"What do you have for me, lieutenant?" "We have a new airplane. It has landing gear that detaches on takeoff (and may bounce back up into your plane and damage it), fuel that is highly explosive and capable of dissolving your flesh, and a flight suit made of asbestos" "....whose side are you on again?"
@@salvadordollyparton666 To also be fair, asbestos isn't that dangerous in use, when the fibres are intact. The main problem is during mining, manufacturing and disposal, when asbestos dust can get in workers' lungs.
...exactly. Glad someone is awake on the internet. It’s always disconcerting to discover such errors... what else of the presented information may be flawed?
Long term respiratory issues aside, asbestos is an extremely effective and versatile fire retardant. For men who were facing the prospect of dying on their next sortie, I doubt they would have been concerned about health issues 25 years down the line if the suit could keep them alive for another day.
@@vankallahan59 asbestos is not good and should be avoided, but I think what the posted above is getting at is encountering/sanding/chipping a bit of 1% white asbestos in a home (as most people encounter it) is not like working with pipe cladding/brown asbestos for 45 years. Highly unlikely to ever have I’ll effects unless you work with it for a long time.
Fun fact: The ME163 had a "Brandwarner". A fire indicator reaching from 0 to 100% describing your likelyness of exploding. The rule was something like: Married man bail out @ ~60% Single man bail out @ ~80%
@@erict3728 ah well, as a man no one cares about you. Over the years and in different work situations I would hear about me and others. With Sincerity and without irony "why would you want to go home? you don't have a family?". "why should I work when He has nothing to go home to?". and this is almost always asked by a woman. Not having a family means your worthless and work is the only thing that makes your life meaningful. The real irony is that any family man begs for that moment alone. The ones that cant be alone have family PTSD.
@@kookamunga4714 I've been told no to request using vacation time because I'm single and have no family. I've literally been asked why I would want or need to take more than a day off because I'd just be alone anyways, and work should be the only thing that matters to me. Being a single man in the 2020's is pretty weird and I'm guessing it's unlike any other time in history. I've also been told I don't need a raise because I make more than many people who are taking care of families while making equal or less income, but I was offered all the overtime I can work.
" Before he realized the magnitude of his mistake, his remains had been spread thinly over the entire test shed. " It happened 100 times faster than the plane itself ever flew.
@Haku Yuki >>> My Dad was born in 1917, and died in 1995. My Mom was born in 1919, and died from Alzheimer's in 2015. If dementia had not gotten her, I suspect she would have lived to 100.
Unfortunately that was the approach of the Wehrmacht and even more the Nazis. Infantry attacks/fights were considered not enough enthusiastic if losses were to low etc... It was a shit time in every regard.
@@philo2077 After the news came out that Hitler committed suicide, regular German soldiers were furious because they were ordered to fight to the death when their head leader took the easy way out.
@@Mote78 yes he was a total shit person. My Father gave me a book: "Dir Lächerlichkeit des Bösen" - I'd translate with "the ridiculousness of evil" and this so called leader took the cake. One of his first orders after he had been elected cancellor was that "the citizen Adolf Hitler is freed from paying taxes from now to eternity". Telling isn't it.🤦
Suddenly the LF-22 Starling in GTA Online makes much more sense. From the high takeoff, climb and glide speeds to the almost uncontrollable landings, it seems like Rockstar really nailed it lol
@@Poodleinacan My dad's mother was such an awful woman, that when I was talking with my cousins , I would always remark that "they should bury that woman in an asbestos suit." When she died, my uncle, who was in a hurry to go off on a missionary trip, had her cremated... So she never got a chance to wear that suit. I only wish she could have known about that fact...😆😆😆😆😆😆
When you got a crap ton of tooling, supplies and machines to make rocket stuff(from the V1 rockets) it's really simple on why they decided to make such a plane Throwing stuff at a wall and see what sticks
@@h.w.6563 Not really, Germany had a large industry in rocket production on various scales. As they started to lose the war they just tried to use everything they had in storage hoping it'd work. In some cases it worked(Jagdpanther, Tiger II) while others were not so useful(Maus, Komet, Gustav train gun) As their backs were pressed against the wall, they really just tried to throw things at a wall and see what sticks. It's kinda how we got the Jet Engine for example
Think of it like going into your garage and selling anything not bolted to the floor because you are in debt. Using scrap to fix some lost forgotten machine to maybe turn a profit
When I was in my late teens I had the opportunity to meet Rudy Opitz, his remarks about the 163 was that he was lucky to survive. The suit was asbestos coated with rubber to keep the propellant from contacting them but small cracks and pinholes allowed the stuff to get in, he had small scars where it contacted his arms and he related that he had scars everywhere else. The seat was bolted to the keel and the skid even deployed didn't do a lot to soften the bumps.
