Heinkel He 162: Hitler's Last "Wonder Weapon"

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[@geodkyt]

Minor historical note- the term for the German army is *Heer* . *Wehrmacht* means "defense forces" and is the collective term for all of the WWII German armed forces (not counting the W-SS) in general. So, the Wehrmacht consisted of the Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe, and Heer.

[@niel9612]

Hi Simon, would you please do a video on Test pilot Eric "Winkle" Brown. He is probably one of the best Test pilots to grace the skies. Thank you for the videos.

[@1234nagel1582]

Agreed. His autobiography is a fascinating read.

[@niel9612]

@@1234nagel1582 It reads almost like a adventure novel

[@christopherengel7436]

Simon don't do it. Sign of weakness catering to the masses.

[@Cptbaker1980]

Yes, oh yes landing a plane (not designed for the role) on a carrier below said planes stall speed is probably the greatest display of flying skill ever!

[@M167A1]

Agreed Brown was one of the most extraordinary pilots ever.

[@bottcherimmobilien4864]

You made one mistake: The 30mm Canons didn't allowed the germans to engage from greater distance. The projectiles were very slow und thus inaccurate. But the canons allowed a fighter to inflict enough damage to maybe shoot down a b17 in a short engagement. A short burst. When you attack bombers frontal from above when the sun is behind you, you will only have a fraction of second to shoot and disengage fast- as staying slow between a thousand bombers and p51 would mean death.

[@davemccombs]

He doesn't care lol it's slapdash clickbait. Every video on all his channels, it's just like... Reading the wiki on the topic sometimes I swear

[@williamzk9083]

I doubt any He 162 actually received the 30mm MK108 canon, they were in short supply and most had 20mm MG151/20. The slipstream of bombers caused such buffeting meant that the range of the MG151 canon was unusable. The shorter range of the 30mm guns was generally not an issue.

[@ignitionfrn2223]

0:55 - Chapter 1 - Concept 3:15 - Chapter 2 - Origins 4:30 - Chapter 3 - Volksjager competition 8:40 - Chapter 4 - Specifications 10:05 - Chapter 5 - Volksjager competition - Chapter 6 -

[@williamzk9083]

One reason the He 162 Volksjager was developed was that it would require less than half the fuel of the Me 262. The fuel was relatively easy to synthesize from coal (much easier and more efficient than high octane gasoline) . The aircraft allso received 2 fuel tank age improvements consisting of wing tanks and then an enlarged center tank. These took sea level full thrust endurance from 25 minutes to 37 minutes (much more, 1.5 hours when at high altitude)

[@prussianhill]

A video from Simon on the He 162 as I am working on a model. Of a he 162. Its almost as if he read my mind.

[@dmk0210]

Tamiya sells an excellent plastic model of this aircraft.

[@loke6664]

Considering the time restraints it was still a pretty impressive plane but it was impossible for the Nazis to get enough of planes and pilots to stop the allied bombings. As usual did Hitler, Speer and Göring react to a worsening situation instead of planning ahead for what to do if things would go badly and that cost them dearly. Having a cheap and fast interceptor is not at all a bad idea but they would have needed those in early 1943 and in larger numbers to make any real difference. By mid 1944 when they started with the project the industrial capacity of Germany was already too low to have any chance to stop the allied advance. Too little too late...

[@hokutoulrik7345]

That is a recurring theme in German war planning. Kind of like how 'and then it got worse' is every other paragraph of Russian history.

[@dmk0210]

I think the He-162 is similar to the British Mosquito in some ways. Both very high performance aircraft designed to use wood in order to save natural resources and use otherwise untapped labor expertise in the aviation industry. I believe this could have been a very successful fighter if given more development time under less desperate conditions. It certainly looks good.

[@Kaltagstar96]

I still can't get over how much influence Speer had, I always saw him as just a man who was the architect, so I don't know why that made his opinion so valued to the Nazis?

