Mar 13, 2023
By Reilly Tifft
What could go wrong with a plywood jet fighter?
The Heinkel He 162 Spatz, an early jet fighter developed for the Volksjäger (People’s Fighter) project in late 1944, was supposed to help save the Third Reich. It was powered by a single BMW 003E turbojet engine—and the desperate hopes of a belligerent nation on the brink of defeat.
Per the specifications of a contract between the Luftwaffe and Germany’s Heinkel aircraft company, the Spatz—German for sparrow—was constructed mostly of plywood (to avoid depleting steel and aluminum reserves) and featured controls intended to be so simple Hitler Youth pilots trained on gliders could fly it.
The Spatz first flew on December 6, just 74 days after the contract was signed, but the Heinkel company’s effort to introduce a new fighter was too little, too late, too flawed. The prototype crashed four days after the first flight, but the He 162 was rushed into production anyway. Pilots found it difficult to fly, and it had a tendency to break apart when flight maneuvers overstressed the glue holding it together.
There are no He 162s with distinguished records, but the National Air and Space Museum’s Spatz, captured by the British in May 1945, has a distinctive nose paint scheme that may indicate it was flown by Herbert Ihlefeld, an ace and commander of a Luftwaffe fighter wing. After being transferred to the U.S. Army Air Forces, this He 162 had a brief life in military displays before being given to the Smithsonian in 1949.
The Spatz was supposed to be a Wonder Weapon behind which the Germans could rally. Instead, more pilots died learning to fly it than they did flying the 162 in combat.
Reilly Tifft is an assistant editor at Air & Space Quarterly.
This article is from the Spring issue of Air & Space Quarterly, the National Air and Space Museum's signature magazine that explores topics in aviation and space, from the earliest moments of flight to today. Explore the full issue.
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