00:20The time during World War II was a pivotal era for aviation.
00:24As the war which started with a mixture of old biplane fighters and newer faster monoplanes,
00:29ended with the arrival of jet and rocket-powered aircraft.
00:33A giant leap in just half a decade.
00:36So in this video we will take a look at 10 of the fastest aircraft of World War II.
00:41Most of these types were already featured in my earlier videos separately,
00:45so if you want to dive deeper in the history of one of these designs,
00:48you can find this detailed history on the channel.
00:52Hope you guys will enjoy our list.
00:53So without further ado, let's begin with the first on our list,
00:56the Messerschmitt ME-163.
01:03This type, though it's known as one of the late war German wonder weapons,
01:07was actually in development from 1939,
01:10when the German Air Ministry ordered the development of planes for rocket engine testing,
01:14based on the Lippich Delta IV glider.
01:17As the rocket-powered planes with their short-burning engines needed good gliding capabilities to return to their base.
01:23The first test flights already happened in late 1940,
01:27and the type advanced through many variations,
01:29starting with the DFS-194 model,
01:32then after the project was moved to Messerschmitt,
01:34the ME-163A,
01:36and later the operational B variant.
01:39Initially these fighters were planned to be built in large numbers,
01:42stationed around in ported locations,
01:44and deployed in large groups against the allied bomber formations.
01:48But this never realized,
01:50as though the aircraft entered service in 1944,
01:53and flew its first combat missions in May,
01:55but by this time the German industry was in no shape to produce it in the planned large quantities.
02:01With its lightweight construction and powerful rocket boosters,
02:04this type managed to reach 1,130 km an hour top speed.
02:08Though for safety purposes,
02:10the pilots had a maximum speed of 900 km an hour set as a never to exceed limit.
02:16This amazing speed puts the ME-163 on the number 1 spot.
02:21The second place goes to the Messerschmitt ME-262 jet fighter.
02:29Maybe the most famous jet fighter of World War II,
02:31the development of the ME-262 started before the war,
02:34under the name Project 1065,
02:37with the goal of developing a jet-powered military aircraft,
02:40capable of reaching speeds above 850 km an hour.
02:45The first plans for the jet-powered fighter were submitted in 1939.
02:49And the first prototype airframes were built in late 1940.
02:53The test flights started in April 1941,
02:56but because the jet engines were not yet ready,
02:58a conventional piston engine was used in the nose.
03:01This engine was retained for a while even after the first jet engines were installed,
03:05and in fact saved one of the prototypes when the jet engines malfunctioned.
03:10The type made its first true jet flight in July 1942 with the V3 model.
03:15After the test flights, the airframe design was basically done,
03:18but the mass production of the type was prevented by the troublesome development
03:22and manufacturing of the jet engines,
03:24which hampered these fighters all through their operational history.
03:29The ME-262 entered service in April 1944,
03:32and started to fly operational missions from August.
03:35And with its two YUMO turbo jet engines,
03:38the type could reach a top speed of 900 km an hour,
03:41which is fast enough to reach the second spot on this list.
03:48The next one on our list is the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star.
03:54The work on the jet-powered aircraft also started in the US around 1939,
03:58and several designs were examined, like the Lockheed L-133,
04:02but most of these were not pursued by the Army Air Force,
04:05except for the Bell P-59 Air Accumet.
04:08However, this type showed disappointing performance,
04:11and in the end was only used for training purposes.
04:14But when the American authorities learned about the German ME-262 jet fighter development in 1943,
04:20and realized they are years behind the Germans,
04:23the jet fighter programs were reignited.
04:26Lockheed received the task to develop a jet-powered aircraft design as fast as possible,
04:30built around the British Halford H-1B jet engine,
04:34and it was hastily organized to have one of these prototype engines delivered to the US.
04:39Such was the secrecy around the program,
04:42that the British engineer delivering the engine was arrested by mistake when he couldn't identify himself.
04:48Lockheed built the first prototype in just 150 days,
04:52and the XP-80 model already made its maiden flight in January 1944.
04:56The program was pushed forward so quickly,
04:58that already later the same year the type entered service,
05:02when 12 units of the YP-80A models were delivered.
05:07Four of these were sent to Europe for operational testing,
05:10and they saw limited service in reconnaissance roles before World War II ended.
05:16The Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star,
05:18with its stop speed of 882 km an hour,
05:21earned the third spot on our list.
05:27The next aircraft is again a German design,
05:29the Heinkel He-162.
05:34These fighters were developed as an answer to the intensifying Allied bombing raids,
05:39and the growing losses of the Luftwaffe.
05:41Though there were many German officials,
05:43who proposed to put every effort in the production of the ME-262 jet fighters,
05:47but the leadership, namely Hermann Göring,
05:50supported the other camp,
05:52who suggested the building of a large number of very light and inexpensive aircraft,
05:56which doesn't require a lot of materials and maintenance.
