the power plant. Of the other engines, only the Soviet ASh-82FN, which was on the La-7, had a similar direct injection system.

A significant factor in improving the flight performance of the Mustang and Spitfire was that their motors had relatively short-term modes of operation at high power. In combat, the pilots of these fighters could for some time use, in addition to long-term, that is, nominal, either combat (5-15 minutes), or in emergency cases, emergency (1-5 minutes) modes. The combat, or, as it was also called, the military regime became the main one for the operation of the engine in air combat. The engines of Soviet fighters did not have high power modes at altitude, which limited the possibility of further improving their flight characteristics.

Most variants of the Mustangs and Spitfires were designed for high combat altitude, which is typical for aviation operations in the West. Therefore, their motors had sufficient altitude. German motor builders were forced to solve a complex technical problem. With a relatively large design height of the engine required for air combat in the West, it was important to provide the necessary power at low and medium altitudes required for combat operations in the East. As is known, a simple increase in altitude usually leads to increasing power losses at low altitudes. Therefore, the designers showed a lot of ingenuity and applied a number of extraordinary technical solutions. In terms of its height, the DB-605 engine occupied, as it were, an intermediate position between English and Soviet engines. To increase power at altitudes below the calculated one, an injection of a water-alcohol mixture was used (MW-50 system), which made it possible, despite the relatively low octane number of fuel, to significantly increase boost, and, consequently, power without detonation. It turned out a kind of maximum mode, which, like the emergency one, could usually be used for up to three minutes.

At altitudes above the calculated one, nitrous oxide injection (GM-1 system) could be used, which, being a powerful oxidizing agent, seemed to compensate for the lack of oxygen in a rarefied atmosphere and made it possible for some time to increase the altitude of the motor and bring its characteristics closer to those of Rolls-motors. Royce. True, these systems increased the weight of the aircraft (by 60-120 kg), significantly complicated the power plant and its operation. For these reasons, they were used separately and were not used on all Bf 109G and K.

A fighter's armament has a significant impact on the combat capability of a fighter. In terms of the composition and location of weapons, the aircraft in question differed very much. If the Soviet Yak-3 and La-7 and the German Bf 109G and K had a central location of weapons (cannons and machine guns in the forward fuselage), then the Spitfires and Mustangs had them in the wing outside the area swept by the propeller. In addition, the Mustang had only heavy machine gun armament, while other fighters also had guns, and the La-7 and Bf 109K-4 had only gun armament. In the Western theater of operations, the P-51D was intended primarily to fight enemy fighters. For this purpose, the power of his six machine guns was quite sufficient. Unlike the Mustang, the British Spitfires and the Soviet Yak-3s and La-7s fought against aircraft of any purpose, including bombers, which naturally required more powerful weapons.

Comparing the wing and central installation of weapons, it is difficult to answer which of these schemes was the most effective. But still, Soviet front-line pilots and aviation specialists, like the German ones, preferred the central one, which ensured the greatest accuracy of fire. Such an arrangement turns out to be more advantageous when an attack by an enemy aircraft is carried out from extremely short distances. Namely, this is how Soviet and German pilots usually tried to act on the Eastern Front. In the West, air battles were fought mainly at high altitude, where the maneuverability of fighters deteriorated significantly. It became much more difficult to approach the enemy at close range, and with bombers it was also very dangerous, since it was difficult for a fighter to evade the fire of air gunners due to sluggish maneuvers. For this reason, they opened fire from a long distance and the wing installation of weapons, designed for a given range of destruction, turned out to be quite comparable with the central one. In addition, the rate of fire of weapons with a wing scheme was higher than that of weapons synchronized for firing through a propeller (guns on the La-7, machine guns on the Yak-3 and Bf 109G), the armament turned out to be near the center of gravity and the consumption of ammunition had practically no effect on it. position. But one drawback was still organically inherent in the wing scheme - this is an increased moment of inertia relative to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft, which worsened the fighter's roll response to the pilot's actions.

Among the many criteria that determined the combat capability of an aircraft, the combination of its flight data was the most important for a fighter. Of course, they are not important on their own, but in combination with a number of other quantitative and qualitative indicators, such as, for example, stability, aerobatic properties, ease of operation, visibility, etc. For some classes of aircraft, training, for example, these indicators are of paramount importance. But for the combat vehicles of the last war, it is precisely flight characteristics and weapons, which are the main technical components of the combat effectiveness of fighters and bombers. Therefore, the designers sought, first of all, to achieve priority in flight data, or rather, in those that played a paramount role.

It is worth clarifying that the words “flight data” mean a whole range of important indicators, the main of which for fighters were maximum speed, rate of climb, range or time of a sortie, maneuverability, the ability to quickly pick up speed, sometimes a practical ceiling. Experience has shown that the technical excellence of fighters cannot be reduced to any one criterion, which would be expressed by a number, a formula, or even an algorithm designed for implementation on a computer. The question of comparing fighters, as well as the search for the optimal combination of basic flight characteristics, is still one of the most difficult. How, for example, to determine in advance what was more important - superiority in maneuverability and practical ceiling, or some advantage in maximum speed? As a rule, priority in one is obtained at the expense of the other. Where is the "golden mean" that gives the best fighting qualities? Obviously, much depends on the tactics and nature of air warfare as a whole.

It is known that the maximum speed and rate of climb significantly depend on the mode of operation of the motor. One thing is a long or nominal mode, and quite another is an emergency afterburner. This is clearly seen from a comparison of the maximum speeds of the best fighters of the final period of the war. The presence of high power modes significantly improves flight performance, but only for a short time, otherwise damage to the motor may occur. For this reason, a very short-term emergency operation of the engine, which gave the greatest power, was not considered at that time the main one for the operation of the power plant in air combat. It was intended for use only in the most urgent, deadly situations for the pilot. This position is well confirmed by the analysis of the flight data of one of the last German piston fighters - the Messerschmitt Bf 109K-4.