[@williamzk9083]

@@Kaltagstar96 Speer was and architect who became the armaments minister who took over mid war after Frtiz Todt died in a plane crash. Adolf Hitler did want to be an portrait artist but was rejected. He however was accepted into university to study architecture, and opportunity he did not pursue. When Hitler became Chancellor and then combined the roll or Chancellor and President to become Fuhrer he had a great understanding of the importance of art and architecture in creating a sense of identity and unity in a people. Just imagine France without the Eiffel tower or the US without the Statue of Liberty or Mt Rushmore UK without Westminster or Big Ben or Sydney without the Barbour Bridge and opera house. Hence Hitler wanted the Giant 330m high Berlin Dome (able to house the entire city like a medieval cathedral) Architecture and town planning is how Speer and Hitler got to interact. Speer showed himself and energetic and competent managers who learned very quickly. -In general though Speer didn't perform and armaments miracle. The German armaments ministry had made a lot of investments in automation and mass production that came to fruition in 1943 onward.

[@DaiElsan]

What a good idea. Eric Winkle Brown please. I met him, his story is legendary.

[@tfs203]

Goering loved his nail polish and kimonos.

[@tedsmith6137]

I believe that the name Spatz (Sparrow) was given to the HE162 by Heinkel and Salamander was the code name for the project to build just the wing.

[@ravenhill-night-chills-1968]

now this is my kind of video.

[@timengineman2nd714]

Since the Nazis had at least 3 planes (there may have been more) coming online that were primarily made of wood (they were the He-162, the Ta-154 by FW & the last was the Ba Natter) that were meant to be used almost exclusively against bombers, I've always wondered if the bombing of the Glue Factory was happenstance or a deliberate attack due to British Intelligence getting wind of the wooden Anti-Bomber Aircraft and the location of the Glue Factory!!!

[@KingJohnMichael]

The sso or soo or what ever it was called had there spys and agents everywhere at that point in Europe So yeah they probably knew something

[@jackhoff3910]

Most likely it was coincidental. They bombed the shit out of any and all industrial manufacturing buildings. If you were a business only making wooden childrens' toys and you operated out of a warehouse, your business would've been bombed. All factories, warehouses, and anything industrial-looking got bombed regardless of what their products were.

[@williamzk9083]

The factory that was actually destroyed was the Tego Film factory that hot cured molded plywood. The substitute was a cold cured glue that was not as strong and acidic enough to weaken the wood.

[@timengineman2nd714]

@@williamzk9083 Hence my wondering if the RAF bombed the Lego Film Factory on purpose or if they were just targeting the city due to another factory and got lucky....

[@williamzk9083]

@@timengineman2nd714 At the time the RAF was pursuing the "Area Bombardment Directive" which involved carpet bombing (called Area Bombardment) the geometric center of cities. No specific target was chosen. There would have been lists of worthwhile targets used to chose that city but the aim point was not one of them. The crews were given lists of targets so that they could not be accused of a war crime. However it seems the Tego Film factory was destroyed by a raid lead by Oboe Pathfinders which marked targets with marker flare. Oboe worked of the intersection of two secondary radars and was very accurate and so its possible the factory was specifically targeted. (I doubt it though). Oboe could not work beyond the radar horizon and had just come into service. Other navigation aids like H@S ground mapping radar were also coming in but these early versions with 9cm wavelengths and no gyro stabalisation only worked well on coastlines or where there were rivers and lakes.

[@AtheistOrphan]

There are 2 examples of this aircraft on public display in the UK, 1 each at the RAF Museum, Hendon and at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford.

[@kepanoid]

Oh! Please do a Biographics piece about the ground breaking German lady who was involved in aviation ("a boys' sport") since a young age, and became a fearless test pilot during the war, Hanna Reitsch, "Die Hanna"! ("Die" being the feminine definite article in German, not an English imperative!)

[@Original50]

Take a look at the bio of Beate Uhse. Great story 👍

[@MGB-learning]

Outstanding video and presentation.

[@noahwail2444]

It was not a Messerschmidt 109 engine (that is a fighterplane), but a BMW 003 that powered the 162..