Yes, but I read a book about this (development of the Komet). It was the first actual rocket plane; the pilots knew it was dangerous but it was also one badass ride, the X-15 of its time.
War is usually when the most significant scientific advances occur, nothing motivates pouring resources into research quite like the threat of an enemy nation!
@@c450-v2b nazi germany air force pilot. German air force pilot during world war II. Air force pilot with a swastika on his uniform. Who zeig hailed his superior officers, whose chain of command ended at Adolf Hitler. The poison for Cuzco, the poison chosen specifically to kill Cuzco, Cuzco's poison.
Seriously! Since both the T-Stoff & C-Stoff were colorless, why couldn't they have come up with an inorganic dye for one or both of them? It is my understanding that many jet fuels are dyed now, but I don't know how new this technology is.
@@Philip271828 The fuel in the Apollo Moon Lander's ascent stage was so corrosive that it only lasted one burn so they couldn't test the engines. Fortunately all of them worked as intended which can't be said of the ME163.
Eric Brown got out of the Komet, got a safe distance away, faced the flight crew and quoted Tyrion Lannister. "The next time I have an idea like that, punch me in the face!"
About twenty years ago I was at a friends wedding where I was introduced to an old German gentleman. He worked with the grooms mother and I was told later that he had a very interesting job during the war. He was a pilot and after some indiscretion, (my friend didn't go into what) he was put in a Me163 squadron. This was punishment. During one flight he took off and climbed rapidly to engage a group of American bombers but the plane was so uncontrollable at speed that he actually collided with one of the bombers. I was told he flew through it. He managed to land the plane afterwards. His officer who was watching from the ground, saw the whole incident and told him he was obviously meant to survive, so took him off flight duties. I don't Know how true this is but he didn't seem the sort to make such a thing up.
@@outlet6989 The japanese made a tactic out of it. Though in their case, once you were a suicide pilot, you had to try again until you actually didn't come back - or the war ended.
I don't believe this story to be accurate. Either his guns did some serious damage to the enemy's airframe before he broke through or he merely bounced off on a shallow angle and the plane broke up behind him from his gun shots and the impact of the collision. I just don't see a comet still being in any condition to land after bearing the full brunt of such an impact.
Ramming a plane with another plane would cause both to crash... And also most fights happen so far from air bases officer on the ground wouldn't see it.
actually, MOST of pop culture's MAD SCIENTIST cliches are based on...NIKOLAI TESLA who musta super-blown minds back then, since his stunts STILL blow minds TODAY! (EX: making flourescent light bulbs held by the audience LIGHT UP without any wires etc -- just a tesla coil nearby!) His exhibits of his shit was like INSANE SORCERY (and it still is today) and he was quite famous at the time and influenced society. (How ironic that he gets little credit for his ideas in use today from, AUTOMATIC DOORS at the grocery store (!) to flouresent lights (!) to the WALL OUTLET WE PLUG INTO EVERY DAY (!).... to ROBOTS...to CELL PHONES!!)
@Andrew Jackson Its also theorised that the groups broke into his hotel room after he had died and taken his belongings before using the underground railway.
Trivia: in one of the episodes of The Big Bang Theory in which Leonard is working on a secret new rocket fuel, you can see T-Stoff and C-Stoff written on his whiteboard.
Captain Eric Melrose "Winkle" Brown, CBE, DSC, AFC, Hon FRAeS, RN[1] (21 January 1919 - 21 February 2016) was a British Royal Navy officer and test pilot who flew 487 types of aircraft. RIP
storyguy His book "Wings on My Sleeve" explains his accomplishments. He was bilingual, both English and German speaking. He always made meticulous notes before flying a new type of aircraft, which is why he stayed alive. To this day, he's made more carrier landings than anybody else, and flew more types of aircraft than anybody else. Lot's of work for a good test pilot during ww2.
Frank Whittle's engine was first tested in 1937 near Rugby England but unlike the Nazis, safety was ok since the allies had no need to speed up development and vaporize pilots.
Everyone else in world: This thing is far too dangerous to be flown by anyone. Eric "Winkle" Brown: Nice wee kite, I'll take it for a spin. I love that people who had until recently been employed by the ACTUAL Nazis made him sign a liability waiver...
Many of the companies and people inventing these insane creations didn't really much care for the goals and causes of the Nazis. They were really only interested in the money and influence supplying the Nazis would bring them. When the Nazi rule ended, most of the inventors kept inventing and pushing science forward, only now under allied funding.
