Some photographs of a Heinkel He-162 “Volksjager” awaiting restoration at our National Air Museum in Ottawa, Canada.
Not much of the “Volksjager” program remains – a last-ditch effort to mass-produce an advanced fighter aircraft to try and turn the impossible tide of the war. By the war’s end, slave labour was being used to mass-produce the He-162 in factories that sometimes were buried under mountains.
While the design’s merits may have been debatable, the concept was severely flawed in execution. For a start, the slaves being worked to death by the Nazi regime did not provide quality labour, either by the nature of their slavery or through intentional sabotage. In addition, the aircraft was meant to be constructed quickly and cheaply from wood that was glued together. Unfortunately, the glue being used tended to cause the wood to decay rapidly, so if the mass of fighters had made it into service, rapid and even catastrophic collapse would have occurred.
Moreover, the engine’s location above the cockpit would have made a pilot bailing out nearly impossible, and in practical use the aircraft would likely have been severely problematic under the best of circumstances.
It says much about the last-minute desperation of Nazi Germany that the He-162 was one of the better concepts available to pursue.