Messerschmidt

[Horst]

Not far from Ingolstadt Germany is a small German airbase that was also used during WWII to test Messerschmidt planes, today it is used to build the new Euro fighter. They still have one hanger that house some of the old planes etc.

Horst

[zwerge]

Nice, I like the Gustav in the first pic.

[bill1]

All the old pictures of the rocket fighter I've seen they were unpainted.

[big ned]

A guy in germany has a replica Me 163 which is actually a glider! By the l ook of the non standard undercarriage and the colour, i would say this is it.Regards Ned

[visor_cap_collector]

Ba...Ga...Da... You are absolutely making me drool over my keyboard!!! like the Me 163!!!

[Dagget]

I have to agree, the non standard landing gear (shouldn't have the wheel, only a skid) no swastika on the verticle fin and the flag of modern Germany on the fin are a giveaway.

[VERSUCH]

The colour is correct for a 163 that was flown, possibly by Franz Steigler
,the ground crew painted it RED without permission,and he flew it only
once, so the story goes to help raise morale!
He then had them repaint it to the origianal camoflage.

[VERSUCH]

OOPS...I have doulble checked and here...is the real story.
It was a ME163BV41 flown by Wolfgang Spate of test unit 16,on the 14
of May 1944,in an attempt to intercept an American daylight raid,with no result! The paint was covered up the fllowing day!
refer.TOP SECRET BIRD BY WOLFGANG SPATE

[big ned]

Hi guys! This thread is quite old,but I noticed it had cropped up again this week, and it prompted me to expand on my pretty vague reply of some months ago.
In 1944-45 Josef Kurz was in training for Me163B service,but the end of the war prevented him from flying the real thing.So in 1994 he decided to build his own one.The first flight was on the 16th of June 1996 at Ziegenhain airfield,Germany.
The trouble prone skid was replaced by a single wheel,and the tail wheel faired in,unlike the original.The rear view windows of the original were also omitted.The colour scheme is the same as the Me163B V41 for the combat mission in May 1944 correctly mentioned in the previous posts.
The Komet was sold to European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) in 2000 in an unairworthy condition.Re-registered as D-1634 instead of D-ESJK,the Komet replica is located at the EADS museum at Ingolstadt-Manching.
During 2004-2006,EADS performed an extensive overhaul and many modifications,including the triangular rear view windows and a Morane antenna were added.It received its permit to fly,and, on the 8th of June 2006 EADS family day at Ingolstadt,it was towed aloft by a Do27 and then made a free flight.It's performance was described as "Not very exciting".
It is currently painted as PK+QL with D-1634 on the tail and under the wing.
It is worth remembering that the Me163 was not the brainchild of Willy Messerschmitt,but of Alexander Lippisch and his team.The Me163 was developed despite Willy Messerschmitt's opposition.
Hope this has been of some interest to some of you,
Regards, Ned.

[cobra]

Great pictures of the two aircraft.In 1961 I found a Focke Wulf 190 d-12 in the back of a flower shop here in the south,it was all apart but was complete. still with the original paint and markings, Yellow 10 and with the spade in the diamond under the cockpit. I tried for two years to restore her but it was like taking $1000.00 dollar bills and throwing them into a well.I sold her. She is now in a museum out west and is restored. At least I saved her from the scrap pile. Cobra