"What do you have for me, lieutenant?" "We have a new airplane. It has landing gear that detaches on takeoff (and may bounce back up into your plane and damage it), fuel that is highly explosive and capable of dissolving your flesh, and a flight suit made of asbestos" "....whose side are you on again?"
@@salvadordollyparton666 To also be fair, asbestos isn't that dangerous in use, when the fibres are intact. The main problem is during mining, manufacturing and disposal, when asbestos dust can get in workers' lungs.
...exactly. Glad someone is awake on the internet. It’s always disconcerting to discover such errors... what else of the presented information may be flawed?
@@c450-v2b nazi germany air force pilot. German air force pilot during world war II. Air force pilot with a swastika on his uniform. Who zeig hailed his superior officers, whose chain of command ended at Adolf Hitler. The poison for Cuzco, the poison chosen specifically to kill Cuzco, Cuzco's poison.
Fun fact: The ME163 had a "Brandwarner". A fire indicator reaching from 0 to 100% describing your likelyness of exploding. The rule was something like: Married man bail out @ ~60% Single man bail out @ ~80%
@@erict3728 ah well, as a man no one cares about you. Over the years and in different work situations I would hear about me and others. With Sincerity and without irony "why would you want to go home? you don't have a family?". "why should I work when He has nothing to go home to?". and this is almost always asked by a woman. Not having a family means your worthless and work is the only thing that makes your life meaningful. The real irony is that any family man begs for that moment alone. The ones that cant be alone have family PTSD.
@@kookamunga4714 I've been told no to request using vacation time because I'm single and have no family. I've literally been asked why I would want or need to take more than a day off because I'd just be alone anyways, and work should be the only thing that matters to me. Being a single man in the 2020's is pretty weird and I'm guessing it's unlike any other time in history. I've also been told I don't need a raise because I make more than many people who are taking care of families while making equal or less income, but I was offered all the overtime I can work.
Long term respiratory issues aside, asbestos is an extremely effective and versatile fire retardant. For men who were facing the prospect of dying on their next sortie, I doubt they would have been concerned about health issues 25 years down the line if the suit could keep them alive for another day.
@@vankallahan59 asbestos is not good and should be avoided, but I think what the posted above is getting at is encountering/sanding/chipping a bit of 1% white asbestos in a home (as most people encounter it) is not like working with pipe cladding/brown asbestos for 45 years. Highly unlikely to ever have I’ll effects unless you work with it for a long time.
Unfortunately that was the approach of the Wehrmacht and even more the Nazis. Infantry attacks/fights were considered not enough enthusiastic if losses were to low etc... It was a shit time in every regard.
@@philo2077 After the news came out that Hitler committed suicide, regular German soldiers were furious because they were ordered to fight to the death when their head leader took the easy way out.
@@Mote78 yes he was a total shit person. My Father gave me a book: "Dir Lächerlichkeit des Bösen" - I'd translate with "the ridiculousness of evil" and this so called leader took the cake. One of his first orders after he had been elected cancellor was that "the citizen Adolf Hitler is freed from paying taxes from now to eternity". Telling isn't it.🤦
When you got a crap ton of tooling, supplies and machines to make rocket stuff(from the V1 rockets) it's really simple on why they decided to make such a plane Throwing stuff at a wall and see what sticks
@@h.w.6563 Not really, Germany had a large industry in rocket production on various scales. As they started to lose the war they just tried to use everything they had in storage hoping it'd work. In some cases it worked(Jagdpanther, Tiger II) while others were not so useful(Maus, Komet, Gustav train gun) As their backs were pressed against the wall, they really just tried to throw things at a wall and see what sticks. It's kinda how we got the Jet Engine for example
Think of it like going into your garage and selling anything not bolted to the floor because you are in debt. Using scrap to fix some lost forgotten machine to maybe turn a profit
" Before he realized the magnitude of his mistake, his remains had been spread thinly over the entire test shed. " It happened 100 times faster than the plane itself ever flew.
@Haku Yuki >>> My Dad was born in 1917, and died in 1995. My Mom was born in 1919, and died from Alzheimer's in 2015. If dementia had not gotten her, I suspect she would have lived to 100.
@@Poodleinacan My dad's mother was such an awful woman, that when I was talking with my cousins , I would always remark that "they should bury that woman in an asbestos suit." When she died, my uncle, who was in a hurry to go off on a missionary trip, had her cremated... So she never got a chance to wear that suit. I only wish she could have known about that fact...😆😆😆😆😆😆
Suddenly the LF-22 Starling in GTA Online makes much more sense. From the high takeoff, climb and glide speeds to the almost uncontrollable landings, it seems like Rockstar really nailed it lol
6:33 Hanna Rietsch is a bit of a complicated figure. Probably the only female test pilot at that time, and an incredibly skilled aviator, as evidenced by the fact that she survived flight testing some of the most dangerous late-war German aircraft, including a piloted version of the V-1 flying bomb, and set numerous aviation records. Had a secret love child with Werner Von Braun, and after the war, ended up dating the President of Ghana and helping found the Ghanian air force. Was also friends with legendary RAF test pilot Eric Brown. Still, not sure if she ever truly accepted that the holocaust actually happened. It's speculated that she used the cyanide capsule that Hitler gave her to commit suicide in 1979.
A very small point... Eric "Winkle" Brown was indeed a legendary Test Pilot , but not with the RAF: he was with the Navy. He rose to the rank of Captain.
When I was in my late teens I had the opportunity to meet Rudy Opitz, his remarks about the 163 was that he was lucky to survive. The suit was asbestos coated with rubber to keep the propellant from contacting them but small cracks and pinholes allowed the stuff to get in, he had small scars where it contacted his arms and he related that he had scars everywhere else. The seat was bolted to the keel and the skid even deployed didn't do a lot to soften the bumps.
Yes, but I read a book about this (development of the Komet). It was the first actual rocket plane; the pilots knew it was dangerous but it was also one badass ride, the X-15 of its time.
War is usually when the most significant scientific advances occur, nothing motivates pouring resources into research quite like the threat of an enemy nation!
Eric Brown got out of the Komet, got a safe distance away, faced the flight crew and quoted Tyrion Lannister. "The next time I have an idea like that, punch me in the face!"
actually, MOST of pop culture's MAD SCIENTIST cliches are based on...NIKOLAI TESLA who musta super-blown minds back then, since his stunts STILL blow minds TODAY! (EX: making flourescent light bulbs held by the audience LIGHT UP without any wires etc -- just a tesla coil nearby!) His exhibits of his shit was like INSANE SORCERY (and it still is today) and he was quite famous at the time and influenced society. (How ironic that he gets little credit for his ideas in use today from, AUTOMATIC DOORS at the grocery store (!) to flouresent lights (!) to the WALL OUTLET WE PLUG INTO EVERY DAY (!).... to ROBOTS...to CELL PHONES!!)
@Andrew Jackson Its also theorised that the groups broke into his hotel room after he had died and taken his belongings before using the underground railway.
About twenty years ago I was at a friends wedding where I was introduced to an old German gentleman. He worked with the grooms mother and I was told later that he had a very interesting job during the war. He was a pilot and after some indiscretion, (my friend didn't go into what) he was put in a Me163 squadron. This was punishment. During one flight he took off and climbed rapidly to engage a group of American bombers but the plane was so uncontrollable at speed that he actually collided with one of the bombers. I was told he flew through it. He managed to land the plane afterwards. His officer who was watching from the ground, saw the whole incident and told him he was obviously meant to survive, so took him off flight duties. I don't Know how true this is but he didn't seem the sort to make such a thing up.
@@outlet6989 The japanese made a tactic out of it. Though in their case, once you were a suicide pilot, you had to try again until you actually didn't come back - or the war ended.
I don't believe this story to be accurate. Either his guns did some serious damage to the enemy's airframe before he broke through or he merely bounced off on a shallow angle and the plane broke up behind him from his gun shots and the impact of the collision. I just don't see a comet still being in any condition to land after bearing the full brunt of such an impact.
Ramming a plane with another plane would cause both to crash... And also most fights happen so far from air bases officer on the ground wouldn't see it.
