Suggestion: Me 262 Black X of 2./KG 51

[sevenless]

The only surviving jet-bomber. Would be very nice if someone could do a skin of it.

 

Quote

 

Only one Messerschmitt Me 262 bomber survives today.

‘Black X’, Werknummer 500200 (9K+XK), was built outdoors sometime around February 1945, probably at the Regensburg Waldwerk at Obertraubling. The jet subsequently served with 2./KG 51 before being surrendered by its pilot to the RAF at the end of the war.

 

 

 

Messerschmitt Me 262A-2a by Chris Wauchop (Tamiya 1/48) (hsfeatures.com)

[Raptorattacker]

HERE and HERE my good friend. I'm surprised you missed them...
 

 

[sevenless]

25 minutes ago, Raptorattacker said:

HERE and HERE my good friend. I'm surprised you missed them...
 

 

 

Argh. Yep sure. It must be my age showing signs. Of course! Thanks!

[Pict]

On 9/28/2021 at 3:37 PM, sevenless said:

‘Black X’, Werknummer 500200

 

I've seen that plane a few times at the AWM. Last time I was there I set off an alarm in the middle of their night bombing show...

 

I have an old habit of touching historic stuff if I can, I susspose in some way to connect with it and I put my hand on the inlet of the starboard engine, right then an alarm like a car alarm or burglar alarm went off.

 

Fortunately the lights were off for the show and there were plently of people to mingle with as I sneaked away not wanting to explain myself to anyone 

 

 

Spoiler

 

Edited September 30, 2021 by Pict
Added 2 photos, 3 more below.

[Vig]

The Naval Aviation museum in Pensacola Florida has what appears to be a trainer version:

[Mtnbiker1998]

Didn't the Smithsonian in DC have one back in the day aswell?

[Reggie_Mental]

5 hours ago, Vig said:

The Naval Aviation museum in Pensacola Florida has what appears to be a trainer version:

The 2 seater was a trainer, Me262B1a' but some were later converted to night fighters. ISTRC that the trainer only had 2x 30mm Mk108s? The rear seat was for the radar operator and the nose is missing the antennas of the Fug218 Neptun radar. I doubt the paint is original either as night fighters were usually black or dark grey. Very few were built and a lot of Me 262 pilots were just 'briefed' by an experienced pilot before going solo. This has been described as a night fighter, but I suspect it's really a 'bitser' as many of these aircraft were disassembled prior to shipping to the US for evaluation and some were put together mix and match as wings and engines were mixed up. 

 

Late edit: All is explained here 

 

The 'Catalina' behind, has no undercarriage wheels. Because it is not a Cat but a PBN-1 Nomad, a very close relative.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Reggie_Mental

[Reggie_Mental]

 

This looks very original. This is in an Australian museum. 

 

But it must be difficult to pin down late war RLM camouflage schemes as many aircraft coming off the line in the final months of the war must have had very rudimentary or incomplete paint jobs due to shortages and dislocation of the aircraft industry. And the roughest and most rudimentary of them were captured in 1945 by the advancing allies.

 

Look at the state of this...Minging!?

Spoiler

And this one. Didn't even bother...?

Spoiler

This is the aircraft undergoing evaluation in the US. Note the faired over gun ports.

 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2021 by Reggie_Mental
Use spoilers if Swastikas are visible.

[Pict]

14 hours ago, Reggie_Mental said:

This is in an Australian museum.

 

Not in an Australian museum...

 

A quick look at the surviving aircraft list on Wikipedia has that photo as South afirica in 2008, so you're in the right hemisphere

 

In what looks to be an interesting museum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_National_Museum_of_Military_History

 

20 hours ago, Vig said:

The Naval Aviation museum in Pensacola Florida...

 

That's a great place to visit and if you're into Naval Aviation an absolute must.