The main characteristics of the Bf 109K-4 are given in a rather extensive report prepared at the end of 1944 for the German Chancellor. The report covered the state and prospects of the German aircraft industry and was prepared with the participation of the German aviation research center DVL and leading aviation firms such as Messerschmitt, Arado, Junkers. In this document, which there is every reason to consider quite serious, when analyzing the capabilities of the Bf 109K-4, all its data correspond only to the continuous operation of the power plant, and the characteristics at maximum power are not considered or even mentioned. And this is not surprising. Due to thermal overloads of the engine, the pilot of this fighter, when climbing with maximum takeoff weight, could not even use the nominal mode for a long time and was forced to reduce speed and, accordingly, power after 5.2 minutes after takeoff. When taking off with less weight, the situation did not improve much. Therefore, it is simply not necessary to talk about any real increase in the rate of climb due to the use of an emergency mode, including the injection of a water-alcohol mixture (MW-50 system).

On the above graph of the vertical rate of climb (in fact, this is the rate of climb characteristic), it is clearly visible what increase the use of maximum power could give. However, such an increase is rather formal in nature, since it was impossible to climb in this mode. Only at certain moments of the flight could the pilot turn on the MW-50 system, i.e. extreme power boost, and even then, when the cooling systems had the necessary reserves for heat removal. Thus, although the MW-50 boost system was useful, it was not vital for the Bf 109K-4 and therefore it was not installed on all fighters of this type. Meanwhile, the Bf 109K-4 data is published in the press, corresponding precisely to the emergency regime using the MW-50, which is completely uncharacteristic of this aircraft.

The foregoing is well confirmed by the combat practice of the final stage of the war. Thus, the Western press often talks about the superiority of Mustangs and Spitfires over German fighters in the Western theater of operations. On the Eastern Front, where air battles took place at low and medium altitudes, the Yak-3 and La-7 were out of competition, which was repeatedly noted by the pilots of the Soviet Air Force. And here is the opinion of the German combat pilot V. Wolfrum:

The best fighters I have seen in combat have been the North American Mustang P-51 and the Russian Yak-9U. Both fighters had a clear performance advantage over the Me-109, regardless of modification, including the Me-109K-4

In World War II, the Germans had the following aircraft, here is a list of them with photos:

1. Arado Ar 95 - German two-seater reconnaissance torpedo bomber floatplane

2. Arado Ar 196 - German military reconnaissance seaplane

3. Arado Ar 231 - German light single-engine military seaplane

4. Arado Ar 232 - German military transport aircraft

5. Arado Ar 234 Blitz - German jet bomber

6. Blomm Voss Bv.141 - the prototype of the German reconnaissance aircraft

7. Gotha Go 244 - German medium military transport aircraft

8. Dornier Do.17 - German twin-engine medium bomber

9. Dornier Do.217 - German multipurpose bomber

10. Messerschmitt Bf.108 Typhoon - German all-metal single-engine monoplane

11. Messerschmitt Bf.109 - German single-engine piston fighter-low-wing

12. Messerschmitt Bf.110 - German twin-engine heavy fighter

13. Messerschmitt Me.163 - German missile fighter-interceptor

14. Messerschmitt Me.210 - German heavy fighter

15. Messerschmitt Me.262 - German turbojet fighter, bomber and reconnaissance aircraft

16. Messerschmitt Me.323 Giant - German heavy military transport aircraft with a payload capacity of up to 23 tons, the heaviest land aircraft

17. Messerschmitt Me.410 - German heavy fighter-bomber

18. Focke-Wulf Fw.189 - twin-engine twin-boom triple tactical reconnaissance aircraft

19. Focke-Wulf Fw.190 - German single-seat single-engine piston monoplane fighter

20. Focke-Wulf Ta 152 - German high-altitude interceptor

21. Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor - German 4-engine long-range multipurpose aircraft

22. Heinkel He-111 - German medium bomber

23. Heinkel He-162 - German single-engine jet fighter

24. Heinkel He-177 - German heavy bomber, twin-engine all-metal monoplane

25. Heinkel He-219 Uhu - twin-engine piston night fighter equipped with ejection seats

26. Henschel Hs.129 - German single-seat twin-engine specialized attack aircraft

27. Fieseler Fi-156 Storch - a small German aircraft

28. Junkers Ju-52 - German passenger and military transport aircraft

29. Junkers Ju-87 - German two-seat dive bomber and attack aircraft

30. Junkers Ju-88 - German multi-purpose aircraft

31. Junkers Ju-290 - German long-range naval reconnaissance (nicknamed "Flying Cabinet")

* - calculated values

Tests of the world's first non-176 rocket aircraft in the summer of 1939 showed the fundamental possibility of flying with the help of a rocket engine, but the maximum speed that this aircraft reached after 50 seconds of engine operation was only 345 km / h. Believing that one of the reasons for this is the conservative "classic" design of the Heinkel aircraft, the leaders of the Research Department of the Ministry of Aviation proposed the use of a "tailless" rocket engine. By their order, the German aircraft designer A. Lippisch, who had previously been engaged in the design of flying wing devices, in 1940 built an experimental tailless aircraft DFS-I94 with the same Walter R1-203 rocket engine. Due to the low thrust of the engine (400 kg) and the short duration of its operation (I min.), The speed of the aircraft turned out to be no more than that of propeller-driven aircraft. However, the Walter R2-203 rocket engine was soon created, capable of developing a thrust of 750 kg. With the support of Messerschmitt, Lippisch launched a new Me-163L rocket plane, with an R2-203 engine. October 1941 X. Dittmar, after lifting the aircraft in tow to a height of 4000 m, starting the engine, after a few minutes of full-power flight reached an unprecedented speed - 1003 km / h. It would seem that after this, an order for the mass production of the aircraft as a combat vehicle will immediately follow. But the German military command was in no hurry. At that time, the situation in the war was developing in favor of Germany, and the Nazi leaders were confident of an early victory with the weapons they had.