Everyone else in world: This thing is far too dangerous to be flown by anyone. Eric "Winkle" Brown: Nice wee kite, I'll take it for a spin. I love that people who had until recently been employed by the ACTUAL Nazis made him sign a liability waiver...
Many of the companies and people inventing these insane creations didn't really much care for the goals and causes of the Nazis. They were really only interested in the money and influence supplying the Nazis would bring them. When the Nazi rule ended, most of the inventors kept inventing and pushing science forward, only now under allied funding.
For a man who has ridden the wall of death on a motorcycle whilst another is going around with a grown Lion in the sidecar it must have been low. He had a distinguished career including the record for the number of aircraft carrier landing so must have either been astute at assessing risk of extraordinarily lucky... I think the former.
Seriously! Since both the T-Stoff & C-Stoff were colorless, why couldn't they have come up with an inorganic dye for one or both of them? It is my understanding that many jet fuels are dyed now, but I don't know how new this technology is.
@@Philip271828 The fuel in the Apollo Moon Lander's ascent stage was so corrosive that it only lasted one burn so they couldn't test the engines. Fortunately all of them worked as intended which can't be said of the ME163.
I love the story of Royal Navy pilot Eric "Winkle" Brown flying the rocket powered plane, and sharing drinks with the German ground crew after a successful fight. That kind of raw bravery is really awesome to see in history. Wonderful stuff. Thank you.
Captain Eric Melrose "Winkle" Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC, Hon FRAeS, RN[1] (21 January 1919 - 21 February 2016) was a British Royal Navy officer and test pilot who flew 487 types of aircraft. RIP
storyguy His book "Wings on My Sleeve" explains his accomplishments. He was bilingual, both English and German speaking. He always made meticulous notes before flying a new type of aircraft, which is why he stayed alive. To this day, he's made more carrier landings than anybody else, and flew more types of aircraft than anybody else. Lot's of work for a good test pilot during ww2.
Trivia: in one of the episodes of The Big Bang Theory in which Leonard is working on a secret new rocket fuel, you can see T-Stoff and C-Stoff written on his whiteboard.
Frank Whittle's engine was first tested in 1937 near Rugby England but unlike the Nazis, safety was ok since the allies had no need to speed up development and vaporize pilots.
it's always fun to hear you pronounce German words. I sometimes really have problems finding out what exactly you "wanted" to say =D But then again, props to even trying ... our language is not easy. Great video! love it.
NOT one person watching really cares about "pronunciation of german words", except those wanting to be noticed in the comments for their german speaking powers
You said it went 1000 *mph* , yet the sound barrier, approx. 767 mph, was first officially broken in 1947 by US test pilot Chuck Yeager in the Bell X1. I believe you're referring to the official high speed recorded by the Comet, 1004 *kph* .
I believe you are correct. But I believe that the breaking of the sound barrier was a known phenomenon in dives. I think DeHavilland died in such a dive and Eric Pickles being the next test pilot. As I recall there is buffeting before and just after the speed of sound.
Greame Spens Eric pickles? I guess that explains why the guy always looked so wide and round in the House of Commons. I never did see him in profile, now I know why... you can’t. 🤔😂
The Japanese actually tried to build a copy of this plane for themselves. Germany even offered to send over some finished airframea and blueprints. However, the sub carrying the cargo to Japan was sunk, and the Japanese were forced to make a plane based off of photographs and vague tech specs. The end result was the Ki-200, a plane powered by a similar motor to that of the Ohka, armed with Japanese domestic 30mm autocannons, and less prone to dissolving its pilots (though it it did suffer from poor handling and had a tendency to spontaneously explode).
The Japanese had their own Me163, built by the blue print and technical data provided by the Germans through transportation by U boat！ They had test flight once and then surrendered to U.S. with unimpressive result! zThe Japanese also built their own Me262 but the fate was same!
They were about to produce also a copy of ME-262, only underdimensioned. I have read that partial building plans were carried by a german U-boot. War ended while they had a pair of prototypes.
They were issued with protective uniforms so atleast the families had enough left to bury. In the UK one brought over for flight testing but not used was taken apart by a museum for preservation and they found a very rude Jewish word inside and the Engine was sabotaged. If anyone here had tried to start it it would have exploded.
@@MetalheadAndNerdseveral test pilots died because of workers sabotaging aircraft. It was a tremendously brave thing to do and a risk Germans took by employing slave labour. I believe one crashed because the tail plane spar had been cut halfway through. You can hardly blaim them.
Do you know the scene in Band of Brothers where Hobbler got shot by his own captured German Luger? It happened, and it was an issue. Some were so poorly made, anything squeezing the side set it off. Deliberate sabotage. Using slave labor to make weapons is one of the dumbest things anyone ever thought of. Almost as good, during the US Civil war, supposedly the Confederates considered freeing slaves if they'd fight to help keep the Confederacy free of the US. Let's see. I've enslaved you, beat you, beat your woman, sold her to someone else, sold your kids....Here's a loaded gun. And how does this story end? Needless to say, they didn't give this idea much life.
About 5:20 in, "...becoming the first pilot to exceed 1,000 mph in level flight." No. You meant 1,000 Km/H. See Chuck Yeager in "Glamorous Glennis," ca. 1947. First to break the sound barrier. First faster than 1,000 mph, Peter Twiss in "Fairey Delta 2," ca. 1956.
I actually had a chat with an old German workmate in the early 80s who flew these things. He originally flew stukas in Poland and North Africa. Upon returning to Germany he got pulled into this jet program. I hadn’t heard of them before and I thought he was pulling my leg.
The fate of Oberleutnant Joseph Pohs was even more grisley than described in the video. According to Major Wolfgsng Spate, one of the pilots who reached Pohs' crashed Komet: "Even though he was wearing a protective suit, his entire right arm had been dissolved by T-Agent. It simply wasn't there. The other arm, as well as the head, was nothing more than a mass of soft jelly."
LMBO! Loved this! This has to be one of your funniest videos. No wonder that air marshal didn't want anyone flying it. BTW, I loved the way you recited his comments....it was perfect. The whole thing was a botch from beginning to end (the concept for the aircraft, not the video). Thank you for posting!
Hanna Reights was still in love with The Komet even after it nearly killed her. She did an interview in her eighties and she was still raving about how good it felt flying it.
While there are no airworthy ME163s remaining, there is an unpowered replica which flies as a glider. Despite its stumpy fuselage and wings it works very well.
It's said that the X-15 pilots (among them Neil Armstrong) were heartbroken when that research program ended. They were the elite of the elite, flying the fastest and most dangerous airplane in the world, and I'm sure their Luftwaffe predecessors felt the same way. The ME-163 Komet was insanely hazardous just to be around, let alone flying it, but that must have been awesome.
@@robertthomas4633 Hanna Reitsch was an important aviation pioneer. Nothing wrong with at least spelling her name correctly. Amelia Earhart, Pancho Barnes, Jackie Cochran... none of them even come close to what a ballsy aviator Hanna Reitsch was. If it weren't for her association with you-know-who, she would be celebrated today as a daring overachiever. She did some of the hairiest, craziest test piloting I've ever heard of. First woman to fly a helicopter, first woman in the Komet, and in the ME-262 jet fighter, among many other firsts, but that's how it is when you don't get to write the history because you're on the wrong side of it.
I had the honor of knowing Rudy Optiz, a world famous glider pilot before the war. He was a test pilot on the Me163. Part of his hand was missing from coming into contact with the fuel. He escaped Germany after the war and had a brilliant career at Sikorsky.
So let's get this straight... The most amazing thing about the Komet isn't that it's a rocket powered aircraft, it's that because of this thing the Germans actually made the world's first aimbot!
I remember never being able to successfully land the Me163 Comet in _Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe,_ a game that was _very_ generous with its landing parameters.
My father had a WW2 book colection with pictures. The Spitfire, ME BF 109 and A1 Corsair were the most beautiful for me, but this little one ignite my imagination like no other. Nice video! 😃
The amount of technological advancement throughout the war years and early post-war years is astounding. It's always interested me. And let's not forget the vast contributions of Nazi scientists to nuclear science and the space/weapons programs of both the USSR and US.