For a man who has ridden the wall of death on a motorcycle whilst another is going around with a grown Lion in the sidecar it must have been low. He had a distinguished career including the record for the number of aircraft carrier landing so must have either been astute at assessing risk of extraordinarily lucky... I think the former.
it's always fun to hear you pronounce German words. I sometimes really have problems finding out what exactly you "wanted" to say =D But then again, props to even trying ... our language is not easy. Great video! love it.
NOT one person watching really cares about "pronunciation of german words", except those wanting to be noticed in the comments for their german speaking powers
I love the story of Royal Navy pilot Eric "Winkle" Brown flying the rocket powered plane, and sharing drinks with the German ground crew after a successful fight. That kind of raw bravery is really awesome to see in history. Wonderful stuff. Thank you.
You said it went 1000 *mph* , yet the sound barrier, approx. 767 mph, was first officially broken in 1947 by US test pilot Chuck Yeager in the Bell X1. I believe you're referring to the official high speed recorded by the Comet, 1004 *kph* .
I believe you are correct. But I believe that the breaking of the sound barrier was a known phenomenon in dives. I think DeHavilland died in such a dive and Eric Pickles being the next test pilot. As I recall there is buffeting before and just after the speed of sound.
Greame Spens Eric pickles? I guess that explains why the guy always looked so wide and round in the House of Commons. I never did see him in profile, now I know why... you can’t. 🤔😂
The fate of Oberleutnant Joseph Pohs was even more grisley than described in the video. According to Major Wolfgsng Spate, one of the pilots who reached Pohs' crashed Komet: "Even though he was wearing a protective suit, his entire right arm had been dissolved by T-Agent. It simply wasn't there. The other arm, as well as the head, was nothing more than a mass of soft jelly."
6:33 Hanna Rietsch is a bit of a complicated figure. Probably the only female test pilot at that time, and an incredibly skilled aviator, as evidenced by the fact that she survived flight testing some of the most dangerous late-war German aircraft, including a piloted version of the V-1 flying bomb, and set numerous aviation records. Had a secret love child with Werner Von Braun, and after the war, ended up dating the President of Ghana and helping found the Ghanian air force. Was also friends with legendary RAF test pilot Eric Brown. Still, not sure if she ever truly accepted that the holocaust actually happened. It's speculated that she used the cyanide capsule that Hitler gave her to commit suicide in 1979.
A very small point... Eric "Winkle" Brown was indeed a legendary Test Pilot , but not with the RAF: he was with the Navy. He rose to the rank of Captain.
About 5:20 in, "...becoming the first pilot to exceed 1,000 mph in level flight." No. You meant 1,000 Km/H. See Chuck Yeager in "Glamorous Glennis," ca. 1947. First to break the sound barrier. First faster than 1,000 mph, Peter Twiss in "Fairey Delta 2," ca. 1956.
LMBO! Loved this! This has to be one of your funniest videos. No wonder that air marshal didn't want anyone flying it. BTW, I loved the way you recited his comments....it was perfect. The whole thing was a botch from beginning to end (the concept for the aircraft, not the video). Thank you for posting!
Hanna Reights was still in love with The Komet even after it nearly killed her. She did an interview in her eighties and she was still raving about how good it felt flying it.
While there are no airworthy ME163s remaining, there is an unpowered replica which flies as a glider. Despite its stumpy fuselage and wings it works very well.
It's said that the X-15 pilots (among them Neil Armstrong) were heartbroken when that research program ended. They were the elite of the elite, flying the fastest and most dangerous airplane in the world, and I'm sure their Luftwaffe predecessors felt the same way. The ME-163 Komet was insanely hazardous just to be around, let alone flying it, but that must have been awesome.
@@robertthomas4633 Hanna Reitsch was an important aviation pioneer. Nothing wrong with at least spelling her name correctly. Amelia Earhart, Pancho Barnes, Jackie Cochran... none of them even come close to what a ballsy aviator Hanna Reitsch was. If it weren't for her association with you-know-who, she would be celebrated today as a daring overachiever. She did some of the hairiest, craziest test piloting I've ever heard of. First woman to fly a helicopter, first woman in the Komet, and in the ME-262 jet fighter, among many other firsts, but that's how it is when you don't get to write the history because you're on the wrong side of it.
I actually had a chat with an old German workmate in the early 80s who flew these things. He originally flew stukas in Poland and North Africa. Upon returning to Germany he got pulled into this jet program. I hadn’t heard of them before and I thought he was pulling my leg.
