Advent of the Jet Era Special

Advent of the Jet Era

World War II functioned as a crucible for technological advancement in fields of medicine, materials science, computing, armored warfare, and aviation with such discoveries being obtained at great cost, and becoming obsolete in turn very rapidly. In 1941, the Royal Navy attacked the German Battleship Bismarck with the Fairey Swordfish bomber,  affectionately known as the “Stringbag” by its pilots, it was obsolete when the war began.

The very same year, the first test flight for the Jet-propelled Me. 262 Schwalbe (Swallow) occurred, with piston engines instead of the jets it would later have. The futuristic design of the 262 promised a potent weapon for the German arsenal, and was in rapid development to take its place as a front-line fighter to take on American Daylight and British Night  bombers.

There was only one obstacle: German High Command. They wanted the 262 outfitted as a Schnellbomber (Fast Bomber) rather than a defensive fighter, capable of the same "vengeance raids" that were being conducted by the V-weapon program. With an incredible top speed and vicious armament of 4 30mm cannons, the “Swallow” cut a swath through Allied Bombers, forcing the escort fighters to develop new tactics to fight them, adopting tactics of skillful maneuvers to out-turn the fast German Fighter.

It wasn’t just the dogfights and delayed introduction that hampered the 262, Allied raids led to to late-war shortages of high-temperature metals, meaning that the engines powering the jets  had a short operational lifespan. The sleek design, potent armament and hunting tactics of the Me. 262 squadrons were well ahead of their time, and German scientists and captured examples of the 262 studied postwar formed the basis for both Russian and American fighter development in the Cold War that followed, especially noticeable with the Mig 15 and the F-86 Sabre.

Advent of the Jet Era Special

Pilots!

We're celebrating the first flight of the Me. 262 with a 50% Credit discount and a 100% Credit bonus per battle on this historic jet for the next couple of days. Details below.

Event Begins: 23:00 PDT (02:00 EDT the following day) on July 16, 2013

Event Ends: 23:00 PDT (02:00 EDT the following day) on July 18, 2013