Most of the German scientists that contributed to nuclear left before the party got into full swing. As for Russia's rocket program, surprisingly they didn't get very many German rocket scientists. But it balanced out, since the US basically ignored Von Braun up until they finally listened and made the Saturn project. No doubt if they had utilized Von Braun from the get go, they likely would have kept pace with with the Russians all the way along.
In IL2: 1946 (and previous iterations of IL2 Sturmovik as well) it's indeed quite an experience. It takes off and climbs like a rocket (well, it basically _is_ one), as long as you have fuel left you can get either altitude or speed advantage at will almost instantaneously (compared to other aircraft), and you can zoom through those B-17 formations almost however you like. But with the extremely limited ammo capacity you have to make every firing pass and every shot count, even though it only takes one or two good hits from the 30mm cannons to bring down a bomber, and once you're out of fuel you become a gliding target for the escort fighters and enemy AA.
Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. The thing would explode if it took any damage. On the plus side, it climbed instantly and if you just flew underneath a B-17 it would auto launch a rocket and score a kill.
@@Aatell764 sodium hypochlorite, usually. But you can use hydrogen peroxide as bleach, it is actually commonly used for a number of applications e.g. for bleaching hair. it is just not sold as a household item, because it has very limited shelf life, turning into water over time. The oxygen fumes it emanates also pose a serious fire hazard during storage.
@@Aatell764 peroxide is bleach. "Domestos" for instance changed from using hypochlorite to using stabilised hydrogen peroxide, because it could produce chlorine if mixed with acidic detergents.
I flew with Rudy Opitz a few times as a glider student. He was chief flight examiner for gliders in Connecticut. He gave me the best instruction I ever received in a glider. "The glider wants to fly! Every movement of the control surfaces creates drag! Let the glider fly!" he barked at me in his clipped German accent! He also flew the ME 262 jet fighter. The performance, he said wasn't that impressive. "After the Comet, everything else seemed underpowered." he reported. One out of twelve flights was fatal for the ME 163. They put a dummy fuel dump petcock in the instrument panel not connected to anything at one point! The t-stoff was like teargas and fuel tanks lay next to each thigh in the cockpit! Also if you look at the Space Shuttle a tailless rocket that glides in for the landing it's very similar to the ME163!
I first learned about these from an amazing old school (MS DOS) combat flight sim, Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. Deadly and untouchable, until they ran out of fuel and had to glide home.
It seems to me they just should have outfitted these things with sprayers, gotten over and above the bomber flights, and then sprayed T-schtoff all over the place...
I say we just hang EVERY capitalist! NO MORE WAR! YAY!!! EX: it's not even a secret that WALL ST funded and created the NAZI PARTY in 1920 b/c the Capitalists of England / France / Murica were RIGHTLY worried that communism woudl spread (cuz most ppl AIN'T rich) after the 1919 Communist revolution in Russia (inspired by.....the American revolution!) GET RID OF CAPITALISM, and no NAZIS and NO WW2! Get rid of capitalism, and NO COLD WAR either! Hanging the rich solves 90% of the problems in society today!
@@kannonball5789 Modern war is an economic and logistic affair for the last couple hundred years. You can read about it in Clausewitz "On War". For at least 1000 years now, hurt pride has only ever been a pretence for economic gain by use of violence.
"...highly corrosive, and can strip flesh from bones in seconds.." As someone who has worked with ph 14 non-dilute chemicals, this is not a thing. Second degree burns are common, and even third degree burns if left without treatment for several hours. "Peeling flesh from bone", would require the individual body part to be submersed in a large amount of aqueous solution for more than 24 hours, and the reality is the bone itself would be what is most reactive, and the product that would be left with would be a rubbery lump of flesh that mostly retains its original shape.
Interesting. I just looked some stuff up regarding your comment. I didn't know bases can be more destructive yet less painful than acids. Thanks for giving me the inspiration to look that up. I had always assumed acids were more corrosive.
Acids burn your skin and get weaker. Bases eat through your skin get into your bloodstream and continue to eat you from the inside out. Haz mat training really makes you respect what you are working eith
I think he miss read, it would strip the flesh from your bones if accidentally mixed because it would violently explode and could blast the flesh from your bones. Because I loved WW2 planes and tanks and I have never heard of or seen any documents of anyone getting "dissolved", most were just fuck ups as he stated of them accidentally combining the two. And crashes with any fuel turned into an explosion.
There are many nasty human-made chemicals you wouldn't want to encounter under any circumstances. The only proper way to handle them is to run away very fast.
OMG. Is this documentary or dark comedy?! The writing, editing, videos, quotes, and Mr. Whistler's delivery all make for a piece that is both penetrating AND hilarious. Bravo, sir!
10:34 - Video uses the old trick of showing an already used piece of footage but flipping it back to front to give the impression it hasn’t been used before.
I had the pleasure of hearing Rudy Opitz deliver a lecture on the Komet. As an elderly man, he was still wildly enthusiastic about the plane, and I’m sure he’d jump into one for another flight without hesitation.
At 16:03 in this video you state that the ME-163 reached a speed of over 1003 MPH, unfortunately the actual speed was only 1,130 KPH (or about 700mph) in July of 1944. Had they flown the rocket plane to the stated 1000 mph they would have broken the sound barrier and thus preceded Chuck Yeager by 3 1/2 years.
I used to play the DOS game Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, in which you could fly the Komet. In the game, the Komet was out fitted with vertical firing cannons that we triggered by the shadows of enemy bombers. You had to fly the Komet underneath the bombers to activate the photo-sensitive trigger. I watched the rest of the video and realized you mentioned this 😁
I met Rudy Opitz once. He showed us some video of Me-163 flights, though I admit I don't remember all that much. One image that sticks with me is how high those wheels would bounce when jettisoned. I think he DID tell us a bit about the trouble with the fuel and oxidizer. I wonder, if you started with an Me-163, increased the aspect ratio, shrunk the fuselage, and left off the motor, if you couldn't end up with a very nice sailplane. Or maybe used some other kind of motor and end up with a very nice sport plane. Mr. Opitz was quite active in soaring competition after the war. I have no idea just how he felt about the war itself and would have hesitated to ask.
I believe they were intending to rename a street in Leith after Eric Brown. Also I am surprised that there has not been a film about him, friends of a German WWI ace, arrested by the Gestapo, sunk on an escort carrier to Malta and his single handed capture of an entire German air base.
One of my old foremen was trained for a suicide flight in one of those when his airfield was overrun, saving his life. When they ran out of skilled pilots the Germans trained youth with enough skill to launch then crash into a bomber. They were not taught how to land. All teaching was theoretical as they did not have enough equipment to waste on training flights.
For the pronunciation of the German word for „Duck“: Use the word „ten“ as your basis. Prounounce it twice in quick succession. Then eliminate the first „t“. Practice that....at this point you have already learned the plural form. Eliminate the last letter „n“ and practice...et voilá, you have a German duck. If you do practice this in public though, you might get a few weird looks. Just as a fair warning. 😉 (edit: typos)
And while you practice that you'd also might want to review "Messerschmidt" once more. There is only one "sch" sound in there. The double "s" is just a very sharp s sound and not a "sh" sound.
Unlikely. The Komet squadrons flew short-range missions from a few bases up near the Danish border, far away from Austria. Read the book ‘The German Jets in Combat’ which gives details of their bases and missions.
13:29 my career from 1984 until around 2010 was in animation and the company i worked for (cfx in soho, london) did masses of work for british aerospace, mainly about the tornado and saudi arabian airbases, and some corporate videos for Bae themselves. it was a while ago so i think we were illustrating the "snowshoe" technology that tornados use for low level flying, all very top secret in those days, but the consultant who was our technical adviser told stories of the vast array of aircraft he had flown. i cannot recal his name, and it's totally unlikely to be winkle brown, but this tale reminded me of this guy - a stereotypical handlebar mustache raf pilot who'd flown just about everything. this would be about 1986-1990.
Join us in Crossout for free using this link and get three extra weapons or a cool vehicle cabin as a bonus: xo.pub/PlayCrossoutTIFO
Hol up this video was posted today but this comment is 3 days old
@@josephstalin6327 hold up
maybe if the game didnt have an incredibly skewed and predatory monetization scheme.
