Heinkel 162 (He162) landing gear test

[@andypandywalters]

Boy, would I love to see one of those fly again. perhaps a modern rebuild (with a modern engine! ) like they did with the Me262

[@fredferd965]

You could not fly an original He162 under any conditions. The fuselage was metal, but the wings were made of wood glued and bonded together under late wartime conditions, mostly made by slave labor. The original glue factory was bombed and the Germans had to switch to an inferior glue which rotted the wood. At least two airplanes came apart in the air because of this. Likewise, the engine was primitive. There were no high temperature metal alloys available, and the engines had a very short life. From what I've read, Bob Hoover test flew an He162 out at Edwards AFB (then Muroc) and it frightened him by making constant squeeking noises, sounds of wood flexing, etc. He went around the pattern once and got it on the ground as fast as he could, and then walked away from it. The only thing you could do, if plans are available, is to build a new aircraft using modern materials, and then either use a modern engine, or use an original engine with an entirely new hot section also made of modern materials. That's what they're doing with one Me262, but I think they're taking a risk doing it.

[@NathanDudani]

@@fredferd965 thanks

[@chris_hisss]

Yes yes me too. Fantastic simple design. I don't think it would be worth building in wood, as that tends to be way too heavy to be worth it, and the 262 is using General Electric J85 engines and have had numerous safety features added to them, such as landing gear that has been reinforced and strengthened and upgraded sturdier brakes. As well as some refinement, considering we could fine tweak the small things, like air inlet, etc. As well as adding some kind of special protection for the pilot like roll cage. The thing would have made a horrible fighter, but essentially they were making the Beetle of the air, which is just fascinating to think about. Scary dangerous though...

[@stevetheduck1425]

The He-162 captured and flown in Britain broke up in the air due to the vertical stabiliser ( fin and rudder ) on one side collapsing when the pilot attempted an aileron roll at normal speeds. This was a known fault, Heinkel believed they had designed that problem out of the later ones built, but it seems not. The plane was not safe to fly when new, even when Heinkel maintenance guys were on hand to keep it 'worked up'.

[@louisvanrijn3964]

@@stevetheduck1425 Some good substantiated stress calculations , as modern aviation engineers daily execute, will mitigate this problem in a rebuilt. These days ee have very advanced aerodynamic software and also Finite Element programs. It will not be a problem.

[@АлексейВинокуров-у1б]

Шедевр,инженерной мысли,просто браво

[@TRINFSS]

Engineering beauty

[@memorialflight]

@tommiatkins The restoration of the Heinkel 162 is now over (check our website). The aircraft is now waiting to be displayed in le Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace at Le Bourget airport. Although the engine is in excellent condition, it cannot be run without the museum authorization as it is a part of the collection. However this would be very risky (unsafe ?)

[@werknummer]

Just amazing! Impeccable workmanship and attention to accuracy.

[@earlyhemibill]

Good video for us modelers. I'm drawing plans for a 162 in 1/6 scale at almost 48" for control line flying. This video will help a lot with the building of the landing gear.

[@JessHull]

did you ever complete it ?

[@earlyhemibill]

@@JessHull Not yet. Working on a motor for it now. If it works, will build the model.

[@robajohnson]

A Thing of Beauty. I so admire simple yet EFFECTIVE engineering. The Germans of that era excelled at those qualities!

[@randyhester3340]

Fantastic reference for the 3D model I'm trying to make in Blender. Clearances for the landing gear are one of the trickiest parts of an accurate reproduction.

[@revodes21]

That . . . is . . . beautiful, I could cycle it all day and just watch it and feel it - gorgeous. I just love WWII German aircraft, engineering brilliance.

[@BeliVolk]

Great! Bring this old beauty to life!

[@johnassal5838]

I have to admit that little window to see if the nose gear is down is pretty clever.

[@atreyuprincipalh4043]

What a wonderful post

[@measyxrs]

I’m not understanding the thumbs down for this video. Why?

[@stevetheduck1425]

The sounds made by that undercarriage retracting and the doors closing reminds me of something. The movie Dune ( 1984 ), had a Navigator being moved around in a large locomotive-like chamber. The chamber made creaking, clunking noises and had sudden escapes of pressurised air, much like this planes' undercarriage. Unexpected. Now I wonder where the sound effects used in the film came from...

[@LorenzoB16]

Facinating little window.

[@EnterpriseXI]

@memorialflight ok i can respect that. so thank you for restoring a pies of history.

[@GCOLE2]

Wow. This is great! I wish I would have seen this BEFORE I built my Revell 1/32/He 162!

