Me262 Volume 1

Early on the morning of 18 July 1942, a twenty seven year old test pilot took off from a rain-dampened airfield at Leipheim in southern Germany at the controls of the Messerschmitt Me 262 V3, the third prototype of what would prove to be a revolutionary yet controversial new aircraft. The pilot was to make aviation history. When the aircraft landed twelve minutes later following a trouble-free test flight, the dream of the machine's designer, Professor Willy Messerschmitt to power an aircraft by turbojet propulsion was realised for the first time. Messerschmitt was a man whom Adolf Hitler proclaimed to possess "the skull of a genius".
In this, the first volume of their exhaustive study of the Messerschmitt Me 262, the world's first operational military jet aircraft, internationally acclaimed authors, J.Richard Smith and Eddie J.Creek have drawn on more than thirty years of detailed and unrivalled research. Here, for the first time, is the full story of the concept, design, troubled development and contested operational deployment of possibly one of the most enigmatic war machines ever built, from its evolution, through the disputes, enmity and bitterness that it provoked amongst the Nazi political, military and aviation hierarchy, to the eventual appearance of the aircraft with the Luftwaffe's first operational jet trials units.
The story is complemented by a portrait of the early life and accomplishments of Willy Messerschmitt as well as a detailed study of the early and pioneering German work in the field of turbojet engine design and development.
More than 300 photographs - many never before published - together with fifty high-precision technical scale drawings of the Me 262 prototype aircraft, wing and undercarriage design and projected developments plus twenty full-colour interpretations, detailed appendices covering camouflage and markings and biographies of many of the personalities associated with the design and flight testing of the aircraft, serve to make this study unquestionably the most comprehensive account of the Me 262 ever written. It will be an essential requirement for both students of early jet aircraft development and all those with an interest in the history of military aviation.


by J. R. Smith, & E. J. Creek
Published by Classic publications 1997 224pp 300+ photos, 50 scale drawings and colour artwork, some fold-out, index, appendix. 23x31 mint, including d/j.





Note:
"Long" descriptions, where shown, may have been taken from the book's dust jacket notes, and as such are relevant to the date of publication (e.g. any references to "new edition" "previously unpublished photographs" etc.) and not the present.

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