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Re: Me 262 should have been used as a bomber?
ONLY 415mph at S/L? Don't confuse that with fighters capable of achieving that sort of speed at their optimum altitude. My EAS/TAS tables are at work, unfortunately, so I can't convert that into a speed at (say) 20000ft.
I believe that, given the wing thickness, the Meteor had a very similar Mach limit to the Me 262. I suspect that neither service variant could achieve this in level flight, unlike the Me 163.
The 262, engines aside, was clearly more ready for service than the Meteor. For those who believe that the Germans failed to apply sufficient priority to the jet fighter programme, a study of the delays and problems of the Meteor programme may make them less critical of the German effort. Arguments will no doubt never cease, but the success of the Mk.IV does imply to me that Gloster's more conservative approach could have resulted in a more generally useful fighter, had RR taken over control of the engine programme sooner. However, unlike Germany, Britain had no priority for a short-range bomber interceptor.
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