Messerschmitt Me 163B-1a Komet

The Me163 Komet rocket was deployed by the Luftwaffe in a desperate attempt to combat the Allied strategic bombing offensive during the closing stages of the Second World War. It was the only rocket propelled interceptor ever to be used operationally. It was not as successful as expected, only shooting down nine Allied aircraft for a loss of 14 Komets.

The Me163 stemmed from a research programme conducted during the late 1930s and flight trials of the first powered prototypes began at the Peenemunde West rocket test centre in the latter months of 1941. Although the Me163’s Walther rocket motor endowed the aircraft with a maximum speed far in excess of any other fighter of the period, the volatile reactants employed often caused the aircraft to explode. Limited by its short range, lack of endurance and unreliability, the Me163 represented little more than a futile, if scientifically ground-breaking, attempt to wrest control of the air over Germany from the Allies. Even its great asset, its speed, was a problem. It moved so fast but its cannon's rate of fire was too low to effectively engage Allied bombers. This particular aircraft was surrendered to elements of the RAF Regiment at Husum airfield in Schleswig - Holstein, close to the Danish border, on 8 May 1945. By late April 1945 Husum had become the base of the last operational Me163 Unit, with some 80 Me163B aircraft on strength. The last flight of a Komet had been on 22 April 1945, when it shot down a Lancaster, after it had a single delivery of fuel by rail, but the remainder were grounded for lack of fuel until the end of the war in Europe.