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Gorgeous planes. And what about the ME 163?

Back in the 1970s a friend of mine had a summer job at the Royal Ontario Museum where he had the privilege of working with a janitor who happened to be one of the few Komet pilots to actually survive the experience. The ME183 had the unfortunate tendency to blow up on landing but some of the pilots discovered that it was safe if, immediately prior to engine burnout, the nose was pointed vertical to drain the fuel tank completely. The man flew a few dozen sorties IIRC.

51 posted on 05/28/2005 1:24:03 PM PDT by Squawk 8888 (End dependence on foreign oil- put a Slowpoke in your basement)

Few dozen sorties in 163/263's was rare indeed.

Those pilots who did survive the fuel often broke their backs/lower pelvis landing on the poorly-shocked bottom skid.

Unless the shock of landing broke the plane up completely, and they died in the fire/fuel explosion.

130 posted on 05/29/2005 5:31:20 PM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (-I can only contribute to FR monthly, but Hillary's ABBCNNBCBS contributes to her campaign every day)