Greyhound ownership.

[RHB785]

Back in meieval times it was only the nobility who were allowed to own greyhounds and the penalty for a commoner killing a greyhound was death to the commoner. Adam's commnet about the German baroness who lived near JG7's airfield and who owned greyhounds is absolutely no surprise to me. Nor is it a surprise to learn that the Commander of the unit chose the greyhound as the unit's mascot. As I said a little earlier they are really fast (the only ground dwelling animal faster than a greyhound is the cheetah). A greyhound can also accelerate from 0 to its maximum speed of around 70 km/h in about 6-9 metres so when they're 10m out of the box they are at full tilt. What an appropriate symbol and mascot for the world's first jet fighter unit to have. I'm not sure if there's any comparison between a greyhound's temperament and that of the Me 262 though.

Regards,
RHB.

[tor lives]

Must admit that I am not a real greyhound/whippet fan, (I was nipped by one once when I was a kid, and never really trusted them since....bit to skittish for my liking). I think the coolest animal though is the Cheetah. Slick, fast, good-looking, purposeful, and deadly....the Cheetah is the Mirage III, F-86, or F-16 of the animal world.
TOR

[RHB785]

Hi Ray. You say you were nipped by a greyhound/whippet when you were a kid. Perhaps you did something accidentally to frighten the dog or perhaps you did something the dog didn't expect. I have heard of one bad tempered greyhound but mostly they are very gentle dogs and very even tempered. The first night I brought Jack home he nipped me too because he didn't know me then and I did something he wasn't expecting but it was only just a nip and didn't really hurt. I think he got more a of a shock than I did and since that night he hasn't made any attempt to nip me.

He's just so cool, calm and collected. Basically, he doesn't worry about anything and sleeps most of the day. He is however so much fun to watch in full flight and I'm looking forward to taking him and Mindy to a certain beach where the water is nice and shallow at low tide and warm too in summer time so we can all have a splash and the dogs can run free for a little while and my friend and I can enjoy watching them run. It was she who suggested I get a greyhound and she wasn't wrong. They suit my lifestyle down to a tee. Greyhounds, racehorses and cheetahs have flexible spines and run in the same way. Twice during every cycle all their feet are off the ground together and they can stretch their gait out incredibly, that's what makes them so fast and able to accelerate so quickly. My little girl is cuddled up to my leg as I type this and Jack is asleep in the hallway but they're both smooches.

Regards,
RHB.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Hi Ross

From what I've read the 262 had pretty benign flight characteristics - to all intensive purposes fairly straight forward to fly. Issues it had were of course the short life of the unreliable engines - mainly due to immature high temp materials technology - just not enough nickel and chrome in Germany at the time. These engines had very low thrust and very poor acceleration. Push the go levers forward too fast - engine explodes. Pull them back too fast, engine flames out. Many 262's were damaged by the nose wheel collapsing as it was made of tube steel, not a solid forging. The 262 could have done with a speed brake as well. Still, when they worked out tactics for the 262, it was absolutely devastating to a B-17 bomber stream. One pilot worked out to attack successive bomber boxes in turn, knocking out a B-17 from each box each time. When used with the R4M rockets, this added even more punch to the 262.



To me I think the JG7 greyhound symbol is perfect for the 262. Comparisons between 262 and greyhounds to me are:

Both very fast!
Both have big teeth! - 262 with 4 x 30mm cannon plus R4M rockets.
Both the 262 and greyhounds have a elegant look about them
That long spindly 262 nose wheel oleo kind of reminds me of a greyhound leg!

[RHB785]

Well spoken Adam. Speaking of the weak spindly nose wheel strut on the Me 262, it's pretty easy for a greyhound to break a leg, but fortunately if this happens it isn't as final as a race horse breaking a leg. A greyhound's broken leg can be fixed, a recehorse's broken leg can't. In the days of the Me 262 a broken nose wheel strut could be replaced in a couple of hours and the other repairs to the fuselage might take another day or so, it didn't knock the aircraft out totally. Still, I wouldn't want to have been a B-17 pilot facing a nip from the teeth of a 262.

Regards,
RHB.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Yes, there is a lot written about "if only Hilter hadn't ordered the 262 be used as a bomber....". Fact is though the 262 was a immature weapon system and the Luftwaffe's training system had collapsed, the rail system blown to smithereens with most completed 262's destroyed on the ground or in transit to a airfield. The 262 was never going to factor in the outcome of 262 regardless of what guys like Galland said after the war, hoping that if the 262 had been used effectively, the Germans could have perhaps lengthened the war and then negotiated peace terms - never would have happened. It was simply too little too late. It did certainly prove it's value when up against pretty well everything from the Allies inventory as it could dictate terms of combat. The 262 was though supremely vulnerable on t/o and landing and the Allies took advantage of this by flying "rat catching" low level missions over Luftwaffe 262 airfields to devastating effect. Greats like Steinhoff (severely burnt), Galland (knee injury) were taken out of the war this way. I've also read that enthusiast Mustang pilots would dive down on 262's when attacking from above - pretty well destroying their engine in the process by going over 60"+ manifold pressure.
So in my mind, amazing piece of technology - well beyond the Allies at the time, but certainly not a war winner by itself. The Luftwaffe was blooded until bled white in 1943/1944 well before the 262 was put into operational service. Being a B-17 or B-26 crew attacked by a 262 must have been a terrifying experience - if they even know what hit them!

[RHB785]

When I was a lad about 10 or 11 years old an uncle of mine loaned me a copy of Galland's book The First and the Last. I devoured it and I think that was what inspired me to join the ATC and then the RAAF. These days I can't remember much about what he said on the Me 262 but I do remember quite clearly reading of his flying accident during flying training and about being left alone in the MO's office for 45 or so minutes while the doctor attended to an injury in one of the hangars, during which time he memorised the eye chart, knowing full well that if he didn't he'd never return to flying duties. I also have a copy of Luftwaffe Test Pilot by Hans-Werner Lerche which I'll have to read again soon and see if he has anything to say about the Me 262. I actually think that Windhund (because they run like the wind perhaps?) (Greyhound) would have been a more appropriate name for the 262 than Schwalbe (Swallow). I think I read somewhere that despite the limitations on rapid throttle opening and closing they still could outaccelerate a Mustang or late model Spitfire or Tempest. You certainly couldn't slam the throttle open like you could with say a Sabre, Mirage or Macchi and neither could you close it rapidly so yes a speed brake would have helped the pilots a lot but I guess the design had already been frozen by the time the problems with the engines were discovered.

Regards,
RHB.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Yes I have the First and the Last, plus a small library of other Luftwaffe related books. Interesting I always thought that Galland didn't join the new Luftwaffe in 1955. Perhaps it was deemed "too political" had he done so? Most of the "Experten" did join the new Luftwaffe - many of whom had at least done a conversion course onto the 262 prior to the end of the war. I like Galland's description of his first flight in a 262 - "as if Angels were pushing!". I guess the world is very lucky that the Germans were not able to exploit the advantage they had with the 262, but the result was always going to be the same.

Not sure if you've seen this, but it's a Luftwaffe training fil for the 262 - it's fascinating!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBH0ULVmsow

On a side note, coming very close to slapping paint on my 262 - it's some time since I've had a go at Luftwaffe "mottle" - one of the hardest things to replicate well on a military aircraft model I think.