[@hmjets]

fantastic airplane,very nice video!!

[@memorialflight]

@EnterpriseXI This aircraft is not the property of the Memorial Flight Association. It belongs to the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace (French Air & Space Museum). None of their aircraft is allowed to fly. However we had the opportunity to restore this Heinkel 162 as close to flying conditions as possible, which was quite a unique opportunity.

[@urbansoldier1]

nice restoring.... and wow, my pioneer 300 has "the same" safety window inside to see if the frontgear is in... horrido memorial flight👍

[@memorialflight]

@popsaka1 The He-162 was restored for static display only. It is now in Storage at the Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace near Paris, waiting to be displayed to the public. More on the restoration at : memorial.flight.free.fr

[@SjaakTrekhaak23]

Like the cracking and cloncking ;)

[@jimmyboomsemtex9735]

wow. now 2022 where is the jet?

[@Trent772]

Lovely stuff!

[@memorialflight]

@elwman That would have been a great idea. But unfortunately, we couldn't do it due to a lack of time (we have some other great restorations going on...). The aircraft isn't in our workshop anymore, as the restoration is over.

[@tommiatkins]

brilliant. Hope you get the engine going too!

[@stuka97]

That is just to damm cool!

[@condorcircus323]

Until the glue falls apart

[@Ignorantissimus]

What I most admire in technology and in character of the Germans (they never proved obtuse or incapable if not of blind obedience, as he would like some sinister propaganda) is the ability to adapt to the most different circumstances - from Russian winter in 1941-42 (engaged with a disastrous equipment) to opposedly hostile climate in the deserts of North Africa - from unsurpassed elegance of Zeiss optics to the shocking simplicity of the Sturmgewehr - from 520 HP Auto Union to 25 HP Kubelwagen

[@chuckschillingvideos]

You omitted the Panzerfaust, which was incredibly easy to use, reliable and effective. The Germans could hand them out like candy to soldiers with the briefest of training and nearly any German soldier could take out any allied or Russian tank had he the daring to get in close.

[@shotibf109G2]

ufffff! click clack and go!!! i love it!! nice! not nice BRILLIANT video! WELL done!

[@memorialflight]

@elwman Sorry, but we don't have the aircraft in the hangar anymore, so we can't give you those infos. There probably was a misunderstanding about the 21 color. It is certainly not white ! Good luck for your model.

[@EnterpriseXI]

@memorialflight but like the 262 u think one day someone will make a flyable replica only with a more safer and reliable engine? that would be awsome

[@tombmaster972]

and this small window between the pilots legs shows if the landing gear is retracted or not? really primitive but cool german technology!

[@Clebbsi]

Also the little red stick in front of the cockpit would pop up as the gear comes down, you can see it quite well in the video.

[@warrensmith2902]

They use windows for down and locked checks even on Boeing jets

[@KarlKonrad52]

A good example of German engineering that’s still being used for modern Aircraft today. Thanks for that info Warren!

[@memorialflight]

@elwman The tail is in RLM76. The fuselage is not painted in RLM color, but in a gray-green color comonly used on late german aircrafts [look at the recently painted He219 fuselage from the NASM] (very similar to english duck-egg green). Although many books say it is RLM76, we did find the 2 dinstinct colors on the tail & fuselage. The 21 is yellow because we find some yellow traces under the paint & we have 2 original photos of the aircraft showing it's not white. Why do you think it's white ?

[@chuckschillingvideos]

That grey-green is commonly (and inappropriately, in my opinion) labeled as RLM84 by many. In my opinion it is just a poorly formulated attempt to product RLM76 or RLM78 by paint factories with low stocks of the correct raw materials or even improvised at the sub-assembly manufacturing sites.

[@choctaw111]

I did not know this was being done. Fantastic! When is it projected to be completed. What type of engine will be used?

[@memorialflight]

@n74jw Yes they are... Simple, but reliable design.

[@memorialflight]

@johntjg The Heinkel is in storage right now, at Le Bourget. It is waiting to be displayed, in the public part of the museum...

[@hipotos]

Perfect!

[@johnnecron666]

we had no idea how to design landing gear in America until we smuggled some of Germanys top landing gear engineers out of the country at wars end. We just used ropes and pulleys to get the job done. It gave our pilots good exercise

[@LandersWorkshop]

No way man, say it ain't so Joe.

