The only thing wrong with the spit is the airfoil. The wing planform is beautiful, but the airfoil is a flat bottomed joke.
Would love it if someone would come out with a kit plane with an eliptical wing like that. The Lancair Legacy almost did, but they cheesed out and just made it a double taper. There they went and built a great composite wing, but cut it like it was an aluminum wing limited to 2d curves.
IMHO the Supermarine Spitfire.
The only thing wrong with the spit is the airfoil. The wing planform is beautiful, but the airfoil is a flat bottomed joke.
Don't ask me about the engineering aspects, I'm just judging her on looks. ;)
Course even if the 262 was able to stop the B-17s, B-24s, and Lancasters Germany wouldn't have had a chance against about a zillion T-34s and revenge crazed Soviets. WWII would have still ended with Germany defeated, only the Soviets would have owned pretty much the whole continent rather than just half. Though to look at how socialized Europe is today I'm not sure it would be that big a difference...