However, by 1943 the situation was different. German aviation was rapidly losing its leading position, and the situation on the fronts worsened. Enemy aircraft appeared more and more often over the territory of Germany, bombing attacks on German military and industrial facilities became more and more powerful. This led to serious thought about strengthening fighter aircraft, and the idea of ​​​​creating a high-speed missile interceptor fighter became extremely tempting. In addition, progress was made in the development of a liquid-propellant rocket engine - a new Walter HWK 109-509A engine with an increased fuel combustion temperature could develop thrust up to 1700 kg. The aircraft with this engine received the designation Me-163B. Unlike the experimental Me-163A, it had cannon armament (2x30 mm) and pilot armor, i.e. was a combat aircraft.

Due to the fact that the refinement of the HWK 109-509А was delayed, the first serial Me-163В took off only on February 21, 1944, and a total of 279 such aircraft were built before the end of the war. From May 1944 they took part in the fighting as a fighter-interceptor on the Western Front. Since the range of the Me-163 was small - only about 100 km, it was supposed to create a whole network of special interception groups located at a distance of about 150 km from each other and protecting Germany from the north and west.

Me-163 was a "tailless" swept wing (Fig. 4.65). The fuselage had a metal structure, the wing was wooden. The sweep of the wing, combined with aerodynamic twist, was used to balance the aircraft longitudinally without horizontal tail. At the same time, as it turned out later, the use of a swept wing made it possible to reduce wave resistance at transonic flight speeds.

Due to the high thrust of the engine, the Me-163 was faster than other jet aircraft of the Second World War and had an unprecedented rate of climb - 80 m / s. However, its combat effectiveness was greatly reduced by a very short flight duration. Due to the high specific consumption of fuel and oxidizer by a liquid-propellant rocket engine (5 kg / s), their supply was only enough for 6 minutes of LRE operation at full thrust. After climbing 9-10 km, the pilot had time for only one short attack. Takeoff and landing were also very difficult due to the unusual landing gear in the form of a distant cart (landing was carried out on a ski that was pulled out of the fuselage). Frequent cases of engine shutdown, high landing speed, instability during takeoff and run, a high probability of rocket fuel explosion on impact - all this, according to an eyewitness of the events, was the cause of many disasters.

The technical shortcomings were exacerbated by the lack of rocket fuel and the lack of pilots at the end of the war. As a result, only a quarter of the built Me-163В took part in the hostilities. The aircraft did not have any noticeable effect on the course of the war. According to the foreign press, only one unit was really combat-ready, which accounted for 9 downed bombers with its own losses of 14 aircraft.

At the end of 1944, the Germans made an attempt to improve the aircraft. To increase the duration of the flight, the engine was equipped with an auxiliary combustion chamber for cruising with reduced thrust, the fuel supply was increased, and a conventional wheeled chassis was installed instead of a detachable trolley. Until the end of the war, it was possible to build and test only one sample, which received the designation Me-263.

In 1944-1945. Japan tried to organize the production of Me-163 type aircraft to combat the B-29 high-altitude bombers. A license was bought, but one of the two German submarines sent from Germany to Japan to deliver documents and technical samples, sunk, and the Japanese got only an incomplete set of drawings. Nevertheless, Mitsubishi managed to build both the aircraft and the engine. The aircraft was given the name J8M1. On its first flight on 7 July 1945, it crashed due to engine failure while climbing.

The impetus for the creation of rocket aircraft was the desire to find a means of counteraction under the dominance of enemy aircraft. Therefore, in the USSR, work on a fighter with a rocket engine, in contrast to Germany and Japan, was carried out at the initial stage of the war, when German aviation was in charge in the sky of our country. In the summer of 1941, V.F. Bolkhovitinov turned to the government with a project for a BI fighter-interceptor with a rocket engine, developed by engineers A. Ya. Bereznyak and A. M. Isaev.

Fig.4.65. Messerschmitt Me-163B

Fig.4.66. Fighter BI

Unlike the Me-163, the BI aircraft had the usual scheme with a non-swept wing, tail unit and retractable wheel landing gear (Fig. 4.66). The design was made of wood and was notable for its small size, the wing area was only 7 m^2. The LRE D-1A-1100, located in the rear fuselage, developed a maximum thrust of 1100 kg. The martial law was difficult, therefore, already on the first prototype, weapons were installed (2 cannons with a caliber of 20 mm) and the pilot's armor protection.

Flight tests of the aircraft were delayed by a forced evacuation to the Urals. The first flight took place on May 15, 1942, pilot G. Ya. Bakhchivandzhi). It lasted just over three minutes, but, nevertheless, went down in history as the first flight of a rocket-powered combat aircraft. flights continued. On March 27, 1943, a catastrophe occurred: due to a violation of stability and controllability due to the occurrence of shocks at high speed (this danger was not suspected then), the plane spontaneously went into a dive and crashed, Bakhchivandzhi died.

Even during the tests, a series of BI fighters was laid down. After the disaster, several dozen unfinished aircraft were destroyed, recognizing them as dangerous for flights. In addition, as tests have shown, the stock of 705 kg of fuel and oxidizer is enough for less than two minutes of engine operation, which cast doubt on the very possibility of the practical use of the aircraft.

There was another, external, reason: by 1943, it was possible to establish a large-scale production of propeller-driven combat aircraft that were not inferior in performance to German vehicles, and there was no longer an urgent need to introduce new, little-studied and therefore dangerous equipment into production.

