Stormbird
- By Douglas Gantenbein
- Air & Space magazine, November 2006
VERA, in her original glory, leads a group of Me 262s, captured by the U.S. Air Force, as they taxi for takeoff from the airfield at Lechfeld, Germany, in 1945.
NASM (SI Neg. #78-17901-15)
BOB HAMMER RECALLS THE DAY ten 18-wheel tractor trailers dumped the pieces of five Messerschmitt Me 262 Stormbird jet fighter reproductions in a hangar near the city of Everett, Washington. The pieces had been trucked in from Texas, where an initial attempt to build the aircraft had ended in lawsuits. “Parts everywhere—parts, parts, parts,” says Hammer, a retired Boeing engineer. “You never saw such a mess.”
That was in December 1998. For Hammer and a small team of volunteers, it was just the start of a long process to put the Me 262 back in the air. Now, the Me 262 Project, as it is called, has logged numerous successful flights and delivered two of the German aircraft, with a third nearing completion. With their project, Hammer and his team have brought the world’s first production jet fighter back to life.
The Me 262s could have wreaked havoc on U.S., British, and Russian forces in World War II had there been more of them and had those that made it into the action had reliable engines.
The Germans needed about five years to get the Me 262 off the drawing board and into the air. It took more than twice that to get a copy up for its first flight, late in 2002. The first effort to make Me 262 copies, which began in the early 1990s and involved warbird fan Stephen L. Snyder and a Texas aircraft restoration company, dissolved in acrimony. Snyder called on Hammer to take over the work. The effort was barely under way when Snyder died in the crash of his North American F-86 jet fighter in 1999. Years of problems with engine generators, brakes, and landing gear assemblies followed.
“At times we thought this was stupid and should just give up,” says Jim Byron, another retired Boeing executive who pitched in. “But that’s not the Boeing mentality, so we kept plugging along.”
Hammer and Byron—along with dozens of volunteers— worked doggedly on the difficult aircraft. Hammer is something of an aviation prodigy, a youthful-looking, sandy-haired 67-year-old who favors faded blue jeans and T-shirts. He spent 38 years at Boeing, working as chief engineer on the 757, among other projects. He has also built an array of aircraft in his spare time, most recently a four-seat Seafire amphibian that was named Grand Champion Seaplane at the 1998 Experimental Aircraft Association airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. On the Me 262, he handles most of the engineering challenges, while Byron, an avuncular 68-year-old with white hair, runs the office and manages the volunteer team.
The Me 262 Project is headquartered in a non-descript hangar at Paine Field, a large airfield north of Seattle. Aviation maintenance giant Goodrich has a facility there, and Boeing uses the field to roll out new 747s and 777s for their first flights after they leave the nearby wide-body plant. On the second floor of the hangar is a warren of offices and meeting rooms, the walls covered with Me 262 photographs and drawings. Downstairs, a crowded shop holds a completed Me 262 and more in assembly—wings, engines, and shelves of parts scattered around.
Hammer and his team took over the Me 262 project in late 1998, and their the first task was to finish Vera, a derelict Me 262 that Steve Snyder had found sitting outside the Willow Grove Naval Air Station near Philadelphia. Vera had been captured after World War II and flown as an experimental aircraft until it was sent to Willow Grove, where it sat on static display for many years. In exchange for the right to use Vera (the nickname came from the sister-in-law of a pilot who had helped capture Me 262s after World War II) as a template, Snyder had agreed to restore the aircraft to static-display quality. Snyder’s death nearly ended the Me 262 Project. But Hammer talked with two buyers he had lined up for Me 262 reproductions—the Messerschmitt Foundation in Munich, Germany, and a retired judge in Arizona named Louis Werner—and they agreed to finance both the restoration of Vera and the construction of two reproductions of the old warplane.
Comments (2)
Excellent article, but I would like to see some followup on the status of the project. Specifically aircraft #3 thru # 5. Thanks.
Posted by Jim Pocsik on April 12,2008 | 11:45 AM
My father, Karl Baur was with Col. Watson and Watson's Whizzers when they transfered post-war german aircraft to the U.S. It is my understanding that the Air & Space Museum has a display of a Messerschmitt 262 and a Arado 234. As a member of Col. Watson's group, Karl Baur piloted both airplanes. Are there other pilots who have multiple aircraft on display at the museum which they are known to have personally flown?
Thank You,
U.Baur
Posted by Ulrich Baur on October 14,2008 | 02:12 PM