Oberfeldwebel Schubert, one of the few Komet pilots who had a confirmed kill. His victim, a B-17 seen here, is already on fire as a cannon shell hits the port outer propeller. The Fortress disintegrated shortly after. The frame is part of Schubert’s camera gun record, shot on August 24, 1944.

After the German capitulation in 1945 at least 25 Me 163 Komets were captured and delivered to the RAE. Other aircraft were shipped to Canada, Australia and the USA. Pictured here is one of Me 163s that found their way to America where it was photographed by HOWARD LEVY. Me163B-Ia, 191190, now in the NASM at Washington.

Of the ten Me 163s surviving today two of them are in the Canadian National Aeronautical Collection. One, an Me163B, serial number 191916, is on view in the Canadian War Museum and a second, serial number 191095, was stored at Rockliffe for some years before restoration by the staff of the National Aeronautical Collection. It was subsequently placed on loan to the USAF Museum at Dayton, Ohio, but has since returned to Rockliffe.

Operational Comets of JG400 at Brandis, near Leipzig, in August 1944. The unit was formed to protect the nearby Leuna synthetic oil plant from US 8th AAF daylight attacks. The success of the unit was limited; by September the plant producing the Komet fuel was bombed and the aircraft grounded.

The incredible Walter HWK109-509A-1 rocket motor installed in a Me163B. This engine weighed a mere 365lb yet produced a maximum thrust of 3,750lb. The unit had a dipsomaniac’s thirst however, burning its combined fuel of hydrogen peroxide (T-Stoff) and hydrazine hydrate in methyl alcohol (C-Stoff) at the rate of 336gal per five minutes.

Oberfeldwebel Schubert, one of the few Komet pilots who had a confirmed kill.

A production Me163B-Ia photographed at Bad Zwischenahn, near Oldenburg. This machine. No. 14, was one being evaluated by GeKados: Geheime Kommandosache 16 (No. 16 Secret Test Commando). The blanked off blast tube for the port 30mm MK 108 cannon is visible at the wing root. Other points of interest include the jettisonable take-off trolley and the fully retracted landing skid.

No. 14 is towed to its take-off point past a light railway line by a special tractor called a Scheuschlepper. The scene was photographed at Bad Zwischenahn in the autumn of 1943.

After the German capitulation in 1945 at least 25 Me 163 Komets were captured and delivered to the RAE. Other aircraft were shipped to Canada, Australia and the USA. Pictured here is one of Me 163s that found their way to America where it was photographed by HOWARD LEVY. An Me163B-Ia photographed at Freeman Field shortly after the War

Few aircraft in the history of aviation can have been more hazardous to land than the Komet. Essentially a glider, all landings were forced: there was no chance of going round again. If the pilot misjudged the approach - and many did - then an overrun or heavy touch down could ignite and explode any unburnt fuel, with invariably fatal results. The aircraft depicted here landing at Bad Zwishchenahn, V-33, a Me163B-Ia, is one of 70 early production Komets, given Versuchs numbers and used for experimental and training sorties.

After the German capitulation in 1945 at least 25 Me 163 Komets were captured and delivered to the RAE. Other aircraft were shipped to Canada, Australia and the USA. Pictured here is one of Me 163s that found their way to America where it was photographed by HOWARD LEVY. An unidentified Me163B-Ia with non-standard paint scheme.

The panel of the operational Komet. Visible instruments include a rate-of-climb calibrated up to 150m per sec (29,000ft per min), a turn-and-slip, an ASI reading from 100 to 1,000km hr, fuel contents X 100, pump turbine speed(?) and altimeter. The top two gauges on the starboard sub-panel are indicating T-Stoff and C-Stoff pressures.