Me 262 C-2b

As the early jet turbines had not lived up to expectations, efforts were made from 1942 to increase thrust substantially. For this purpose the BMW P3390 TLR engine was developed. The Me 262 C-2b version of the Me 262 A-la was confirmed on 28 April 1944, but work on the engine plant was still well short of completion. On 20 December Messerschmitt began conversion work for the first C-2b once Works No. 170074 (V-074) arrived at Lechfeld. On 8 January 1945 the aircraft flew under turbine power but without using the rocket motor.

After metal fragments were found in the port turbine and a defect discovered in the drive bearings, the aircraft was grounded and the jet engines did not attain the prescribed levels of output until 24 February. Next day the starboard combustion chamber exploded, seriously damaging the whole turbine. At the end of March another defect was found in the port turbine, which had to be replaced. Because of shortage of В-4 fuel, works pilot Karl Baur did not fly Heimatschiitzer II from Lechfeld until 26 March when the thrust of two BMW 003 turbines and the two rocket motors (burn time 40 seconds) provided the prototype with a tremendous rate of climb. In the second and last flight of V-074 on 29 March, a switching fault prevented the rocket engine being used. The cause could not be found for a time because no fuel was available to run the turbines. V-074, the only Me 262 C-lb to have flown, was captured intact by US ground forces at Lechfeld on 27 April 1945, but it did not interest the

Side profile of the He 162 ‘Protector of the Homeland’with BMW 003 R propulsion unit. Unlike the Me 262 C-2b the rocket motor was not mounted directly on the turbine but under the fuselage.

Americans and was discarded behind a hangar for scrap. After month-long testing it was clear that the TLR turbines were far from suitable for series – produced aircraft, and they were not used for the Ar 234, He 162 or the Focke-Wulf Flitzer.

Me 262 C-3

This was almost an emergency design once it was realised from the Me 262 C-la and C-2b track record that a series-produced TLR fighter was still far off. By the beginning of February 1945 plans were placed before the Chief-TLR for the Me 262 C-3. By mid-February design work for the first prototype was complete and a full-size mock-up ordered. Messerschmitt calculated that the project bureau and factory annexe at Oberammergau would have the first fuselage ready for testing with an HWK 109-509 S2 rocket motor by 10 March. The rocket fuel was to be carried in two large 600-litre disposable tanks below the forward fuselage. Ultimately only one engine unit was made and the conversion work was never started. US troops captured many of the project studies and future aircraft plans.

As with all other rocket aircraft, the Me 262 variants had shown that the technology could not be mastered under the prevailing war conditions. This was true as much for the various rocket fighters (Me 163 and Ju 248) as for the Me 262 Homeland Protectors and the numerous emergency solutions which left the drawing boards from the summer of 1944.