Probably
one of the best known aircraft, German or otherwise, was the revolutionary
Me-262. Practically overnight, it made standard piston powered fighters obsolete
and within a decade, there were few piston powered aircraft to be found as the
premier aircraft in any well equipped air arm. Though not without its problems
(mostly due to the state of early turbojet engines), when the aircraft was
operating as expected, it was nearly unbeatable. Most 262s were destroyed on the
ground or while landing or taking off. Thanks to the slow spool-up of the
engines, it took a while to get to speed, but once there, the aircraft was
uncatchable. Heavily armed with 30mm cannon and very late in the war with R4M
rockets, these planes proved to be quite effective against US bomber streams.
However, as the historians state, the aircraft came too late in the war to make
any impact on the results, though it did lead the way to future development.
In this book, the authors cover more of the operational history of the
Me-262. Apparently the development history was what was in the first volume,
which I have not seen. This one also covers some of the weapons prototypes as
well as the operational variants. There are basically two major sections. The
first half is a very well researched day to day operational history of the
various units that flew the Me-262 in combat. These are predominantly the
aircraft involved in air to air combat. Little is mentioned regarding recce
version and night fighters operations. This section is where all of the period
photos of men and machines are located. This includes color photos. As there are
only so many images extant, those who have read a lot on the 262 will recognize
most of them. The second part is predominantly modern 3D graphic
art work showing the exterior and interior details of the 262. This is further
enhanced by photos of extant airframes as well as some superb, large four view
color profiles.
In all, it makes for both an interesting read and as fine resource for
modelers. It is a book I enjoyed and can easily recommend for you.
December 2011
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