Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet
The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet was a German rocket-powered interceptor of the Second World War, designed by Alexander Lippisch's team at Messerschmitt. It was the first and only rocket-powered interceptor to see operational service: it climbed faster than any contemporary fighter, but its motor burned its fuel in minutes, its propellants were dangerously unstable, and it reached squadrons only in the war's final year, too late to affect the bombing campaign it was built to stop.
Why It Mattered
The Me 163 Komet was the only rocket-powered interceptor ever flown in combat, Germany's attempt to answer the Allied bombing offensive with climbing speed. It could reach its service ceiling of 12,100 m in just under three and a half minutes. But it carried fuel for only about eight minutes of powered flight, so a pilot had one or two firing passes before gliding home. Fielded only in the war's last year, it had little effect on the outcome; its standing is as a technological milestone, the first rocket interceptor to reach operational service.
Design Notes
The Komet grew out of the tailless designs of Dr Alexander Lippisch, who brought his team and the project to Messerschmitt in January 1939. The aircraft had a swept wing and no horizontal tail; it took off from a wheeled trolley dropped after liftoff and landed on an extendable skid. Its Walter rocket motor burned two liquid propellants and produced about 3,300 lb of thrust. The propellants were corrosive and unstable: air pockets forming in the fuel as it passed through the pumps sometimes caused an explosion when the motor was started. Two 30 mm cannon were its armament.
Operational History
The first prototype was completed early in 1941 and flight testing began that spring; on 2 October 1941 it set a world speed record of 1,004.5 kph. Production of the operational B-1a version began with the Klemm concern at dispersed factories and was later transferred to Junkers after quality problems. An operational training unit, EK 16, was formed in July 1943, and the first operational wing, JG 400, began forming in May 1944. Based at Brandis, JG 400's task was to protect the synthetic oil refineries at Leuna, some 90 km away. The wing's first interception of Allied bombers, on 16 August 1944, was unsuccessful. The Komet's speed made its slow-firing cannon hard to aim, and its pilots recorded only nine kills in total. Once the fuel was spent, the pilot glided back to base with no means of escaping Allied escort fighters. Production is reported at about 370 aircraft in total.
Afterlife
At the war's end the Allies shipped captured Komets abroad for evaluation; five went to the United States. The Smithsonian's example was towed behind a B-29 for glide tests in California in 1946, but planned powered tests were dropped after delamination was found in its wooden wings. It was stored in California until 1954, passed to the Smithsonian, and from 1996 was lent to the Mighty Eighth Air Force Heritage Museum in Georgia. It is now displayed, unrestored, at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. At least ten Komets are reported to survive in museums around the world.