He 162 Salamander

Jet fighter and interceptor Heinkel He 162 Salamander or ‘People’s fighter’.
History, development, service, specifications, statistics, pictures and 3D model.

Heinkel He 162

Heinkel He 162 Salamander (Volksjäger).
Type: German Luftwaffe jet fighter and interceptor.

The Heinkel He 162 was a German single-engine, jet-powered fighter aircraft developed during the final stages of World War II.

Overview

Nickname: It was nicknamed “Volksjäger” (People’s Fighter) or “Salamander.”
Design: The He 162 was designed to be a simple, fast, and cheap-to-produce fighter jet.
Development: It was developed in response to the “Emergency Fighter Program” initiated by the German Air Ministry in 1944.
Construction: To conserve strategic materials, it was largely made of wood.
Engine: It was powered by a single BMW 003 axial-flow turbojet engine mounted on top of the fuselage.
Performance: The He 162 could reach speeds of up to 562 mph (905 km/h), making it one of the fastest aircraft of World War II.
Armament: It was typically armed with two 20 mm MG 151/20 cannon.
Production: Despite the late stage of the war, over 300 units were produced.
Service: Only a small number of He 162s saw combat before the war ended.
Post-war: Several captured examples were evaluated by Allied forces after the war.
Challenges: The aircraft suffered from reliability issues and was difficult for inexperienced pilots to fly.

The He 162 represents one of the last desperate attempts by Nazi Germany to field advanced weapons in the closing months of World War II. While innovative, it came too late to have any significant impact on the outcome of the war.

History

One of the most rapidly conceived warplanes ever produced, the He 162 home defense fighter existed as a wooden mock-up within 15 days of the issue, on 8 September 1944, of the RLM requirement. Seven days later a huge production contract was placed; detail design drawings were completed by the end of October; and on 6 December 1944 – less than 13 weeks from initiation of the program – the He 162 V1 (or A-01) made its first flight. Dubbed, for propaganda pur­poses, the Volksjaeger (People’s Fighter), the He 162 was of attractive if unorthodox appearance and was built largely of wood and other non-strategic materials.

Its looks, how­ever, belied a dangerous instability and some vicious handling characteristics, and troubles were also encountered (as in the Focke-Wulf Ta154) with the wood-bonding adhesive used. Under the high priority given to fighter programs in 1944-45, manufacture of the He 162, under the code name Salamander, was assigned to numerous factories. It was planned to produce 2,000 a month by May 1945 and 4,000 a month ultimately, and about 800 were in various stages of assembly when the war in Europe ended. A further 280 or so He 162 A-0s, A-1s and A-2s had actually been completed. These differed primarily in their armament, the A-1 having two 30 mm MK 108 cannon in the lower forward fuse­lage and the A-2 a pair of 20 mm MG151s.

An example of Hitler’s ‘last-ditch’ attempts to re-equip Luftwaffe squadrons with jet fighters: a Heinkel 162 Volksjaeger of 3./JG1.

He 162 of I. Gruppe, Jagdgeschwader 1 at the time of the German surrender.

At one of the Heinkel underground factory plants an still unpainted He 162 Volksjaeger sits with canopy shattered after the surrender in May 1945.

3D model Heinkel He 162 Volksjaeger

The first Luftwaffe unit to fly the He 162A was Erprobungs­kommando 162, which began to receive these aircraft in January 1945; but the first operational units, I. and II./JG I, were still working up at the beginning of May. Conse­quently, very few He l62s were actually encountered in com­bat. I./JG I was operational at Leck, though nearly without fuel. But it managed to shot down two Allied planes at the end of April, one of them a Hawker Tempest.

Proposed later versions included He 162A sub-types up to A-14, the He 162B (one or two pulse-jet engines), the He 162C (swept-forward wings), the He 162D (swept­back wings), and models with combined jet and rocket pro­pulsion.

Users: Germany (Luftwaffe).

Animated 3D model of Heinkel He 162 Salamander

Specifications for Heinkel He 162 A-2 Salamander (Volksjaeger)

Specifications:

Armament:

Service statistics:

References and literature

Combat Aircraft of World War II (Bill Gunston)
Technik und Einsatz der Kampfflugzeuge vom 1. Weltkrieg bis heute (Ian Parsons)
Das große Buch der Luftkämpfe (Ian Parsons)
Luftkrieg (Piekalkiewicz)
Flugzeuge des 2. Weltkrieges (Andrew Kershaw)
German Aircraft of World War 2 in Colour (Kenneth Munson)
Warplanes of the Luftwaffe (David Donald)
The Luftwaffe Album, Bomber and Fighter Aircraft of the German Air Force 1933-1945 (Joachim Dressel, Manfred Griehl)
Luftwaffe Handbook (Dr Alfred Price)
Luftwaffe Jet Fighters and Rocket Interceptors 1944-1945 (J. Richard Smith & Eddie J. Creek)