06:01Thus, the competition for the so-called Volksheker was announced in September 1944,
06:06asking for designs using a single BMW 003 turbojet engine,
06:11and cheap wooden construction.
06:14The weight of the aircraft was limited in 2000 kg,
06:17and its stop speed had to be at least 750 km an hour.
06:23The manufacturers only had 10 days to submit designs,
06:26and the production of the new fighter was aimed to begin in January the next year,
06:30in just 4 months.
06:32Since Heinkel already worked on a similar design,
06:35they had a head start in this competition,
06:37and after just 3 weeks, their design was announced as the winner.
06:42The new aircraft made its maiden flight in December the same year,
06:45less than 3 months after winning the competition.
06:49Though the design needed numerous modifications and strengthening on the airframe,
06:53raising the weight to around 2800 kg,
06:56it could still reach 840 km an hour speed at 6000 meters altitude.
07:04Deliveries of the production HE-162 models started in February 1945,
07:09and they first saw combat in April.
07:12Though the Germans initially planned to build a thousand units every month by this time,
07:16in the end only around 120 units were finished.
07:20In its very short operational service, the HE-162 didn't have any meaningful impact on the war,
07:26but it showed its performance with numerous air-to-air kills,
07:30and its top speed of 840 km an hour puts it on the fourth place on this list.
07:40Following up is a British design, the Gloucester Meteor.
07:47The British development of jet engines and jet-powered aircraft left somewhat behind the Germans,
07:52and they only made their first jet-powered flight with the Gloucester E-2839 type in 1941.
07:58While this aircraft was still in development, the ministry already issued another specification in 1940 for a jet-powered fighter
08:05plane.
08:06The initial plans for the new fighter were drawn up in just a few months,
08:10and it was planned to use two of the new turbojet engines.
08:14But soon the development of the meteor ground to a hold for about two years,
08:18because of the troubles around the engine development,
08:20and the differences between Frank Whittle, the designer of the engines,
08:24and the rover company, which was tasked by the government to further develop and manufacture them.
08:30Eventually, Rolls-Royce took over the engine development,
08:33and assigned around 2000 people to it, essentially saving the project.
08:38Meanwhile, the prototypes completed the taxiing trials during 1942,
08:42and in March 1943, the first flight with the jet engines finally happened.
08:47The test flights were completed through 1943,
08:50and the first production aircraft flew in January 1944.
08:55The type entered service in July the same year,
08:58and initially, as a top-secret weapon, they were only used over England.
09:02But finally, in January 1945, they were deployed to the continent,
09:07where they mostly flew around the technicians.
09:09The meteor's top speed, of 837 km an hour, earned it the fifth place on this list.
09:18With the next aircraft, we are back again to a German model, the Heinkel He-280.
09:26While the Messerschmitt M8262 might be the most well-known German WW2 jet fighter,
09:31actually, this Heinkel design performed its jet-powered flight more than a year before the M8262.
09:37Heinkel very early started to build experience with jet engines.
09:40They performed the first turbo jet-powered flight in August 1939, with their HE-178 type.
09:47They also employed Hans von Ohein, the German pioneer of jet engine development,
09:52and in late 1939, their team started to work on a jet-powered fighter, the HE-280.
09:59The first airframes were already finished by the summer of 1940,
10:03but similarly to other early jet aircraft, the engine development held back this project as well.
10:08And the first flight with the new HE-ES-8 turbojet engines only happened in March 1941.
10:15These engines developed in-house, in the end became the downfall of the type,
10:19as their development was too slow and troublesome,
10:22even though the HE-280 demonstrated its speed against FW-190 fighters in December 1942,
10:28and was much faster than the piston engine planes.
10:32In the next year the type was tested with the Jumo jet engines,
10:35but these were much bigger and heavier than the original ones the aircraft was designed for,
10:39so the performance fell short of the ME-262 type.
10:44In the end, in March 1943, Heinkel was ordered to stop the work on this project,
10:49as the Luftwaffe did not fund different fighter designs to compete for the limited number of engines available.
10:55Still, the 818 km an hour top speed of the HE-280 is fast enough to propel it to the
11:01sixth place on this list.
11:04On the next place is the first piston engine fighter, the Dornier DO-335.
11:14This aircraft was originally designed for a 1942 tender of the Reich Air Ministry for a new Schnell bomber,
11:20asking for designs with at least 750 km an hour top speed and 500 kg bomb load.
11:28Many interesting designs entered the competition, from Arado, Dornier, Heinkel, Junkers and Messerschmitt.
11:36Though in the end the Dornier proposal, a unique design with a push-pull twin engine configuration emerged as a
11:42winner,
11:43in late 1942 they were notified that because of the intensifying Allied bombing raids,
11:48the new Schnell bomber project will be dropped, but a similar specification multi-role fighter would be accepted.
