Jet aircraft of the Second World War, the history of creation and use. Introduction Jet aircraft of WWII

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

1. Arado Ar 95 - German double seaplane torpedo bomber

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 Foss Bv.141 - prototype of a 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 low-wing fighter

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

13. Messerschmitt Me.163 - German 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 carrying capacity of up to 23 tons, the heaviest land aircraft

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

18. Focke-Wulf Fw.189 - twin-engined two-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-engined 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 - small German aircraft

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

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

30. Junkers Ju-88 - German multipurpose aircraft

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

All countries that took an active part in World War II had a certain backlog in the development of jet aircraft before it began. During the war, efforts to create jet combat aircraft did not stop. But their achievements pale in comparison to the scale at which the Wehrmacht were produced during World War II.

Pre-war groundwork

Jet propulsion has always attracted the attention of gunsmiths. The use of powder rockets goes back to ancient times. The emergence of aircraft capable of controlled flight immediately led to the desire to combine this innovation with the capabilities of jet thrust. The desire to provide military potential at an advanced technological level was most vividly reflected in the scientific and technical policy of the Reich. The restrictions imposed deprived Germany of fifteen years of evolutionary improvement of military technology and forced to search for revolutionary solutions. Therefore, immediately after the Reich's abandonment of military restrictions and the creation of the Luftwaffe, the head of scientific programs Richtofen in 1934 was tasked with creating a German jet aircraft of the Second World War. By its beginning, only the British managed to make a technological breakthrough by creating a prototype of a turbojet engine. But they owe this not to technical foresight, but to the perseverance of the inventor F. Whittle, who invested his own funds in him.

Prototypes and samples

The outbreak of the war had a different effect on the development programs of jet aircraft. The British, realizing their vulnerability to an air threat, took the development of a new type of combat aircraft quite seriously. On the basis of the Whittle engine, in April 1941, they tested the prototype from which the British jet aircraft of the Second World War began. having a weak technological base, having lost and evacuated part of the industry, conducted rather sluggish experiments with missile and low-power, which had, rather, a cognitive interest. The Americans and Japanese, despite great opportunities, have not advanced much from the same level. Their WWII jets were based on foreign designs. Already at the very beginning of the war, Germany began to create flying prototypes of serial machines and to test the operation of real combat aircraft. In the spring of 1941, the Henkel He-178 jet took off, equipped with two HeS-8A turbojet engines, which developed a thrust of up to six hundred kilograms. In the summer of 1942, the first German jet aircraft of World War II, the twin-engine Messerschmitt Me-262, flew, showing excellent controllability and reliability.

First episodes

The first serial jet aircraft of the Second World War, entered service, and the English Gloster Meteor. There is a legend that the delay in the release of the jet "Messerschmitt" is due to the whims of Hitler, who wanted to see him as a fighter-bomber. Having started production of this aircraft, the Germans produced more than 450 aircraft in 1944. In 1945, production was about 500 aircraft. Also, the Germans put into series and began mass production of the Non-162, considered by the command as a mobilization fighter for the Volkssturm. The third type of jet fighter to participate in the war was the Arado Ar-234. Before the end of the war, 200 units were produced. The scope of the British was noticeably weaker. The entire military series of "Gloucesters" was limited to 210 machines. Jet aircraft of the Second World War of the USA and Japan were developed on the transferred technologies of England and Germany and were limited to experimental series.

Combat use

Only the Germans managed to get combat experience in using jet aircraft. Their planes tried to solve the problem of defending the country from an enemy with overwhelming air superiority. The British jet, although they were used over the territory of Germany and in the defense of England against German cruise missiles, had only a few combat episodes. They were mainly used for training purposes. did not manage to create jet aircraft of the Second World War. The USSR was actively developing trophy reserves based on its own rich military experience.

In the 1940s, neither the Allies nor Germany had reliable jet engines until the end of the war.
Heinkel He-178 took off on its own engine on August 27, 1939, becoming the first jet-powered aircraft to consume atmospheric air.

In 1941 Heinkel and Messerschmitt tested prototype jet aircraft simultaneously with the British E.28 / 39 Gloucester that took off. To test the glider, the Messerschmitt took off with a traditional piston engine in the nose of the fuselage: its unreliable jet engines could fail, and the first flight ended in disaster.

cockpit Messerschmitt Me 262 cockpit view

The Gloucester Meteor was the first jet to enter service with the Allies (England) in July 1944, and was used to pursue V-1 cruise missiles until the last months of the war. A unit from these aircraft was forbidden to cross the front line, so as not to be at risk of capture.

Messerschmitt Me-262 first jet fighter of the Luftwaffe

Lieutenant General Adolph Galland, as a fighter aircraft inspector, conducted test flights on "Messerschmitte" Me-262 - jet fighter faster than any Allied aircraft, and capable of fighting even the evading Mosquito aircraft.

The Mosquito aircraft was a multipurpose bomber and was also used as a night fighter. With its speed of 640-675 km / h at altitudes over ten kilometers, he could not be afraid of attacks from Messerschmitt 109.