[@MeAbroad2004]

it feels like a house of horrors...the way doors and windows open and close on their own.....but with a Salamander :-)

[@player1GR]

will this fly again? pleeease say yes

[@EnterpriseXI]

@memorialflight i know right. Germany did not make the safest and reliable jet engines in the world. but to me it just looks like just the turbine blades can just be replaces with better quality medal. will that work or will the engine have to be completely redesigned?

[@rideyourbikent]

Great mechanical system

[@MyLateralThawts]

Tests cannot be complete, unless you also tested the 20 mm cannons.

[@tommiatkins]

@memorialflight thats great news. Shame about the engine. It would be wonderful if the machine could fly again. A remarkable peice of history.

[@n74jw]

Pretty basic design. Are those springs actuating the main gear? I like the little window for the nose wheel.

[@MrZlodeus]

Looks a bit odd with the gear units retracting/extending one at a time rather than all together.

[@SjaakTrekhaak23]

Whats the purpose of the red lever in fron of the cockpit, above the nose gear actuator. Is it an indicator i.e.?

[@gapratt4955]

Down and locked indicator. Watch how it moves, that shows it is locking.

[@tz138]

@elwman Contact the Planes of Fame museum in Chino, California. They have one of these parked in their forign hangar.

[@EnterpriseXI]

is there a chance that one of these beauty's or a repica will one day be reborn and fly like the Me-262?

[@chuckschillingvideos]

It is a simple design intended to be constructed entirely of non-exotic materials using primitive manufacturing processes. There is no reason on earth an enterprising soul could not put such an aircraft together. Bear in mind, pilot safety was priority #1,343,888 when the Luftwaffe was soliciting designs for the Volksjager.

[@LandersWorkshop]

@@chuckschillingvideos You say that but not quite, those things had functioning ejection seats which saved lives (if the canopy blew clear that was). Allied planes didn't have ejection seats.

[@chuckschillingvideos]

​@@LandersWorkshop Considering they were putting essentially untrained pilots (Hitler Jugend) into these things, the likelihood that the poor soul(s) inside would have been able to safely eject in the (very) probable event of an emergency would be quite remote in my estimation. These things were exceedingly difficult to fly unless you were an experienced pilot. They would have been death traps for a novice.

[@LandersWorkshop]

@@chuckschillingvideos Although the original intention was to put glider-trained pilots from HY etc they didn't as a result of the plane needing more experienced pilots. So stop trying to play the SJW card on me snowflake. You can check wiki which, unusually gets the facts right.

[@chuckschillingvideos]

@@LandersWorkshop Not trying to "play" any cards at all. The fact remains that these were very dangerous aircraft to fly, with or without ejection seats and if you think pilot safety was such a huge concern for the Luftwaffe at this stage of the war kindly explain the BA-349 or FI-103.

[@GrigoriZhukov]

@memorialflight considering how unreliable and how short a cycle time those engines had? It'd be crimminal to run an original imo. BUT that should stop anyone from building copy with better materials and a higher state of fit and finsih running on. ;^) But I'm crazy that way.

[@memorialflight]

@EnterpriseXI Actually this He-162 Wk.Nr120015 belongs to the Musée de l'Air et de L'Espace. It has been restored for static display only.

[@EnterpriseXI]

@memorialflight then whats the point of doing a full restoration if this will never fly with a fully working landing gear system?

[@stevetheduck1425]

Conservation of what exists, learning the methods used in manufacture and maintenance, knowledge that can be used on other projects, and maintenance of what remains, to keep it existing. There are 'restorations' of planes around the world that are made of sheet steel and wood, essentially a dummy aircraft, sometimes with some small parts of a real plane. In Burma, there are Spitfires with only the rear fuselage and one wing 'real', the rest mocked up.

[@ThinkingManNeil]

Is she being restored to fly? N.

[@jpatt1000]

Will this actually be flown post restoration?

[@EnterpriseXI]

@memorialflight im sorry but i just don't see the point of doing a complete restoration on this aircraft. why bother restoring it as close to flying condition as possible if this bird will never fly again? i can understand why you would restore the landing gear so it can be displayed on the ground or the cealling but WHY a complete restore?

[@stevetheduck1425]

To preserve an example of Nazi desperation for future generations. In the NASM store in the USA there is a Ki-115, a 'minimum fighter' made of simple sheet steel, with a fall-off undercarriage. This was intended to be a suicide plane to use up the older aero engines the Japanese had lying around, and of course all the still-alive barely-trained pilots they had left. They had trouble testing it, or learning to fly it, as it couldn't land, not having an undercarriage after take-off. Another example of just what political creatures will do to keep their jobs ( and lives ) a few days more. - and completely useless.

[@zorngottes1778]

Will it fly?

