Bird of Prey
The Messerschmitt 262 is back and ready for action.
Allied pilots during World War II were both terrified and fascinated by the Messerschmitt 262, Germany's pioneering jet fighter. With its organic, sharklike contours and major speed advantage over piston-engined adversaries, the Me262 was one of the Luftwaffe's silver bullets. Although it arrived too late and in insufficient numbers to make a major difference in the course of the conflict, the twin-jet warbird occupies a hallowed place in aviation history.
If you've got about $2 million, plus some more change for a set of modern engines and instruments, you can defend the skies above your local airfield in an otherwise faithful replica of the German jet that Chuck Yeager shot down in a P-51 Mustang at the beginning of his flying career. Work on the meticulously hand-built replicas began in Fort Worth in 1993, when production tooling was fabricated to measurements taken from one of the few surviving original aircraft. The project later moved to Paine Field, north of Seattle, where an expert group working under retired Boeing engineer Bob Hammer has completed the first aircraft and is now working on the second. These aircraft have been sold, but the remaining three in the five-plane production run are still up for grabs.
Flight testing of the first Me262 replica is slated to begin soon, using the same reliable General Electric J85 engines that power the F-5/T-38 fighter and some Lear-jets. Even if you could find some, you wouldn't want to rely on the original Junkers Jumo 004 turbojets, which were known for having an operating life of just ten to 25 hours. Visit
http://www.stormbirds.com to learn more about the new-old Messerschmitts.
