flying 262s again...

[TITVS SABATINVS AQVILIVS]

Jim wrote:

No need, we had the Mosquito which no other prop-driven plane could catch. Instead of going to exotic materials and exotic propulsion we turned to village carpenters and more old fashioned tech (wood)

Exotic propulsion? Jim you could have surprises about that!

"Sir Frank Whittle was an English aviation engineer and pilot, the son of a mechanic, Frank Whittle joined the Royal Air Force or RAF as an apprentice. He joined an RAF fighter squadron in 1928 and became a test pilot in 1931. The young RAF officer was only 22 when he first thought to use a gas turbine engine to power an airplane. While often regarded as the father of modern jet propulsion systems, the young Frank Whittle tried without success to obtain official support for study and development of his ideas. He had to persist his research on his own initiative and received his first patent on turbojet propulsion in January 1930."

History: Gloster-Whittle E.28/39 Jet Aircraft 1941
The first Allied jet aircraft, the Gloster-Whittle E.28/39 first flew briefly on 8 May 1941 while on taxiing trials, although the first official flight took place on 15 May. Gloster E28/39 with Whittle WIX jet eingine, at Cranwell, England, flown by Flight Lt. Sayer for about 17 minutes. The Gloster Whittle
E29/39 jet aircraft was powered by the Whittle Jet Engine W1.
of the W1's castings and other components had to be
manufactured from stainless steel to withstand the high
temperatures generated within the engine.


The airframe of the E.28/39 was built by the Gloster aircraft company and proved the turbojet concept which had been under development by Frank Whittle and his company since 1936.
The E.28/39 was the forebear of the Gloster Meteor, which, unlike the experimental Gloster-Whittle, saw active service during the Second World War against the V-1 flying bombs.
The E.28/39 was surprisingly successful, considering the novelty of the technology it used, and was the first real proof that jet propulsion was a viable alternative to the propeller.

"Doctor Hans Von Ohain was a German airplane designer who invented an operational jet engine. Hans Von Ohain obtained his doctorate in Physics at the University of Göttingen in Germany and then became the junior assistant to Hugo Von Pohl, director of the Physical Institute at the University. German aircraft builder, Ernst Heinkel asked the university for assistance in new airplane propulsion designs and Pohl recommended his star pupil. Hans Von Ohain, was investigating a new type of aircraft engine that did not require a propeller. Only twenty-two years old when he first conceived the idea of a continuous cycle combustion engine in 1933, Hans Von Ohain patented a jet propulsion engine design similar in concept to that of Sir Frank Whittle but different in internal arrangement in 1934.
Hans Von Ohain joined Ernst Heinkel in 1936 and continued with the development of his concepts of jet propulsion. A successful bench test of one of his engines was accomplished in September 1937. A small aircraft was designed and constructed by Ernst Heinkel to serve as a test bed for the new type of propulsion system - the Heinkel He178. The Heinkel He178 flew for the first time on August 27, 1939. The pilot on this historic first flight of a jet-powered airplane was Flight Captain Erich Warsitz."

P.S. Anyway many german really flying planes (for example, several parts of the Focke-Wulf Ta152H) or projects were designed as totally wooden planes or partially wooden, as also the Ju EF 128 (wooden wings).

Also the wonderful japanese Nakajima Ki-84 (below) was built as partially or entirely wooden variant (Ki-106).


Vale,