Originally Posted by onehundred80
The first operational jet fighters in WW2 came from the UK, beating the Germans by a month.
A German guy I worked with in the 1960's was training as a pilot of rocket powered planes, he said he was relieved when the war ended, they took of at speed and glided back when the fuel was used up, with short wings they fell like bricks he said. You could not land with power as it was too fast, so you had to glide, as a glider pilot before the war the powers that be said he was what they wanted, he was about seventeen or eighteen at the time. With a lack of fuel he was lucky never to get in one. He past through the US lines coming west, a soldier saw him but told him to keep moving, he said he was grateful to that GI who could have shot him, he was still in uniform at the time.
Gloster Meteor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I don't mean to nitpic , after all you were there. But the historical data suggests that the Germans were well ahead of the Allies, including the British.
The Heinkel HE178 flew in 1939. While hardly operational in combat it led to the ME 262 which became the first truly operational fighter jet in the German Airforce,in 1944. With a kill ratio of 5 to 1 against the allies it could have changed the course of the war but the jet program was always underfunded and never found favor.
THe Gloster Meteor was launched in 1943 but not produced in any numbers. While a true jet aircraft it was infantile in developement and no match for the ME262. And it was 4 years after the He178 and several subsequent Heinkle attempts to provide the Luftwaffe with an operational fighter.
Which side had the first operational jet technology was clearly the Germans.
Which side had the first jet aircraft in military service would be the British. Well sorta
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Which side clearly deployed the best and most fighter jets would be the Germans.
I guess it depends on one's perspective. But my point was that technology, driven by the war effort, was clearly on the side of the AXIS Powers.
We as a nation need to keep our tech edge ahead of our competitors. The space race has provided the imputus for so many consumer products but in truth, it is justified and driven by our need to have military superiority.
But then the world order believes that to be silly. We can all just get along and besides, the USA is just evil. So cancel any program that provides fertile incentive for innovation or that improves our technological superiority.
Even though Barry claims them to be some of our greatest products.
roadster with a stick
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WikiThe
Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe ("
Swallow") was a German aircraft, the world's first operational
jet-powered fighter aircraft.
[5] It was produced in
World War II and saw action starting in 1944 as a multi-role
fighter/
bomber/
reconnaissance/
interceptor warplane for the
Luftwaffe. The Me 262 claimed a total of 509 Allied kills
[6] (although higher claims are sometimes made
[Notes 1]) against the loss of about 100 Me 262s. The Me 262 is considered to be the most advanced German aviation design in operational use
[8] and according to some Allied historians it was an aircraft that might have won air supremacy back for the
Luftwaffe. Nevertheless, the Me 262 had a negligible impact on the course of the war due to its late introduction and the small numbers that were deployed in operational service.
[9] The Me 262 influenced the designs of post-war aircraft such as the
North American F-86 and
Boeing B-47.
[