The most unusual rocket aircraft built during the war was the German Ba-349A "Nutter" vertical take-off interceptor. It was designed as an alternative to the Me-163, designed for mass production. The Ba-349A was an extremely cheap and high-tech aircraft, constructed from the most affordable types of wood and metal. The wing did not have ailerons, lateral control was carried out by differential deviation of the elevators. The launch took place in the distance with a vertical guide about 9 m long. The aircraft accelerated with the help of four powder boosters installed on the sides of the rear fuselage (Fig. 4.67). At an altitude of 150 m, the spent missiles were dropped and the flight continued due to the operation of the main engine - the Walter 109-509A LRE. At first, the interceptor was aimed at enemy bombers automatically, by radio signals, and when the pilot saw the target, he took control. Approaching the target, the pilot fired a salvo of twenty-four 73-mm rockets mounted under the fairing in the nose of the aircraft. Then he had to separate the front of the fuselage and parachute down to the ground. The engine also had to be parachute-dropped so that it could be reused. Obviously, this project was ahead of the technical capabilities of the German industry, and it is not surprising that flight tests at the beginning of 1945 ended in disaster - in the vertical take-off mode, the aircraft lost stability and crashed, the pilot died.

46* Me-163L flew as experimental, without weapons.

Fig.4.67. Launch of the aircraft Ba-349A

Not only rocket engines were used as a power plant for "disposable" aircraft. In 1944, German designers conducted experiments with a projectile aircraft equipped with a pulsed air-jet engine (PUVRD) and intended for operations against sea targets. This aircraft was a manned version of the Fieseler Fi-103 (V-1) winged projectile, which was used to bombard England. Due to the fact that when working on the ground, the thrust of the PUVRD is negligible, the aircraft could not take off on its own and was delivered to the target area on a carrier aircraft. There was no chassis on the Fi-103. After separation from the carrier, the pilot had to take aim and dive at the target. Despite the fact that there was a parachute in the cockpit, the Fi-103 was essentially a weapon for suicide pilots: there was extremely little chance of safely leaving the aircraft with a parachute when diving at a speed of about 800 km / h. Until the end of the war, 175 missiles were converted into manned projectiles, but due to numerous disasters, they were not used during combat tests.

Unclaimed aircraft firm Junckers tried to convert into Ju-126 attack aircraft, installing chassis and cannon armament on them. The takeoff was to be carried out from a catapult or with the help of rocket boosters. The construction and testing of this machine took place after the war, on instructions issued by the USSR to German aircraft designers.

The Me-328 was supposed to be another manned projectile with a PuVRD. Its tests took place in the middle of 1944. Excessive vibration associated with the operation of pulsating jet engines led to the destruction of the aircraft and interrupted further work in this direction.

Truly workable jet aircraft were created on the basis of turbojet engines, which appeared after it was possible to solve the problem of heat resistance of structural materials for turbine blades and combustion chambers. This type of engine, compared with a ramjet or puramjet engine, ensured take-off autonomy and caused less vibration, and it favorably differed from a liquid propellant rocket engine by 10-15 times lower specific fuel consumption, no need for an oxidizer, and greater safety in operation.

The first turbojet fighter was the Heinkel He-280. The design of the machine began in 1939, shortly after testing the He-178 experimental jet aircraft. Under the wings were 2 HeS-8A turbojet engines with a thrust of 600 kg. The designer explained the choice of a twin-engine scheme as follows: “The experience of working on a single-engine jet aircraft showed that the fuselage of such an aircraft is limited by the length of the air intake and the nozzle part of the power plant. With this engine installation scheme, it was very difficult to install weapons, without which a turbojet aircraft was of no interest militarily. I saw only one way out of this situation: the creation of a fighter with two engines under the wing ".

The rest of the aircraft was a conventional design: a metal monoplane with a non-swept wing, a wheeled landing gear with a nose support and a twin tail. At the beginning of the tests, there were no weapons on the plane, guns (3x20mm) were installed only in the summer of 1942.

The first flight of the Non-178 took place on April 2, 1941. A month later, a speed of 780 km / h was reached.

The Non-178 was the world's first twin-engine jet aircraft. Another innovation was the use of the pilot's ejection system. This was done to ensure rescue at high speeds, when a strong velocity pressure would no longer give the pilot the opportunity to independently jump out of the cockpit with a parachute. The ejection seat was fired from the cockpit using compressed air, then the pilot himself had to disconnect the seat belts and open the parachute.

The ejection system came in handy just a few months after the start of testing the Non-280. On January 13, 1942, during a flight in bad weather conditions, the aircraft iced up, and he stopped obeying the rudders. The catapult mechanism worked properly, and the pilot landed safely. This was the first practical use of a human ejection system in the history of aviation.

Starting in 1944, by order of the Technical Department of the German Ministry of Aviation, experimental versions of all military aircraft were ordered to have only ejection seats. The ejection system was also used on most production German jet aircraft. Until the end of the Second World War in Germany, there were about 60 cases of successful ejection of pilots.

At the initial stage of the war, the Nazi military leadership did not show much interest in the new Heinkel aircraft and did not raise the question of its mass production. Therefore, until 1943, the Non-280 remained an experimental machine, and then the Me-262 appeared with better flight characteristics, and the Heinkel jet aircraft program was closed.

The first production aircraft with a turbojet engine was the Messerschmitt Me-262 fighter (Fig. 4.68). He was in service with the German Air Force and took part in the fighting.

The construction of the first prototype Me-262 began in 1940, and since 1941 it has been undergoing flight tests. At first, the aircraft flew around with a combined installation of a propeller engine in the nose of the fuselage and 2 turbojet engines under the wing. The first flight with only jet engines took place on July 18, 1942. It lasted 12 minutes and was quite successful. Test pilot F. Wendell writes: "The turbojet engines worked like clockwork, and the handling of the car was extremely pleasant. In fact, I rarely felt such enthusiasm during the first flight on any aircraft, as on the Me 262".

