2/3 scale P51 Mustang takes to the air for the first time

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Originally Posted by Commander Wallace

I'm wondering if there are Me-262's reproductions flying as well. If so, they should have modern metallurgy as that in modern compressor blades in modern turbo fan jet engines to withstand high temperatures. Considering how scarce the actual aircraft like the P-51 mustang and others are, it's great to see them being reproduced. It goes a long way toward keeping the memory of those that flew these aircraft alive so others can remember their sacrifices.

The Me 262 Project is a company formed to build flyable reproductions of the Messerschmitt Me 262, the world's first operational jet fighter. The project was started with the Texas Airplane Factory and administered by Classic Fighter Industries. It is based at Paine Field in Everett, Washington, United States, near Seattle. The project team of designers, engineers and technicians recentlycompleted the flight test program and delivery of the first of five jets.
The aircraft are powered by highly relaible General Electric CJ610turbojet (Lear jets)engines, concealed inside detailed reproductions of the original Junkers Jumo 004B engines and nacelles. The metallurygy of WWII Germany would envy todays stuff. Some accomodations still had to be made:

The Jumo 004 turbojet engine would operate around 10 hours before failure, often times less, while producing a modest 2,000 pounds of thrust. They suffered turbine blade failures which were not understood by the Junkers team. They focused on areas such as material defects, grain size and surface roughness. The initial 004A engines built to power the Me 262 prototypes had been built without restrictions on materials, and they used scarce raw materials such as nickel, cobalt, and molybdenum in quantities which were unacceptable in production. It was realized that the Jumo 004 would have to be redesigned to incorporate a minimum of these strategic materials, and this was accomplished. All the hot metal parts, including the combustion chamber, were changed tomild steel protected by an aluminum coating, and the hollow turbine blades were produced from folded and welded Cromadur alloy (12% chromium, 18% manganese, and 70% iron) Eventually, in December 1943, blade-vibration specialist Max Bentele was once again brought in during a meeting at the RLM headquarters. He identified that the failures were caused by one of the blades' natural frequencies being in the engine running range. His solution was to raise the frequency, by increasing the blade taper and shortening them by 1 millimeter, and to reduce the operating speed of the engine from 9,000 to 8,700 rpm. Given the lower-quality steels used in the 004B, these engines typically only had a service life of some 10–25 hours, perhaps twice this in the hands of a skilled pilot. (no way to fight a war BBY!) Another shortcoming of the engine, common to all early turbojets, was its sluggish throttle response. Worse, it was fairly easy to inject too much fuel into the engine by throttling up too quickly, allowing heat to build up before the cooling air could remove it. This led to softening of the cheaper turbine blades, and was a major cause for engine failures. Nevertheless, it made jet power for combat aircraft a reality for the first time. A more reliable and far easier engine to acquire and maintain is the General Electric J85. This engine has been around for many years in military aircraft and is also available as a commercial engine as the CJ610. In its non-afterburning configuration, the J85 produces around 2,500 pounds of thrust. While the J85 sounds like a comparatively simple choice to replace the Jumo, it also posed a significant problem.
Each Jumo 004 weighs over 1,500 pounds and is mounted ahead of the airframe’s center of gravity. The J85 weighs around 400 pounds, and if it was mounted in the same position on the wing, the aircraft would be around 2,200 pounds lighter but that would shift the center of gravity too far aft (too tail heavy) for safe flight. After some innovative engineering, the solution was brilliantly simple – use the engine casting for the Jumo 004, but alter the interior of the casting to accommodate the J85. In short, the J85 was mounted inside the shell of the Jumo engine and thus the weight and balance problems went away and the new engines would not alter the profile of the engine nacelles.

If Germany had had the J85.... http://www.cybermodeler.com/special/stormbird.shtml This one 'landed' at the Aviation Museum in McMinnville OR where my daughter was an assistant for four college years! I spent a lot of visits there!

Now on display, “Yellow 5” is a non-flying reproduction of an Me-262, utilizing the same materials and construction techniques at the originals, built 65 years ago. (So accurate are Legend Flyers’ reproductions, that Messerschmitt supplied them Werke Numbers, as the last five machines off the production line.) It’s marked as an aircraft of Jadgeshwader 7 (11/JG-7) based at Brandenburg-Briest, flown by Leutnant Alfred Ambs in early 1945. While flying the Me-262, Ambs would become an ace, shooting down seven American B-17s and one P-51. It was in ”Yellow 5” that Ambs was shot down on March 24, 1945 while attacking a formation of B-17s. Caught by surprise by Earl “Squirrel” Lane, (hey a combat painting for Eichhörnchen!!) one of the Tuskegee Airmen, “Yellow 5” was riddled with bullets, one of which tore away Ambs’ oxygen mask. He bailed out at 17,000 and landed in a tree; breaking his kneecap and tearing ligaments in his leg. Luckily, Ambs had a chance to see “Yellow 5” before his death earlier this year, and was a key part of making sure its markings were correct.

> EDIT: Woops! already been done "Tuskegee Thunder"1st Lt. Earl R. Lane of the 100th Figher Group destroys a Messerschmitt-262 jet high over Germany.
Also shown: the Luftwaffe were using a captured P-51 (all black) Mustang during this action. Wow! I looked that up: