Top Secret Bird

Watching the space shuttle's return from orbit today, few realise that the first steps for its mission were taken in Germany over 45 years ago. The only basic difference between the mission profiles of the Me-163 and the shuttle, is in the launch - the "Comet" used an internal rocket to gain flying speed while the shuttle employs an expendable external rocket whose enormous thrust allows a vertical takeoff.
Both return to earth as unpowered gliders! In this book, the reader, will discover how Germans designed, constructed, tested and mass-produced a revolutionary aircraft - lessons that remain valuable even today!




by Wolfgang Spate
Published by Pictorial History Publishing Company (USA) 1995 270pp illustrated. 18x26 fine, including d/j.
The story of the Me163 Komet by the commander of Operational Test Unit 16.

(I know it's not a jet, but it didn't warrant opening a section on Rocket Fighters of the Second World War!!)





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jacket notes, and as such are relevant to the date of publication (e.g. any references to "new edition" "previously unpublished photographs" etc.)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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Luftwaffe Secret Projects: Strategic Bombers 1935-1945 £20.00 find out more

Me262 Stormbird Rising £20.00 find out more

Luftwaffe Secret Projects: Fighters 1939-1945 £25.00 find out more