[Western Phil]

Related to the ME163: On Page 92 of Flying for the Fatherland it says,"On 30 October 1942, she was towed off the airfield at Regensburg in an an unpowered Me 163B. It was her fifth flight in the Komet that month. Seconds after take-off, she pulled the lever which should have released the launching trolley, the aircraft started to vibrate. . . To her dismay Hanna realized that the lever had not released the undercarriage. . . The Me 163B hit a ploughed field just short of the runway at 150 mph, bounced violently twice, lost a wheel and came to a standstill after a 180 degree turn."

The pilot was Hanna Reitsch and this particular episode ended with her injury. She later flew the V1 on a number of test flights.

[yooling]

She's lucky she lived. The pilot sat in between two 60 liter tanks of T-stoff (80% hydrogen peroxide in water) with a third 1040 liter tank directly behind the seat. The ply wood wings each contained a 250 liter tank of C-stoff (hydrazine hydrate, methyl alcohol, water). The tanks had a tendency to rupture on hard landings and fry the pilots. There were also many spinal injuries due to the lack of a proper undercarriage.