For He 162 Experts: He 162 that went to the US

[Peter D Evans]

My initial thoughts that it was "White 23" too Simon... but the lack of camo along the length of the engine nacelle doesn't match any of the images of "White 23" I have access too.

In fact, the only image I can find comes anywhere near matching the engine nacelle scheme are post-war shots of FE-489/T2-489. However, other aspects of FE-489's scheme don't match with Walt's photo. War Prizes actually states on a caption for a colour picture taken in 1970, that FE-489 retained its original colour scheme, but this is shown as being incorrect when you look at the period images of this He162 on page 111 of "Heinkel He162 Spatz" by R.Forsyth & E.Creek [Classic, 2008] where the nacelle is a solid colour and not anything like later images of WNr.120077... if I were a betting man, I'd go with it being a post war mid-repaint image of WNr.120077...

@ Walt/everybody - do we know from where the image is reproduced from?

Cheers
Peter D Evans
LEMB Administrator

[vzlion]

The same image, but showing the tail with Wnr 120222, appears in the Japanese "Aireview's German Military Aircraft In The Second World War". Copyright 1958. I'm reasonably certain it was taken in the US. The first few pages are all of aircraft with FE numbers except for the Heinkel. There are several other photos of this aircraft. It was in the German Aircraft Exhibit in Washington DC, in 1946(?).

Walt

[Roger Gaemperle]

That photo shows "White 23". A photo that shows its right fuselage side shows a very distinctive larger dark spot just in front of the gun trough which is also visible on the photos of "White 23" before all or part of the camouflage was repainted.

I once had a photo in my collection (unfortunately no longer and I didn't make any scans) of a He 162 at an exhibition in the US with a long yellow arrow. This must have been the real 120222 ("Yellow 7") as "White 23" ended at NASM partly in original camouflage and "Red 1" at Planes of Fame (I think it its repainted scheme but without yellow arrow).

Cheers,
Roger