Luftwaffe Messerschmitt RF262, November 1961

[nönöbär]

The Plane:

The usage of the Messerschmitt Me 262 in the post-war Bundesluftwaffe is a rather unknown fact. When the West-German military was formed in 1955, modern combat aircraft were wanted to equipp the Luftwaffe squadrons.
The problem arides to find a decent close-range recon aircraft, as non of the existing types were seen to be useful for this role. However, it was quite surprising that among the newly formend Luftaffe staff - which consisted mostly of former WWII Luftwaffe personal - the idea was born to use a modified version of the late-war Messerschmitt Me 262 design for this.

While aerodynamics was kept mostly unmodified, modernized jet engies were added to the plane. While it still kept its original   4x30 mm guns, the recon equippment was installed in a special pod, the LAK-55/A (also called "Adlerauge" - Eagles Eye). The aircraft was also equipped with an ejector seat to imporve the survivalability of the pilot.
18 of the now called Messerschmitt RF262 were build in 1954/1955, but despite of the rumors, no old parts of WW2 build planes were used.

Operational usage started with the first days of the Bundesluftwaffe and although the plane was only inteded to be used until more modern recon aircraft (like the RF-84F) were available, the lasst RF262 were in service until 1962. The last 4 flying planes were even equipped with the new AIM9 sidewinder missle which was introduced in the Bundesluftwaffe in early 1960.

Four of the planes crashed during their 7 years of operations. In 1956, the RF262 flown by Leutnant Kesselmaier got "famous" during the so-called "Pilsen-Incident". The plane made a "pilot-error" and found itself in the airspace near Pilsen, Czechia. With its fully equipped LAP-55/A the plane was able to take several photos of Soviet troops there and escape back into West-German airspace.
The plane was intercepted by two Czech Avia S-92, the Czech build verison of the Me-262

The model shows the last Messerschmitt RF262 in November 1961 just before it was decomissioned and transported to the Luftwaffen-Museum at Appen.

Various views of the Messerschmitt RF262






Sidewinder and "Adlerauge" can be seen here



The Model:

The RF262 was build from a quite old 1/72 Revell kit. Mainly build OOB, the cockpit interiour was a bit updated (as the model did not had any of it). The Sidewinders and pylons were taken form the spare part box, the LAK-55/A was made form a 1/288 scale An.24 engine pod. Painted swith Revell Aqua Color, the decals are a wild mix form the spare part box and the oringial ones of the model (Some of them were too old I fear).

[PR19_Kit]

The usage of the Messerschmitt Me 262 in the post-war Bundesluftwaffe is a rather unknown fact.

Very true, but also veeeeeery interesting. 

What a cracking idea, and love the bit about it being intercepted by Czech S-92s! 

[NARSES2]

Yup a very interesting concept 

[Captain Canada]

For sure....very nice ! Love the colours and markings, and the weapons load !

[zenrat]

cool.  Especially the missiles.