Me 262A jet fighters based along the Munich Autobahn Salzburg Germany 1945

And here Messerschmitt Me-262 (Messerschmitt Me.262) a fighter armed with a 30 mm cannon, could change the course of the war in the air. This is how these data are discussed everywhere, so at least they often say so.

The Me-262 could win the war. He represented a quantum leap in aircraft design; even only a few aircraft transferred to the front-line units made a challenge to the Allied Air Command in Europe. Possessing deafening flight characteristics, the M-262 suffered from its unreliable turbojet engines. The losses due to engine failures, fires and breakdowns were heavy. The 30mm cannon had a tendency to jam, and the landing gear struts were often destroyed when the aircraft landed.

Me-262, one of the first jet fighters and the most famous of them

Several hundred Me-262s, inflicting significant losses, could stop the daytime bombing of the Americans.

And what do you think? Is the answer unclear?

Could such a revolutionary aircraft close the skies of Germany from allied air raids? Let's remind the armada of the attackers reached almost 1000 aircraft at a time. And by mid-1944, control over the skies of Germany belonged to the Allies, and in the daytime too. The Me-262 was rapidly introduced into production. Galland insisted that at least a quarter of the German fighters should be Me-262. This was an impossible demand.

Germany could build enough aircraft before the Allies razed its factories off the face of the earth, but that's half the trouble. When the oil wells and coal mines of Selesia were bombed, almost everything from transportation to industry stopped.

runway at Duxford ME 262 brake system failure

The second question is - could the Luftwaffe train enough pilots to fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter?

fighter Messerschmitt Me 262

Bombed factories. The first question was answered earlier: on August 17, 1943, the US 8th Air Force bombed Regensburg, destroying the aircraft assembly line. This led to the fact that the Germans were forced to move production to a new location in Bavaria, but before that there were production stops due to a lack of qualified personnel, strategic materials and merciless damage to the railway network. Between the summer of 1943 and April 1945, the Messerschmitt factories produced approximately 1,300 Me-262s, of which 1,000 were handed over to the Luftwaffe. At the same time, the total production "only fighters" the allies exceeded 2,000 aircraft per month.

the main problem Messerschmitt Me-262, the first jet fighter of the Luftwaffe, its power plant.

Power plant, jet engine Jumo 004

Unreliable engines caused trouble for the Me-262 throughout its short combat career. Jumo 004 engine required overhaul after ten hours of operation, a engine resource did not exceed 25 hours.

The nozzle sometimes fell out of the nacelle, which led to a fire in the engine, and the plane fell into a death spiral. The aircraft had a tendency to yaw, which made it difficult to accurately fire due to the high speed of approach and the low muzzle velocity of its cannon shells.

Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter Salzburg Austria

The pilots are not the same

Fighter squad made up of fighter Messerschmitt Me-262 in October 1944 they make their first combat mission. Usage statistics Messerschmitt Me-262 not happy, in aerial battles about 150 enemy aircraft were shot down, but about 100 of our own were lost.

Me 262 A2a fighter-bomber found by the US Army in a forest near Frankfurt in the spring of 1945

But in capable hands, with a well-functioning engine, the Me-262 was a formidable opponent.

Fighter bomber being examined by American soldiers

Its phenomenal speed advantage could be used to carry out crushing blows against armadas of bombers, followed by a swift exit from the attack before the escort could react.

Me-262A Americans check for booby traps Germany January 1945

A single hit from a 30mm cannon was often enough to destroy a four-engined bomber, or at least damage it, forcing it to fall behind its group, where German piston fighters could finish it off. In the spring of 1945, the Me-262 was planned to be armed with several unguided air-to-air missiles R4M, which would allow it to launch swift salvos at squadrons of bombers outside the effective range of their machine guns.

German Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter in Wright Field, Ohio confiscated by the US Air Force, with automatic cannon

So the total contribution to the war Messerschmitt Me-262 first jet fighter of the Luftwaffe not as great as it seems.

Here his often crude developments in the further development of jet aircraft construction are great, it is enough to look at the first mass jet fighters of the Allies, often without their identification marks and cannot be distinguished from one another.

It was one of the main combat arms and played a very important role in the course of hostilities. It is no coincidence that each of the warring parties strove to ensure a constant increase in the combat effectiveness 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 evolution of aircraft with piston engines, which reigned supreme in aviation from the moment of its inception, seemed to be ending. The combat aircraft of the end of the Second World War were the most advanced examples of aviation technology, created on the basis of piston engines.

A significant difference between the peaceful and military 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, ordering and creating new models 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 battles has become not only a powerful catalyst in accelerating the progress of aviation, but also the only criterion when comparing the quality of aircraft and choosing the main directions for further development. Each side improved its aircraft based on its own combat experience, the availability of resources, technology capabilities 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. There are many outstanding examples among them. It is interesting to compare these machines, as well as to compare the engineering and scientific ideas that were used to create them. 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 cars is to some extent conditional.