11:55Dornier modified their design for this new role, but the routes of the aircraft stayed the same,
12:00meaning almost every letter DO-335 variants still featured on internal bomb bay,
12:05and they could be used as fighter bombers.
12:08The test flights through 1943 were finished without any big problems,
12:11and it was found that the type can reach 620 km an hour top speed even on one engine.
12:19The first production DO-335 models were delivered in January 1945,
12:24but only 3 months later the Dornier factory was already captured by the Allied forces,
12:29so only 13 production units were finished.
12:33The DO-335 barely spent any time flying operational missions,
12:37but its top speed of 763 km an hour is fast enough to be on the seventh spot on our
12:43list,
12:44as the fastest pistol engine fighter.
12:50And now back to another jet-powered aircraft, the Arado AR-234.
12:58Though the Arado AR-234 was the first jet-powered bomber of the world,
13:03initially it was developed as a reconnaissance aircraft to a German Air Ministry tender in 1940.
13:09This later hampered the use of the aircraft, as a result was a very small plane with no internal bomb
13:14bay.
13:16Similarly to other jet aircraft of the era, the Achilles heel of the development were the engines.
13:22The first two prototypes were finished at the end of 1941,
13:26but the first flight of the type only happened one and a half years later, in July 1943,
13:31because of the delays of jet engine production.
13:33During this time the Air Ministry asked the company to develop a bomber variant of the type,
13:38so the V-7 model was used to develop that version.
13:42As the AR-234 had no internal bomb bay, external hardpoints were installed to carry the payload.
13:49Initially, because of the small size of the aircraft, it didn't even have proper landing gear.
13:54Instead it used a trolley for take-off and skids for landing,
13:58similarly to the ME-163 rocket fighter.
14:01The later V-9 and V-10 models were the first ones to feature a proper landing gear.
14:07The AR-234 entered service in the second half of 1944,
14:11and they flew reconnaissance and bombing missions until the very end of the war.
14:15And the 742 km an hour top speed of the type is fast enough to earn the 8th spot on
14:21the list.
14:25The second piston engine aircraft on our list is the Vought F-4U Corsair.
14:34The F-4U Corsair was designed for an AV specification in 1938,
14:38where they requested designs for new one or two engine carrier based fighters.
14:43The Vought proposal for this request was a radical design,
14:47built around the 1800 horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-2800 double wasp engine.
14:52The first prototype was finished in 1939, and made its maiden flight in May 1940.
14:59Featuring the unique Galwing design, which kept the landing gear short to withstand the carrier landings,
15:04but raised the nose of the aircraft to allow space for a large propeller.
15:07It also housed the fully enclosed retractable landing gear,
15:11which was the first to be used on a navy aircraft.
15:14The first production models of the type entered service in 1942,
15:18but until late 1943 they were only used as land based aircraft,
15:22as several problems were found with the plane, making carrier landings quite dangerous.
15:27But after the Corsair appeared on the Pacific and started flying combat missions,
15:32it quickly became one of the most respected fighter planes in the theatre,
15:35and its stop speed of 717 km an hour propelled it to the 9th place on this list.
15:46And last but not least, we have the famous North American P-51 Mustang.
15:53The P-51 Mustang, maybe the most famous American fighter of WW2,
15:58actually was conceived to a British request,
16:00when in 1938 a purchasing commission was sent from the United Kingdom to negotiate a deal on Curtiss P-40
16:07fighters.
16:08But the Curtiss factories were already working at full capacity and couldn't take new orders.
16:14So when the President of North American approached Sir Henry Self to offer their B-25 bomber,
16:19he in return proposed that North American could manufacture the P-40 fighters for the British under license.
16:26But North Americans stated they can design a better plane in less time than it would take to set up
16:31manufacturing for the P-40.
16:33The British agreed, but had a condition.
16:36North American had to obtain the new Curtiss XP-46 prototype data.
16:41The resulting design was the North American NA-73,
16:45and the first prototype was finished in September 1940, and made its maiden flight in October.
16:52The first production model already flew just six months later, in April 1941,
16:57and it was an easy-to-fly aircraft with good performance,
17:00but that quickly dropped above 15,000 feet,
17:03thanks to the single-stage supercharger on the Allison V-17-10 engine.
17:08In 1942, both the British and the Americans experimented to mount the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine in the airframe.
17:15The resulting aircraft, the P-51B model entered service in May 1943,
17:20and the new engine featuring a two-stage supercharger improved the high-altitude performance significantly,
17:26creating the truly magnificent fighter we know today.
17:30And the most numerous P-51D variant, with its 710 km an hour top speed, concludes our list on the
17:3710th place.
17:43Hope you guys enjoyed this video.
17:44Please leave a like, subscribe to my channel,
17:46and in the comments let me know if there's any interesting events or vehicles you'd like to see.