My father had a WW2 book colection with pictures. The Spitfire, ME BF 109 and A1 Corsair were the most beautiful for me, but this little one ignite my imagination like no other. Nice video! 😃
In IL2: 1946 (and previous iterations of IL2 Sturmovik as well) it's indeed quite an experience. It takes off and climbs like a rocket (well, it basically _is_ one), as long as you have fuel left you can get either altitude or speed advantage at will almost instantaneously (compared to other aircraft), and you can zoom through those B-17 formations almost however you like. But with the extremely limited ammo capacity you have to make every firing pass and every shot count, even though it only takes one or two good hits from the 30mm cannons to bring down a bomber, and once you're out of fuel you become a gliding target for the escort fighters and enemy AA.
Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. The thing would explode if it took any damage. On the plus side, it climbed instantly and if you just flew underneath a B-17 it would auto launch a rocket and score a kill.
I remember never being able to successfully land the Me163 Comet in _Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe,_ a game that was _very_ generous with its landing parameters.
The Japanese actually tried to build a copy of this plane for themselves. Germany even offered to send over some finished airframea and blueprints. However, the sub carrying the cargo to Japan was sunk, and the Japanese were forced to make a plane based off of photographs and vague tech specs. The end result was the Ki-200, a plane powered by a similar motor to that of the Ohka, armed with Japanese domestic 30mm autocannons, and less prone to dissolving its pilots (though it it did suffer from poor handling and had a tendency to spontaneously explode).
The Japanese had their own Me163, built by the blue print and technical data provided by the Germans through transportation by U boat！ They had test flight once and then surrendered to U.S. with unimpressive result! zThe Japanese also built their own Me262 but the fate was same!
They were about to produce also a copy of ME-262, only underdimensioned. I have read that partial building plans were carried by a german U-boot. War ended while they had a pair of prototypes.
They were issued with protective uniforms so atleast the families had enough left to bury. In the UK one brought over for flight testing but not used was taken apart by a museum for preservation and they found a very rude Jewish word inside and the Engine was sabotaged. If anyone here had tried to start it it would have exploded.
@@MetalheadAndNerdseveral test pilots died because of workers sabotaging aircraft. It was a tremendously brave thing to do and a risk Germans took by employing slave labour. I believe one crashed because the tail plane spar had been cut halfway through. You can hardly blaim them.
Do you know the scene in Band of Brothers where Hobbler got shot by his own captured German Luger? It happened, and it was an issue. Some were so poorly made, anything squeezing the side set it off. Deliberate sabotage. Using slave labor to make weapons is one of the dumbest things anyone ever thought of. Almost as good, during the US Civil war, supposedly the Confederates considered freeing slaves if they'd fight to help keep the Confederacy free of the US. Let's see. I've enslaved you, beat you, beat your woman, sold her to someone else, sold your kids....Here's a loaded gun. And how does this story end? Needless to say, they didn't give this idea much life.
So let's get this straight... The most amazing thing about the Komet isn't that it's a rocket powered aircraft, it's that because of this thing the Germans actually made the world's first aimbot!
I had the honor of knowing Rudy Optiz, a world famous glider pilot before the war. He was a test pilot on the Me163. Part of his hand was missing from coming into contact with the fuel. He escaped Germany after the war and had a brilliant career at Sikorsky.
It seems to me they just should have outfitted these things with sprayers, gotten over and above the bomber flights, and then sprayed T-schtoff all over the place...
I say we just hang EVERY capitalist! NO MORE WAR! YAY!!! EX: it's not even a secret that WALL ST funded and created the NAZI PARTY in 1920 b/c the Capitalists of England / France / Murica were RIGHTLY worried that communism woudl spread (cuz most ppl AIN'T rich) after the 1919 Communist revolution in Russia (inspired by.....the American revolution!) GET RID OF CAPITALISM, and no NAZIS and NO WW2! Get rid of capitalism, and NO COLD WAR either! Hanging the rich solves 90% of the problems in society today!
@@kannonball5789 Modern war is an economic and logistic affair for the last couple hundred years. You can read about it in Clausewitz "On War". For at least 1000 years now, hurt pride has only ever been a pretence for economic gain by use of violence.
I first learned about these from an amazing old school (MS DOS) combat flight sim, Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. Deadly and untouchable, until they ran out of fuel and had to glide home.
@@Aatell764 sodium hypochlorite, usually. But you can use hydrogen peroxide as bleach, it is actually commonly used for a number of applications e.g. for bleaching hair. it is just not sold as a household item, because it has very limited shelf life, turning into water over time. The oxygen fumes it emanates also pose a serious fire hazard during storage.