Fighters were the main means of gaining air supremacy in the fight against the enemy. The success of combat operations of ground forces and other types 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 the most intensively. The best of them are traditionally called Yak-3 and La-7 (USSR), North American P-51 Mustang (Mustang, USA), Supermarine Spitfire (Spitfire, England) and Messerschmitt Bf 109 ( Germany). Among the many modifications of Western fighters, the P-51D, Spitfire XIV and Bf 109G-10 and K-4 were selected for comparison, that is, those aircraft that were serially built 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 the belligerent countries by that time. They became, as it were, symbols of the military aviation technology 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 for which they were created. The war in the East showed that in the presence of a front line, where ground forces are 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 overwhelming majority of them were fought at altitudes of up to 4.5 km, regardless of the altitude of the aircraft. Soviet designers, improving fighters and engines for them, could not fail to take this circumstance into account. 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 counted was completely different. In addition, the P-51D had a much longer range required to escort heavy bombers, and therefore was significantly heavier than Spitfires, German Bf 109s and Soviet fighters. Thus, since British, American and Soviet fighters were created for different combat conditions, the question of which of the machines was generally the most effective loses its meaning. It is advisable to compare only the basic technical solutions and machine features.

The situation is different with German fighters. They were intended to fight in the air on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. Therefore, they can reasonably be compared with all Allied fighters.

So what made the best fighters of World War II stand out? 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, "Spitfire" and "Mustang".

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

Creating "Spitfire" in the mid-30s, the designers tried to combine seemingly incompatible things: the high speed characteristic of high-speed monoplane fighters that were then entering life, with the excellent maneuverability, altitude and takeoff and landing characteristics inherent in biplanes. The goal has basically been achieved. Like many other high-speed fighters, "Spitfire" had a cantilever monoplane scheme, well streamlined shapes. But this was only a superficial resemblance. For its weight, the Spitfire had a relatively large wing, which gave a low load per unit of the bearing surface, much less than that of other monoplane fighters. Hence the excellent horizontal maneuverability, 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 a wing of such significant dimensions, 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 much smaller relative thickness than those of 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 firm managed to create an outstanding combat aircraft. This does not mean that the Spitfire was devoid of any flaws. They were. For example, due to the low wing loading, it was inferior to many fighters in dive acceleration. Slower than German, American, and even more so Soviet fighters, it reacted by roll to the pilot's actions. However, these shortcomings were not of a fundamental nature, and in general, the Spitfire was indisputably one of the strongest air combat fighters, which demonstrated excellent qualities in practice.

Among the many variants of the Mustang fighter, the greatest success fell to the share of aircraft equipped with British Merlin engines. These were the P - 51B, C and, of course, the P-51D - the best and most famous American fighter of the Second World War. It was these aircraft that, since 1944, 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 distinctive feature of the Mustang in terms of aerodynamics was its laminar wing, which was installed on a combat aircraft for the first time in the world aviation industry. This "zest" of the aircraft, which was born in the laboratory of the American scientific research center NASA on the eve of the war, deserves special mention. The fact is that the opinion of experts about the advisability of using a laminar wing on fighters of that period is ambiguous. If, before the war, great hopes were pinned on laminar wings, since under certain conditions they had less aerodynamic drag compared to ordinary ones, the experience of working with the Mustang diminished the initial optimism. It turned out that in real operation such a wing is not efficient enough. The reason was that for the implementation of a laminar flow on a part of such a wing, a very careful surface finishing and high accuracy in maintaining the profiling were required. Due to the roughness that arose when the protective paint was applied to the aircraft, and even a slight inaccuracy in the profiling that inevitably appeared in mass production (a slight undulation of the thin metal skin), the laminarization effect on the P-51 wing was greatly reduced. In terms of their bearing properties, laminar profiles were inferior to the usual ones, which caused difficulties in ensuring good maneuverability and takeoff and landing properties.

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

In addition to reduced resistance, laminar airfoils had better speed qualities - with an equal relative thickness, the effects of air compressibility (wave crisis) manifested themselves at higher speeds than on conventional airfoils. Even then it had to be reckoned with. In a dive, 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 higher-speed profiles, which turned out to be laminar, or by reducing the relative thickness of the profile, while reconciling with the inevitable increase in the weight of the structure and a reduction in wing volumes, which are 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 Spitfire wing occurred at a higher speed than on the Mustang wing.

Studies at the British Aviation Science 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 explained by the later manifestation of the wave crisis of the flow and its "softer" nature.

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

The way of creating 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. It was the lightest fighter at the time. French pilots of the Normandie-Niemen regiment, who fought on the Yak-3, spoke about its combat capabilities in the following way: “The Yak-3 gives you complete superiority over the Germans. On the Yak-3, you can fight together against four, and four against sixteen! "

A radical revision of the Yak's design was undertaken in 1943 in order to dramatically improve flight characteristics with a very modest power of the power plants. 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 advance the aircraft, since the Soviet industry had not yet mass-produced new, more powerful engines suitable for installation on the Yak-1.

