Heinkel He 162 upper wingcolour Mystery

[Simon Schatz]

Hi Guys!

During research for the He 162 I found this pics:

http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/d...ages/20459.jpg
http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/d...ages/20461.jpg
http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/d...ages/20462.jpg
http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/d...ages/20475.jpg
http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/d...ages/20646.jpg

That's the 120076 now under display in the Canada Aviation Museum in Ottawa.

My questions:

Has anybody ever seen a wartime pic of the He 162 having such a camouflage on the upper side of the wing?

I have no facts about the museum history of the 120076. Was there a restauration or is the plane in it's original condition from 1945?

More pics of the plane you will find here: http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/c...&submit=Search


Cheers, Simon

[Stefan Vetteriek]

Hello, Simon,

a wartime picture of W.Nr. 120067 can be found on p. 374 in

SMITH, J. R.; CREEK, E. J. (2005): Jagdwaffe – Jet Fighters and Rocket Interceptors. Luftwaffe Colours Vol. Five Section 4. Ian Allan Publishing. Hersham.

or on p. 32 in

BALOUS, M., BILY, M. (2004):Heinkel He 162 Spatz (Volksjäger). MBI. Praha.

The Jagdwaffe reproduction is the better one.

The original camo differs from the museum pics in several aspects so the a/c must have been repainted.

HTH

Stefan

[Simon Schatz]

Hi Stefan!

W.Nr. 120076 not 120067!!!

Nevertheless thanks for the try of assistance.

Cheers, Simon

[Sergio Luis dos Santos]

Hi Simon,
I never saw an He 162 photo with splinter camo on wings or fuselage. The Salamander was the first one to use the simplified camo scheme without the splinter aplication, as can be seen on his factory camouflage scheme. The museum looks to me a badly done camo restoration... but?

[Simon Schatz]

Hi Sergio!

The "Spatz" not "Salamander" had wodden wings. They were produced by small carpenter companys. Maybe possible that they painted such camo on the wing????? The colours differ from the other colours of the plane.

Has anybody ever seen a official document for the painting instructions for the He 162? I haven't, I only know only all the well known publications showing the wings in RLM81 and 82. (One colour per side) I have never seen a wartime pic of the He 162 showing the upper side of the plane.

Cheers, Simon

[Stefan Vetteriek]

Hi, Simon,

sorry for mixing up the W.Nr. He 162 W.Nr. 120067 is a "yellow 4" too.

Let me have a second attempt:

On p. 28 of an older issue of the french modelling magazine "Replic" (only kept the pages of interest, issue # isn't noted) there is a color picture of W.Nr. 120076, according to the caption taken on the 2nd of august 1945. Again especially the demarcation line between upper and lower camo bears no resemblence to the musuem camo pattern. This once more leads to the conclusion that this aircraft must have been repainted.

Now I hope this REALLY helps!

Best regards

Stefan

[NC900A8]

Hello every body!

Philippe Couderchon come again after a long silent.

After my paper relating the story oh french He 162 in the french magazin AFM, I decaded to write the same paper for the english and german reader!
So you can see this article in Aeroplane monthly-April and May 2006, and in Flugzeug Classic -July and august 2006.

About the restoration of the wnr.120015, you can follow it on the web site at:
http://memorial.flight.free.fr/He162.html

At this time, the wings are now painting........in RLM71/RLM65.
See the photos just published two days ago!!

When the restoration will be finished, we will publish a book with many photos and informations!!

Best regards,

Philippe Couderchon

[Pascal Abbet]

Bonjour Philippe,

Nice to read you again!
I regularly follow the project progression.
I’d like to know when do you expected to finish the restoration?

Looking at the picture of the repainted wing on the web site, I was surprised to see the thin Balkenkreuz in the under surfaces. A well known picture (front) of the 120015, 21 white (yellow?) publish in different books lets show a bold black cross.
How did you determine the type of the marking? recovered during the restoration?

Thanks in advance and I’m very impatient to read the new publication about this extraordinary project (plane and restoration).

Salutations de Montréal

Pascal

[jmelson]

Hi all,

This restoration project is obviously a labour of love. I'm surprised that the wing markings (top) do not reflect the correct style that was used. Also, painting the wing RLM 71 when it is apparent that this aircraft along with 120076 and 120086 show a 'vivid' dark green colour upper surface. This 'different' shade of green is visible on the wing under the engine nacelle on all three aicraft. In the case of 120086 it was shown that the entire wing was this colour.
So, often the final touches detract from all the great work that was done....much like the wrong style roundel etc. on the CF-105 Avro Arrow replica and the '35' on the Me262 restoration.

Cheers,
John

[NC900A8]

Bonjour Pascal and all,

Thus by looking at the site of Memorial-Flight-Aassociation, you saw that the wings are entirely in dark green RLM70 (I wrote by error 71) and blue RLM65. These wooden wings come well from a subcontractor carpenter localised around the principal factory at Vienna –Mareinhe .
It is true that the principal aeronautical factories conformed to the new paintings required by the RLM, like the RLM81 and 82. But these large companies, by receiving their batches of new paintings, and to make economies, transferred their old paintings towards the small factories like carpenters..... which used them, even at the end of the war.
If you look at our site, you will find the photographs of two hoodings of the engine which are well in RLM81/82, therefore in conformity with the directive of camouflage of He 162, as my friend Ken Merrick in his last book tells it on the camouflages at “Classic books”. For our fuselage, it will be a surprise in the current of the year 2007!
This strange camouflage is, today, only avalable for our 120015, one of the first He 162 built at Marienhe.
For the 120076 and 120086, I hope the upper wings camouflage was painted in RLM82/81....the carpenter was perhaps different !
Also the air-entrance of 120086 she is in RLM02, like our 120015.
For me, the splinter camouflage on 120076 is Canadian, not German, same thing for the Chino’s 162.
Best regards from France,
Philippe