Like the Non-280, the Me-262 was a single-seat all-metal cantilever monoplane with 2 turbojet engines in gondolas under the wing. The chassis with a tail support was soon replaced by a tricycle, with a nose wheel, following the model of the Non-280; such a scheme was better suited to the high takeoff and landing speeds of a jet aircraft. The fuselage had a characteristic cross-sectional shape in the form of a triangle expanding downwards with rounded corners. This made it possible to remove the wheels of the main landing gear in niches in the lower surface of the fuselage and ensured minimal interference resistance in the area of ​​​​the articulation of the wing and fuselage. The wing is trapezoidal with a leading edge sweep of 18°. Ailerons and landing flaps were located on the rear straight edge. The launch of Jumo-004 turbojet engines with a thrust of 900 kg was carried out using a gasoline two-stroke starter engine. Due to the greater engine power than the Non-280, the aircraft could continue flying when one of them stopped. The maximum flight speed at an altitude of 6 km was 865 km / h.

Fig.4.68. Messerschmitt Me-262

In November 1943, the jet Messerschmitt was demonstrated to Hitler. This was followed by the decision to mass-produce the aircraft, however, contrary to common sense, Hitler ordered that it be built not as a fighter, but as a high-speed bomber. Since the Me-262 did not have room for an internal bomb bay, the bombs had to be hung under the wing, while due to the increased weight and aerodynamic drag, the aircraft lost its speed advantage over conventional propeller-driven fighter aircraft. It wasn't until nearly a year later that the leader of the Third Reich reversed his misguided decision.

Another circumstance that delayed the serial production of jet aircraft was the difficulty with the production of turbojet engines. These include design problems associated with Jumo-004's frequent knocking spontaneous shutdowns in flight, and technological difficulties due to the lack of nickel and chromium for the manufacture of heat-resistant turbine blades for land and sea blockaded Germany, and production disruptions due to intensifying bombardment. Anglo-American aviation and the resulting transfer of a significant part of the aircraft industry to special underground factories.

As a result, the first serial Me-262 appeared only in the summer of 1944. In an effort to revive the Luftwaffe, the Germans rapidly increased the production of jet aircraft. Until the end of 1444, 452 Me-262s were manufactured. for the first 2 months of 1945 - another 380 cars |52, p. 126 |. The aircraft were produced as a fighter with powerful armament (four 30-mm cannons in the forward fuselage), a fighter-bomber with two bombs on pylons under the wing, and a photo reconnaissance aircraft. At the end of the war, the main aircraft factories were destroyed by bombing, and the manufacture of aircraft and parts for them was carried out in small factories built in haste in the wilderness to make them invisible to aviation. There were no airfields; the assembled Me-262s were supposed to take off from a regular highway.

Due to the acute shortage of aviation fuel and pilots, most of the Me-262s built never took off. However, several combat jet units took part in the battles. The first Me-262 air battle with an enemy aircraft took place on July 26, 1944, when a German pilot attacked the Mosquito high-altitude British reconnaissance aircraft. Thanks to better maneuverability, the Mosquito managed to evade pursuit. Later Me-262s were used by groups to intercept bombers. There were occasional skirmishes with escort fighters, and there were even cases where a conventional propeller-driven aircraft managed to shoot down a faster but less maneuverable jet fighter. But this rarely happened. In general, the Me-262 demonstrated superiority over conventional aircraft, primarily as interceptors (Fig. 4.69).

In 1945, in Japan, which received from Krupp the technology for the production of heat-resistant steels for turbines, they designed the Nakajima J8N1 "Kikka" jet aircraft with 2 Ne20 turbojet engines based on the Me-262 model. The only aircraft tested in flight took off on August 7, the day after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. By the time of Japan's surrender, there were 19 Kikka jet fighters on the assembly line.

The second German aircraft with turbojet engines used in combat operations was the Arado Ar-234 multipurpose twin-engine aircraft. It began to be designed in 1941 as a high-speed reconnaissance aircraft. Due to difficulties with fine-tuning the Jumo-004 engines, the first flight took place only in the middle of 1943, and mass production began in July 1944.

Fig.4.64. Altitude and speed characteristics of the Spitfire XIV and Me-262 aircraft

The aircraft had an upper wing. Such an arrangement provided the necessary clearance between the ground and the engines installed under the wing during takeoff and landing, but at the same time created a problem with retracting the landing gear. Initially, they wanted to use a drop wheeled cart, as on the Me-163. But this made it impossible for the pilot to take off again in the event of landing outside the airfield. Therefore, in 1944, the aircraft was equipped with a conventional wheeled undercarriage retractable into the fuselage. For this, it was necessary to increase the size of the fuselage and reconfigure the fuel tanks (option Ar-232B).

Compared to the Me-262, the Ar-234 had a large size and weight, in connection with this, its maximum speed with the same engines was less - about 750 km / h. But on the other hand, the aircraft could carry three 500-kg bombs on external hangers. (). Therefore, when in September 1944, the first combat unit of the Arado jet was formed. they were used not only for reconnaissance, but also for bombing and for ground support of troops. In particular, Ar-234В aircraft carried out bombing attacks on the Anglo-American troops during the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes in the winter of 1944-1945.

In 1944, a four-engine version of the Ar-234С (Fig. 4.70) was tested - a two-seat multi-purpose aircraft with reinforced cannon armament and increased flight speed. Due to the lack of jet engines for the German jet aircraft, it was not built in series.

In total, about 200 Ar-234s were manufactured up to May 1945. As in the case of the Me-262, due to the acute shortage of aviation fuel, by the end of the war, about half of these aircraft did not participate in the battles.