 

I visited it on the 4th of July 2003, I'll never forget it as apart from having a massive well presented collection an older fellow approched me and asked me what I though of it all and what was the aircraft that interested me the most. We were "on the deck" of the "carrier" they have rigged up there and I was standing next to the F6F-3 at the time and having just read "Hellcat: The F6F in World War II" by Barrett Tillman, I said it'd probably have to be this one. I asked him the same thing and he said without hesitation, "the Bearcat" and we walked over to it and he explained some stuff about the Bearcat in minute detail. Then as he could see that my girlfreind was looking pretty fed up with proceedings he politly said goodbye.

 

I asked him as he turned to go if he had been a flyer, to which he said no with a smile, "but I spent a bit of time in the back of one of these" pointing at the old Midway veteran Douglas Dauntless they have there. 

 

That started a whole new conversation and I asked him if he would be good enough to show me around the Dauntless, which he did with great pleasure. Offering anecdotes about having an altimeter to look at in a dive so that he could give the pilot a reminder should he get target fixated. He said we still had to be polite and call him sir and all that even then as they, the pilots, were Naval Aviators and they were the top of the heap. The gunners and aircrew were known amongst the ordinary crew as "the bankroll boys" as they got extra pay for flying over ordinary crewmens wages.

 

He had volunteered but needed his mother to sign for him as he was a few months short of eighteen. His first action was the invasion of Tarawa in 1943 in a Dauntless.

 

At that point he was spotted by people in red coats, museum staff, and they swarmed him with good wishes. Once they left he said, they keep asking him to wear a red coat and all that, but he wasn't really interested.

 

He talked about the Curtiss Helldiver saying it was the only one missing from the WW2 Pacific collection, that they had had one but gave it to the Smithsonian. He looked around, lowered his voice and said almost in a whisper, "nobody liked it, we called it "the beast"".

 

He spoke more about the Bearcat, said they had them onboard heading out for their last trip when the war ended.

 

His name was Vincent Murray, from Oregon, a real genleman whome I consider myself lucky to have met. I'm glad I managed to find the photos I took of him.

 

 

Edited September 29, 2021 by Pict
Mixed up Devastator for Dauntless

[Pict]

So more exactly on topic I had a look though my photos for any of the Black X 262 in the Australian War Memorial (AWM)

 

This aircraft is not only the sole surviving 262 Jabo version, but it also retains it's original paint or at least most of it. I'm not sure what's available out there on this aircraft, so I've dug out the few photos I've taken for anyone wanting to get a little bit more detail.

 

But bear in mind it's location in the museum makes it virtualy imposible to get a proper look at as it's jammed in a corner with the Me-163 they have. The AWM in general has awful lighting, no natural light and for the most part rather dim artificial lighting, supposedly to protect the exibits. So you can hardly see them and you can't touch them without an alarm going off  Even worse than that, the hall that the 262 is in is set up with a Lancaster bomber as it's centre piece where they run night bombing / night fighter scenarios and shut off the dim lights altogether.

 

So these photos are not very good at all and can just offer a little close up detail at best. I find the markings of interest, some appear to be under the paint and others look to have been added possibly by the allies, like "TRESTLE" for example.

 

5 photos in all, 3 in this post and I'll edit my 1st post above with 2 two as there are just ove 1 MB each and hide those with the tika in a spoiler.

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

[spudkopf]

The first time I went to see Black X, was when it was stationed at Point Cook in the early 80s, this was going to be the highlight of the trip, sadly however it was completely covered by sheeting that had been draped over it in preparation for a planned move, so all I came away with on that day was a 262 shaped ghost.

 

I next time I saw Black X back was in the late 80's or maybe the early 90's, it was in an assembly hall being used for the F18 construction program down at Fisherman's Bend, so sadly cameras where strictly forbidden.

 

The restoration process had only just begun, which mainly consisted of some disassembly and some exploratory rubbing back of the many layers of paint, so not only had this exposed the multiple Luftwaffe markings present, but also the very distinct RAF and Prototype roundels that she had worn for a brief moment, a state not that all that dissimilar to those below.

 

Even though I could not take any pictures, I do seem to recall that I may have touched her, as she must posses some strange power over us humble humans, sadly I have not had the opportunity to see her again since then.

 

Just thought I'd share these experiences.