@@Aatell764 peroxide is bleach. "Domestos" for instance changed from using hypochlorite to using stabilised hydrogen peroxide, because it could produce chlorine if mixed with acidic detergents.
The amount of technological advancement throughout the war years and early post-war years is astounding. It's always interested me. And let's not forget the vast contributions of Nazi scientists to nuclear science and the space/weapons programs of both the USSR and US.
Most of the German scientists that contributed to nuclear left before the party got into full swing. As for Russia's rocket program, surprisingly they didn't get very many German rocket scientists. But it balanced out, since the US basically ignored Von Braun up until they finally listened and made the Saturn project. No doubt if they had utilized Von Braun from the get go, they likely would have kept pace with with the Russians all the way along.
I used to play the DOS game Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, in which you could fly the Komet. In the game, the Komet was out fitted with vertical firing cannons that we triggered by the shadows of enemy bombers. You had to fly the Komet underneath the bombers to activate the photo-sensitive trigger. I watched the rest of the video and realized you mentioned this 😁
10:34 - Video uses the old trick of showing an already used piece of footage but flipping it back to front to give the impression it hasn’t been used before.
I had the pleasure of hearing Rudy Opitz deliver a lecture on the Komet. As an elderly man, he was still wildly enthusiastic about the plane, and I’m sure he’d jump into one for another flight without hesitation.
"...highly corrosive, and can strip flesh from bones in seconds.." As someone who has worked with ph 14 non-dilute chemicals, this is not a thing. Second degree burns are common, and even third degree burns if left without treatment for several hours. "Peeling flesh from bone", would require the individual body part to be submersed in a large amount of aqueous solution for more than 24 hours, and the reality is the bone itself would be what is most reactive, and the product that would be left with would be a rubbery lump of flesh that mostly retains its original shape.
Interesting. I just looked some stuff up regarding your comment. I didn't know bases can be more destructive yet less painful than acids. Thanks for giving me the inspiration to look that up. I had always assumed acids were more corrosive.
Acids burn your skin and get weaker. Bases eat through your skin get into your bloodstream and continue to eat you from the inside out. Haz mat training really makes you respect what you are working eith
I think he miss read, it would strip the flesh from your bones if accidentally mixed because it would violently explode and could blast the flesh from your bones. Because I loved WW2 planes and tanks and I have never heard of or seen any documents of anyone getting "dissolved", most were just fuck ups as he stated of them accidentally combining the two. And crashes with any fuel turned into an explosion.
There are many nasty human-made chemicals you wouldn't want to encounter under any circumstances. The only proper way to handle them is to run away very fast.
I believe they were intending to rename a street in Leith after Eric Brown. Also I am surprised that there has not been a film about him, friends of a German WWI ace, arrested by the Gestapo, sunk on an escort carrier to Malta and his single handed capture of an entire German air base.
OMG. Is this documentary or dark comedy?! The writing, editing, videos, quotes, and Mr. Whistler's delivery all make for a piece that is both penetrating AND hilarious. Bravo, sir!
Unlikely. The Komet squadrons flew short-range missions from a few bases up near the Danish border, far away from Austria. Read the book ‘The German Jets in Combat’ which gives details of their bases and missions.
At 16:03 in this video you state that the ME-163 reached a speed of over 1003 MPH, unfortunately the actual speed was only 1,130 KPH (or about 700mph) in July of 1944. Had they flown the rocket plane to the stated 1000 mph they would have broken the sound barrier and thus preceded Chuck Yeager by 3 1/2 years.
I flew with Rudy Opitz a few times as a glider student. He was chief flight examiner for gliders in Connecticut. He gave me the best instruction I ever received in a glider. "The glider wants to fly! Every movement of the control surfaces creates drag! Let the glider fly!" he barked at me in his clipped German accent! He also flew the ME 262 jet fighter. The performance, he said wasn't that impressive. "After the Comet, everything else seemed underpowered." he reported. One out of twelve flights was fatal for the ME 163. They put a dummy fuel dump petcock in the instrument panel not connected to anything at one point! The t-stoff was like teargas and fuel tanks lay next to each thigh in the cockpit! Also if you look at the Space Shuttle a tailless rocket that glides in for the landing it's very similar to the ME163!
Eric "Winkle" Brown had nerves of steel. I loved all those aviation documentaries with Winkle and Bader. Those two are so stereotypical UK, the "stiff upper lip, old chap" type, they make tea and crumpets look like mountain dew and a quarter pounder with cheese (that's a Royal with Cheese, Simon 😉)
