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GERMAN JET FIGHTER REPLICA HEADS OVERSEAS (US Gov. alarmed at "war weapon export")
AOPA Online | 1/13/06

Posted on 01/13/2006 8:14:42 AM PST by pabianice

A replica of one of Germany's greatest technological triumphs late in World War II, the Messerschmitt Me.262 fighter jet, has left American soil and reached Germany after U.S. State Department officials delayed it 60 days because they saw it as a weapon of war.

The four 30 mm replica cannons aboard lack a firing mechanism and still wouldn't fire if they had one. The aircraft now has arrived in Germany where it will be reassembled by the Messerschmitt Foundation aircraft collection and flown once again.

The replica project has been taken over by a group of retired Boeing engineers operating in Everett, Washington, as Legend Flyers. The aircraft are for sale by Air Assets International/Warbird Recovery in Colorado. Messerschmitt granted five additional serial numbers. Two have been built, with three to go.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Germany; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aviation; me262; messerschmitt; wwii
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Comment #21 Removed by Moderator

To: pabianice

More info at

http://www.stormbirds.com/project/

(apologies in advance if these don't post as links).

If you'd like to 'fly' one online, try Aces High at

http://www.hitechcreations.com


22 posted on 01/13/2006 8:34:55 AM PST by ctyankee00
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To: Mighty Eighth

Maybe your dad thought the P-51 keeping the FW-190's off his plane was the best?


23 posted on 01/13/2006 8:36:48 AM PST by Sensei Ern (Now, IB4Z! http://www.myspace.com/reconcomedy/ "Cowards cut and run. Heroes never do!")
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To: pabianice
U.S. State Department officials delayed it 60 days because they saw it as a weapon of war.

Right, that's a real threat to an F-16...

24 posted on 01/13/2006 8:37:06 AM PST by Doomonyou (FR doesn't suffer fools lightly.)
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To: Mighty Eighth

Two problems, the Germans couldn't make enough of them to make a difference and the ME-262 flew so fast that they had to slow down in order to shoot at the B-17's. When they slowed down the US piston aircraft were able to defend against them. As a result, the main tactic was to zoom past the B-17's at 500 mph with cannons blazind and hope you hit something.


25 posted on 01/13/2006 8:37:22 AM PST by Blood of Tyrants (G-d is not a Republican. But Satan is definitely a Democrat.)
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To: Mighty Eighth
Boeing built the greatest plane in history with the 17......

You'd find some argument with the B-24 crowd. It was harder to fly but apparently better able to defend itself.

26 posted on 01/13/2006 8:37:46 AM PST by meandog (FUDU)
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To: pabianice
Please don't tell me it's the one at the Smithsonian air and Space museum??????
27 posted on 01/13/2006 8:39:01 AM PST by Lx (Do you like it, do you like it. Scott? I call it Mr. and Mrs. Tennerman chili.)
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To: Dashing Dasher

Check it out.


28 posted on 01/13/2006 8:39:36 AM PST by Allegra (I'm Wearing New Socks!)
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To: Lx
Please don't tell me it's the one at the Smithsonian air and Space museum??????

No -- it looks like the picture at the top of the thread is just a file photo of the Smithsonian -262.
29 posted on 01/13/2006 8:40:23 AM PST by tanknetter
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To: Sensei Ern

Actually the payload of the B-17 by the time it was being used in numbers in 1943-44 was nothing special; it really was a medium bomber, not a heavy bomber. Contemporary AC like the British Lancaster and Halifax carried a LOT more bombs.


30 posted on 01/13/2006 8:42:38 AM PST by Strategerist
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To: pabianice

The first ever jet combat was a Gloucester Meteor against one of these 262's. The Meteor won, but be very glad that Hitler delayed jet research for about two years. I don't think Germany would have won the war with earlier jets, but the defensive advantage of fast short-time-of-flight fighter jets would have extended the war by about two years IMO.


31 posted on 01/13/2006 8:42:47 AM PST by agere_contra (Protectionism is Socialism - it's welfare for uncompetitive people.)
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To: ctyankee00
Too cool. Site say the new ones are built to ME-262 specs, but have MUCH better engines than the old Jumo. Biggest problem is that they airframes can't handle the transonic regime... They have to keep it ~500 mph. Better range and acceleration, too!

I think ol' Willy Messerschmidt had some advanced ideas for the M-262 that WOULD have handled transonic speeds. They should try buildin' one o' those!
32 posted on 01/13/2006 8:43:31 AM PST by Little Ray (I'm a reactionary, hirsute, gun-owning, knuckle dragging, Christian Neanderthal and proud of it!)
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To: pabianice

33 posted on 01/13/2006 8:44:41 AM PST by Chode (American Hedonist ©®)
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Comment #34 Removed by Moderator

To: pabianice

State Department...

another govt agency that needs an enema.


35 posted on 01/13/2006 8:45:16 AM PST by Leatherneck_MT (An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.)
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To: agere_contra

Didn't think there was any jet to jet combat in WWII. The Meteors were stuck in the UK intercepting V1s and didn't have the range to reach Germany, anyway. Is there a link to this?


36 posted on 01/13/2006 8:45:45 AM PST by Little Ray (I'm a reactionary, hirsute, gun-owning, knuckle dragging, Christian Neanderthal and proud of it!)
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To: meandog

There actually were more B-24s bombing Germany than B-17s.

The B-17 had the greatest Public Relations campaign of any aircraft in history...in the early war it was thus horrendously overrated, particularly against ships.

Very early in the war it was erroneously believed and widely reported in the press that a B-17 out of the Phillipines had sunk the Battleship Hiei. Things were going badly for the US then so everyone just latched on to the good news and weren't skeptical.

And for quite some time after the battle, the media and general public were under the impression that the Japanese carriers at Midway had been destroyed by Army Air Corps B-17s, not Navy dive bombers.


37 posted on 01/13/2006 8:45:47 AM PST by Strategerist
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To: Mighty Eighth

TA-152. Perhaps you meant tp post a different designation.

38 posted on 01/13/2006 8:46:04 AM PST by Sarajevo
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To: son of caesar
the aircobra

Airacobra was prop driven.


39 posted on 01/13/2006 8:46:05 AM PST by A.A. Cunningham
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To: Blood of Tyrants
Correction.

The National Socialist could not make enough ENGINES for them. My dad remembers driving down the Autobahn and seeing revetment after revetment off the road with Me 262's without engines.

We bombed the ball bearing plants.
40 posted on 01/13/2006 8:47:03 AM PST by fireforeffect (A kind word and a 2x4, gets you more than just a kind word.)
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