Junkers, the oldest German aircraft manufacturer, also contributed to the development of jet aviation in Germany. In accordance with the traditional specialization of the design of multi-engine aircraft, it was decided to create a heavy jet bomber Ju-287 there. Work began in 1943 on the initiative of engineer G. Vokks. By this time, it was already known that a swept wing should be used to increase Mkrig in flight. Vokks proposed an unusual solution - to install a reverse-swept wing on the plane. The advantage of this layout was that the flow stall at high angles of attack occurred first in the root parts of the wing, without loss of aileron performance. True, scientists warned about the danger of strong aeroelastic deformations of the wing during reverse sweep, but Vokks and his associates hoped that during the tests they would be able to solve strength problems.

47* The entire internal volume of the fuselage was occupied by fuel tanks, because. TRDs were distinguished by a large, compared with LAN, fuel consumption.

Figure 4.70. Arado Ar-234C I

Fig.4.71. Prototype bomber Ju-287

To speed up the construction of the first sample, the fuselage from the He-177 aircraft was used, and the tail unit from the Ju-288. Four Jumo-004 turbojet engines were installed on the aircraft: 2 in nacelles under the wing and 2 on the sides of the forward fuselage (Fig. 4.71). To facilitate takeoff, launch rocket boosters were added to the engines. Tests of the world's first jet bomber began on August 16, 1944. In general, they gave positive results. However, the maximum speed did not exceed 550 km / h, so it was decided to install 6 BMW-003 engines with a thrust of 800 kg each on a serial bomber. According to calculations in this case, the aircraft had to take up to 4000 kg of bombs and have a flight speed of 865 km/h at an altitude of 5000 m. In the summer of 1945, a partially built bomber came to the Soviet troops, it was brought to the flying state by the hands of German engineers and sent to the USSR for testing.

In an effort to turn the tide of hostilities through the mass production of jet aircraft, the German military leadership in the fall of 1944 announced a competition for the creation of a cheap fighter with a turbojet engine, unlike the Me-262, suitable for production from the simplest materials and without the use of skilled labor. Almost all leading aviation design organizations took part in the competition - Arado, Blom and Voss, Heinkel, Fizlsr, Focke-Wulf, Junkere. The Heinkel-Ne-162 project was recognized as the best.

The He-162 aircraft (Fig. 4.72) was a single-seat, single-engine monoplane with a metal fuselage and a wooden wing. To simplify the assembly process, the BMW-003 engine was installed on the fuselage. The aircraft had to have the simplest flight equipment and a very limited resource. The armament consisted of two 20 mm cannons. According to the plans of the Ministry of Aviation, it was planned to produce 50 aircraft in January 1945, 100 in February, and further increase production to 1000 aircraft per month. The Non-162 was to become the main aircraft for the Volksturm militia, which was created on the orders of the Fuhrer. The leadership of the youth organization Hitler Youth was instructed to prepare several thousand pilots for this aircraft as soon as possible.

The Non-162 was designed, built and tested in just three months. The first flight took place on December 6, 1944, and already in January, serial production of the machine began at well-aimed enterprises in the mountainous regions of Austria. But it was already too late. Until the end of the war, only 50 aircraft were put into service, another 100 were prepared for testing, about 800 He-162s were at various stages of assembly. The aircraft did not participate in combat operations. This made it possible to save the lives of not only soldiers of the anti-Hitler coalition, but also hundreds of German youths: as the tests of the Non-162 in the USSR showed, the aircraft had poor stability, and the use of 15-16-year-old teenagers on it as pilots, who had practically no flight training ( all the "training" consisted of a few glider flights" would be tantamount to killing them.

Fig.4.72. Heinkel He-162

Most early jet aircraft had straight wings. Among the production aircraft, the Me-163 was an exception, but the sweep in this case was due to the need to ensure the longitudinal balancing of the tailless aircraft and was too small to noticeably affect the Mcrit.

The occurrence of shock waves at high speeds caused a number of disasters, and, unlike propeller-driven aircraft, the wave crisis did not occur during a dive, but in level flight. The first of these tragic incidents was the death of G. Ya. Bakhchivandzhi. With the start of mass production of jet aircraft, these cases have become more frequent. Here is how test pilot of Messerschmitt L. Hoffman describes them: “These disasters (according to witnesses who inspire confidence) occurred as follows. It was practically impossible to establish the causes of these disasters through an investigation, since the pilots did not survive, and the planes completely crashed. As a result of these disasters, one Messerschmitt test pilot and a number of military pilots died.

Mysterious disasters limited the possibilities of jet aircraft. So, at the direction of the military leadership, the maximum allowable speeds of Me-163 and Me-262 should not exceed 900 km / h.

When, by the end of the war, scientists began to guess about the reasons for dragging planes into a dive, the Germans remembered the recommendations of A. Busemann and A. Betz about the advantages of a swept wing at high speeds. The first aircraft in which the sweep of the bearing surface was chosen specifically to reduce wave drag was the Junker Ju-287 described above. Shortly before the end of the war, on the initiative of the chief aerodynamicist of Arado R. Kozin, work began on the creation of a variant of the Ar-234 aircraft with a so-called sickle-shaped wing. The sweep at the root was 37°, to the ends of the wing it decreased to 25°. At the same time, due to the variable sweep of the wing and a special selection of airfoils, it was supposed to ensure the same values ​​of Mcrit along the span. By April 1945, when the company's workshops were occupied by British troops, the modified Arado was almost ready. Later, the British used a similar wing on the Victor jet bomber.

