FHC's ME-262 restoration

alang · **Joined:** Mon Jun 14, 2010 6:08 pm **Posts:** 87

Cory Graff's new book about the aircraft at FHC went on sale yesterday at Amazon. In the book there are pictures of the ME-262 that Paul Allen is restoring and it will have Jumo engines built using hi-temp materials, they will be run for the first time this month. FHC says this is a restoration not a replica. Can't wait to see it.

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Sun Nov 02, 2014 9:29 pm

1st I've heared or this!!!

Matt Gunsch · **Posted:** Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:38 pm

Ex Planes of Fame Me-262

StangStung · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 11:40 am

Jeebus. Making the Jumos can't be cheap. Lucky there are guys around like him to pony up the dough for this kind of thing. Seems like a lot of trouble to go to for a bird that is really too precious an artifact to fly.

DoraNineFan · **Joined:** Fri Aug 12, 2005 3:37 pm **Posts:** 671

Hopefully, FHC will relent on their secrecy policy enough to allow a video or two of the engine testing. There was at least one early test of the BMW 801 available.

shepsair · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 2:16 pm

It will be a authentic restoration if finished as a Me262 A1a/U2 'White 25' as built/operated in 1945 and not the post war fighter variant which I believe is the current plan.

kmiles · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 3:35 pm

Engines are being built by Aero Turbine in Stockton, CA I believe.

Thomas_Mac · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 4:37 pm

For anyone wondering here is a link to the book via the WIX Amazon ad.

http://www.amazon.com/Flying-Warbirds-I ... cory+graff

p51 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 7:05 pm

alang wrote:

Cory Graff's new book about the aircraft at FHC went on sale yesterday at Amazon.

Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Flying-Warbirds-Illustrated-Heritage-Collections/dp/0760346496/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1415059523&sr=8-1&keywords=flying+heritage+collection+Cory+Graff

Jesse C. · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 8:03 pm

Wow, this is going to be scary.

A gentleman who used to work for Storm birds, the folks that made the replica ME-262 and who's name is escaping me at the moment, spoke at a local IPMS meeting about the ME-262 and the DeHavilland Mosquito. After his presentation I asked him about the FHC 262 and he told me that they where approached about working it to get it back to flight, but once they looked it over, turned it down because in his words, the original work was very poor. He told us that these birds where mostly built and put together by very disgruntled slave labor and the workmanship was very poor.

He said they would have been better off getting a replica done for them.

So how much of this bird will be original in the end?

DaveM2 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 8:15 pm

Jesse C. wrote:

Wow, this is going to be scary.

A gentleman who used to work for Storm birds, the folks that made the replica ME-262 and who's name is escaping me at the moment, spoke at a local IPMS meeting about the ME-262 and the DeHavilland Mosquito. After his presentation I asked him about the FHC 262 and he told me that they where approached about working it to get it back to flight, but once they looked it over, turned it down because in his words, the original work was very poor. He told us that these birds where mostly built and put together by very disgruntled slave labor and the workmanship was very poor.

He said they would have been better off getting a replica done for them.

So how much of this bird will be original in the end?

The initial several years work was done by JME in the UK, before it went to Gosshawk and thereafter WestPac. The aircraft will be very original, hence the rebuild of the Jumo engines. The only deviation from when captured is as Mark says, the recon nose was swapped out with a fighter nose during testing in the US. NASM converted the recon nose back to fighter for their aircraft, as Planes of Fame did not want to swap it back.

JohnTerrell · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 8:34 pm

The thing that always sticks out in my mind when I think of this particular aircraft is my dad telling me when I was young about how Howard Hughes owned an Me-262 and tried to race it in the immediate post-war years, but that he was prevented from doing so, for the great chance that it would have won and for the type of headlines/attention that that would have caused. This is the very same aircraft.

DaveM2 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 10:20 pm

JohnTerrell wrote:

The thing that always sticks out in my mind when I think of this particular aircraft is my dad telling me when I was young about how Howard Hughes owned an Me-262 and tried to race it in the immediate post-war years, but that he was prevented from doing so, for the great chance that it would have won and for the type of headlines/attention that that would have caused. This is the very same aircraft.

John, I think it was also supposed to be used in the John Wayne film 'Jet Pilot,' but didn't make it on screen. Always wondered if any film was shot and if it survives as off cuts. Be cool to see.
Re the race, IIRC it was going to go up against the P-80, and the USAAF didn't want to be embarrased :wink:

Michel Lemieux · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 10:35 pm

I do have the same question....how much of the original aluminium will be left? all the skins will be new for sure......but I am pretty sure most of the airframe structure will be reconstructed with the original used as a pattern.

OK...so it leaves the fittings which hopefully a lot we be re-used.

But..........I think that the important achievement will be that they will have re-created the ESSENCE of what an original and flying Me-262 is.

And that by itself will be a great event to see and hear.

Except for old static ground bound museum airframes, NO flying warbirds are original today. Some may have been into the early 60&70's but not in 2014.

So I will wait with great pleasure to see the essence of a real flying 262 over a static one anyway.....

Some interesting reading with the Air and Space magazine article: http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/crown-jewels-5391823/?no-ist=&page=1

A great quote from this article......which summarizes a lot of the conflicts I have seen on restorations through the years.....

Quote:

Javier Arango, a California collector of World War I aircraft, calls "Plato's temptation," whereby "the artifact created is presented in its ideal state rather than its utilitarian one" by a craftsman whose instinct is to produce perfect work rather than to duplicate the routine output of a wartime factory.

My 2 Canadian centavos.....

DaveM2 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 03, 2014 10:48 pm

Michel Lemieux wrote:

I do have the same question....how much of the original aluminium will be left? all the skins will be new for sure......but I am pretty sure most of the airframe structure will be reconstructed with the original used as a pattern.

OK...so it leaves the fittings which hopefully a lot we be re-used.

But..........I think that the important achievement will be that they will have re-created the ESSENCE of what an original and flying Me-262 is.

And that by itself will be a great event to see and hear.

Except for old static ground bound museum airframes, NO flying warbirds are original today. Some may have been into the early 60&70's but not in 2014.

So I will wait with great pleasure to see the essence of a real flying 262 over a static one anyway.....

Some interesting reading with the Air and Space magazine article: http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/crown-jewels-5391823/?no-ist=&page=1

A great quote from this article......which summarizes a lot of the conflicts I have seen on restorations through the years.....

Quote:

Javier Arango, a California collector of World War I aircraft, calls "Plato's temptation," whereby "the artifact created is presented in its ideal state rather than its utilitarian one" by a craftsman whose instinct is to produce perfect work rather than to duplicate the routine output of a wartime factory.

My 2 Canadian centavos.....

Michel

A quick look over the fuselage/wings restoration report shows the airframe will be up to 80% original structure/skins. The only section which had to be totally replaced was the nose.

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FHC's ME-262 restoration

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