HEINKEL HE 162

The 'Heinkel He 162' 'Volksjäger' ("People's Fighter") was a single engined, jet powered fighter aircraft fielded by the Luftwaffe in WWII. It was the fastest of the first generation of Axis and Allied jets. ''Volksjäger'' was the RLM's official name for the He 162. Other names given to the plane include ''Salamander'', which was the codename of its construction program, and ''Spatz'' ("Sparrow") which was the name given to the plane by Heinkel. Much of the plane was made of wood, as metals were in very short supply at this time and typically allocated to current front line combat aircraft such as the Me 262 and Ar 234.

Contents

Development

Design

Operations

Variants

Trivia

Survivors

Specifications (He 162)

External links

Related content

Development

When the US 8th Air Force re-opened the bombing campaign on Germany in early 1944 with the Big Week offensive, the bombers returned to the skies with the P-51 Mustang in escort. This changed the nature of the war in the air. Earlier in the war, German fighter units could freely attack Allied bombers, but with fighter escort the Luftwaffe spent more time avoiding the US patrols than attacking the bombers. Over the previous year, changes were made to improve the fighters' capabilities against the bombers. The addition of heavy cannons and armour had the side effect of turning the planes into deathtraps in stark comparison to the lighter Mustangs, which could outperform the German fighters with ease.
The US had superior numbers and by the end of April the backbone of the ''Jagdwaffe'' had been broken. With few planes coming up to fight, the US fighters were let loose on the German airbases, railways and truck traffic. Logistics soon became a serious problem, maintaining aircraft in fighting condition almost impossible, and having enough fuel for a complete mission profile was even more difficult.
This posed a considerable problem for the Luftwaffe. Two camps quickly developed, both demanding the immediate introduction of large numbers of jet aircraft.
One group, led by ''General der Jäger'' (General of Fighters) Adolf Galland, reasoned that superior numbers had to be countered with superior technology, and demanded that all possible effort be put into increasing the production of the Messerschmitt Me 262, even if that meant reducing production of other aircraft in the meantime.
It was also pointed out that this would likely do little to address the problem; the Me 262 was notoriously unreliable, and the existing logistics problems would mean there would simply be more of them sitting on the ground waiting for parts that would never arrive, or for fuel that simply wasn't available. Instead they suggested that a new design be built, one so inexpensive that if it did break it could simply be thrown away.
On one side, Galland and other Luftwaffe senior officers expressed vehement opposition to the light fighter idea, while ''Reichsmarshall'' Herman Göring and Armaments Minister Albert Speer fully supported the idea. Not surprisingly, Göring and Speer got their way, and a contract tender for a single-engined jet fighter that was suited for cheap and rapid mass production was established under the name ''Volksjäger'' ("People's Fighter").
The official RLM requirement specified a single-seat fighter, powered by a single BMW 003. The jet was to use cheap and unsophisticated parts made of wood and other non-critical materials and more importantly could be assembled by low-skilled and non-skilled labor. Specifications included a weight of no more than two tonnes (4,400 pounds), when most fighters of the era were twice that. Maximum speed was specified as 750 km/h (466 mph) at sea level, operational endurance at least a half hour, and the takeoff run no more than 500 meters (1,640 feet). Armament was specified as either two 20 mm MG 151/20's with 100 rounds per gun, or two 30 mm MK 108 with 50 rounds per gun. More importantly the ''Volksjäger'' needed to be easy to fly. Some suggested that even glider or student pilots should be able to fly the jet effectively in combat.
The requirement was issued 10 September 1944, with basic designs to be returned within 10 days and to start large scale production by January 1st of 1945.

