Valiant Wings The Heinkel He.162 – Airframe Album 13 (9780995777347)

[Mike]

The Heinkel He.162 – Airframe Album 13

A detailed Guide to the Luftwaffe's VolksJäger (9780995777347)

Valiant Wings Publishing

 

 

The He.162 VolksJäger was an emergency project that was instigated in a desperate attempt to reduce the devastation that was being caused by the Allied bombing offensive, using few strategic materials that were becoming increasingly scarce, and that was also supposed to be easy to fly.  A number of companies submitted their design with the Heinkel option gaining the contract, using laminated wood extensively in the aircraft's skin and mounting a single jet engine above and behind the single-seat cockpit.  It reached many goals as an interceptor, being small and agile with minimal used of metals in non-essential places, but it wasn't quite as easy to fly as hoped, and the use of the notoriously unreliable, fragile jet engine would itself limit production, even if the constant downpour of bombs forced much of construction underground in tunnels blasted out of the living rock.

 

In the end it was too little too late, with few reaching service, many being lost due either to its half-hour endurance and resulting gliding accidents, or structural failures due to the aircraft's hurried design and the use of slave labour in its construction, such as the tail unit, which had a habit of detaching under stress.  A number of pilots used the early ejection seats that were fitted, but some were killed due to failures in the system.

 

The Book

The thirteenth volume of the popular and interesting Airframe Album series by Richard A Franks details this sleek and sporty little interceptor that may well have gone on to better things if it has been given enough time to be developed properly.  It spans 88 pages and is perfect bound in an A4(ish) portrait format.  If you are familiar with the series you will know what to expect, with the book broken down into sections, as follows:

 

 

i) Introduction

A brief narrative history of the development and operational use of the He.162 by the Luftwaffe, as well as scartures and evaluated examples

1) Technical Description

Detailed coverage of construction and equipment

2) Evolution – Prototype, Production and Projected Variants

3D Isometrics illustrating differences between variants

3) Camouflage & Markings

Colour side profiles by Richard J Caruana, notes and photographs

4) Model

A build of the 1:48 He.162A-2 from Tamiya by Steve A Evans

Appendices

I Heinkel He.162 Kit List

II Heinkel He.162 Accessory, Decal & Mask List

III Bibliography

 

 

 

 

 

As usual with Valiant's books, the pictures are both high quality and unusual, with lots of "behind the scenes" shots of production, testing and their ultimate capture by the Allies, plus plenty more pictures of museum examples for those needing reference pictures.   I always find the 3D Isometrics very interesting to discern the differences between variants, and some of the projected types with Pulse-Jets like the V1, and V-tails are very intriguing, so much so that I've just been on eBay and picked up a conversion set.  Oh the shame of it!

 

 

Conclusion

Valiant Wings publish a good book about interesting subjects, and this is one that tweaked mine right away.  If you're a modeller, aviation buff or even just interested in engineering, this will make an interesting read, which you'll come back to again when you need it for references.

 

Very highly recommended.

 

Review sample courtesy of