The historic display of a German Messerschmitt Me-262 fighter in the United Kingdom

@DefAviation ES 7·24·2023 · 22:47 0

The German Messerschmitt Me-262 Schwalbe fighter, which made its maiden flight in 1941, was the first mass-produced jet fighter.

The flight of the famous Messerschmitt Me-262 Schwalbe jet at an airshow in Austria
A curious footage of a German fighter Messerschmitt Bf-109 captured by the RAF

The Me-262 entered service in 1944 and put the allied aviation in trouble, since it was faster than the allied fighters thanks to its two Junkers Jumo 004 . During World War II, Germany built about 1,400 units of this fighter. Today, only nine original Me-262s remain and none of them are airworthy, although the US Flying Heritage Collection is working on restoring one of them so that it can take off again with its original engines. In addition, in the Czech Republic there are two Avia S-92s preserved, both on static display at the Aviation Museum in Prague.

However, and as we saw last year, there are three Me-262s that do fly. These are replicas built by a US company, Texas Airplane Factory, equipped with General Electric CJ610 turbojets. One of them is the W.Nr.501244 (D-IMTT), a Me 262B-1c owned by the Messerschmitt Foundation, created in 1969 by Willy Messerschmitt, the designer of the Me-262 and the also famous Bf-109 fighter. This plane recently participated in The Royal Air Tattoo, the air festival held at RAF Fairford, England. It was a historic occasion as it is the first time an Me-262 has flown at a British airshow in over 80 years.

You can see here the video in 4K format of this exhibition published by Tonkatsu298:

In addition, Ted Coningsby, the aviator teddy bear, has posted a 4K video of the formation of the Me-262, a P-51 Mustang and two Spitfires at this festival:

You can see here some screenshots from Tonkatsu298's video. As a curiosity, this Me-262 does not have the swastika that these jet fighters used to wear in their drifts because it is an aircraft registered in Germany, and in that country the symbol of the Nazi Party is illegal.