{"id":6881589,"date":"2026-07-23T11:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T09:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/?p=6881589"},"modified":"2026-07-23T11:31:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T09:31:33","slug":"messerschmitt-me-163-komet-rocket-fighter-that-killed-its-pilots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/messerschmitt-me-163-komet-rocket-fighter-that-killed-its-pilots\/","title":{"rendered":"The Me 163 Komet: The Rocket Fighter That Ate Its Pilots"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style><p>The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet climbed at more than 3,600 metres per minute &mdash; so fast that Allied bomber crews, seeing it for the first time in the summer of 1944, could scarcely track it. In a single breathtaking arc it could reach the bombers, fire, and be gone. It was the only rocket-powered fighter ever to enter combat, and by any measure of speed it was a decade ahead of its time. It was also, for the men who flew it, one of the most lethal aircraft ever built &mdash; to its own pilots.<\/p><p>Designed by the brilliant aerodynamicist Alexander Lippisch, the Komet was a tailless swept-wing dart with no landing gear to speak of, powered by a Walter rocket motor of terrifying temperament. It burned two propellants that did not so much combust as detonate on contact &mdash; and which could, and did, dissolve the men strapped in beside them.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;border-radius:8px;padding:20px;margin:24px 0\"><div style=\"font-weight:700;font-size:15px;letter-spacing:.04em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#5C91FF;margin-bottom:10px\">Quick Facts<\/div><table style=\"border-collapse:collapse;font-size:15px;width:100%\"><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Aircraft<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Maker<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">Messerschmitt \/ design by Alexander Lippisch<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Role<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">Rocket-powered point-defence interceptor<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Powerplant<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">Walter HWK 109-509 rocket motor<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">First flight<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">1 September 1941 (powered)<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;font-weight:600;color:#333;vertical-align:top;white-space:nowrap\">Built<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0;color:#444\">~370 (about 339 delivered)<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A rocket with wings<\/h2><p>The numbers still astonish. On 2 October 1941 the test pilot Heini Dittmar took an early Komet to 1,004&nbsp;km\/h &mdash; 624 mph &mdash; the first piloted aircraft to break 1,000&nbsp;km\/h in level flight. In 1944 he pushed a later machine to 1,130&nbsp;km\/h, a mark no turbojet aircraft would match until 1953. For those few minutes, nothing in the sky could catch it.<\/p><p>The catch was the word &ldquo;few.&rdquo; The rocket drank its propellant in around four to seven minutes. A Komet launched on a jettisoned dolly, clawed for altitude, made one or two firing passes as a glider once the fuel ran dry, then had to dead-stick back to base and land on a retractable skid &mdash; a violent, unforgiving arrival.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s__sKI0GSRw\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=672182230  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/me-163-komet-museum-display-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Me 163 Komet on museum display\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A surviving Me 163 Komet \u2014 its stubby, tailless shape built entirely around the rocket motor. Photo: Wikimedia Commons (CC0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The propellant that killed<\/h2><p>The real danger was the fuel. The Walter motor burned T-Stoff &mdash; concentrated hydrogen peroxide &mdash; and C-Stoff, a hydrazine-methanol mix. The two were hypergolic: they ignited the instant they met. T-Stoff was so corrosive it would attack organic matter, including a pilot. A hard skid landing that ruptured a fuel line could soak the cockpit; more than one flier was killed not by enemy fire but by his own aircraft dissolving around him. The ace Josef P\u00f6hs died in 1943 when a fuel line failed on take-off.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y8-88jiIeUg\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p>Only one man flew a fully-fuelled Komet under power for the Allies after the war &mdash; the Royal Navy test pilot Eric &ldquo;Winkle&rdquo; Brown, who had few illusions about the experience.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;After jettisoning the trolley and retracting the skid, the Komet accelerated very rapidly. All of this felt like being in charge of a runaway train.