Such, extremely difficult to implement, the path of development of aviation technology was extraordinary. The usual way to improve the airplane 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 with this arduous task brilliantly. It is unlikely that in the aviation of the Second World War one can find another example of a similar and so effectively performed work.

The Yak-3 was much lighter than the Yak-1, 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 sharply improved its climb rate, acceleration characteristics and vertical maneuverability. At the same time, such an important parameter for horizontal maneuverability, takeoff and landing, as the specific wing loading, has changed little. In the war, the Yak-3 turned out to be one of the easiest fighters to fly.

Of course, in tactical terms, the Yak-3 did not at all replace the aircraft, which were distinguished by stronger weapons and a longer combat flight duration, but perfectly complemented them, embodying the idea of ​​a light, high-speed and maneuverable air combat vehicle intended primarily for combating fighters enemy.

One of the few, if not the only fighter with an air-cooled engine, which with good reason can 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 the La brand 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 its power plant (the liquid-cooled motor was replaced by a much more powerful two-row "star"). In the course of the further development of the La-5, the designers focused on its aerodynamic improvement. In 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 the design measures to reduce aerodynamic drag. An important feature of this work was that the proposed design changes did not require major alterations of the aircraft and changes in the production process and could be relatively easily carried out by serial plants. It was 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 in early 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, an 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 characteristics of La-7 was achieved exclusively by means of aerodynamics and a decrease 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, without increasing the weight and dimensions of the aircraft.

The best features of the air combat fighter were embodied in the La-7: high speed, excellent maneuverability and rate of climb. In addition, compared to the rest of the fighters in question 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 at about the same time as the Spitfire. Like the British aircraft, the Bf 109 became one of the most successful examples of a combat vehicle of the war period and went a long way of evolution: it was equipped with more and more powerful engines, improved aerodynamics, operational and aerobatic characteristics. In terms of aerodynamics, the most significant changes were last made in 1941 with the introduction of the Bf 109F. Further improvement of flight data was mainly due to the installation of new engines. Externally, the latest modifications of this fighter - 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 Hitlerite Luftwaffe. Throughout almost the entire Second World War, Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters were among the best examples of aircraft in their class, and only by the end of the war they began 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 properties. But they solved this problem in a completely different way: unlike the Spitfire, the Bf 109 had a large specific wing load, which allowed to obtain high speed, and to improve maneuverability, not only well-known slats were used, but also flaps, which at the right time the battle 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 flap sections; a controlled stabilizer was also used. In short, the Bf 109 had a unique system of direct lift control, in many respects characteristic of modern aircraft with their inherent automation. However, in practice, many of the designers' decisions have not taken root. Due to the complexity, it was necessary to abandon the controlled stabilizer, hovering ailerons, and the flap extension 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. The takeoff and landing characteristics were also 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 the fuel supply, an increase in the power of weapons, the necessary structural reinforcements and other related measures. In the end, a moment comes when the reserves of a given structure are exhausted. One limitation is the specific wing loading. This, of course, is not the only parameter, but one of the most important and common for 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 wing specific 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, was 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 wing mechanization (slats and flaps).

Beginning in 1942, German designers have been improving their best air combat fighter in conditions of very strict weight restrictions, which greatly narrowed the possibilities for a 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 armament, not particularly considering the increase in weight.

The quality of their serial production has a great influence on the aerodynamic properties of aircraft. Careless manufacturing can negate all the efforts of designers and scientists. This is not so rare. 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 performance, 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 what has been said, it is clear 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 features in common: well-streamlined shapes, thorough nosing of engines, well-developed local aerodynamics and aerodynamics of cooling devices.

In terms of design, Soviet fighters were much simpler and cheaper to manufacture than British, German and, especially, American machines. 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 conditions of the most severe material constraints and a lack of qualified labor. I must say that our country found itself in the most difficult situation. 1941 to 1944 inclusively, a significant part of the industrial zone, where many metallurgical enterprises were located, was occupied by the Nazis. Some factories were successfully evacuated inland and production began at new locations. 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. And nevertheless, the aircraft industry of the USSR, although not immediately, was able to meet the needs of the front for aircraft.

Unlike all-metal Western fighters, wood was widely used in Soviet vehicles. However, in many load-bearing 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 the Mustang looked somewhat preferable. However, Spitfires and Soviet fighters were also well adapted to combat conditions. But in 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 in terms of the degree of automation were German aircraft (not only Bf 109, but others).

The most important indicator of the aircraft's high flight performance and its overall combat capability is the power plant. It is in aviation engine building that the latest advances in technology, materials, control systems and automation are first embodied. Motor building is one of the most knowledge-intensive branches of the aviation industry. Compared to an airplane, the process of creating and fine-tuning new engines takes much longer and requires more effort.

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

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

A characteristic feature that united all the motors that were on the compared fighters was the use of two-speed driven centrifugal superchargers (CCP), which ensure the required altitude. But the difference between Rolls-Royce engines was that their superchargers had not one, as usual, but two consecutive 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 loss spent by the motor for pumping. This was a very important factor.