I started playing a week ago, it's fun but OH GOD THE GRIND!!
@@rjwaters3 people play that game all day long without dropping a dollar, what are you talking about.
"What do you have for me, lieutenant?"
"We have a new airplane. It has landing gear that detaches on takeoff (and may bounce back up into your plane and damage it), fuel that is highly explosive and capable of dissolving your flesh, and a flight suit made of asbestos"
"....whose side are you on again?"
😂😂😂👍
"And a flight suit made of asbestos that is not proof against that fuel."
To be fair... It was the 40's, asbestos was in everything. Even chewing gum.
@@salvadordollyparton666 Even in the early to mid 1970s, we used asbestos pads to put hot glassware on in chemistry lab to protect the lab furniture.
@@salvadordollyparton666
To also be fair, asbestos isn't that dangerous in use, when the fibres are intact. The main problem is during mining, manufacturing and disposal, when asbestos dust can get in workers' lungs.
Simon, all the MPH speeds you quoted were KPH, otherwise Hiny would have been the first person to break the sound barrier.
I get the impression that the quality goes a little bit down with Simon producing for more channels than he has hairs on his scalp.
Yeah, I had to look that up as soon as I heard it. Something sounded wrong there.
Noticed that too
I was just about to question that.
...exactly. Glad someone is awake on the internet. It’s always disconcerting to discover such errors... what else of the presented information may be flawed?
Man, being a Komet pilot is the definition of "damned if you do, damned if you don't." If the battle doesn't kill you, just being in the plane might.
Some people enjoy that type of risk.
Well that's why they called it the Komet, you burn and melt like one while you fly
So Nazis melting alive in Raider Of The Lost Ark wasn’t fantasy. Sometimes Nazis melt, and there’s nothing anyone can do.
OK, you win today's internet.
German Air Force pilot. Not necessarily a "n@zį"..
@@c450-v2b nazi germany air force pilot. German air force pilot during world war II. Air force pilot with a swastika on his uniform. Who zeig hailed his superior officers, whose chain of command ended at Adolf Hitler. The poison for Cuzco, the poison chosen specifically to kill Cuzco, Cuzco's poison.
C’est la vie.
Why would we want to stop it?
Dissolved the pilot alive...
This thing makes Wile E. Coyote's ideas seem safe by comparison.
Google falling into a crab boiler on the ocean
lahokc59 It was the Acme company. There was an article in National Lampoon about him successfully suing the Acme company back in the 80s I remember.
@lahokc59 National Lampoon and Sex To Sexty was my favorites of the stack of magazines my father hid under his mattress.
Mhm
Brought to you By....... wait for it....... ACME. lol
Fun fact:
The ME163 had a "Brandwarner".
A fire indicator reaching from 0 to 100% describing your likelyness of exploding.
The rule was something like:
Married man bail out @ ~60%
Single man bail out @ ~80%
Incels GG
I think you've got that backwards, lol. As a single man, my will to survive is much higher than when I was married
@@erict3728 ah well, as a man no one cares about you. Over the years and in different work situations I would hear about me and others. With Sincerity and without irony "why would you want to go home? you don't have a family?". "why should I work when He has nothing to go home to?". and this is almost always asked by a woman. Not having a family means your worthless and work is the only thing that makes your life meaningful. The real irony is that any family man begs for that moment alone. The ones that cant be alone have family PTSD.
@@kookamunga4714 sounds like you were in the military
@@kookamunga4714 I've been told no to request using vacation time because I'm single and have no family. I've literally been asked why I would want or need to take more than a day off because I'd just be alone anyways, and work should be the only thing that matters to me. Being a single man in the 2020's is pretty weird and I'm guessing it's unlike any other time in history. I've also been told I don't need a raise because I make more than many people who are taking care of families while making equal or less income, but I was offered all the overtime I can work.
I’m no aviation expert but I’m pretty sure you just never really want to exceed the sound barrier when you’re pointed straight at the ground.
i definetley agree...
He got the speed wrong
Yeah , it’s not rocket science 🤣😂
Now that is KIDNEY-BUSTING funny, Abbey.
*you do so only once...maybe twice if you bounce*
Thank goodness they were protected with an ASBESTOS flight suit
Long term respiratory issues aside, asbestos is an extremely effective and versatile fire retardant. For men who were facing the prospect of dying on their next sortie, I doubt they would have been concerned about health issues 25 years down the line if the suit could keep them alive for another day.
Asbestos isn’t the demon that you think it is. However it did kill old Steve McQueen way to young
If you can keep it sealed it's fine.
Matt Berg asbestos is a highly damaging compound that shouldnt be used for anything in a modern society. There are many non-toxic substitutes
@@vankallahan59 asbestos is not good and should be avoided, but I think what the posted above is getting at is encountering/sanding/chipping a bit of 1% white asbestos in a home (as most people encounter it) is not like working with pipe cladding/brown asbestos for 45 years. Highly unlikely to ever have I’ll effects unless you work with it for a long time.
I really like that pilots account flying that death-craft post-war. "This thing's a thrill, but let's not try that again!"
I had never heard of this. That man was crazy. Imagine his mindset though. I guess it's like a mountaineer or other extreme sportsman
There's a small plane called Bede or BD , loosely based on ME163.
Flying this plane was more of an execution than a assignment
Hey if it worked for Japan...
... wait hold that thought
The Komet killed more German soldiers than allied. Idiots.
Craig Wheeless
You calling us idiots or the Germans who built this thing?
@@Kay_213_
The Germans who put it into use without making it safe for the pilots. That’s idiocy.
oh yeah totally.
"Hey lets put some of the most volatile substances in existence right behind the pilot and then fucking LIGHT IT"
"How is the new fighter coming"
"Well, not bad, it works, but it has melted several pilots."
"Put it into production..."
😂😂
@Mactrip100
Can you name just one other military weapon that killed more of its own than the enemy’s ? I can’t.
Unfortunately that was the approach of the Wehrmacht and even more the Nazis. Infantry attacks/fights were considered not enough enthusiastic if losses were to low etc...
It was a shit time in every regard.
@@philo2077
After the news came out that Hitler committed suicide, regular German soldiers were furious because they were ordered to fight to the death when their head leader took the easy way out.
@@Mote78 yes he was a total shit person. My Father gave me a book: "Dir Lächerlichkeit des Bösen" - I'd translate with "the ridiculousness of evil" and this so called leader took the cake. One of his first orders after he had been elected cancellor was that "the citizen Adolf Hitler is freed from paying taxes from now to eternity". Telling isn't it.🤦
Allies: "Wow this thing is absolutely useless!"
Germans: "Yeah, but it's cool, though...!"
Where do you hang the fuzzy dice?😁
When you got a crap ton of tooling, supplies and machines to make rocket stuff(from the V1 rockets) it's really simple on why they decided to make such a plane
Throwing stuff at a wall and see what sticks
@@xxdomoxxkunxx I suppose "stuff" in this case means pilots? ;)
@@h.w.6563 Not really, Germany had a large industry in rocket production on various scales. As they started to lose the war they just tried to use everything they had in storage hoping it'd work. In some cases it worked(Jagdpanther, Tiger II) while others were not so useful(Maus, Komet, Gustav train gun)
As their backs were pressed against the wall, they really just tried to throw things at a wall and see what sticks. It's kinda how we got the Jet Engine for example
Think of it like going into your garage and selling anything not bolted to the floor because you are in debt. Using scrap to fix some lost forgotten machine to maybe turn a profit
Isn't "failing to make an impact" usually a good thing when showing off new planes?
you made me laugh
Underrated comment
Ayyyy
A good landing is one you can walk away from; a great landing is one where you can use the plane again.
@chaseh89 - Yeah, perhaps that should have been phrased as "falling to make an impact". :)
" Before he realized the magnitude of his mistake, his remains had been spread thinly over the entire test shed. " It happened 100 times faster than the plane itself ever flew.
Ain't gonna lie. I giggled.
Backed the video up and replayed that part again. I giggled.
My favourite six words: "the launch proceeded smoothly at first..."
Yes, it's both idealistic... As well as concerning.
