En beretning om det første bemandede raketfly, dets konstruktør og piloterne, der gennemførte prøveflyvningerne.

Although the German Me 163 Komet rocket fighter was created as a remedy for the mass air raids of the Allied air force on Germany, its origins date back to 1938. Alexander Lippisch then began work at the DFS factory on a tailless rocket-propelled aircraft, designated as DFS 194. At the beginnings of 1939, the project was handed over to the Messerschmitt factory and there it developed into the Me 163A. Two prototypes of this aircraft - V4 and V5 - were completed in 1941 and flown as gliders. Then the V4 received a Walter HWK R.II rocket engine with a thrust of 7.5 kN, and on October 2, 1941 H. Dittmar achieved a speed of 1003 km/h on mentioned plane. Thirteen Me 163As were built for training.

This book is compilations of the 4-view color profile, scale plans and photo details of the single variant of the Messerschmitt Me 163 B-1 Komet. Scale plans in 1/72 and 1/48 scales plus drawings from wartime technical manuals. Also photos of the details in B&W and color.

Following years of detailed research, this is the first volume in a new two-part work on the Luftwaffe's legendary Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket-powered interceptor. The authors have unearthed incredible new documentary material and previously unpublished photographs and have received co-operation from many former pilots who flew this unique and daunting aircraft. This book focuses on the evolution, design and development of tailless and rocket powered aircraft during the years leading up to the Second World War as well the subsequent deployment of the Me 163 by the specialist test unit, Erprobungskommando 16. It also includes a detailed study of Me 163 production and an introduction to the operational use of the rocket fighter by JG 400 in the defense of the Reich. Accompanied by superb color artwork by leading aviation artist, Tom Tullis and many technical illustrations, this work will undoubtedly be recognized as the standard reference on the subject for years to come.

Volume II covers Japanese prototypes and the later Me 263.

Fighting Hitler's Jets is the personal story of the American fighter pilots who defeated the German Luftwaffe in the spring and summer of 1944, only to find themselves up against Adolf Hitler's Wunderwaffen, or “wonder weapons.”

The memoir of the female aviator who became Hitler’s favorite pilot. The Sky My Kingdom is the fascinating autobiography of the famous World War II test pilot Hanna Reitsch. As the war progressed, Reitsch was invited to fly many of Germany’s latest—and increasingly desperate—designs, including the rocket-propelled Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet and several larger bombers, on which she tested various mechanisms for cutting barrage balloon cables. After crashing on her fifth Me 163 flight, she was badly injured but insisted on writing her report before falling unconscious and spending five months in the hospital. Eventually, she became Adolf Hitler’s favorite pilot. Reitsch was one of only two women awarded the Iron Cross First Class during World War II, and the only woman awarded the Luftwaffe Combined Pilot and Observer Badge with Diamonds. She survived many accidents and was badly injured several times. In the last days of the war, Reitsch was asked to fly her companion, Col. Gen. Robert Ritter von Greim, into Berlin to meet with Hitler. The city was already surrounded by Red Army troops, who had made significant progress into the downtown area when they arrived, landing on a city street and traveling to the Führerbunker. The aircraft she used was the justly famous Fieseler Storch, already well known for the exploit that rescued Mussolini, only adding to the legend of both Reitsch and that aircraft. She is said to have overheard Hitler laying out plans for Nazi commanders to join together in mass suicide when it was obvious that the war was over. She also hoped to fly out propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels’ six children, who had been staying in the bunker since April 22 with their parents, but neither Joseph nor Magda Goebbels would allow it. She managed to escape Berlin herself, on April 29, by flying out through heavy Russian antiaircraft fire. She was a devoted and idealistic Nazi who adored Adolf Hitler and refused to believe the reports of concentration camps and torture. Not until much later would she say that she had been “disgusted” by what she witnessed in the Third Reich. She was held for eighteen months by the American military after the war, interrogated, and subsequently released—ultimately to become a champion glider pilot, as gliders were the only craft German citizens were allowed to fly. Hers is a story that arguably stands as unique in the great drama of World War II.