The original was the pumping system of the DB-605 motors, which was set in motion through a turbo coupling, which, when automatically controlled, smoothly adjusted the gear ratio from the motor to the impeller of the supercharger. Unlike the two-speed drive superchargers that were on Soviet and British engines, the turbo coupling made it possible to reduce the power drop that took place between pumping 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 economy of the power plant. Of the rest of the engines, only the Soviet ASh-82FN, which was on the La-7, had a similar direct injection system.

A significant factor in increasing the flight performance of the Mustang and Spitfire was the fact that their engines had relatively short-term operating modes at increased power. In battle, the pilots of these fighters could for some time use, in addition to the long-term, that is, nominal, or 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 of the versions of the Mustangs and Spitfires were designed for the high altitude of combat use, typical of aviation operations in the West. Therefore, their motors had sufficient altitude. German engine builders were forced to solve a complex technical problem. With a relatively high design altitude of the engine, necessary for fighting in the air in the West, it was important to provide the necessary power at low and medium altitudes required for conducting hostilities in the East. As you know, a simple increase in altitude usually leads to increased 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 altitude, the DB-605 engine occupied, as it were, an intermediate position between British and Soviet motors. To increase the power at altitudes below the calculated one, injection of a water-alcohol mixture (MW-50 system) was used, which made it possible, despite the relatively low octane number of the fuel, to significantly increase the boost, and, consequently, the power without detonation. It turned out a kind of maximum mode, which, like the emergency, could usually be used for up to three minutes.

At altitudes above the calculated one, injection of nitrous oxide (GM-1 system) could be used, which, being a powerful oxidizer, 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 engine 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 complicating the power plant and its operation. For these reasons, they were used separately and were not used on all Bf 109G and K.

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 greatly. 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 nose of the fuselage), then in the Spitfires and Mustangs it was located in the wing outside the area swept away by the propeller. In addition, the Mustang had only large-caliber machine-gun armament, while other fighters also had cannons, and the La-7 and Bf 109K-4 had only cannon armament. In the Western theater of operations, the P-51D was intended primarily to combat 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-3 and La-7 fought aircraft of any purpose, including bombers, which naturally required more powerful weapons.

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

Among the many criteria that determined the combat capability of an aircraft, the most important for a fighter was the combination of its flight data. Of course, they are not important in themselves, but in combination with a number of other quantitative and qualitative indicators, such as stability, flight characteristics, ease of use, 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 the flight characteristics and weapons that are the main technical components of the combat effectiveness of fighters and bombers that are decisive. Therefore, the designers sought, first of all, to achieve priority in flight data, or rather in those of them that played a primary 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, climb rate, range or time of combat mission, maneuverability, ability to quickly gain speed, sometimes a practical ceiling. Experience has shown that the technical perfection of fighters cannot be reduced to any one criterion, which would be expressed by a number, a formula, or even an algorithm calculated for implementation on a computer. The question of comparing fighters, as well as finding the optimal combination of basic flight characteristics, is still one of the most difficult. How, for example, can one 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, a lot depends on the tactics and nature of the air war in general.

It is known that the maximum speed and rate of climb significantly depend on the operating mode of the motor. A long-term or nominal mode is one thing, and an extreme afterburner is quite another. This is clearly seen from the comparison of the maximum speeds of the best fighters of the final period of the war. The presence of modes of increased power significantly improves flight characteristics, but only for a short time, since otherwise the destruction of the engine may occur. For this reason, the 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, fatal situations for the pilot. This position is well confirmed by the analysis of flight data of one of the last German piston fighters - Messerschmitt Bf 109K-4.

The main characteristics of the Bf 109K-4 are given in a fairly extensive report prepared at the end of 1944 for the German Chancellor. The report highlighted 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 companies such as Messerschmitt, Arado, Junkers. In this document, which there is every reason to consider it quite serious, when analyzing the capabilities of the Bf 109K-4, all its data correspond only to the mode of continuous operation of the power plant, and the characteristics at the maximum power mode 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 the maximum takeoff weight, could not use even the nominal mode for a long time and was forced to reduce the speed and, accordingly, power already 5.2 minutes after takeoff. 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 with 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 characteristic of the rate of climb), it is clearly visible what an increase could be obtained by using the maximum power. 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. extraordinary power boost, and even then when the cooling systems had the necessary reserves for heat removal. Thus, the MW-50 forcing system, although it was useful, was not vital for the Bf 109K-4 and therefore it was not installed on all fighters of this type. Meanwhile, the press published data on the Bf 109K-4, corresponding to the emergency regime with the use of the MW-50, which is absolutely not typical for this aircraft.

The above is well confirmed by the combat practice of the final stage of the war. Thus, the Western press often speaks of 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 encountered in combat were 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.

