Markings:
Heinkel He 162 M6, W.Nr. 200006, VI+IF, Schwechat-Heidfeld, January 1945
Additional informations:
On January 17, 1945, the fuselage of the He 162 M6, manufactured at the Languste plant, arrived at Schwechat-Heidfeld. The first flight took place on January 23, 1945, under the command of Dipl.-Ing. Schuck. During further flights by Director Fancke, Fliegerstabsingenieur Bader, First Lieutenant Wedemeyer, and pilots Seling and Pawolka, the main complaint was that the play in the controls was much too large. Stronger spring bodies were subsequently installed and flight operations resumed on Jan. 27, 1945. Testing with extended rudder and aileron began at the end of the month. As a result, the aircraft pulled sharply to the left. Springs placed in the center position were to remedy the situation. On February 2, the aircraft with Gerhard Full crashed on landing. After about 100 meters of taxiing, the nose wheel retracted on its own and damaged the nose wheel flap and the wooden nose cone. After repairs were completed, First Lieutenant Georg Wedemeyer crashed on February 4, 1945 as a result of an engine failure and was killed. The He 162 M6 was completely painted in RLM 02 colors. The Balkenkreuze were applied in a very minimalistic manner and did not meet the specifications of the time. The color profile shows the aircraft at the beginning of its testing without the conversion measures. There was no nationality insignia on the vertical stabilizer at this time.
References / profiles:
Heinkel Strahlflugzeug
He 162 "Volksjäger"
Entwicklung, Produktion und Einsatz
Manfred Griehl
Stedinger Verlag Lemwerder
ISBN 978-3-927 697-50-8
Acknowledgments:
My special thanks go to Miroslav Bily and Michal Bradac for the kind permission to use their drawings as base for my work. They were taken from Miroslav Balous and Miroslav Bily's publication:
Heinkel He 162 Spatz (Volksjäger)
MBI Publications
ISBN 80-86524-06-X
MBI Publications
ISBN 80-86524-06-X
