Komet

You can read about the very interesting history about this glider and its designer/builder here:
http://www.tailsthroughtime.com/2011/02/messerschmitt-me-163-komet-takes-to-air.html

In summary, it was built by Jozef Kurz, who became a very experienced glider pilot in the years following WWII, but who had originally been in the process of being trained to fly the original Me-163's in the last days of the war. Kurz used the original Messerschmitt drawings to go by to make the glider/replica, but used wood instead of metal in its construction. It keeps the original wing plan/form, but has some changes to the tail-end, due to the nature of the wood construction and no need for the original full-size rocket engine nozzle. The glider is more than 3,000 lbs lighter than an empty original Me-163.

The Airbus Group/Messerschmitt Foundation owns the glider and used to do demonstrations with it at airshows in Europe for several years, using a Dornier Do 27 tow-plane, but as of now it is displayed hanging from the ceiling in the Messerschmitt Foundation/"Flugmuseum Messerschmitt" facility.
 
There are 10 known surviving original examples, that can be seen on display at:

-The Udvar-Hazy Center (Smithsonian), at the Dulles International Airport, Chantilly, Virginia
-The USAF Museum, Dayton, Ohio
-The Australian War Memorial in Canberra
-The Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum in Everett, Washington
-The Luftwaffe Museum, in Berlin, Germany
-The Deutsches Museum, in Munich, Germany
-The Canadian Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, Ontario
-The RAF Museum, Cosford, England
-The Science Museum London, England
-The National Museum of Flight, East Fortune Airfield, Scotland

There is also a non-flying full-scale wooden replica on display at the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California. The Planes of Fame Museum also has on display the even rarer Mitsubishi J8M (original), which is the Japanese derivative of the Me 163 - the only fully original example that still exists.
 
Not so sure about a Komet at the AWM John but there is a Komet on display at the RAAF Museum at Point Cook in Victoria.
 
Hey Pat - it's the same Komet, but it has moved locations. It was originally at Point Cook up until the mid-late 80's and was then moved to/later put on display at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
 
My wife and I saw the one at the Udvar Hazy Smithsonian a few weeks ago when we took a guest out there.
My wife asked how the thing could fly with the little tiny little propeller on the nose.....

- Ivan.
 
Bomber_12th said:
Hey Pat - it's the same Komet, but it has moved locations. It was originally at Point Cook up until the mid-late 80's and was then moved to/later put on display at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
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My apologies John. might have to send a rocket to the Aussie version of Flightpath and Classic Wings Downunder. If they reported the move then apparently I missed it.
 
Two small tubby noisy things. One of them's me.......
 

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I think your yellow nose is very fetching, lefty, but who's the bloke in the red jacket?:wiggle:
 
Pat, the particular aircraft in Australia is Me-163B WNr.191907. According to the information here (https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/me163/australia.htm) and elsewhere, the aircraft was displayed at RAAF Point Cook for many years but was then transferred to the Australian War Memorial for refurbishment in 1986, for eventual display, and that it is currently in the AWM Mitchell Annex in Canberra (on another site, I've seen photos taken of it at the AWM last year). It's interesting that it was originally packaged-up and shipped to Australia in 1946, but remained crated/wasn't removed from the crate until 1971(!).
 
Here are a couple photos I took at the Planes of Fame Air Museum 3 years ago. The Me-163 is a full-scale non-flying replica (as is the HE-100 behind it), where as the yellow aircraft is a Mitsubishi J8M, the only completely original example still in existence, sort of a derivative of the Me-163 - it was the result of reverse-engineering the Me-163 simply based on a flight operations manual and some other limited documentation that the Japanese had access to.



 
I remember reading about that bird. Powerful rocket motor, but deadly dangerous to the pilot. There were two fuels that needed to be mixed correctly when the pilot wanted the rocket to burn. They called them T-Stoff and S-Stoff, I think. The pilot had a valve for each in the cockpit, and to make the rocket function, he had to turn them on, in the correct mixture. Wrong one way, it blew up, wrong the other, no rocket. Delicate thing to do. And if either of them leaked, which happened sometimes, and touched the pilot, even on clothing, it would eat right through. Nasty holes in a few surviving pilot's arms, and legs, from what I read.
When it worked, it worked well, zooming way up then diving down through the bomber formations, shooting everything they could on the way, then diving down and away before anyone could react. I understand a few P-51 pilots did chase them, and shoot some down, though. Very close to Mach, which has it's own compressability problems.

Great pictures, though. After the rocket ran out of Stoff to burn, it became a glider, so the various glider versions aren't far off the mark, but MUCH less likely to blow up unexpectedly :pop4:

Have fun all!
Pat☺
 
East Fortune indeed - that was a few years ago, mind you, before they acquired that wretched Concorde - everything else takes second place now...the Komet is probably in a cupboard.
 
No, relieved to say it's in the (now spruced up) Military hangar still and I presume the motor is with it. The Jaguar is also back under cover, after the shed was shut for renovations last time we visited. It's still a good place to visit although there's still nothing about restoring the Beau afaik.

edit: you can see the Komet behind the Spit LF Mk.XVI in the photo here
 
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AussieMan said:
Not so sure about a Komet at the AWM John but there is a Komet on display at the RAAF Museum at Point Cook in Victoria.
Click to expand...


Bomber_12th said:
Hey Pat - it's the same Komet, but it has moved locations. It was originally at Point Cook up until the mid-late 80's and was then moved to/later put on display at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Click to expand...


Here are a few pics of the Komet at the Australian War Memorial from just after Christmas last year.

There is also one of the ME-262 in the same section.


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