I liked hearing about dead Nazis
@@caseywood9781 just remember that the same nazis that designed these rocket engines put us on the moon in the 60s. Operation paperclip
@Leo Jensen >>> By the year 2022 -- _NOW_ -- all those guys are _DEAD_ as well...😊
@Haku Yuki >>> My Dad was born in 1917, and died in 1995. My Mom was born in 1919, and died from Alzheimer's in 2015. If dementia had not gotten her, I suspect she would have lived to 100.
Legendary test pilot Eric "Winkel" Brown said the Me163 was the only aircraft that really scared him.
the Komet was less of an aircraft and more of a rocket-propelled brick full of acid
You know it's bad if he said that! The life that guy led, amazing....
I can't imagine why.
"Acid proof asbestos flight suit" doesn't sound too great either tbh
I want one!
It's great protection against the virus!
It may have just been splash-resistant and not soak-resistant.
@@Poodleinacan
My dad's mother was such an awful woman, that when I was talking with my cousins , I would always remark that "they should bury that woman in an asbestos suit."
When she died, my uncle, who was in a hurry to go off on a missionary trip, had her cremated... So she never got a chance to wear that suit.
I only wish she could have known about that fact...😆😆😆😆😆😆
Roger Sheddy That’s Dark
It also seems like it had trouble actually doing what was advertised on the tin.
Rather appropriate that “make it good” in german also means “farewell” (which also literally means doing well come to think of it)
Mach es gut
mach's gut!
I never noticed that before. Danke!
Just don't sand on it
Suddenly the LF-22 Starling in GTA Online makes much more sense. From the high takeoff, climb and glide speeds to the almost uncontrollable landings, it seems like Rockstar really nailed it lol
Pretty obvious its based on the Komet lol
UnblessedSpy why do you care about stupid video games like they are real life? GET A GRIP.
Ronald Tartaglia Why are you so toxic because he’s comparing the video game version of something? You get a grip bud.
@@ronaldtartaglia4459 And yet the Germans created the first aimbot before video games had even been invented.
Was looking for this comment.
It wasn’t towed to the runway to conserve fuel. Taxiing with a rocket motor would be impossible!
Could you imagine!? Little plane screeching around corners on the tarmac going mock chicken.
You wouldn't have an airstrip left😁
Define "taxi"
MSFS would like to discuss this with you 😜
Challenge accepted
6:33 Hanna Rietsch is a bit of a complicated figure. Probably the only female test pilot at that time, and an incredibly skilled aviator, as evidenced by the fact that she survived flight testing some of the most dangerous late-war German aircraft, including a piloted version of the V-1 flying bomb, and set numerous aviation records. Had a secret love child with Werner Von Braun, and after the war, ended up dating the President of Ghana and helping found the Ghanian air force. Was also friends with legendary RAF test pilot Eric Brown. Still, not sure if she ever truly accepted that the holocaust actually happened. It's speculated that she used the cyanide capsule that Hitler gave her to commit suicide in 1979.
A very small point... Eric "Winkle" Brown was indeed a legendary Test Pilot , but not with the RAF: he was with the Navy. He rose to the rank of Captain.
she flew the 163 four times and she broke her back in a crash!
When I was in my late teens I had the opportunity to meet Rudy Opitz, his remarks about the 163 was that he was lucky to survive. The suit was asbestos coated with rubber to keep the propellant from contacting them but small cracks and pinholes allowed the stuff to get in, he had small scars where it contacted his arms and he related that he had scars everywhere else. The seat was bolted to the keel and the skid even deployed didn't do a lot to soften the bumps.
At this point, it seems that naming an aircraft "Comet" seems like a curse.
And tanks....
Should have named it widow maker.
It had the Nickname Kraftei. Power Egg
-1 Stability
Yes, but I read a book about this (development of the Komet). It was the first actual rocket plane; the pilots knew it was dangerous but it was also one badass ride, the X-15 of its time.
Regardless of the danger, the amount of innovation at work during WW2 was quite astounding.
War is usually when the most significant scientific advances occur, nothing motivates pouring resources into research quite like the threat of an enemy nation!
Eric Brown got out of the Komet, got a safe distance away, faced the flight crew and quoted Tyrion Lannister.
"The next time I have an idea like that, punch me in the face!"
And hence why the German Mad Scientist trope is a thing...
actually, MOST of pop culture's MAD SCIENTIST cliches are based on...NIKOLAI TESLA who musta super-blown minds back then, since his stunts STILL blow minds TODAY!
(EX: making flourescent light bulbs held by the audience LIGHT UP without any wires etc -- just a tesla coil nearby!)
His exhibits of his shit was like INSANE SORCERY (and it still is today) and he was quite famous at the time and influenced society. (How ironic that he gets little credit for his ideas in use today from, AUTOMATIC DOORS at the grocery store (!) to flouresent lights (!) to the WALL OUTLET WE PLUG INTO EVERY DAY (!).... to ROBOTS...to CELL PHONES!!)
And expiremental german aircraft.
@@dumpygoodness4086 Tesla didnt deserve what happened to him
@Andrew Jackson Its also theorised that the groups broke into his hotel room after he had died and taken his belongings before using the underground railway.
life was cheap back then
06:28 - to be fair... forgetting to extend the landing gear on any aircraft can have fatal consequences...
The A10 warthog begs to differ
@@mclarenf1gtr471 the A-10 technically doesn't fully retract the gear anyway, and is designed to lose significant portions without breaking up
@@mclarenf1gtr471 The Me-262 as well.
About twenty years ago I was at a friends wedding where I was introduced to an old German gentleman. He worked with the grooms mother and I was told later that he had a very interesting job during the war. He was a pilot and after some indiscretion, (my friend didn't go into what) he was put in a Me163 squadron. This was punishment. During one flight he took off and climbed rapidly to engage a group of American bombers but the plane was so uncontrollable at speed that he actually collided with one of the bombers. I was told he flew through it. He managed to land the plane afterwards. His officer who was watching from the ground, saw the whole incident and told him he was obviously meant to survive, so took him off flight duties. I don't Know how true this is but he didn't seem the sort to make such a thing up.
Awesome little read!
Just crazy enough to be true.
@@outlet6989 The japanese made a tactic out of it. Though in their case, once you were a suicide pilot, you had to try again until you actually didn't come back - or the war ended.
I don't believe this story to be accurate. Either his guns did some serious damage to the enemy's airframe before he broke through or he merely bounced off on a shallow angle and the plane broke up behind him from his gun shots and the impact of the collision. I just don't see a comet still being in any condition to land after bearing the full brunt of such an impact.
Ramming a plane with another plane would cause both to crash... And also most fights happen so far from air bases officer on the ground wouldn't see it.
Everyone else in world: This thing is far too dangerous to be flown by anyone.
Eric "Winkle" Brown: Nice wee kite, I'll take it for a spin.
I love that people who had until recently been employed by the ACTUAL Nazis made him sign a liability waiver...
He did bottle at flying the Natter though - it really was that dangerous!
Many of the companies and people inventing these insane creations didn't really much care for the goals and causes of the Nazis. They were really only interested in the money and influence supplying the Nazis would bring them. When the Nazi rule ended, most of the inventors kept inventing and pushing science forward, only now under allied funding.
"listen, guy, ehr, we kind of know this thing, and ehr....how sure are you, exactly? On a 1-10?"
For a man who has ridden the wall of death on a motorcycle whilst another is going around with a grown Lion in the sidecar it must have been low. He had a distinguished career including the record for the number of aircraft carrier landing so must have either been astute at assessing risk of extraordinarily lucky... I think the former.
“That’s the power of German engineering”
-Volkswagen
E-36 BMW.
Now we have some German tech of suitable bastardry.
I mean, when you think about where Volkswagen originated...
Instead of _"Fahrvergnugen,"_ you could call it _"FarFromSurvivable."_
😊😊😊
Volkswagen Does it AGAIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Holy shit does that fuel sound like the most horrifying substance ever. It's like something out of a movie.
There's always something worse:
ruclips.net/video/_wLk2j7_KB0/видео.html
Chlorine trifluoride is much worse it can cause concrete to burn.
@Razgriz the Mandalorian and whoever said those wise words was correct and probably died because of said chemicals.
