Heinkel He162 VolksjAger: From Drawing Board to Destruction: The VolksjAger Spatz Hardcover – May 21, 2009

This is a fantastic book by two well known authors. It is number 17 in the "Luftwaffe Classic" series. It describes the He 162 in five chapters. The first chapter cover the conception of the Volksjager and the subsequent design "competition". The second chapter covers the development and testing of the He 162. Chapter Three covers its brief and ineffective service career. The fourth chapter covers unbuilt He 162 projects. The final chapter covers the testing done in allied hands. There all also two appendices covering technical specifications and, most usefully, a production list.The book is, in Classic fashion, well illustrated with many photographs, reproductions of contemporary documents, and color profiles. It is the type of book that gives the impression that every surviving scrap of information about the He 162 has been assembled. The "Sources and Bibliography" leave the impression that the authors left few stones unturned during research.Although one wants to avoid the pitfall of reviewing the the aircraft and not the book I do have some reservations about this book. The authors seem to conclude that a.) this was a good aircraft with a few minor faults and b.) its proponents were correct when claiming that there was no impact on the production of the Me 262 and hence the development was entirely justified. The book itself does not seem to support those conclusions. One gets the impression that at best feelings about the merits of the He 162 were mixed. Further, the claim that production of the He 162 did not impact the Me 262 seems to be contradicted at more than one point. Francke at one point complains that the He 162 does not have the same priority as the Me 262 and is suffering thereby. This strongly suggests some competition for resources. At another point it is claimed that because the only factory that produced Me 262 wing spars was overrun it is fortunate that another jet fighter was being produced elsewhere. Or perhaps it suggests that, instead of producing another fighter, another source of Me 262 wing spars should have been started...One further point. Like all Classic Publications the authors of this book expect the reader to have a fairly extensive knowledge of how the Luftwaffe and indeed the Third Reich were organized. Many, many German words are left untranslated. It's "Wien" not "Vienna", "Oberst" not "Colonel", etc, etc. There is a Glossary but it is not nearly adequate for the novice.All in all, a superb book that I highly recommend.

This book provides a good look at this almost "last ditch effort" for a fighter A/C. It is easy to follow the excellent design into failure due to the lack of materiel and trained personnel. A good read.

This is the best book on the little known German WWll Heinkel HE-162 jet. It has every conceivable picture that exists for this type of jet. Its a must for your aviation library.

Great book for those aircraft / model / turbine enthusiasts who are interested in the early years of turbine aviation!

This is the book of book for the He-162. It is expensive but if you love this bird then you must have this book. No regrets.

Great book!

It's interesting from a political point of view as well as a technical one.The speed of design, of construction, and the man power that was need to bring it to completion was enormous especially at that time of the war.

The story of the so-called Volksjäger (the 'People's Fighter') project is told here in perhaps the most comprehensive work yet to appear on the type in English. The He 162 was a last throw of the dice by the Nazi leadership in mid-to-late 1944. Powered by a BMW turbojet, the He 162 achieved notoriety by going from drawing board to prototype flight in just three months, often at considerable human cost. Robert Forsyth and Eddie J. Creek offer a unique insight into the workings of the Nazi production system in the late-war period through many rare photographs, facsimile documents, detailed text and colour artworks. Development and deployment of the He 162 were compressed into the most restricted time frame possible - with almost inevitable consequences. No aircraft can go from drawing board to combat service without a prolonged period of developmental testing - the fact that the He 162 did so, in no way attests to any inherent brillance in the design or conception of the type. There was virtually no factory flight testing - this was to be carried out at unit level and this book exploits author Erik Mombeeck's considerable research into the history of the only fighter unit to have flown the type in combat Jagdgeschwader 1. The discussion surrounding the He 162's supposed combat successes also relies heavily on research carried by Rick Chapman in 1989 and I have to say that I think the authors conclusions, based on pilot reports and a translation of some German text to be erroneous. Nor is there any discussion of JG 1's Herbert Ihlfelds' claims as detailed in his bio 'Footsteps of the Hunter'Of particular interest though is a detailed photographic overview of the the famous JG 1 He 162 line-up at Leck, the text documenting the mix of resignation and relief felt by the men of the last Luftwaffe Jagdgeschwader who had managed to fall back to Schleswig Holstein and who were able to surrender to the British. Much of this passage is drawn from my own translation of Eric Mombeek's forthcoming history of JG 4 (Vol II), e.g. this extract from the JG 4 War diary for Sunday 06 May 1945;"Our aircraft, vehicles and other equipment is lined up as if for one last parade. The sight is an impressive one and will certainly give the British food for thought. We are proud to show off more than one hundred of our aircraft like this - from the ultra -modern Me262 and He162 that have flown only limited numbers of combat sorties - to the Bf109 and Fw190 fighters that have returned victories in thousands of successful air battles. All will pass into enemy hands. This afternoon several light tanks and trucks bring RAF ground forces onto the airfield. Oberst Nordmann then the Kommodore and Kommandeure have to go before the Colonel commanding the RAF forces. To our great surprise they receive a handshake by way of greeting! However we are airmen together - we remain sceptical as to what may follow the courtesies that our extended to us: what will happen when the other occupation forces arrive? The first orders are to draw up an inventory of all our matériel. All weapons must be handed in apart from the officers side-arms."Was the type a 'dazzling success' as previous authors have referred to it. Hardly.. In my view the authors go too far here in referring to the He 162 as '"an unprecedented aeronautical achievement". Quoted in French aviation magazine 'Le Fana' in 1997, French He 162 test pilot Raphael Lombaert - who warrants only a brief mention in this work - states that the He162 was 'anything but a success' & only 'dazzled' in the brevity of the conception process. The a/c itself as depicted by Lombaert was "pedestrian and dangerous". This was not a machine of sparkling performance by any stretch of the imagination. The most basic of fighter manoeuvres could in the He162 become "terribly vicious". Although not discussed in the Classic book, French He162s were never flown post-war for longer than 15 minutes due to concerns over the rate of fuel consumption and the horrendous noise from the jet engine right next to the pilot's head! Many died in crashes directly resulting from short-comings in the design. We can perhaps only agree with Lombaert when he states "whenever I see this a/c now preserved in museums I cannot help but spare a thought for all those that fell victim to this machine, truly a tool of desperation ..". That said this is still an essential reference work for all students of Luftwaffe World War II airpower and kudos to the authors & designer for putting it all together in this superb package.

A nice looking aircraft in some respects but one which was too rushed from start to finish and a product of the urgency and panic to address a war which was already utterly lost.A very good read, excellent photos, diagrams which chart the development of this miniature fighter which might well have killed more pilots than it would have claimed Allied aircraft.I liked this book and at 50 plus years it is nice to pick up something which tells you that there is still history worth writing and worth reading.Excellent.

A very thourogh description about the He 162 Project. Lot's of Pictures and small bits of information. A good compliement to other books on the subject.

My husband seems to be enjoying reading this book and he'd been looking for it for a while. Arrived on time.

a superb book from the classic range

Complete and exaustive discussion about the jet palne He162.A lot of images, drawings an extract of original technical book.