[@jamesrose1460]

I also would point out that the aircrafts downward leaning wingtips were to help with lateral stability. The glue issue plagued many late war designs...including the Focke-Wulf Ta-154....the Luftwaffe Mosquito...designed by the genius of Kurt Tank. The loss of the glue factory was a random bolt out of the blue that probably saved many a life as the Ta-154 was a VERY competent airctaft.

[@williamzk9083]

The wing tips are sometimes attributed to Alexander Lippish (Lippish Ohren or Lippich Ears), sometimes referred to as Hoerner Tips. They are an early form of winglet designed to prevent wing tip vortices from high pressure air reaching the upper wing. In his book "The German Fighter" the aeronautical engineer Rudiger Kosin (Ar 234 designer) who was called in to improve handling said he added them to improve lateral stability since too much dihederal had been added and it was too late to change the spar as it was already in production.

[@malcolmbrown3532]

Another interesting presentatriob Simon. To add from Adokf Galland's autio biograph, he didn't think much of the ME262 jets at first. Untill he got his hands on a pre-production tail wheel model and had quite a change of view........"It was like being pushed by Angels......!" As for my other addition, thankfully for the Allied Powers it was to little, to late for many of the German "Wonder Weapons". They were delayed by many issues, not least the Authorities constantly stiking their oar in by moving/changing the pecs of what ever they were having developed/made. For instance insisting on making the ME 262 a [fighter] Bomber, which delayed it's entry into service, just as they were going into production.

[@TheEvilCommenter]

Good video 👍

[@tkskagen]

Thanks again Simon! The German 262 was the most beautiful fighter had, in my opinion.

[@johncox2865]

Not in my mind. To me, the Mustang was grace in motion.

[@dmk0210]

The Me-262 was a beautiful aircraft. It looks like a shark with wings.

[@Knight7562]

can we get units in metric system why still using imperial units !!!

[@paul8319]

Where do you think the majority of viewers live?

[@kepanoid]

And/or naval units when talking about aircraft or ships: knots, nautical miles, and yes, altitude in feet. That's how distance is measured "in the business(es)".

[@Knight7562]

@@kepanoid no thats how u.s wants every ones to measure it

[@kepanoid]

@@Knight7562 The units I mentioned are, as I said, the global standard in those fields. I fortunately live in a metric country, and not in the three (or so) countries that still use imperial measurements. And I have an American car, made in 1995 for the US market and somehow imported to Finland. All the fasteners in it are metric. So under the hood (so to speak), the USA is metric, too. People in there just don't (want to) recognize it.

[@adrianbruce2963]

Because I understand imperial easier - since both measurements are usually supplied that should satisfy everyone.

[@PaulMcElligott]

The concentration camp inmates who provided the slave labor force to build this fighter discovered another problem with the glue used to hold it together. Human urine tended to dissolve it, so inmates would relieve themselves on the fighters they were supposed to be building.

[@fredblonder7850]

Gee. I wonder how they discovered that? ;-)

[@wh8787]

Nazis: "What if we used a group of people who we have promised to eventually murder, to build a load of our weapons? Can't see how that could go wrong!" Slave laborers "guess it's time to sabotage?!". A bunch of slave laborers also figured out they could drill holes in transmission components for panther tanks, which contributed to their woeful reliability statistics.

[@drstrangelove4998]

@@wh8787logically after training these people to become skilled aircraft engineers, they wouldn’t have killed them.

[@drstrangelove4998]

262 jet engines cost one third of a conventional piston engine and took only a third the time to make. In addition it took just thirty minutes to replace engines compared to say a conventional 109 or spitfire which took two days, confirmed by the allies post war.

[@wh8787]

@@drstrangelove4998 plenty of the jobs at the Mittlework assembly centre where the Nazis built V1 flying bombs, V2 rockets, and Me 262s were unskilled or semi skilled labour. Additionally the death rate was absolutely horrific with literally thousands of prisoners being either worked to death or outright executed, but nice Nazi apologism.