Design

Because the winner of the new lightweight fighter design would be building huge numbers of the planes, nearly every German aircraft manufacturer expressed interest in the project. However, Heinkel had already been working on a series of "paper projects" for light single-engine fighters over the last year under the designation 'P.1073', with most design work being completed by Professor Benz, and had gone so far as to build and test several models and conduct some wind tunnel testing. Although some of the competing designs were technically superior, with Heinkel's head start the outcome was largely a forgone conclusion. The results of the competition were announced in October 1944, only three weeks after being announced, and to no-one's surprise the Heinkel entry was selected for production. In order to confuse Allied intelligence, the RLM chose to reuse the 8-162 designation (formerly that of a Messerschmitt fast bomber, rather than the other considered designation 'He 500'.
Heinkel had designed a neat, sporty-looking little aircraft, with a sleek, streamlined fuselage, a BMW 003 engine carried in a nacelle on the back of the aircraft, twin tailfins allowing the vertical tailplanes to clear the jet exhaust, a high-mounted straight wing with a shallow dihedral, an ejection seat for the pilot, and tricycle landing gear that retracted into the fuselage. The plane was in the air within an astoundingly short period of time: the design was chosen on 25 September and first flew on December 6, less than 90 days later. This was despite the fact that the factory making the plywood glue, Tego-Film, had been bombed and a replacement had to be quickly substituted.
The first flight of the He 162V1, by test pilot Gotthard Peter, was fairly successful, but during a high-speed run at 840 km/h the highly acidic replacement glue holding the nose gear cover on failed and the pilot was forced to land. Other problems were noted as well, notably a pitch instability and problems with slideslip due to the rudder design. Neither was considered important. On a second flight on 10 December in front of various Nazi officials the glue failed again, this time on the wing. This allowed the aileron to separate, and the plane slowly rolled over and crashed, killing the pilot.
An investigation into the failure revealed that the wing structure had to be re-stressed and redesigned for more strength, as the glue bonding required for the wood parts was in many cases defective, but the schedule was so tight that testing was forced to continue with the current design. Speeds were limited to 500 km/h when the second prototype flew on 22 December. This time the stability problems proved to be more serious, and were tracked to Dutch roll which could be solved by reducing the dihedral. However, with the plane supposed to enter production within weeks, there was no time to change the design. A number of small changes were made instead, including adding lead ballast to the nose to move the center of gravity more to the front of the plane, slightly increasing the size of the tail surfaces.
Two prototypes with the strengthened wings flew on 16 January. These versions also included small aluminum wing tip droops in an attempt to cure the stability problems via decreased dihedral. Both were equipped with two MK 108s in the He 162A-1 bomber hunter version, but in testing the recoil proved to be too much for the lightweight fuselage to handle, and plans for production turned to the A-2 fighter with two MG 151/20s instead while a redesign for added strength started as the A-3.
Various changes had raised the weight over the original 2 tonne limit, but even at 2800 kg the aircraft was still the fastest jet aircraft in the air at 890 km/h (553 mph) at sea level, and even faster at 905 km/h (562 mph) at 6,000 meters (20,000 feet).

Operations

In January 1945, the ''Luftwaffe'' formed a "''Erprobungskommando'' 162" (Test Unit 162) evaluation group to which the first 46 aircraft were delivered. The group was based at the ''Luftwaffe'' test center at Rechlin and it is frequently stated that this unit was under the command of Heinz Bär. Bär, an experienced combat pilot credited with more than 200 kills gained 16 of his victories with Me 262 as commander of operational training unit III./EJG 2. However Bär's personal documents do not confirm his presence at ''Erprobungskommando'' 162 or if he ever flew He 162s.
February saw deliveries of the He 162 to its first operational unit, I./JG1 (1st ''Staffel'' Group of ''Jagdgeschwader 1'' {1st Squadron, 1st Fighter Wing}), which had previously flown the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. I./JG1 was transferred to Parchim, near the Heinkel factory at Marienehe, where the pilots could pick up their new jets and start intensive training beginning in March, all while the transportation network and fuel supply of the Third Reich was collapsing under the pressure of Allied air attacks. On April 7, the USAAF bombed the field at Parchim with 134 B-17 Flying Fortresses, inflicting serious losses and damage to the infrastructure. Two days later, I./JG1 moved to an airfield at nearby Ludwigslust and, less than a week later, moved again to an airfield at Leck, near the Danish border. In the meantime, on April 8 II./JG1 moved to Marienehe and started converting from Fw 190s to He 162s. The III./JG1 was also scheduled to convert to the He 162, but the ''Staffel'' disbanded on April 24 and its personnel used to fill in the vacancies in other units.
The He-162 finally saw combat in mid-April. On April 19, a captured Royal Air Force fighter pilot informed his German interrogators that he had been shot down by a jet fighter matching the description of a He 162. The Heinkel and its pilot were lost as well, shot down by a RAF Hawker Tempest while on approach. Though still in training, I./JG1 had scored a number of kills beginning in mid-April, but had also lost thirteen He 162s and ten pilots. Ten of the aircraft were operational losses, such as flameouts and sporadic structural failures: just two were shot down. The He 162's 30-minute fuel capacity also caused problems, as at least two of JG 1's pilots were killed attempting emergency landings after exhausting their fuel.
In the last days of April, as the Soviet troops approached, II./JG 1 evacuated from Marienhe and on May 2 joined the I./JG-1 at Leck. On May 3, all of JG 1's surviving He 162s were restructured into two groups, I. ''Einsatz'' (Combat) and II. ''Sammel'' (Replacement). All JG1's aircraft where grounded May 5 when General Admiral von Friedeburg signed the surrender of all German armed forces in Holland, Northwest Germany and Denmark. On May 6 when the British reached their airfields, JG 1 turned their He 162s over to the Allies, and examples were shipped to the U.S., Britain, France, and the USSR for further evaluation. Erprobungskommando 162 fighters, which had been passed on to JV 44, an elite jet unit under Adolf Galland a few weeks earlier, were all destroyed by their crews to keep them from falling into Allied hands. By the time of the German unconditional surrender May 8 1945, 120 He 162s had been delivered; a further 200 had been completed and were awaiting collection or flight-testing; about 600 more were in various stages of production.
The difficulties experienced by the He 162 were caused mainly by its rush into production, not by any inherent design flaws. One experienced ''Luftwaffe'' pilot who flew it called it a "first-class combat aircraft." This opinion was mirrored by Eric Brown of the FAA, who flew it not only during post-war evaluations, but went on to fly it for fun after testing had completed. He considered it delightful to fly, although the very light controls made it suitable only for experienced pilots. He wrote about his 162 flights in ''Wings of the Luftwaffe'', a description that has been reprinted in many media over the years.^[1] Brown had been warned to treat the rudder with suspicion due to a number of in-flight failures, but this warning was apparently not given to another RAF pilot, and one of the tailfins broke off during the Farnborough air show, killing the pilot.