* - calculated values

The tests of the world's first rocket aircraft He-176 in the summer of 1939 showed the fundamental possibility of flight with the help of a liquid-propellant engine, however, 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 heads of the Research Department of the Ministry of Aviation suggested using a rocket engine on a tailless plane. By their order, the German aircraft designer A. Lippisch, who had previously been designing "flying wing" type devices, in 1940 built an experimental "tailless" DFS-I94 aircraft with the same Walter R1-203 LPRE. Due to the low thrust of the engine (400 kg) and the short duration of its operation (1 minute), the speed of the aircraft was no more than that of propeller driven aircraft. However, the Walter R2-203 liquid-propellant engine was soon created, capable of developing a thrust of 750 kg. With the support of the Messerschmitt firm, Lippisch launched a new Me-163L rocket plane, with an R2-203 engine. In October 1941, H. Dittmar, after lifting the aircraft in tow to an altitude of 4000 m, starting the engine, after a few minutes of flight at full thrust, he reached an unprecedented speed of 1003 km / h. It would seem that after this, an order for the serial production of the aircraft as a combat vehicle would immediately follow. But the German military command was in no hurry. At that time, the situation in the war was developing in Germany's favor, and the Nazi leaders were confident of an early victory with the help of their weapons.

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

Due to the fact that the development 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 by the end of the war. Since May 1944, they took part in the hostilities 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.

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

Due to the high thrust of the engine, the speed of the Me-163 surpassed other jet aircraft during the Second World War and had an unprecedented rate of climb - 80 m / s. However, its combat effectiveness was greatly reduced by the very short flight duration. Due to the high specific consumption of fuel and oxidizer by a liquid-rocket engine (5 kg / sec), their supply was only enough for 6 minutes of operation of the liquid-propellant engine 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 chassis in the form of a retractable cart (landing was carried out on a ski extending from the fuselage). Frequent engine shutdowns, high landing speed, instability during takeoff and run, a high probability of an explosion of rocket fuel on impact - all this, according to an eyewitness of the events, caused many disasters.

Technical deficiencies were exacerbated by a shortage of rocket fuel and a shortage 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. Filed by the foreign press, only one unit was actually operational, on whose account there were 9 shot down bombers with 14 aircraft losses of its own.

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 flight with reduced thrust, increased the fuel reserve, instead of a detachable bogie, a conventional wheeled chassis was installed. 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 aircraft to combat high-altitude bombers B-29. A license was purchased, but one of two German submarines sent from Germany to Japan to deliver documents and technical samples was sunk, and the Japanese received only an incomplete set of drawings. Nevertheless, Mitsubishi managed to build both an aircraft and an engine. The aircraft was named J8M1. On its first flight on July 7, 1945, it crashed due to engine failure during climb.

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

Figure 4.65. Messerschmitt Me-163B

Figure 4.66. Fighter BI

Unlike the Me-163, the BI had a conventional design with a non-swept wing, tail unit and retractable wheel landing gear (Fig. 4.66). The structure was made of wood and was notable for its small size, the wing area was only 7 m ^ 2. The D-1A-1100 LPRE located in the aft 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 combat aircraft with a rocket engine. the flights continued. On March 27, 1943, a catastrophe occurred: due to the violation of stability and controllability due to the occurrence of shock waves at high speed (this danger was not then suspected), the plane spontaneously went into a dive and crashed, Bakhchivandzhi died.

Even during the tests, a series of BI fighters was laid. After the disaster, several dozen unfinished aircraft were destroyed, recognizing them as dangerous for flights. In addition, as tests have shown, I have enough stock of 705 kg of fuel and oxidizer for less than two minutes of engine operation, which cast doubt on the very possibility of 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, which were not inferior in characteristics to German machines, and there was no longer an urgent need to introduce new, little-studied and therefore dangerous technology into production.

The most unusual of the missile aircraft built during the war was the German Ba-349A Nutter vertical-takeoff interceptor. It was designed as an alternative to the Me-163 for mass production. The Ba-349A was an extremely cheap and technologically advanced aircraft, constructed from the most accessible types of wood and metal. The wing did not have ailerons, lateral control was carried out by differential deflection of the elevators. The launch took place into the distance by a vertical guide with a length of about 9 m. The aircraft was 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 LPRE. Initially, 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 dropped with a parachute 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 in early 1945 ended in disaster - in the vertical takeoff mode, the plane lost stability and crashed, the pilot died.

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

Figure 4.67. Aircraft launch Ba-349A

Not only rocket engines were used as a power plant for "disposable" aircraft. In 1944, German designers carried out experiments with a projectile aircraft equipped with a pulsating 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 shell 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 the carrier aircraft. There was no chassis on the Fi-103. After separation from the carrier, the pilot had to aim and dive at the target. Despite the fact that there was a parachute in the cockpit, the Fi-103 was essentially a weapon of suicide pilots: the chances of safely leaving the plane with a parachute while diving at a speed of about 800 km / h were extremely small. Until the end of the war, 175 missiles were converted into manned projectile aircraft, but due to numerous accidents they were not used during tests in battle.