[@memorialflight]

@EnterpriseXI doing half of the restoration work is not a good restoration... Restoring an aircraft is not just making it look clean... The goal is to have the aircraft back to its original condition

[@chuckschillingvideos]

That isn't always feasible. Original HE-162 parts are not exactly dropping from trees and are of dubious manufacture quality.

[@stevetheduck1425]

The low-quality wood and low-quality glues preclude flying an original, especially with a low-quality jet of very limited endurance. The finished plane was unsafe anyway, even by desperation 1945 standards. Pilots died simply trying to get from one airfield to another. This is easy to discover. Not to mention the captured planes that broke up in normal flight when being studied. It might be better to build a replica, like the replica Me-163 glider, or the replica Me-262s.

[@chuckschillingvideos]

The landing gear was more than likely just to give the poor pilots false hope they might survive their combat mission. The HE-162 would likely have been a suicide mission for the vast majority of the pilots unlucky enough to buckle up and take off most of whom would have received only rudimentary flight training, never mind combat tactics and gunnery training. Their only possible tactic would have been to attempt to close in to the bombers to point blank range and US fighters would have had their way with them.

[@nagmashot]

you should watch the video He 162 test pilot with US background who moved to USA after ww2 and join the US air force... Germany never gave that jet into unexperienced hands... even as a youth he become a test pilot but already had tons of advance glider training and other skills on fighter like the Fw 190... to his words the He 162 was not easy to fly.. like all extrem maneuverble fighter it was slightly instable and needed skilled pilot...of the 50 factory test pilots only 5 survived... BUT and here comes the big but... the reason for most deadly accidents was winter time...totaly icy runway with snow/ice walls at the side... he claimed it was very difficult to hold the plane straight after landing and braking many He 162 just started to slide on the ice and crashed into the snow icewall at the side of the runways with deadly result for the pilot. He claimed it was joy to fly the He 162

[@mandernachluca3774]

Just so you know, the germans were the first to issue ejection seats in their fighters. The He 162 is one of them. You see, no suicide mission, since basically couldn't afford to lose more pilots....

[@KarlKonrad52]

Hey Mandernach Luca, very all said indeed. I’m glad you summed up that Heinkel He 162 pilots weren’t always flying suicide missions even though every day that passed by, the Third Reich was near the brink of collapsing. I do agree that there was a real reason why they added an ejection seat in the fighter itself. It wouldn’t make sense why they would install it, if they couldn’t afford losses of their pilots returning from their sorties. Anyway, I wanted to also give you a fun fact that the Heinkel He 219, a German night fighter, was also equipped with these first ejection seats. However, I’m unsure which German aircraft were the first to have these equipped.

[@chuckschillingvideos]

@@KarlKonrad52 The ejection seat was mandated by the fact that had they NOT put one it there would have been absolutely no way on earth any pilot would have entered it. There would have been no way to exit the damn thing in flight. Not even a test pilot would have been brave/stupid enough to get into one of the contraptions otherwise.

[@EnterpriseXI]

@jpatt1000 i dont think this bird will ever fly again. probably because there rare birds

[@nezircaglar2381]

he 162 landing gear test

[@strenggeheim6672]

Wenn's quietscht oder knarrt, hat Metall Schmerzen! Ölen oder fetten! 😏

[@EnterpriseXI]

@player1diao i dont think it never will

[@ІгорЛомпей]

В той час були Інженери з Великої букви ,не то що тепер ,їх зовсім немає.😀✌🏻👎🏽

[@EnterpriseXI]

@beowulf342000 i thought the Jumo engine had a life of just one day

[@chuckschillingvideos]

Which would still be longer than the average life expectancy of an HE-162 combat pilot.

[@LandersWorkshop]

That was the Komet, the Jumo-engines with proper alloys would last longer.

[@EnterpriseXI]

Watch Ryder yes but when the Me-262 entered service in 1944, the Germans didn’t have access to the medals that would make their jets more reliable. And remember, the 262 wasn’t the only jet aircraft using the Jumo engines

[@EnterpriseXI]

Watch Ryder also the Me-163, because it was such a dangerous aircraft because of the fuel it used, The pilots probably had a life expectancy of one day.

[@EnterpriseXI]

Watch Ryder look it up roughly 25 hours before the engine needed to be overhauled

[@EnterpriseXI]

@ThinkingManNeil sorry no

[@garybanglebangle7949]

Nice very nice but not too good.

[@493175001]

German engineering, learn the difference.

[@LesGangsters]

Slowpoke

[@ronaldoschlichting435]

Horrido