[@gregoryschmitz2131]

Some good stuff but I fail to see the relevance of an aircraft being shot down in the Water vs US Bombers over land. Front on attack was abandoned early on. It took major skill and the Luftwaffe was lacking that in 1943-44 due to the pilot casualties. You also wound up way behind and could not make another pass. Side attacks and bottom attacks were the preferred method. Also to be considered, long range meant more misses and you did not stop mid air, you continued to you at the very least were in the outer edge of 50 cal fire if not in the middle of effective 50 cal. There was no free lunch. But the HE-162 was very good to outstanding for its rushed development and if powered by the Jumo 04, wow.

[@t.tshankle427]

There is a surviving example at Planes of Fame air museum in Chino, CA! It is said to have been test flown by Charles Lindbergh. Unfortunately it doesn’t fly now of course but it’s still quite amazing.

[@brentgranger7856]

Another wonder weapon you could do is the German Type XXI “electroboot,” the world’s first submarine designed to perform primarily submerged. Their potential is up for speculation, but the influence on post-WW2 submarine design goes to the Type XXI.

[@TheSchmed]

Aircraft “Al-you-min-ee-um”, love it !

[@owenshebbeare2999]

Aluminium is correct. Yanks get it wrong, and are the only users of the alternative spelling/pronunciation, despite that erroneous version actually originating in Britain.

[@gordonwallin2368]

Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.

[@beachboy0505]

Excellent video 📹 Inspired all future jet fighter planes

[@GoodVideos4]

A little known section of WW2, like with Mark Felton videos. We also know much more about the Me 262 (What Simon mentioned, about it, I hadn't heard before.) than about the He 162.

[@TommygunNG]

0:24 -- "Wehrmacht" was the collective term for all branches of the armed forces. "Heer" was the term for the army.

[@drudgenemo7030]

10,000 sorties against the Normandy beaches wouldn't be my definition of "largely uncontested". Granted only 2 got through, but it wasn't because the Luftwaffe didn't contest the landings. It was because the allies had superior capabilities to control the airspace.

[@DieNextInLINE]

Yeah, uncontested isn't the right word to use here. As you said, they attempted to contest the landings but they just failed. It'd be like saying the Gallipoli campaign was aborted when they failed to gain a foothold.

[@AtheistOrphan]

I wonder what happened to the hundreds of partially-completed examples in the Austrian mine?

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

Great video, Sinon.

[@danicalifornia505]

Sorry to say Fact Boi but you misspoke and said March 8th for the wars end then stated that they served from January to May

[@JB-rt4mx]

They got bats in the belfry .🦇

[@madzen112]

That salamander didn't exactly jump out of the fire

[@camdenharper7244]

Love the give proper credit to the writers

[@AvB.83]

04:12 The guy second from the right looks like he's been munching on way too much Panzerschokolade 😅 Still, considering the state Germany was in at that time, to design, build and bring into the air a jet aircraft, let alone a good one is insane. Any reasonable person would have surrendered before developement was even started...

[@AynneMorison]

I wonder if something about ejecting right in front of the jet intake could have damaged the parachute mechanism on the doomed pilot

[@davidtrindle6473]

Reminder: the Nazis lost the war, the “wonder weapons” were a dud, and there have never been any “supermen.”

[@mho...]

interesting video! BUT Feets & Pounds in a video about german engineering?! atleast go Metric in these!

[@DrDirigible]

How about a story on the St. Lawrence Seaway which was a co-operative venture between Canada and the US. This allowed seagoing ships to access the great lakes and flooded out several Canadian towns and a couple villages in the US.

[@robinj.9329]

I've always felt that using wood in certain areas of the aircraft was a good idea. BUT, the Germans lacked the time and talent to properly "Engineer" these wooded structures. An all-wood wing WOULD HAVE WORKED! If it were engineered correctly and assembled properly. Type of wood as well as the "glue" used to put them together would have been critical. With certain glues, both temperature and humidity would need to be controlled during construction. But, slave labor? And POW's were obviously not inclined to give the Germans their "best efforts"! After the War, Allied Intelligence was absolutely amazed at the ingenuity shown by the Germans! Especially during the very last year of the war.