The use of a sweep made it possible to reduce aerodynamic drag, but at low speeds such a wing was more prone to stall and gave less Su max compared to a straight one. As a result, the idea of ​​a wing with variable sweep in flight arose. With the help of the mechanism for turning the wing consoles during takeoff and landing, the minimum sweep was to be set, and at high speeds - the maximum. The author of this idea was A. Lippisch

Fig.4.74. DM-1 at Langley Aerodynamics Laboratory, USA

Figure 4.75 Horten No-9

After preliminary aerodynamic studies, which showed the possibility of a noticeable "mitigation" of the wave crisis when using a low aspect ratio wing (Fig. 4.73), in 1944 Lippisch began to create a non-motorized analog of the aircraft. The glider, named DM-1, in addition to the small aspect ratio delta wing, was distinguished by an unusually large vertical keel (42% of the S wing). This was done in order to maintain directional stability and controllability at high angles of attack. Inside the keel was the cockpit. To compensate for the redistribution of aerodynamic forces on the wing at transonic speed, which was to be achieved with a steep dive from a great height, a system was provided for pumping ballast water into the tail tank. By the time of the surrender of Germany, the construction of the airframe was almost completed. After the war, DM-1 was transported to the United States for study in a wind tunnel (Fig. 4.74)).

Another interesting technical development that appeared in Germany at the end of the war was the "flying wing" jet aircraft Horten Ho-9. As already noted, the "tailless" scheme was a very convenient layout of jet engines in the fuselage, and the swept wing and the absence of the fuselage and tail provided low aerodynamic drag at transonic speeds. According to the calculation, this aircraft with two Jumo-004B turbojet engines with a thrust of 900 kg each should have V„ n * c «945 km / h | 39, p. 92 |. In January 1945, after the first successful flight of the prototype Ho-9V-2 (Fig. 4.75), Gotha was given an order for a trial series of 20 machines, the production of which was included in the German emergency defense program. According to this order, it remained on paper - the German aviation industry by that time was already inoperable.

The political situation stimulated the development of jet aviation not only in Germany, but also in other countries, primarily in England, the main rival of the German Air Force in the early years of the war. In this country, there were already technical prerequisites for creating jet aircraft: in the 1930s, engineer F. Whittle worked on the design of a turbojet engine there. The first working models of Whittle engines appeared at the turn of the 30-40s.

Unlike German engines, which had a multi-stage axial compressor, British turbojet engines used a single-stage centrifugal compressor, developed on the basis of the design of centrifugal compressors of reciprocating engines. This type of compressor was lighter and simpler than an axial compressor, but had a noticeably larger diameter (Table 4.16).

48* It should be said that Lippisch was not the first to propose a low aspect ratio delta wing for high-speed aircraft. Before the war, such projects were put forward by A. S. Moskalev and R. L. Bartini in the USSR. M Glukharev in the USA and others. However, these proposals were of an intuitive nature. The merit of the German designer is that he was the first to scientifically substantiate the advantages of the delta wing for supersonic speeds.

Warplanes are birds of prey in the sky. For more than a hundred years they have been shining in warriors and at air shows. Agree, it is difficult to take your eyes off modern multi-purpose devices stuffed with electronics and composite materials. But there's something special about World War II planes. It was an era of great victories and great aces who fought in the air, looking into each other's eyes. Engineers and aircraft designers from different countries came up with many legendary aircraft. Today we present to your attention a list of the ten most famous, recognizable, popular and best aircraft of the Second World War, according to the editors of the game@mail.ru.

Supermarine Spitfire (Supermarine Spitfire)

The list of the best aircraft of the Second World War opens with the British fighter Supermarine Spitfire. He has a classic look, but a little awkward. Wings - shovels, a heavy nose, a lantern in the form of a bubble. However, it was the Spitfire that saved the Royal Air Force by stopping German bombers during the Battle of Britain. German fighter pilots, with great displeasure, found that British aircraft were in no way inferior to them, and even superior in maneuverability.
The Spitfire was developed and put into service just in time - just before the outbreak of World War II. True, an incident came out with the first battle. Due to a radar failure, the Spitfires were sent into battle with a phantom enemy and fired on their own British fighters. But then, when the British tasted the advantages of the new aircraft, they did not use it as soon as they were used. And for interception, and for reconnaissance, and even as bombers. A total of 20,000 Spitfires were produced. For all the good things and, first of all, for saving the island during the Battle of Britain, this aircraft takes an honorable tenth place.

Heinkel He 111 is exactly the aircraft that the British fighters fought. This is the most recognizable German bomber. It cannot be confused with any other aircraft due to the characteristic shape of the wide wings. It was the wings that gave the Heinkel He 111 the nickname "flying shovel".
This bomber was created long before the war under the guise of a passenger aircraft. He showed himself very well back in the 30s, but by the beginning of World War II he began to become obsolete, both in speed and in maneuverability. For a while, he held out because of the ability to withstand heavy damage, but when the Allies conquered the sky, the Heinkel He 111 was “degraded” to an ordinary transport. This aircraft embodies the very definition of a Luftwaffe bomber, for which it receives the ninth place in our rating.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, German aviation did what it wanted in the sky of the USSR. Only in 1942 did a Soviet fighter appear that could fight on an equal footing with the Messerschmitts and Focke-Wulfs. It was "La-5" developed in the design bureau Lavochkin. It was created in great haste. The plane is so simple that the cockpit does not even have the most basic instruments like the artificial horizon. But the La-5 pilots immediately liked it. In the very first test flights, 16 enemy aircraft were shot down on it.
"La-5" bore the brunt of the battles in the sky over Stalingrad and the Kursk salient. Ace Ivan Kozhedub fought on it, it was on him that the famous Alexei Maresyev flew with prostheses. The only problem of La-5 that prevented it from climbing higher in our rating is its appearance. He is completely faceless and expressionless. When the Germans first saw this fighter, they immediately gave it the nickname "new rat". And that's all, because it strongly resembled the legendary I-16 aircraft, nicknamed the "rat".

North American P-51 Mustang (North American P-51 Mustang)

The Americans in World War II participated in many types of fighters, but the most famous among them was, of course, the P-51 Mustang. The history of its creation is unusual. The British already at the height of the war in 1940 ordered aircraft from the Americans. The order was fulfilled and in 1942 the first Mustangs among the British Royal Air Force entered into battle. And then it turned out that the planes are so good that they will be useful to the Americans themselves.
The most notable feature of the R-51 Mustang is its huge fuel tanks. This made them ideal fighters for bomber escort, which they did successfully in Europe and the Pacific. They were also used for reconnaissance and assault. They even bombed a little. Especially got from the "Mustangs" to the Japanese.