Seriously! Since both the T-Stoff & C-Stoff were colorless, why couldn't they have come up with an inorganic dye for one or both of them? It is my understanding that many jet fuels are dyed now, but I don't know how new this technology is.
@@Philip271828 The fuel in the Apollo Moon Lander's ascent stage was so corrosive that it only lasted one burn so they couldn't test the engines. Fortunately all of them worked as intended which can't be said of the ME163.
I love the story of Royal Navy pilot Eric "Winkle" Brown flying the rocket powered plane, and sharing drinks with the German ground crew after a successful fight. That kind of raw bravery is really awesome to see in history. Wonderful stuff. Thank you.
What did the Komet achieve?
-Me a kerbal intellectual: *SCIENCE!!*
Me, a GTA player: Without it, we wouldn't have the Starling
Captain Eric Melrose "Winkle" Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC, Hon FRAeS, RN[1] (21 January 1919 - 21 February 2016) was a British Royal Navy officer and test pilot who flew 487 types of aircraft. RIP
A rockstar among test pilots!
His book is also awesome. Landing on an aircraft carrier trampoline/wet carpet sounds sketchy AF.
@@Sim.Crawford I've seen pics of that but didn't know he was involved.
@@1timcat yup. Remember technically he was RN not RAF.
storyguy His book "Wings on My Sleeve" explains his accomplishments. He was bilingual, both English and German speaking.
He always made meticulous notes before flying a new type of aircraft, which is why he stayed alive. To this day, he's made more carrier landings than anybody else, and flew more types of aircraft than anybody else. Lot's of work for a good test pilot during ww2.
Trivia: in one of the episodes of The Big Bang Theory in which Leonard is working on a secret new rocket fuel, you can see T-Stoff and C-Stoff written on his whiteboard.
The one where the elevator stops working?
Lol, love your name✌
@@JFDSmit-rm6tw and destroys it
Well, so long as he avoids N-Stoff.
@@gohawks3571 Red Dwarf :)
"You can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs." ~ 01:40
Here we're going to protect you from T-stoff and C-stoff with this asbestos suit. Ja!
"I'm Rickie Bobby and I approve this aircraft! If you ain't first, ur last!"
Does anyone wanna go fast? I wanna go fast.
First in flight, not first with a design. That goes to Frank Whittle in 1930.
"Ricky... I was high when I said that!" -test pilot
Frank Whittle's engine was first tested in 1937 near Rugby England but unlike the Nazis, safety was ok since the allies had no need to speed up development and vaporize pilots.
SHAKE N BAKE, BABY!
Hanna said "Some of the things they gave us to use would fly like a Piano", what a woman.
it's always fun to hear you pronounce German words. I sometimes really have problems finding out what exactly you "wanted" to say =D
But then again, props to even trying ... our language is not easy.
Great video! love it.
NOT one person watching really cares about "pronunciation of german words", except those wanting to be noticed in the comments for their german speaking powers
@@joselao9 As a German that's not really much more of a power than someone from the UK speaking english ... but sure.
Simone is a professional at mispronouncing English and non-English words.
You said it went 1000 *mph* , yet the sound barrier, approx. 767 mph, was first officially broken in 1947 by US test pilot Chuck Yeager in the Bell X1.
I believe you're referring to the official high speed recorded by the Comet, 1004 *kph* .
Chuck is the first person to break the sound barrier 'in level flight'. That last bit is where the confusion comes from.
I believe you are correct. But I believe that the breaking of the sound barrier was a known phenomenon in dives. I think DeHavilland died in such a dive and Eric Pickles being the next test pilot. As I recall there is buffeting before and just after the speed of sound.
Greame Spens The 163 would have fallen apart if the sound barrier.
Greame Spens Eric pickles? I guess that explains why the guy always looked so wide and round in the House of Commons. I never did see him in profile, now I know why... you can’t. 🤔😂
1004 kph? What the fuck is that supposed to be?
1004 kilo(thousand) per hour?
If they dumped that fuel out over allies forces, the war could have ended very, very differently. Bombs AND flesh-melting death rain!
To expensive
Thank God they didn’t.
@@backstabba3817 Extending the war would have been more expensive.
@@Faliat and paying what would now be trillions of dollars in damages due to being blamed for the war
We should of bought their technology.
Imagine Kamikazes flying those highly explosive, flesh melting planes into ships.
Good thing the Germans didn't like to share their toys I guess...
The Japanese actually tried to build a copy of this plane for themselves. Germany even offered to send over some finished airframea and blueprints. However, the sub carrying the cargo to Japan was sunk, and the Japanese were forced to make a plane based off of photographs and vague tech specs. The end result was the Ki-200, a plane powered by a similar motor to that of the Ohka, armed with Japanese domestic 30mm autocannons, and less prone to dissolving its pilots (though it it did suffer from poor handling and had a tendency to spontaneously explode).
The Japanese had their own Me163, built by the blue print and technical data provided by the Germans through transportation by U boat！ They had test flight once and then surrendered to U.S. with unimpressive result! zThe Japanese also built their own Me262 but the fate was same!
@@nibs7252 100% correct! 👏🏼😎
Japan had a suicide rocket called the Ohka
They were about to produce also a copy of ME-262, only underdimensioned. I have read that partial building plans were carried by a german U-boot. War ended while they had a pair of prototypes.
They were issued with protective uniforms so atleast the families had enough left to bury. In the UK one brought over for flight testing but not used was taken apart by a museum for preservation and they found a very rude Jewish word inside and the Engine was sabotaged. If anyone here had tried to start it it would have exploded.
Damn good luck 🍀
Maybe there was a reason why this exemplar was left for the allies to capture?
@@MetalheadAndNerdseveral test pilots died because of workers sabotaging aircraft. It was a tremendously brave thing to do and a risk Germans took by employing slave labour. I believe one crashed because the tail plane spar had been cut halfway through. You can hardly blaim them.
Proof?
Do you know the scene in Band of Brothers where Hobbler got shot by his own captured German Luger? It happened, and it was an issue. Some were so poorly made, anything squeezing the side set it off. Deliberate sabotage.
Using slave labor to make weapons is one of the dumbest things anyone ever thought of. Almost as good, during the US Civil war, supposedly the Confederates considered freeing slaves if they'd fight to help keep the Confederacy free of the US.
Let's see. I've enslaved you, beat you, beat your woman, sold her to someone else, sold your kids....Here's a loaded gun. And how does this story end? Needless to say, they didn't give this idea much life.
5:17 just FYI he went over 1000 kph or 624 mph.
Agh so just below Mach 1
I was wondering if he meant kilometers - otherwise it would have been the first to break the sound barrier.
Thank you for clarifying, I was confused by that as well.
Ah, that makes sense. I wondered how the Comet could go over 1000 MPh and not be the first to break the sound barrier.
About 5:20 in, "...becoming the first pilot to exceed 1,000 mph in level flight." No. You meant 1,000 Km/H. See Chuck Yeager in "Glamorous Glennis," ca. 1947. First to break the sound barrier. First faster than 1,000 mph, Peter Twiss in "Fairey Delta 2," ca. 1956.
I actually had a chat with an old German workmate in the early 80s who flew these things. He originally flew stukas in Poland and North Africa. Upon returning to Germany he got pulled into this jet program. I hadn’t heard of them before and I thought he was pulling my leg.
*"Disolved Alive"* I have a new fear
The fate of Oberleutnant Joseph Pohs was even more grisley than described in the video. According to Major Wolfgsng Spate, one of the pilots who reached Pohs' crashed Komet: "Even though he was wearing a protective suit, his entire right arm had been dissolved by T-Agent. It simply wasn't there. The other arm, as well as the head, was nothing more than a mass of soft jelly."
@@stevestevens7053 head jelly is a thing. But it's typically made from pig brains, not humans. Either way, I hear it's tasty spread on toast.
@@razzledcroaker3678 Sounds like what happens to that one guy in Robocop
@@razzledcroaker3678 thank you for the nasty details!
@@razzledcroaker3678 Sounds something like a head cheese.
"Before he realized the magnitude of his mistake his remains had been spread thinly over the entire test shed."
