Heinkel He-280 B-1

[TomZ]

Heinkel He-280 B-1



At the end of 1942 it became clear that the He-280 would not be ordered in production. The RLM favoured the Me-262 as the new Luftwaffe front line fighter. Ernst Heinkel looked for ways to get the He-280 back into favour with the RLM.



In an attempt to make the He-280 more competitive, the double tail was replaced with a single tail. Heinkel basically copied a Me-262 tail unit onto the He-280. This resulted in the He-280B-1 which was powered by the Jumo 004 and armed with four MK-108 canon and 24 R4M rockets. The He-180B was on par with the Me-262 in performance and combat capability.



Hitler himself insisted that the Me-262 would be developed as a bomber. Also Messerschmitt suffered serious reputation problems caused by the Me-210 debacle and the RLM reconsidered and ordered the He-280 in production as a fighter. Choosing the He-280 as the new fighter offered the Luftwaffe a way around Hitler's  edict and enable them to get a real jet fighter into service.



The Messerschmitt Me-262 was developed further as a bomber, which lead to a rather disappointing aircraft. The He-280B went on to form the nucleus of the Luftwaffe fighter force for 1945 and 1946 until it was replaced by the Ta-183.

Model: 1/48 Eduard He-280. Tail from a Revell Me-262

TomZ

[PR19_Kit]

VERY convincing! 

[comrade harps]

Nice 

[Old Wombat]

That looks right!

[NARSES2]

That looks right!

It certainly does 

[su27rules]

      Nice!!

[loupgarou]

Very good looking build!

[Hotte]

Top 

Hotte

[Vulcan7]

         

[Wardukw]

Lovely stuff Tom 👌 👏 😊
I've got plans in the noggin for a 262 mashup