All countries that took an active part in the Second World War had a certain foundation for the development of jet aircraft before its beginning. During the war, efforts to create jet combat aircraft did not stop. But their achievements fade when compared with the scale in which the Wehrmacht jet aircraft of World War II were produced.
Prewar stock
Jet movement has always attracted the attention of gunsmiths. The use of powder rockets goes back to ancient times. The advent of aircraft capable of controlled flight immediately led to the desire to combine this innovation with the capabilities of jet thrust. The desire to ensure military potential at the advanced technological level was most clearly reflected in the scientific and technological policy of the Reich. The restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles deprived Germany of fifteen years of evolutionary improvement of military equipment and forced it to search for revolutionary solutions. Therefore, immediately after the Reich abandoned military restrictions and the creation of the Luftwaffe, the head of scientific programs, Richthofen, in 1934, was tasked with creating a German jet plane of World War II. To its beginning, only the British managed to make a technological breakthrough, creating a prototype of a turbojet engine. But they owe this not to technical foresight, but to the stubbornness of the inventor F. Whittle, who invested his own funds in it.
Prototypes and Samples
The outbreak of the war affected the development programs of jet aircraft in different ways. The British, realizing their vulnerability to an air threat, took the development of a new type of combat aircraft seriously enough. Based on Whittle's engine, in April 1941 they tested a prototype with which the British jet aircraft of World War II began. The Soviet Union, which had a weak technological base, lost and evacuated part of the industry, conducted rather sluggish experiments with rocket and low-power jet engines, which were, rather, of educational interest. The Americans and the Japanese, in spite of great opportunities, have not advanced much from the same level. Their jet aircraft of World War II were based on foreign developments. At the very beginning of the war, Germany began to create flying prototypes of production vehicles and test the operation of real combat aircraft. In the spring of 1941, the He-178 Hekel rocket flew into the air, equipped with two HeS-8A turbojet engines, which developed a thrust of up to six hundred kilograms. In the summer of 1942, the first German jet aircraft of the Second World War flew, the twin-engine Messerschmitt Me-262, which showed excellent handling and reliability.
First episodes
The first production jet aircraft of World War II, which entered service, were the Messerschmitt Me-262 and the English Gloster Meteor. There is a legend that the delay in releasing the Messerschmitt is due to the vagaries of Hitler, who wanted to see him as a fighter-bomber. Having started the production of this machine, in 1944 the Germans produced more than 450 aircraft. In 1945, production amounted to about 500 aircraft. The Germans also put in a series and began mass production of the He-162, considered by the command as a mobilization fighter for the Volkssturm. The third type of fighter jet that participated in the war was the Arado Ar-234. Until the end of the war, they were produced 200 units. The scope of the British was noticeably weaker. The entire military series of “Gloucesters” was limited to 210 cars. Jet planes of the Second World War of the USA and Japan developed on the transferred technologies of England and Germany and were limited to experimental series.
Combat use
Only the Germans managed to gain combat experience in using jet aircraft. Their planes tried to solve the problem of defending the country from an enemy with overwhelming superiority in the air. English jet aircraft of World War II, although used over German territory and in the defense of England against German cruise missiles, had only a few combat episodes. They were mainly used as training. The Soviet Union did not manage to create jet planes of the Second World War. The USSR actively mastered trophy reserves on the basis of its own rich military experience.