Radio problems Me 262.

[Jaap Woortman]

In the KTB nr. 79 of Luftflottenkommando 3 was at September 10th, 1944 asked for assistance of a "Funkspezialist" for the Me 262s of Kdo Schenk. During September 8th and 9th, 1944 of almost all planes "Ausfall der Funkeinrichtungen" during operations.
Is the reason of this malfunctioning known and did it happened also after these dates.

I am thinking of the crashlanding of Oblt Lehmann at November 26th, 1944. He was doing an operation with Uffz Horst Sanio to Helmond area(Neth.). Sanio was hit by AAA over Helmond and both were flying away in North direction. Sanio made crashlanding near Vorden(Neth.) and Lehmann near Kirchwistedt(Germ.)
So Lehmann must have "missed" Rheine. Was he without radio-connection with his base? Did he had "Ausfall der Funkeinrichtung". Was also his compass not working well?
By the way, was there a relation between the radio and compass equipment?
I hope someone can help.

Jaap Woortman.

[Roger Gaemperle]

Hello Jaap,

I have no special reference to the problems that occured on Sept 8th and 9th. However, a document dated November 5th, 1944 that summarizes a visit to KG51 and Kdo Nowotny on Sept 21th and 22th mentions that fuel that leaked from the tank filler point (due to a bellows that didn't fit properly) and reached the radio equipment turned the equipment inoperative. In addition the high frequency cables of both the FuG16ZY and FuG25a were in several cases not connected correctly and sometimes broken.

The problem with the fuel filler point were not resolved satisfactorily until the end of the war.

Sometimes in fall 1944 the casing and mounting frame of the FuG25a were no longer made out of aluminium but out of steel. Additionally, the mounting frame for the 600ltr tank was also made out of steel. These parts affected the compass in the rear fuselage and the indicated direction was no longer correct.

A document dated January 12th, 1945 mentions that it was intended to introduce aluminium frames for the fuel tank for serial production from February 15, 1945 onwards. I don't know if the manufacturer of the FuG25 changed the material of the casings and mounting frames from steel to aluminium again, but I doubt it.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Roger Gaemperle

[Jaap Woortman]

Roger,

Thanks for the information.
I understood the explanation about the fuel leakage.

The compass problems, as explained, are understandable.
That's how it works with steel and magnetism. Nature will do his work, but was the "Kompensierscheibe" not used for the Me 262?
Or was the distance between compass needle and mounting frame not fixed/stable?

Jaap

[Nick Beale]

If you ever read "Plane Speaking" by Bill Gunston, he takes as a theme that in a radical aircraft it always seems to be the conventional features that cause the problems. Everything in this thread seems like it could have happened (and been fixed) on a piston-engined aircraft, so why did it all happen on a jet?

[ScreamingEagle]

http://www.arga-nl.nl/pages/vorden_me262a_uk.html

[Jaap Woortman]

One of the rotorblades in on display in my room.

Jaap