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Capt. Eric &ldquo;Winkle&rdquo; Brown<\/strong> &mdash; Royal Navy test pilot<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img data-opt-id=55288037  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/walter-hwk-109-509-rocket-motor-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Walter HWK 109-509 rocket motor\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The Walter HWK 109-509 rocket motor, fed by propellants that could dissolve a pilot. Photo: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Spectacular, and almost useless<\/h2><p>Only one unit, Jagdgeschwader 400, flew the Komet operationally, first tangling with American B-17s on 28 July 1944. For all its speed, its combat record was thin: something like nine Allied aircraft destroyed against roughly the same number of Komets lost &mdash; and more pilots died in accidents, take-off explosions and propellant burns than in combat. Its combat radius was barely 40 kilometres; it could defend a single point and nothing more.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wVxtHLTJXTA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p>Around 370 were built, though far fewer flew in anger. Like the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/messerschmitt-me-262\/\">Me 262<\/a> jet, the Komet was a glimpse of the future arriving too early and too desperate to change the war. It was a magnificent, murderous dead end &mdash; the fastest way yet devised to frighten a bomber crew, and the men who flew it.<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;It could fly circles around any other fighter of its time.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Rudolf Opitz<\/strong> &mdash; Me 163 chief test pilot (via Flight Journal, 2001)<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#888;font-style:italic;margin-top:28px\">Sources: Smithsonian NASM; National Museum of the USAF; RAF Museum; Eric Brown, &ldquo;Wings on My Sleeve&rdquo;.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/pushed-by-angels-the-me-262s-doomed-revolution\/\">Pushed by Angels: The Me 262&rsquo;s Doomed Revolution<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/bereznyak-isayev-bi-1-soviet-rocket-interceptor\/\">Stalin&rsquo;s Rocket Plane and the Devil&rsquo;s Broomstick<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/the-f-104-starfighter-how-germany-turned-a-masterpiece-into-the-widowmaker\/\">The F-104 Starfighter: Turning a Masterpiece Into the Widowmaker<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet climbed at more than 3,600 metres per minute &mdash; so fast that Allied bomber crews, seeing it for the first time in the summer of 1944, could scarcely track it. In a single breathtaking arc it could reach the bombers, fire, and be gone. It was the only rocket-powered fighter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":6881557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[666,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6881589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-legends","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Me 163 Komet: The WWII Rocket Fighter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, the only rocket fighter to see combat, was lethal to its own pilots.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/messerschmitt-me-163-komet-rocket-fighter-that-killed-its-pilots\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Me 163 Komet: The WWII Rocket Fighter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, the only rocket fighter to see combat, was lethal to its own pilots.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/messerschmitt-me-163-komet-rocket-fighter-that-killed-its-pilots\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Afterburner - MiGFlug&#039;s Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MiGFlug\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-23T09:31:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-23T09:31:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/messerschmitt-me-163b-komet-rocket-fighter.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1383\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Max Gr\u00fcnwald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@migflug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@migflug\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Max Gr\u00fcnwald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/jetflights\\\/messerschmitt-me-163-komet-rocket-fighter-that-killed-its-pilots\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/jetflights\\\/messerschmitt-me-163-komet-rocket-fighter-that-killed-its-pilots\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Max Gr\u00fcnwald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/jetflights\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/da89e4a5834c9a932ee20751ed75569c\"},\"headline\":\"The Me 163 Komet: The Rocket Fighter That Ate Its Pilots\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-23T09:31:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-23T09:31:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/jetflights\\\/messerschmitt-me-163-komet-rocket-fighter-that-killed-its-pilots\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":714,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/jetflights\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/migflug.com\\\/jetflights\\\/messerschmitt-me-163-komet-rocket-fighter-that-killed-its-pilots\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\/\\/migflug.com\\/jetflights\\/wp-content\\/uploads\\/sites\\/4\\/2026\\/07\\/messerschmitt-me-163b-komet-rocket-fighter.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"History &amp; 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