Good thing the shed wasn't made of bread.
Understatement, much?
We just saw the same video as you...
LMBO! Loved this! This has to be one of your funniest videos. No wonder that air marshal didn't want anyone flying it. BTW, I loved the way you recited his comments....it was perfect. The whole thing was a botch from beginning to end (the concept for the aircraft, not the video). Thank you for posting!
Hanna Reights was still in love with The Komet even after it nearly killed her. She did an interview in her eighties and she was still raving about how good it felt flying it.
While there are no airworthy ME163s remaining, there is an unpowered replica which flies as a glider. Despite its stumpy fuselage and wings it works very well.
@Andrew Heller Yeah, the truth is I didn't know how to spell it and was too lazy just to say "Hey Google."
Thanks for setting things straight.👍😃
@Angie H. Jesus christ you must be insufferable.
It's said that the X-15 pilots (among them Neil Armstrong) were heartbroken when that research program ended. They were the elite of the elite, flying the fastest and most dangerous airplane in the world, and I'm sure their Luftwaffe predecessors felt the same way. The ME-163 Komet was insanely hazardous just to be around, let alone flying it, but that must have been awesome.
@@robertthomas4633 Hanna Reitsch was an important aviation pioneer. Nothing wrong with at least spelling her name correctly. Amelia Earhart, Pancho Barnes, Jackie Cochran... none of them even come close to what a ballsy aviator Hanna Reitsch was. If it weren't for her association with you-know-who, she would be celebrated today as a daring overachiever. She did some of the hairiest, craziest test piloting I've ever heard of. First woman to fly a helicopter, first woman in the Komet, and in the ME-262 jet fighter, among many other firsts, but that's how it is when you don't get to write the history because you're on the wrong side of it.
You missed one of the most important things about the Komet, it's absolutely adorable ^^.
It is very smol
I flew a komet, and then my crush ran up and she said “omg, your boyfriend must love you so much!!”
😒😒
haha komet pilots gay thats so funny dude you should become a comedian
Or as GTA players know it, the LF-22 Starling
Definitely not the term I'd use to describe that fugly thing, but each to their own.
I had the honor of knowing Rudy Optiz, a world famous glider pilot before the war. He was a test pilot on the Me163. Part of his hand was missing from coming into contact with the fuel. He escaped Germany after the war and had a brilliant career at Sikorsky.
There's a fantastic short story by Jim Shepard called "Climb Aboard The Mighty Flea" about this plane and its doomed pilots; well worth reading.
So let's get this straight... The most amazing thing about the Komet isn't that it's a rocket powered aircraft, it's that because of this thing the Germans actually made the world's first aimbot!
Second aimbot. First was the Norden bombsight used by allied precision bombers.
Great video and great recap. I read a detailed description of the Komet years ago. Thanks.
Me 163 Komet, aka "The Soup Maker."
Mmmmmmmm
The forbidden human soup. How can something so rich with flavor be so bad?
1:18 Video Starts.
(You're welcome.)
I got about 15 seconds into the intro commercial and couldn't stand it any more. I never did watch the rest.
I’m so glad you used your powers of entertainment to educate rather than to sell things. Your advertising ability is spooky powerful.
I remember never being able to successfully land the Me163 Comet in _Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe,_ a game that was _very_ generous with its landing parameters.
My father had a WW2 book colection with pictures. The Spitfire, ME BF 109 and A1 Corsair were the most beautiful for me, but this little one ignite my imagination like no other. Nice video! 😃
Ignited eh?
I would’ve enjoyed high school much much more if my classes were like these postings.😊👍🏾
The amount of technological advancement throughout the war years and early post-war years is astounding. It's always interested me. And let's not forget the vast contributions of Nazi scientists to nuclear science and the space/weapons programs of both the USSR and US.
C B ya
Most of the German scientists that contributed to nuclear left before the party got into full swing. As for Russia's rocket program, surprisingly they didn't get very many German rocket scientists. But it balanced out, since the US basically ignored Von Braun up until they finally listened and made the Saturn project. No doubt if they had utilized Von Braun from the get go, they likely would have kept pace with with the Russians all the way along.
@Sendit Sunday
Actually, no the jet engine was theorised befor, working prototypes that would actually produce usable power where invented in WW2.
@@mandernachluca3774 The He 178 flew on 08/27/1939 *. . .*
@@letoubib21
And some would argue, that the flight of this aircraft was just shy from an engine failure.
What i meant was operational use ....
Simon, you're one of the most eloquent, articulate and informative people on RUclips, hands down. Love your vids.
You are quoting air speeds in MPH when actually they were KPH 1000 KPH is 610 MPH Roughly
I remember flying that thing in a sim game decades ago. It was terrifying. For me. lol
The f4 was bonkers too.
In IL2: 1946 (and previous iterations of IL2 Sturmovik as well) it's indeed quite an experience.
It takes off and climbs like a rocket (well, it basically _is_ one), as long as you have fuel left you can get either altitude or speed advantage at will almost instantaneously (compared to other aircraft), and you can zoom through those B-17 formations almost however you like. But with the extremely limited ammo capacity you have to make every firing pass and every shot count, even though it only takes one or two good hits from the 30mm cannons to bring down a bomber, and once you're out of fuel you become a gliding target for the escort fighters and enemy AA.
i remember it form BF1942 it was uncontrollable.
Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. The thing would explode if it took any damage.
On the plus side, it climbed instantly and if you just flew underneath a B-17 it would auto launch a rocket and score a kill.
As the saying goes, "gotta love a plane that runs on bleach and booze"...
Bleach isn't hydrogen peroxide its chlorine and water
@@Aatell764 sodium hypochlorite, usually. But you can use hydrogen peroxide as bleach, it is actually commonly used for a number of applications e.g. for bleaching hair. it is just not sold as a household item, because it has very limited shelf life, turning into water over time. The oxygen fumes it emanates also pose a serious fire hazard during storage.
@@paavobergmann4920 Not sure what that had to do with informing the guy that hydrogen peroxide isn't bleach but okay
@@Aatell764 peroxide is bleach. "Domestos" for instance changed from using hypochlorite to using stabilised hydrogen peroxide, because it could produce chlorine if mixed with acidic detergents.
@@paavobergmann4920 bleach and domestos are brands names not the names of chemicals man this is absurd.
I flew with Rudy Opitz a few times as a glider student. He was chief flight examiner for gliders in Connecticut. He gave me the best instruction I ever received in a glider. "The glider wants to fly! Every movement of the control surfaces creates drag! Let the glider fly!" he barked at me in his clipped German accent! He also flew the ME 262 jet fighter. The performance, he said wasn't that impressive. "After the Comet, everything else seemed underpowered." he reported. One out of twelve flights was fatal for the ME 163. They put a dummy fuel dump petcock in the instrument panel not connected to anything at one point! The t-stoff was like teargas and fuel tanks lay next to each thigh in the cockpit! Also if you look at the Space Shuttle a tailless rocket that glides in for the landing it's very similar to the ME163!
I first learned about these from an amazing old school (MS DOS) combat flight sim, Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. Deadly and untouchable, until they ran out of fuel and had to glide home.
It seems to me they just should have outfitted these things with sprayers, gotten over and above the bomber flights, and then sprayed T-schtoff all over the place...
I say we just hang EVERY capitalist!
NO MORE WAR! YAY!!!
EX: it's not even a secret that WALL ST funded and created the NAZI PARTY in 1920 b/c the Capitalists of England / France / Murica were RIGHTLY worried that communism woudl spread (cuz most ppl AIN'T rich) after the 1919 Communist revolution in Russia (inspired by.....the American revolution!)
GET RID OF CAPITALISM, and no NAZIS and NO WW2!
Get rid of capitalism, and NO COLD WAR either!
Hanging the rich solves 90% of the problems in society today!
@@dumpygoodness4086 because war was a capitalist invention
@@kannonball5789 Modern war is an economic and logistic affair for the last couple hundred years. You can read about it in Clausewitz "On War". For at least 1000 years now, hurt pride has only ever been a pretence for economic gain by use of violence.
Here’s to this man who delivers more comprehendible and coherent information in a quarter hour than any other person alive.
