ME-163 Flies again

[expat]

Check this out , i wonder if they have a rocket for it ...


http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1080746/L/

[viper215]

Nice pic thanks for posting

[MAG1C]

Looks like its being towed.  Well that makes sense.  Me-163 was essentially a glider.

[xNOVAx]

The cowboy hat is a nice touch

[LYNX]

Originally posted by expat
Check this out , i wonder if they have a rocket for it ...


http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1080746/L/

I understand that those "rockets" actually killed more ME 163 pilots than enemy fire did.   Would you wanna test ride 1 ?

[expat]

I think you'l find that rockets have come along way since then, the x prize people want to race rocket aircraft ......

[Kweassa]

I understand that those "rockets" actually killed more ME 163 pilots than enemy fire did. Would you wanna test ride 1 ?

 Which, is a myth.

 The same kind of urban legends such as those which insist any kind of pressure on the engines will immediately turn a 262 into a flamin' fireball.

[expat]

Thanks Kweassa...with the 262 jet's didnt you have to be carefull with throttle movments , ie no slamming it from idle to max i read that they didnt handle that to well...

[OOZ662]

The fuel was what took out the pilots, not the engine. Part of the fuel mixture combusted when it touched organic material. The other half of the mixture was some sort of organic material.

[uberhun]

Originally posted by OOZ662
The fuel was what took out the pilots, not the engine. Part of the fuel mixture combusted when it touched organic material. The other half of the mixture was some sort of organic material.

If i remeber correctly the fuel was a mixture of Hydrogen peroxide and alcohol. It was at such a high concentration, that it would ignite if it came in contact with each other.

[mussie]

Better not let Doobs fly one he would drink all the fule on the runway

[Wilbus]

Originally posted by LYNX
I understand that those "rockets" actually killed more ME 163 pilots than enemy fire did.   Would you wanna test ride 1 ?

I'd do it.

[kamilyun]

The fuels were T-stoff and C-stoff.

T-stoff was hydrogen peroxide (+ some water and acids).

C-stoff was a mixture of methanol + some catalysts. (Hydrazine, Copper salts).

Pretty sure it worked by the copper and hydrazine in C-stoff reacting with the hydrogen peroxide to produce oxygen.  The combination of oxygen and methanol (from C-stoff) was the actual fuel for the fire.

Almost all of the components will screw you up, either individually or in combination.  Hydrazine and hydrogen peroxide just scare me.  



But this all has me wondering...what was the role of methanol in the standard combustion engines of LW planes?

[Grendel]

Originally posted by expat
Check this out , i wonder if they have a rocket for it ...


http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1080746/L/

It's a glider. Me 163 was essentially a rocket powered glider, and reported to handle extremerely beautifullly, both in powered and non powered flight.

And no, 163 was much less lethal to its own pilots than the urban myths claim. Of course there were accidents, but way less than people think. A much bigger problem than the rocket engine or the fuels themselves were the actual airfields, as the 163 were often forced to operate from airfields that were completely unsuitable for rocket fighters. Short, bumpy, busy, cramped...  Some 163s were lost in landing collisions, when the glider approached for landing and some handsomehunk in his powered plane took off or landed from same runway. Or tehre were bumps in the grass or runway, that threw the plane off course. Etc. Landings were usually the tricky part in those conditions.

[Lusche]

As the fuel tanks were quite easily ruptured in rough landings, 163 pilots wore special suits to protect them from T-Stoff in particular. As pointed out before, that substance could ignite organic materials (clothing!) and is corrosive. The suits were made of some kind of PVC.