ME 262 flies again in the skies of Washington state

Incase no one heard about it

Me 262 PROJECT




you can see Mt. Baker in the background







take off and landing at Paine field in Everett WA


meet the crew

Wow! That's cool!
I didn't believe there were any of those in a good state, but even flying ones!

I wouldn't mind having one of those!

Awesome! Great pictures!

you are correct there are no vintage ones that are air worthy. These are BRAND new planes.

read the story on the web site

by the way one will be on display and do filghts at the Berlin Airshow this year

[edit on 11-2-2006 by bigx01]

The only difference between Men and Boys, is the price of thier Toys

Those are pretty cool I imagine they cost a pretty penny to create

I knew they were rebuilding one, but the last I had heard a couple years ago was that they were having problems with the engines. Glad to see they got it airborne.

they are jsut reproductions with extreme attetion to detail, but nice repoductions none-the-less

Hopfully I will be able to see one at Air Venture Oshkosh this year. Love to buzz a B-17 with one of those during the air show

I know the two manned version had a landing gear failure when it landed in early 2005. It's good to see the single pilot version went with without issue.

Originally posted by Jehosephat
they are jsut reproductions with extreme attetion to detail, but nice repoductions none-the-less

Hopfully I will be able to see one at Air Venture Oshkosh this year. Love to buzz a B-17 with one of those during the air show

they are more than just simple reproductions

Building the First of the Last

The Me 262 Project was launched in 1993 with a single objective: to reproduce flying examples of the legendary Me 262. Classic Fighter Industries, Incorporated (CFII) was incorporated specifically to administer this effort, and exercised direct control over the project from 1993 until early 2001, when all assets were transferred to the owner's group in preparation for final assembly, the test flight programs, and delivery.

Production has been strictly limited to five aircraft: once these five are complete, no more will ever be produced, now or in the future.

The airplanes are being manufactured as a continuation of the basic Me 262 design. In fact, they have even been assigned factory serial numbers drawn from the werknummern sequences used on the original 1945 production lines.

Accurate, Authentic and Airworthy

Great pains are being taken to produce aircraft which are not simply replicas, but rather true serial production representative aircraft in every possible respect. Virtually rivet for rivet, the new aircraft are duplicates of the original Me 262. With the ability to examine and copy components from a vintage source, the standard of authenticity has been exactingly maintained.

Of course, the original design suffered from some well-known weaknesses, most notably dealing with the engines and landing gear systems. These areas were studied carefully, and certain subtle modifications have been directed for operator safety and reliability. A cursory visual inspection would never reveal them, however, as these internal modifications have been tightly integrated into the original design characteristics of the aircraft.

In essence, the new Me 262s are simply representative of a natural evolution of the airframe. They are being manufactured using many of the same techniques as the originals (by hand from raw materials), and are to be precision duplicates, even down to the four nose-mounted Mk 108 cannons. The only noteworthy concession will be in the area of engine selection.

From the Jumo 004 to G.E.'s J-85

Clearly, an engine change was necessary to make this project viable, as the original Jumo 004B powerplants were decidedly temperamental and prone to frequent failure. After careful consideration of a wide variety of available engines, the General Electric J-85 / CJ-610 was selected as the replacement for the vintage Jumo powerplants.

Thanks to an innovative engine mounting concept, the J-85s are to be buried deep inside carefully-engineered castings of the original engine, so that correct visual appearance will be retained. The Jumo housings are also necessary to maintain the correct nacelle weight since the J-85 is a much lighter engine than its German predecessor.

the only difference in those from the 40's are the landing gear and engines.

they are in fact production aircraft not just simple replicas

They are making new FW190s as well

www.flugwerk.com...

Originally posted by bigx01


you can see Mt. Baker in the background

is it me or does this picture look a bit like a computer generated image, in particular the front end, althought the back end looks real.

Not very authentic! Where's the Swastika?

Most pictures seemed to have been forged for some reason, the in air pictures seem real though.

This project and it's claims are quite dubious.

Not sure about forged - looks more like overuse of the sharpening tool in photoshop and a bad colour profile. Thought this was a genuine effort though - didn't think there was anything dubious about it IMO

Originally posted by maldives01
Not sure about forged - looks more like overuse of the sharpening tool in photoshop and a bad colour profile. Thought this was a genuine effort though - didn't think there was anything dubious about it IMO

tell you what. on my next set of days off i'll go visit the hanger where they are being built and take a picture. but those are real pictures not photo shopped

[edit on 12-2-2006 by bigx01]

Originally posted by R988
They are making new FW190s as well

www.flugwerk.com...

i'd like to see some one make F4u Corsairs

Hi bigx01,

Never said the photos weren't real - just that they were oversharpened and that the colour profile did not seem right. Most digital images are enhanced in some way or another - even if an image is "as shot" it will almost certainly have been reduced for the web, which actually alters the image. I also mentioned that I thought that this was a "genuine effort" in which I alluded to the fact that the programme was real - I have been following it's progress for a while I agree with you 100% here - the pictures are real, but I bet they have also been photoshopped. I'll look forward to seeing your shots as well Any idea what they flew "chase" in?

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
The only difference between Men and Boys, is the price of thier Toys

Those are pretty cool I imagine they cost a pretty penny to create

Actually they arent as expensive as I thought. I´m too lazy to look it up now, but they stated the price on their website soimewhere and it was something around $600.000-$800.000 - definately below a million $. And that for a handmade miniseries with completely built from scratch parts...

One was sold to the Messerschmitt Foundation in Germany, kinda funny that they have to buy their "own" plane...

[edit on 13/2/2006 by Lonestar24]

Everyone wantsd to spot a forgery on here don't they

This is a well publicised commercial venture that has been progressing towards flying the J85 powered Me 262 for a long time now. Of course they're not forgeries

Not like this site to have a bunch of people claiming every picture is a fake....

Great to see one in the air isn't it? Wonder if they'll get one to Fairford.........Didn't realise someone was doing an FW190 either - be good to see that as well It's great that these two classics from the WW11 era will be seen by a lot of people. They certainly have character don't they? And yeah, a Corsair would be good too...................

Oh, and Photoshop - looked again and I would say top image - sharpened with Photoshop or similar ( Not cut out or CGI'd and then stuck on a sky background) Also think the colour could be improved as well, just my opinion. If we know who took the photo's, we could ask him/her. If the originals are digital, then they are probably not "as shot", but certainly not fakes Sorry, better qualify that before I get into trouble and have to put myself on bread and water for a fortnight The top image I think has been enhanced in a normal digital workflow, the second and third images seem to have been shot with a point and shoot digital compact and may well be "as shot", the bottom picture seems to be as the top picture. This is in my opinion as an amateur photographer with a little knowledge of both digital and film photography.


[edit on 13-2-2006 by maldives01]

[edit on 13-2-2006 by maldives01]