Hitler’s Seven Jet Aircraft

Germany's jet aircraft were a nasty shock to Allied bomber crews in 1944, as they flew by at incredible speeds tearing into their formations with deadly 30mm cannon fire. But these jets, Me 262s, weren't the first German jet to take to the skies. Nor were they the second. And they wouldn't be the last. Let me tell you all about the SEVEN Nazi jet aircraft.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:45 A German Jet Engine
01:28 Heinkel 178
02:48 Heinkel 280
05:26 Messerschmitt 262
06:40 Jet Combat
09:57 Arado 234
12:16 Fieseler 103 "Reichenberg"
13:46 Heinkel 162
16:12 Horton 229
17:46 Conclusion?
18:38 Outro

All content is presented in historical context for educational purposes. All footage is owned by it's copyright holder and is used in this channel under "fair use".

Music by Epidemic Sound

[Nursilmaz]

Would you consider making something about first helicopters? I have seen that they first started making them towards the end of II WW but I know nothing about their usage and the reason behind their production.

[E.hexzor]

Small correction @ ~ 8:57
Mk108 isn't mark 108 rather it stands for maschinenkanonen the German word for autocannon

Correction: as highlighted by @CommunistPartyOfArstotzka the correct syntax is 'Maschinenkanone' not 'maschinenkanonen' as I initially wrote

[bkjeong]

For all its flaws, the Me-262 was at least a decent interceptor with a reasonable combat record; it was never going to win the war for Germany, but by the time it entered service NOTHING was going to win the war for Germany.

The Komet though…..a perfect example of how not to build an interceptor.

[michaelbatson]

Another problem with the ME 262 is the original prototypes were tail draggers. The pilots had problems taking off because they couldn't get the tail to raise. A stopgap solution was on take off the pilots would tap bakes, and the nose would lunge forward enough to have air to be able to lift the tail. Redesigning a nose wheel landing gear to solve this problem was also another reason why production was delayed.

[TheTravelingTank]

Wow, that footage of seeing some of the earliest jets in existence being shot down by propellor aircraft is just so crazy to me. What an awesome overlap between past and future.

[PitFriend]

An odd design feature of the Junkers 004 engine was how it started. They had a built in 10 horsepower two stroke gasoline engine to start the jets. The little holes in the nosecones of the engines had a pull ring for the ground crews to pull start the things just like a lawn mower.

[PiggyBankBurglar]

Aircraft yes! Great video - Can i request a video on the Bell UH-1 Huey? I love that lil guy.

[roye]

Nice vid! My instructor in AME school @ YVR was a youth pilot for Heinkel in 1945, his war stories were amazing

[louisavondart]

Great video. Thank you much for not describing the Horten as a Stealth Bomber. Big thumbs up !

[Kevin_Kennelly]

There is an Arado Ar234 on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Annex. ANNEX is at Dulles Airport.
It looks like it just rolled off the assembly line.

[kcnmsepognln]

Fascinating! I had no idea their development program had begun so early, or was so diverse.

[MrChainsawAardvark]

When a blacksmith is working blade steel - a coal forge is around 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, the material being worked about 800 degrees, and at that point the metal has the constancy of stiff clay. A jet engine runs around 3, 000 degrees, and the force of spinning at hundreds of RPM in hurricane force winds than a smith's strikes. You need some special materials. Modern alloys like Inconel (developed in the 60s) or titanium based blades (1970s tech) were not available, and Germanys supply of vanadium and molybdenum were quite limited - leading to inferior materials being used resulting in a very short working life. It takes twenty to forty hours to type certify a pilot, and if engines only last ten hours each - you are burning out expensive components very quickly.

On a related note - there was also a lack of Tungsten in central Europe at the time. Its main uses was either armor piecing shells, or for industrial cutting tools needed for producing armor. So the Germans had to choose between making more tanks or making shells for them. Part of why depleted uranium in used in modern APFDS munitions is because that saves the Tungsten for industrial processes (DU is too brittle for cutting tools)

[Skorpyy]

Awesome Video as always, also great idea to talk about aircraft aswell. Love it!

[robinsonsstudios]

Good video!
You did miss 3 however that should be noteworthy:
The HS132 dive bomber which was nearing flight testing
The Ju 287 which did fly
And the messerschmitt p1101 which was also nearly complete

Also the MK in MK108 means maschinenkanone not mark

[Skip.]

Could you make a video on the design history of the Centurion tanks? Also it’s neat to see an aviation video

[robertfitzpatrick]

Fascinating. I knew so little of this. As a boy who lived through the war we had very limited knowledge of the aircraft involved.

[levischittlord]

Wait, so swept wings for better performance was found out by accident because they just wanted to shift the CG of the airframe with the engines weight?

[dougreid]

Facinating coverage of obscure designs. Really well researched & polished delivery.
Subscribed today.
DOUG out

[iatsd]

A small side note on the Me262 being produced & used by a couple of countries post-war would not have gone astray. Could have even gone over some of the post-war non-shooting encounters/dogfights between the Czech 262's and RAF Meteors and Vampires.

[gandsproductions]

At the start of the war, nations like the ussr were still using biplanes, but by the end, planes like the bell x-1 and me p.1101 were starting to come about.

Crazy stuff


Edit: I am very well aware that the ussr wasn't the only one using biplanes, and I am also aware that biplanes were used throughout the war by basically every player in it.