Me163 and negative g

[Duedel]

I read that if a pilot pulled negative g in the Kraftei the Walter rocket motor would stop and could only be reignited after about  2 mins - with luck.

My questions:

Is this true?

Is this modelled with our Kraftei (I guess not)?

[HoHun]

Hi Düdel,

>Is this true?

It happened regularly to the first operational Me 163 aircraft. The reason was that negative Gs caused unequal feed of both fuel components, and the engine was designed to switch off if that happened to avoid an uncontrolled reaction.

When it was realized that this was harmful, the design of the fuel tanks was changed to give more even feed even when manoeuvering (the problem wasn't really caused by negative Gs, but by the inertia-induced movements of the liquid.)

The result of the change was a much improved reliabilty.

Regards,

Henning (HoHun)

[Duedel]

Thanks HoHun