Variants

★ 'He 162 A-0' - first ten pre-production aircraft.

★ 'He 162 A-1' - armed with 2 × 30 mm MK 108 cannons, 50 rounds each.

★ 'He 162 A-2' - armed with 2 × 20 mm MG 151/20 cannons, 120 rounds each.


★ 'He 162 A-3' - proposed upgrade with reinforced nose mounting twin 30 mm MK 108 cannons.

★ 'He 162 A-8' - proposed upgrade with the more powerful Jumo 004D-4 engine.

★ 'He 162 B-1' - a proposed follow on planned for 1946, to include more powerful Heinkel-Hirth HeS 011A turbojet, a stretched fuselage to provide more fuel and endurance as well as increased wingspan, with proper dihedral and discarding the anhedral wingtip extensions. To be armed with twin 30 mm MK 108 cannon.
:The He 162B airframe was also used as the basis for possible designs powered by one or two Argus As 044 pulsejet engines.

★ 'He 162C' - proposed upgrade featuring the B-series fuselage, Heinkel-Hirth HeS 011A engine, swept wing, a new ''V '' shaped tail assembly, and twin MK 108 cannon featuring a Schräge Musik weapons assembly.

★ 'He 162D' - proposed upgrade with a configuration similar to C-series but a forward-swept wing.

★ 'He 162E' - He 162A fitted with the BMW 003R mixed power plant, a BMW 003A turbojet with an integrated BMW 718 liquid-fuel rocket engine for boost power. At least one prototype was built and flight-tested for a short time.

★ 'He 162S' - two-seat training glider.

Trivia

★ The He-162 was originally built with the intention of being flown by the Hitler Youth, as the Luftwaffe was fast running out of pilots. However the aircraft was far too complicated for anything but a highly experienced pilot.

Survivors

★ He-162A-2 (Werk Number 120227) of JG1 is on display at the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon.

★ An He-162A-2 (Werk Number 120077) is currently owned by Planes of Fame and on static display Chino, California. Rumor has it this aircraft was for sale and was purchased by a German museum.

★ An He-162A-2 (Werk Number 120230), thought to have been flown by ''Oberst'' Herbert Ihlefeld of 1/JG 1, is currently owned by the U.S. National Air and Space Museum. This He-162 is currently fitted with the tail unit from Werk Number 120222

★ Two He-162A-2s (Werk Number 120086 and 120076) were owned by Canada Aviation Museum, 120086 is disassembled and only accessible to the public on a limited basis. Werk Number 120076 was been traded to Aero Vintage in the UK for a Bristol Fighter (G-AANM, D-7889) in December 2006.

★ An He-162A-1 (Werk Number 120235) is displayed hanging from the ceiling of the The Imperial War Museum in London (shown above).

★ An He-162A-2 (Werk Number 120015) formerly of III./JG1, is currently on display at the ''Musee de l'Air'', in Paris, France.

Specifications (He 162)

External links

★ The Heinkel He 162 Volksjaeger at Greg Goebel's AIR VECTORS

★ Heinkel He 162 "Volksjäger"(in German)

★ Heinkel 162 Ejection Seat

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