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Although often viewed as a last ditch super-weapon, the Me 262 was actually under development before the start of WWII. Plans were first drawn up in April 1939, and the original design was very similar to the plane that would eventually enter service. The first test flights began in April 1941, but since the BMW 003 turbojets were not ready for fitting, a conventional Jumo 210 engine was mounted in the nose in order to test the airframe. When the BMW 003 engines were finally installed, both of them failed in-flight and the pilot had to land the plane with the nose mounted engine alone.
It was the third airframe that was to become a true jet plane when it took to the air in 1942. Instead of the planned 003 engines which were proving unreliable, the Jumo 004A-0 had become available and was installed in its place. The 004 was heavier than the 003, and as a result the [[center of gravity]] of the plane would have been too far forward for safety. Moving the engines to the rear was a simple solution to the problem, but as they were mounted centered on the wing spars this wasn't easy to do. The solution was to bend the wings themselves to the rear, leading to the enduring myth that the plane was designed as a [[swept
Test flights continued over the next year but the engines continued to be completely unreliable. Although all modifications to the airframe design were completed by 1942, they didn't enter production until 1944 when the engines finally started to work. Even then they rarely managed to last 12 hours, and it was not uncommon to have them explode during their first run-up tests. Planes often ended combat with one or both engines dead.
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