Modern Marvels Secret Luftwaffe Aircraft of WWII (1993– ) Online

There's some interesting material in this episode. For example, it's astounding, at least for me, to learn that the first German jet fighter, built by Heinkel, flew in 1941. I mean -- 1941? But it was never put into production because Hitler believed that his current fighters -- the Me109 and the FW190 -- were adequate to the task at hand. The war was going to be a short one.

The Me262 "Schwalbe" was the most formidable jet fighter to come out of the war but confusion at the top and scarcity of materials made it too little too late.

What we hardly hear anything about was Heinkel's "Volksjager," a cheaply built jet fighter that was put into production at the end of the war. Unlike the Me262 it could be produced en masse. It was faster than the 262. Plans for the future were radical. There was a version with a butterfly tail. Another with swept-FORWARD wings, which Allied aviation wouldn't try until the 1980s. Armament was two 20 mm. cannon. Had the war lasted another year, Allied pilots would have been facing an adversary that they couldn't compete with. As one British test pilot remarked, it could fly rings around Britain's only operational jet.

The Volksjager's BMW engine was fairly simple compared to that of the 262. Its designer escaped to Switzerland with his own engineers and established a company there (with a French name). In the post-war years, De Gaulle paid the designer and more than one hundred of his old BMW team to move to France and supply French fighters with engines. Ironically, some of these fighters were sold to Israel where they were successfully used in defense of the homeland.