Juncker tried to convert the unclaimed aircraft into Ju-126 attack aircraft, installing chassis and cannon armament on them. Takeoff was to be carried out from a catapult or using rocket boosters. The construction and testing of this aircraft took place after the war, on an assignment issued by the USSR to German aircraft designers.

Another manned projectile with PUVRD was to be the Me-328. Its tests took place in mid-1944. Excessive vibration associated with the operation of pulsating air-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, in comparison with a ramjet or PuVRD, provided takeoff autonomy and caused less vibration, and it favorably differed from a liquid-propellant engine by 10-15 times lower specific fuel consumption, no need for an oxidizer, and greater operational safety.

The first fighter with a turbojet engine was the German 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 the twin-engine scheme in the following way: “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. 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 two-fin tail unit. At the beginning of the tests, there were no weapons on the plane, the cannons (3x20mm) were installed only in the summer of 1942.

The first flight of the He-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 the strong high-speed 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 a few months after the start of the He-280 tests. On January 13, 1942, during a flight in bad weather conditions, the aircraft froze, and it ceased to obey 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.

Since 1944, by order of the Technical Department of the German Ministry of Aviation, on prototypes of all military aircraft, it was prescribed to have only ejection seats. The ejection system was also used on most production German jet aircraft. Until the end of World War II, there were about 60 cases of successful pilot bailouts in Germany.

At the initial stage of the war, the Hitlerite military leadership did not show much interest in the new Heinkel aircraft and did not raise the issue of its serial production. Therefore, until 1943, the He-280 remained an experimental machine, and then the Me-262 with the best flight characteristics appeared, 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 hostilities.

The construction of the first prototype Me-262 began in 1940, and from 1941 it passed flight tests. Initially, the aircraft was flown 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. Wend ehl writes: "The turbojet engines ran like clockwork, and the car's handling was extremely pleasant. In fact, I have rarely felt such enthusiasm during the first flight on any aircraft like the Me 262."

Like the He-280, the Me-262 was a single all-metal cantilever monoplane with 2 turbojet engines in gondolas under the wing. The chassis with a tail support was soon replaced by a three-wheeled one, with a nose wheel, according to the He-280 model; 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 downward with rounded corners. This made it possible to remove the wheels of the main landing gear in the niches in the lower surface of the fuselage and provide minimal resistance to interference in the articulation zone of the wing and fuselage. The wing is trapezoidal with a sweep along the leading edge of 18 °. Ailerons and landing flaps were located on the trailing straight edge. The launch of the Jumo-004 turbojet engines with a thrust of 900 kg was carried out using a gasoline two-stroke starter engine. Due to the engine power greater than that of the He-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.

Figure 4.68. Messerschmitt Me-262

In November 1943, the Messerschmitt jet was shown to Hitler. This post was followed by a decision on the serial production of the aircraft, however, contrary to common sense, Hitler ordered to build it 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 fighters. Only almost a year later, the leader of the Third Reich abandoned his erroneous decision.

Another circumstance that delayed the serial production of jet aircraft was the difficulties with the production of turbojet engines. These include the design problems associated with the frequent knocking spontaneous stops of the Jumo-004 in the raid, and technological difficulties due to the lack of nickel and chromium for the manufacture of heat-resistant turbine blades in Germany, blocked from land and sea, and production disruptions due to increasing bombardments. 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-262s 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-262 were manufactured. in the first 2 months of 1945 - another 380 machines | 52, p. 126 |. The aircraft were produced in versions of a fighter with powerful weapons (four 30-mm cannons in the nose of the 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, hastily built in the wilderness to make them invisible to aviation. There were no airfields, the assembled Me-262 had to take off from a regular highway.

Due to the acute shortage of aviation fuel and pilots, most of the built Me-262 never took off. However, several combat jet units took part in the battles. The first air battle of the Me-262 with an enemy aircraft took place on July 26, 1944, when a German pilot attacked the high-altitude English reconnaissance plane "Mosquito". Thanks to its better maneuverability, the Mosquito managed to evade pursuit. Later, the Me-262 was used by groups to intercept bombers. Sometimes there were fights with escort fighters, and there were even cases when 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 the technology for the production of heat-resistant steels for turbines from the Krupp company, a Nakajima J8N1 "Kikka" jet aircraft with 2 Ne20 turbojet engines was designed on the model of the Me-262. The only aircraft tested in flight took off on August 7, the day after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. At the time of Japan's surrender, 19 Kikka jet fighters were on the assembly line.

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

Figure 4.64. Altitude and speed characteristics of aircraft "Spitfire" XIV and Me-262

The aircraft had an overhead wing. This arrangement provided the necessary clearance between the ground and the under-wing engines during takeoff and landing, but, at the same time, created a problem with the landing gear retraction. Initially, they wanted to use a dumped wheeled cart, as on the Me-163. But this deprived the pilot of the opportunity to take off again in case of landing outside the airfield. Therefore, in 1944, the aircraft was equipped with a conventional wheeled landing gear, retractable into the fuselage. For this, it was necessary to increase the size of the fuselage and rearrange the fuel tanks (Ar-232B variant).