[@TheSchmed]

3:27 General Galland looks like a Brit, not a Jerry.

[@kenmackinnon8420]

beards defo making up for the bald😉epic facial fluff.! love all your content 👌

[@zed51aleph]

Do a video on test pilots

[@fhuber7507]

3 problems with that jet: Too few Too late Inadequate flight duration. Solve 2 and it would have been significant.

[@JB-rt4mx]

Thats the story of Capt. Tinkle who later was a POW.

[@lawrencelewis2592]

There's one of these in the aircraft museum in Ottawa. What a piece of junk! Plywood! what were they thinking?

[@thomascarpenter8177]

de Havilland Mosquito would like a word

[@lawrencelewis2592]

@@thomascarpenter8177 A Mossie was a fine aircraft. The Heinkel I saw in the museum was deteriorated with age but it was obvious that it was crap. I would not have wanted to be a test pilot for those.

[@demonprinces17]

Russia used wood planes

[@lawrencelewis2592]

@@demonprinces17 Didn't the Brits have a single-engined wooden aircraft with fixed landing gear? Something on the order of a Hawker Typhoon, but never got beyond the development stage? `

[@midlander4]

Simon... did I hear you say "cannons"?

[@evanmiller2529]

By definition any gun with a projectile 20mm or more in diameter is considered a cannon. British 303 and American .50 cal (around 12mm) on fighter planes are Machine guns as they are under 20mm.

[@Powerkraut1]

How do you do so many new videos across so many channels so quickly and still retain quality

[@renaissanceredneck3695]

I'm sure it has something to do with having a good team backing him up. Writers, editors, etc.

[@laurendoe168]

I'm waiting for a MegaProjects on the subject of cloning... that displays the dozen or so Simon Whistler clones. :D

[@loke6664]

@@renaissanceredneck3695 Indeed. You can't really compare Simon with someone who write all their stuff themselves, there is just so much good content a single person can write in a week. Having a good team multiplies the work you can do. Still, Simon does work really hard recording a bunch of vids each day and he is usually weeks ahead of his schedule which is impressive for a KZbinr. Writing and editing everything himself for that would just be impossible.

[@renaissanceredneck3695]

@@loke6664 my thoughts exactly. Not taking anything away from the team they all obviously work hard to get out the volume of content they do.

[@loke6664]

@@renaissanceredneck3695 Of course not, Simon is kinda a workaholic but you can't compare him with someone that either do all the work themselves or someone that have a 2-4 person theme. Just the Casual Criminalist have a whole bunch of different writers (I seen at least 5) so comparing that against someone like Greg in How to drink that only have Meredith doing the camera work is just ridiculous (Greg makes like 2 vids a week and that is still pretty impressive with that tiny crew).

[@julianmhall]

'Wonder Weapon'.. most of the wonder is 'why?'

[@Idahoguy10157]

Fortunately the He162’s were too little, far too late, to make any difference.

[@randycastillo4530]

Compare the He 162 to today's Honda Vision jet. Ooooo

[@jamesrose1460]

Hate to call you on a goof...Sparrow or Sturmvogel...was the Messerschmidt 262...not this bird.

[@shawnr771]

Very cool.

[@techfixr2012]

V1 with a pilot

[@iatsechannel5255]

Nice work! Concise and well written. That being said, your choices of b roll is getting kind of lazy. Just sayin'.

[@mikeluke409]

he say 50mm cannons on those things??

[@AtheistOrphan]

30mm.

[@Mike-kz4yv]

Please pay more attention to your stock footage

[@gaiusflaminius4861]

Could you speak faster? My heart wasn't pounding enough to compare to He-162 swooping attacks. Also, rigorous training by spelling the word combo "initial projection" repeatedly at a rapid pace is strongly recommended.

[@1joshjosh1]

I never heard of 30's on the Salamander. But it does not matter. On to the next wam bam clicky click bate 25 minutes of research topic.

[@ProjectFlashlight612]

Oatrjjijd God kiss

[@Pepsi_Addicted]

first

[@johandewitt9911]

The idea is stolen by the alies, the copy cats!