The Me163 Komet - Rockets Are Dangerous

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The story of the Me163 is a complex and multifaceted one, and I have attempted here to draw together a number of different sources into a narrative covering the political, structural, scientific and operational history. Necessarily I will have missed things and probably got things wrong. Where I know a mistake has been made, you’ll find it in the pinned comment marked “snagging” - one obvious example is Winkle Brown flew a "sharp" start after the war ended on an Me163 in Germany, and a towed flight in the UK, which I missed.

The below then is an extremely limited subset of the resources I’ve pulled on
Me163 Rocket Interceptor – Stephen Ransom and Hans-Herman Cammann – not for the feint of heart, a book with brilliant nuggets, a drunken editor and a lot of very pretty pictures. This was my primary source
Rocket Fighter – Marno Ziggler – Now out of print, this is a Hitler Jugen Own Adventure story most of which has some truth in it but a lot of which is Marno wishing to be in his early 20s and flying for the Fuhrer again. You can find it online fairly easily
The kids probably haven’t got a clue what a video tape is, never mind Betamax https://legacybox.com/blogs/analog/vhs-beat-betamax - Betamax vs VHS
Baxter, AD: Walter Rocket Motors for Aircraft, RAE Technote Aero 1668, September 1945 – a Technical note that’s incredibly hard to get hold of, but which I managed to find, quite by chance, in some papers I got years ago. Probably available from the UK National Archives still
http://www.walterwerke.co.uk/walter/index.htm - a fantastic archive of all things Walter *but* it isn’t an https site as a warning
https://hushkit.net/2019/03/29/the-lippisch-p-13-supersonic-wonder-plane-or-nazi-coke-head-an-assessment-by-former-british-technical-liaison/ - The coal powered bomber rammer P.13
https://donhollway.com/me-163/ - Bat out of Hell – great website for images of the Me163 as imagined in the Artists’ fever dreams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBXIzY-GGk4 – Gun Cam Footage of the Me163 and Me262s being shot at and down by various USAAF pilots.
https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/messerschmitt-me-163b-1a-komet/nasm_A19530072000 - Air and Space Museum have their usual, brilliant photos and terrible descriptions.

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