2nd FIRST FLIGHT FOR THE MESSERSCHMITT 262

by Jean Luc DUBERT

Militairy Mission in Washington DC

At last ! Since the idea of taking a Me.262 back in the air started in 1993, the dream had finally come true last 20 of december :

On this very day, at 2 pm PST (11pm UT), the Me.262 B-1c (Wk.Nr. 501241 - "white 1") took off for its 1st flight from Paine Field, near Seattle (State of Washington) pilot wasWolf CZAIA, the testing pilot for this project. It's the 1st time since 1945 that a Me.262 is back in the air. The vol lasted half an hour. Already on 25 of november, the same aircraft had almost unwillingly perfomed a small jump (5ft above the field) during high speed rolling test (see picture).

This project consist in rebuilding completly 5 Me.262 (1 monoseat, 2 biseats et 2 convertibles) as they were in 1944/45. The only changes to their authenticity concern the Jumo 004B engines which, for fiability and availability reasons, have been replaced by General-Electric G.E. J-85/CJ-610 used on Learjet, F-5, T-37, T-38 & T-2J. This new production of Me.262 have been volontarily limited to 5 aircrafts ; aucun autre ne sera construit. 2 of them already have an owner (an américain & a german).

To avoid future identifications errors, the serial numbers which have been given to them are issued from the logical following of the Werknummern original 1945 production. As well, the "c" suffix refears to the J-85 engine, officially approuved by the Messerschmitt Fondation in Germany. During the war, an "a" suffix was used for the Jumo 004B engine, while "b" was used by experimental models with BMW 003 engines, letting the "c" available.

The Me.262 A/B-1c (Wk.Nr. 501244 - "13 red") is to be the next in flight this year.

For more informations about this project, log on to www.stormbirds.com.

Jean-Luc Dubert

Club du Theil | 2001 - 2004 | Contact : club-du-theil@tiscali.fr

Text & photos : Jean-Luc DUBERT