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

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

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

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

47* The entire internal volume of the fuselage was occupied by fuel tanks, because The turbojet engines were distinguished by their large fuel consumption compared to the LAN.

R is 4.70. Arado Ar-234С I

Figure 4.71. Prototype of the Ju-287 bomber

To speed up the construction of the first sample, the fuselage from the He-177 aircraft was used, the tail assembly from the Ju-288. The aircraft was equipped with four Jumo-004 turbojet engines: 2 in gondolas under the wing and 2 on the sides of the nose of the 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 they decided to install 6 BMW-003 engines with a thrust of 800 kg on the serial bomber. According to calculations, in this case, the aircraft was supposed to take up to 4000 kg of bombs and have a flight speed at an altitude of 5000 m 865 km / h. In the summer of 1945, the partially built bomber fell to the Soviet troops, by the hands of German engineers it was brought to flight condition 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 to create a cheap fighter with a turbojet engine, in contrast to 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, Juncker. 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 was supposed to have the simplest aerobatic 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 supposed to produce 50 aircraft in January 1945, 100 in February, and further increase production to 1000 aircraft per month. The Non-162 was supposed to become the main aircraft for the Volksturm militia, created by order 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.

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 a rhyme too late. Until the end of the war, only 50 aircraft had been transferred into service, another 100 were prepared for testing, about 800 He-162s were at various stages of assembly. The plane did not participate in hostilities. This made it possible to save the lives of not only the soldiers of the anti-Hitler coalition, but also hundreds of German youths: as the tests of the He-162 in the USSR showed, the plane had poor stability, and the use of 15-16-year-old teenagers who had practically no flight training as pilots ( all the "training" consisted of a few glider flights "would be tantamount to killing them.

Figure 4.72. Heinkel Non-162

Most of the first jet aircraft had a straight wing. The Me-163 was an exception among the serial machines, 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 significantly affect Mkrit.

The emergence of shock waves at high speeds caused a number of catastrophes, and, in contrast to propeller-driven aircraft, the wave crisis occurred not 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 incidents have become more frequent. Here is how the test pilot of the firm Messerschmitt L. Hoffmann describes them: “These accidents (according to the witnesses who inspire confidence) happened as follows. It was practically impossible to establish the causes of these accidents through investigation, since the pilots did not survive, and the planes were completely destroyed. As a result of these accidents, one Messerschmitt test pilot and a number of military pilots were killed. "

Mysterious disasters limited the capabilities of jet aircraft. So, according to the instructions of the military leadership, the maximum permissible speeds of the Me-163 and Me-262 were not to exceed 900 km / h.

When, by the end of the war, scientists began to guess about the reasons for the aircraft being pulled into a dive, the Germans recalled 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, at the initiative of the chief aerodynamicist of the company Arado R. Kozin, work began on the creation of a variant of the Ar-234 aircraft with a so-called crescent-shaped wing. The sweep at the root was 37 °, towards the ends of the wing it decreased to 25 °. At the same time, thanks to the variable sweep of the wing and a special selection of profiles, it was supposed to provide the same Mkrit values ​​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 sweep made it possible to reduce aerodynamic drag, but at low speeds such a wing was more susceptible to flow stall and gave a lower Su max compared to a straight wing. As a result, the idea arose of a wing sweep variable in flight. With the help of the mechanism for turning the wing consoles during takeoff and landing, the minimum sweep should be set, at high speeds - the maximum. The author of this idea was A. Lippisch

Figure 4.74. DM-1 at Langley Aerodynamic Laboratory, USA

Fig 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 analogue of the aircraft. The glider, named DM-1, in addition to the delta wing of low aspect ratio, was distinguished by an unusually large vertical keel in area (42% of the S wing). This was done to preserve directional stability and controllability at high angles of attack. The cockpit was located inside the keel. To compensate for the redistribution of aerodynamic forces on the wing at a 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 Germany surrendered, the construction of the glider was almost complete. After the war, the DM-1 was shipped to the United States for study in a wind tunnel (Fig. 4.74)).

Another interesting technical development that emerged in Germany at the end of the war was the Horten No-9 "flying wing" jet. 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 unit provided low aerodynamic drag at transonic speeds. According to the calculation, this aircraft with two turbojet engines Jumo-004B with a thrust of 900 kg 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 vehicles, the production of which was included in the emergency program for the defense of Germany. According to this order, it remained on paper - the German aviation industry by that time was no longer operational.

The political situation stimulated the development of jet aircraft 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 the creation of jet aircraft: in the 1930s, engineer F. Whittle worked there on the design of a turbojet engine. The first operational samples of Whittle engines appeared at the turn of the 30s and 40s.

Unlike German engines, which had a multistage axial compressor, the British turbojet engines used a single-stage centrifugal compressor, developed on the basis of the design of centrifugal superchargers of reciprocating engines. This type of compressor was lighter and simpler than axial, 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, etc. However, these suggestions were intuitive. The merit of the German designer is that he was the first to scientifically substantiate the advantages of a delta wing for supersonic speeds.