The most famous US bomber of those years is, of course, the Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortress". The four-engine, heavy, machine-gunned Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber spawned many heroic and fanatical stories. On the one hand, the pilots loved him for his ease of control and survivability, on the other hand, the losses among these bombers were indecently high. In one of the sorties, out of 300 Flying Fortresses, 77 did not return. Why? Here we can mention the complete and defenselessness of the crew from fire in front and an increased risk of fire. However, the main problem was the persuasion of the American generals. At the beginning of the war, they thought that if there were a lot of bombers and they were flying high, then they could do without any escort. Luftwaffe fighters disproved this misconception. The lessons they gave were harsh. The Americans and the British had to learn very quickly, change tactics, strategy and aircraft design. Strategic bombers contributed to the victory, but the cost was high. A third of the "Flying Fortresses" did not return to the airfields.

In fifth place in our ranking of the best aircraft of World War II is the main hunter for German Yak-9 aircraft. If the La-5 was a workhorse that endured the brunt of the battles of the turning point of the war, then the Yak-9 is the aircraft of victory. It was created on the basis of previous models of Yak fighters, but instead of heavy wood, duralumin was used in the design. This made the aircraft lighter and left room for modifications. What they just didn’t do with the Yak-9. Front-line fighter, fighter-bomber, interceptor, escort, reconnaissance and even courier aircraft.
On the Yak-9, Soviet pilots fought on equal terms with the German aces, who were greatly frightened by its powerful guns. Suffice it to say that our pilots affectionately nicknamed the best modification of the Yak-9U the "Killer". The Yak-9 became a symbol of Soviet aviation and the most massive Soviet fighter during World War II. At factories, sometimes 20 aircraft were assembled per day, and in total, almost 15,000 of them were produced during the war.

Junkers Ju-87 (Junkers Ju 87)

Junkers Yu-87 "Stuka" - German dive bomber. Thanks to the ability to fall vertically on the target, the Junkers laid bombs with pinpoint accuracy. Supporting the fighter offensive, everything in the Stuka design is subordinated to one thing - to hit the target. Air brakes did not allow to accelerate during a dive, special mechanisms diverted the dropped bomb away from the propeller and automatically brought the aircraft out of the dive.
Junkers Yu-87 - the main aircraft of the Blitzkrieg. He shone at the very beginning of the war, when Germany was marching victoriously across Europe. True, it later turned out that the Junkers were very vulnerable to fighters, so their use gradually faded away. True, in Russia, thanks to the advantage of the Germans in the air, the Stukas still managed to make war. For their characteristic non-retractable landing gear, they were nicknamed "lappets". The German pilot ace Hans-Ulrich Rudel brought additional fame to the Stukas. But despite its worldwide fame, the Junkers Ju-87 was in fourth place in the list of the best aircraft of the Second World War.

In the honorable third place in the ranking of the best aircraft of World War II is the Japanese carrier-based fighter Mitsubishi A6M Zero. This is the most famous aircraft of the Pacific War. The history of this aircraft is very revealing. At the beginning of the war, he was almost the most advanced aircraft - light, maneuverable, high-tech, with an incredible range. For the Americans, Zero was an extremely unpleasant surprise, it was head and shoulders above everything they had at that time.
However, the Japanese worldview played a cruel joke with Zero, no one thought about its protection in air combat - gas tanks burned easily, the pilots were not covered by armor, and no one thought about parachutes. When hit, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero flared up like matches, and the Japanese pilots had no chance to escape. The Americans eventually learned how to deal with Zero, they flew in pairs and attacked from above, avoiding the fight on turns. They released the new Chance Vought F4U Corsair, Lockheed P-38 Lightning and Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters. The Americans admitted their mistakes and adapted, but the proud Japanese did not. Obsolete by the end of the war, Zero became a kamikaze aircraft, a symbol of senseless resistance.

The famous Messerschmitt Bf.109 is the main fighter of World War II. It was he who reigned supreme in the Soviet sky until 1942. The exceptionally successful design allowed the Messerschmitt to impose its tactics on other aircraft. He gained excellent speed in a dive. The favorite technique of the German pilots was the "falcon strike", in which the fighter swoops down on the enemy and, after a quick attack, again goes to the height.
This aircraft also had its shortcomings. He was prevented from conquering the skies of England by a low flight range. It was also not easy to escort the Messerschmitt bombers. At low altitude, he lost his advantage in speed. By the end of the war, the Messers were hard hit by both Soviet fighters from the east and Allied bombers from the west. But the Messerschmitt Bf.109, nevertheless, entered the legends as the best fighter of the Luftwaffe. In total, almost 34,000 pieces were made. This is the second largest aircraft in history.

So, meet the winner in our ranking of the most legendary aircraft of World War II. Attack aircraft "IL-2" aka "Humpback", aka "flying tank", the Germans most often called him "black death". The IL-2 is a special aircraft, it was immediately conceived as a well-protected attack aircraft, so it was many times more difficult to shoot it down than other aircraft. There was a case when an attack aircraft returned from a flight and more than 600 hits were counted on it. After a quick repair, the "Humpbacks" again went into battle. Even if the plane was shot down, it often remained intact, the armored belly allowed it to land in an open field without any problems.
"IL-2" went through the whole war. In total, 36,000 attack aircraft were manufactured. This made the "Hunchback" the record holder, the most massive combat aircraft of all time. For its outstanding qualities, the original design and a huge role in World War II, the famous Il-2 rightfully takes first place in the ranking of the best aircraft of those years.