Heinkel He 162 upper wingcolour Mystery

[SMF144]

Hi Philippe,

Thanks for the photo of the fuselage. I too have taken many photos of 86 and am glad that I did because of it's rarity.

Sure, please send along a photo of the cockpit of 015; I'd appreciate that.

What's interesting with the fuselage photograph is it shows the differences between the two greens (wing and fuselage) and the colour on the fuselage is defintely more of a olive colour. Also, your photo shows a thick layer of dust, mine also, and this does have an effect when taking pictures with a flash. In order to study 086 it needs to be professionaly cleaned.

Hopefully some day this will happen because it will certainly advance our knowledge in late war German camouflage colours.

Stephen

[NC900A8]

Hi Stephen,

Here is the promised photo showing the cockpit restored in 1989, when this plane "was the 120223", but now the real 120015:



Sorry I must left the forum now, but I will come the next week!

[O.Menu]

And here an updated beta list about the He 162 found at Leck...

Happy to see you there Philippe, can't wait to learn the final identity from 120015... As you will see i bet more for 'white 1' than 'white 21' but you have the clue! Perhaps a third one?

Greetings
Olivier.

[NC900A8]

Hi Olivier,

Don't forget in your He 162 file to notice my two other papers in
"Aeroplane monthly-April and May 2006,
Flugzeug Classic -July and August 2006"

About the color of individual code number, remenber that all he 162 fuselage are not painted in the same camouflage color!
If you look closely in lines of He 162 at Leck, you can see some fuselages in darker color, some are painted in "classic RLM76", some in RLM65 and some in the famous derivative RLM76 like "duck-egg-green".
So It is very difficult to be sure that the code is in white or in yellow!

As we are preparing a book on the restoration of 120015, you will see that after the final restoration, surely in 2008.

[SMF144]

Philippe,

Will the book be available in English?

Stephen

[NC900A8]

Stephen,

It's a very good idea!
Today it is only a project with the photos"s legend in english, like also a summary.
Pehaps also a sumary in german?

All is possible!!, but not before the end of restoration...........no date today...........restoring a plane is a very hard job if you want to work perfectly like in 1945.

[Simon Schatz]

Hi folks!

Just short, as I'm little busy at the moment!

Olivier! Thank you for the updated list! I'm currently also working on an update of the list, as I have got some new information from Manfred Griehl. I'm also doing a list with camouflage and markings notes!

Just one think I can tell now: Have a detailed look at the fin of White 5! It's the one and only He 162 I have ever seen with two different coloured vertical fins. Left one is RLM 76 and right one RLM 82. As original Junkers fins were RLM 76 I think the right one was a replacement from another plane! 310078 could be possible as there were some other Bernburg planes with such high werknumbers.

Don't forget that 310018 made an emergency landing on April 1st near Nurnberg. So maybe 310018 never joined JG 1. Would be interesting what happend to the other 2 planes (310002 and 310006) and their pilots.

Philippe, are you really sure with the Balkenkreuze on the lower side of the wing? I have a picture showing white 3 (120028 ). There you can see the old style of the Balkenkreuz. As the other White 3 (W.Nr 1200XX) and other planes of the early series had these style of Balkenkreuz why should have 120015 other markings?

Cheers, Simon

[NC900A8]

Hi Simon,

I have no explication at this time!
We are only sure, after cleaning the 4 french paints, to discover the original german paint, because after this last paint we discovered the wood structure of the wing!
Sorry , but like you, I know this photo, but I am in front of the reality of a plane just in front of me!!
I am not front of a B&W photo, but a real He 162.
And this wing is RLM 65 and RLM 70.
Wait after the book so you will see the photos, not before!

[O.Menu]

Originally Posted by Simon Schatz

Have a detailed look at the fin of White 5! It's the one and only He 162 I have ever seen with two different coloured vertical fins. Left one is RLM 76 and right one RLM 82.

Yes, saw that also... It's already noted inside the above list Note also that there is not any W.Nr. on this green right fin...

But it's not the only one...

When it had been pictured at Leck, 120223 "yellow 1" was under repair with a missing wing tip on it's left wing and with a new green fin and rudder on the right side!

Strangely when 120015 had been examinated in 1970 it was discovered the W.Nr.120223 painted in black on it's right rudder!!!
But with good eyes you will see from the photo that a white swastika is visible under the black one, so the original fin color was green. (Interesting to note how the white swastika was slightly higher and bigger than the latter black one. They are both in correct size and position so it's not a post war French job)

The 120015 right rudder in 1970 thanks to Jean-Claude Mermet: http://modelarchives.free.fr/photosc...empennages.JPG

Conclusion: After surrender Germans gave helps to fly, to repair but also to finish the painting and marking job. Jean-Claude Mermet told me that it was the Germans who added the red arrow on nose from 120086 and "yellow 3" after surrender. On this same way it seems that they also try to finish to repair 120223, including the overpainting from it's green right rudder with RLM76 and the corresponding black markings.

Cheers, Olivier

[O.Menu]

Originally Posted by NC900A8

For our 120015, one fin come from 120223, one from 31005 and the ejection seat from 120231!!

Hi Philippe!

This is one more proof that the French 120093 is actually 120231 "white 6" with only the tail from 120093. It has the same unpainted front fuselage, the same dark nose, the same white roundel at the end of the rear fuselage and so on... The "white 2" visible on the fuselage side doesn't exist at all, it's an optic illusion, all it's edges are made by the batch of wires... And IMHO 120093 can't have the RATO attachement points visible on the photo, which very probably appear only with the 120201 batch...