World War Two Fighting Jets

World War Two Fighting Jets

Ref: 3044

Price: £12.50

During the desperate closing stages of the Second World War, the Germans brought into action several new aircraft types - the jet-propelled Messerschmitt Me262 Sturmvogel and Arado Ar234 Blitz and the rocket-powered Messerschmitt Mel 63 Komet. The British introduced the jet-powered Gloster Meteor and the Japanese the Yokosuka Ohka. This book tells the full story of the development and operational careers of these aircraft. It also tells the stories of the two American and one German jet aircraft that had entered squadron service and were on the point of going into action when the war ended: the Lockheed P-80A Shooting Star, the Ryan FR 1 Fireball and the Bachem 349 Natter.
This work takes the reader through the most rapid period of scientific advance in the history of aviation: from the beginning of the jet age to the period immediately following World War 11. It is a gripping story of human endeavour. At no time before or since have test pilots been confronted with so many, or such difficult, technological and aerodynamic hurdles. First there were the completely new and inadequately developed power plants, the turbojet engines and rocket motors. These pushed the current technologies up to and sometimes beyond their limits, and they could be temperamental to the point of lethality. Secondly there were the airframes of the early jet aircraft, in each case new designs that were liable to suffer the teething troubles that inevitably go with such things. Thirdly, and in the short term more
intractable than the other two, there was the little-understood phenomenon of compressibility that manifested itself as speeds nudged ever closer to the invisible "sound barrier".
All of this took place against the background of all-out war in which major nations were battling for their very survival.

by Jeffrey Ethell & Alfred Price
Published by Airlife 1994 1st edition. 211pp profusely illustrated, index, bibliography. 21x26 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jacket notes, and as such are relevant to the date of publication (e.g. any references to "new edition" "previously unpublished photographs" etc.)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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