Unless you're yuri gagarin, Neil Armstrong, Edmund Hilary, or someone of that ilk, posting "first" just makes you look silly
Now I got in my head an image of Neil Armstrong crouching down and scribbling First on the moon...
@@darter9000 then cut to buzz writing it hoping no one will notice Neil's
Disagree. They do very little in terms of getting to space. Maybe the engineers & scientists can say "first"?
neiana but they Yuri was still the first man in space, Neil was still the first man to set foot on the moon...
@@neiana be that as it may, being proud of having the first comment in a RUclips comment section is no less stupid
"...highly corrosive, and can strip flesh from bones in seconds.." As someone who has worked with ph 14 non-dilute chemicals, this is not a thing. Second degree burns are common, and even third degree burns if left without treatment for several hours. "Peeling flesh from bone", would require the individual body part to be submersed in a large amount of aqueous solution for more than 24 hours, and the reality is the bone itself would be what is most reactive, and the product that would be left with would be a rubbery lump of flesh that mostly retains its original shape.
Interesting. I just looked some stuff up regarding your comment. I didn't know bases can be more destructive yet less painful than acids. Thanks for giving me the inspiration to look that up. I had always assumed acids were more corrosive.
Acids burn your skin and get weaker.
Bases eat through your skin get into your bloodstream and continue to eat you from the inside out.
Haz mat training really makes you respect what you are working eith
I think he miss read, it would strip the flesh from your bones if accidentally mixed because it would violently explode and could blast the flesh from your bones.
Because I loved WW2 planes and tanks and I have never heard of or seen any documents of anyone getting "dissolved", most were just fuck ups as he stated of them accidentally combining the two. And crashes with any fuel turned into an explosion.
There are many nasty human-made chemicals you wouldn't want to encounter under any circumstances. The only proper way to handle them is to run away very fast.
Greez....how reasuring, thank ya, now my nightmares can be even more horrific
Imagine how much courage it took for anyone to climb into the cockpit of such a dangerous aircraft.
"Hooray, I broke the sound barrier!"
SPLAT.
That’s what I was thinking! 🤣🤣
Yeager was the first person to break the sound barrier *and survive*.
@@MattMcIrvin With "survive" being the operative word. LOL
I've never been so early for Simon's videos and I think my overall quality of life has just improved.
How does it matter literally at all???
@@ethan7353 the answer is simple. It doesn't.
Hope you're doing good!! 😍🔥🔥
@@queefstroganoff2643 it does, everyone's overall do matter to me. Stay safe and take good care of each other.
Not possible.
OMG. Is this documentary or dark comedy?! The writing, editing, videos, quotes, and Mr. Whistler's delivery all make for a piece that is both penetrating AND hilarious. Bravo, sir!
Crazy how much there is still to learn about the WW2 era
Speak for yourself. To people who know their aircraft this rocket-powered interceptor project is nothing new.
10:34 - Video uses the old trick of showing an already used piece of footage but flipping it back to front to give the impression it hasn’t been used before.
I had the pleasure of hearing Rudy Opitz deliver a lecture on the Komet. As an elderly man, he was still wildly enthusiastic about the plane, and I’m sure he’d jump into one for another flight without hesitation.
At 16:03 in this video you state that the ME-163 reached a speed of over 1003 MPH, unfortunately the actual speed was only 1,130 KPH (or about 700mph) in July of 1944. Had they flown the rocket plane to the stated 1000 mph they would have broken the sound barrier and thus preceded Chuck Yeager by 3 1/2 years.
War!
What is it good for?
Technological advancement!
Sad but true. We humans seem to be awfully creative and inspired when it comes to discovering ways to kill each other!
Advancement of science as well. Just one example, the precursor to modern cognitive psychology and neuropsychology was born in WW2.
I used to play the DOS game Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, in which you could fly the Komet. In the game, the Komet was out fitted with vertical firing cannons that we triggered by the shadows of enemy bombers. You had to fly the Komet underneath the bombers to activate the photo-sensitive trigger. I watched the rest of the video and realized you mentioned this 😁
Pros: can go over 1,000mph
Cons: Can’t eat sauerkraut
Could you imagine being the guy that went down in history fucking up so bad he didn’t even realize it killed him
A few of those over the history of engineering.
I catch your Ace Ventura reference: "What a Lovely Plane of Death". I see you-- I see you.
5 comments, and no-one's said a damn thing
Pretty sure the Komet killed about as many German pilots as it did allies
Just like yourself, and now myself.
You're not wrong
whoever came up with the Komet ought to be made to fly in it.
well...it achieved in reducing Germany's pilots and ground crew. for the war.
I'd be willing to bet it killed MORE german pilots than it did allies
@@drewgehringer7813 considerably more, if memory serves.
The Me 263 would have resolved a number of the 163's faults. Conventional retractable trike undercarriage, two-chamber rocket motor etc.
I met Rudy Opitz once. He showed us some video of Me-163 flights, though I admit I don't remember all that much. One image that sticks with me is how high those wheels would bounce when jettisoned. I think he DID tell us a bit about the trouble with the fuel and oxidizer.
I wonder, if you started with an Me-163, increased the aspect ratio, shrunk the fuselage, and left off the motor, if you couldn't end up with a very nice sailplane. Or maybe used some other kind of motor and end up with a very nice sport plane.
Mr. Opitz was quite active in soaring competition after the war.
I have no idea just how he felt about the war itself and would have hesitated to ask.
I believe they were intending to rename a street in Leith after Eric Brown. Also I am surprised that there has not been a film about him, friends of a German WWI ace, arrested by the Gestapo, sunk on an escort carrier to Malta and his single handed capture of an entire German air base.
Greame Spens - There was an excellent BBC documentary about him.
@@AtheistOrphan yes I remember seeing it, I read his book too. I forgot he also worked riding a motorcycle in a wheel of death while at university.
Here's to Mr Eric Brown 🍻
I watched this, throughly, and I still have no clue.
LOVE IT when you cover topics like these!! 😉👍✌️
One of my old foremen was trained for a suicide flight in one of those when his airfield was overrun, saving his life. When they ran out of skilled pilots the Germans trained youth with enough skill to launch then crash into a bomber. They were not taught how to land. All teaching was theoretical as they did not have enough equipment to waste on training flights.
1:15 video starts
Always a great show mate.
That poor cat that evil man was going to put him in the craft that melts whatever’s inside.
For the pronunciation of the German word for „Duck“:
Use the word „ten“ as your basis. Prounounce it twice in quick succession. Then eliminate the first „t“.
Practice that....at this point you have already learned the plural form. Eliminate the last letter „n“ and practice...et voilá, you have a German duck.
If you do practice this in public though, you might get a few weird looks. Just as a fair warning. 😉
(edit: typos)
'Enter' without the 'r' sound is also quite close.
"Ente" is the German aviation term of canard (duck in French). Elevator in front.
I'm still working on "aah-croft"
And while you practice that you'd also might want to review "Messerschmidt" once more. There is only one "sch" sound in there. The double "s" is just a very sharp s sound and not a "sh" sound.
Excellent report
It sounds like Germany's necessity met inventions mom too late in the war.
But necessity IS inventions mother....
My father chased one over Austria in WWII. He said was impossible to catch in his P51.
Not likely. They had extremely short range, they attacked, then looked for a landing field. There were none over Austria.
No one cares
Lol no he didn't m8
Unlikely. The Komet squadrons flew short-range missions from a few bases up near the Danish border, far away from Austria. Read the book ‘The German Jets in Combat’ which gives details of their bases and missions.
@@AtheistOrphan It is in the official mission report from the 52nd fighter group.
13:29 my career from 1984 until around 2010 was in animation and the company i worked for (cfx in soho, london) did masses of work for british aerospace, mainly about the tornado and saudi arabian airbases, and some corporate videos for Bae themselves. it was a while ago so i think we were illustrating the "snowshoe" technology that tornados use for low level flying, all very top secret in those days, but the consultant who was our technical adviser told stories of the vast array of aircraft he had flown. i cannot recal his name, and it's totally unlikely to be winkle brown, but this tale reminded me of this guy - a stereotypical handlebar mustache raf pilot who'd flown just about everything. this would be about 1986-1990.