Hans Guido Mutke
Encyclopedia
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He was born in Neisse, Upper Silesia
Nysa, Poland
Nysa is a town in southwestern Poland on the Nysa Kłodzka river with 47,545 inhabitants , situated in the Opole Voivodeship. It is the capital of Nysa County. It comprises the urban portion of the surrounding Gmina Nysa, a mixed urban-rural commune with a total population of 60,123 inhabitants...
(now Nysa, Poland). He landed at Dubendorf, Switzerland on 25th April 1945, flying the Me262A-1c jet fighter, 'White 3', from 9 Staffel, Jagdgeschwader 7. He claimed that he got lost during a combat mission and landed there by mistake, although there were suspicions that he'd defected. The Swiss authorities never attempted to fly the plane, keeping it in storage and returning it to Germany on 30th August 1957. He sued the post-war German government, unsuccessfully, for the return of the plane, claiming it was his own property.
Mutke also claimed that he made the very first flight breaking the sound barrier
Sound barrier
The sound barrier, in aerodynamics, is the point at which an aircraft moves from transonic to supersonic speed. The term, which occasionally has other meanings, came into use during World War II, when a number of aircraft started to encounter the effects of compressibility, a collection of several...
in 1945, in an Me 262, though this claim is subject of controversy. Mainstream opinion continues to regard Chuck Yeager
Chuck Yeager
Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager is a retired major general in the United States Air Force and noted test pilot. He was the first pilot to travel faster than sound...
in his Bell X-1
Bell X-1
The Bell X-1, originally designated XS-1, was a joint NACA-U.S. Army/US Air Force supersonic research project built by Bell Aircraft. Conceived in 1944 and designed and built over 1945, it eventually reached nearly 1,000 mph in 1948...
as the first person achieving this milestone in 1947.
The Flight
On April 9, 1945, FähnrichFähnrich
Fähnrich is a German and Austrian military rank in armed forces which translates as "Ensign" in English. The rank also exists in a few other European military organizations, often with historical ties to the German system. Examples are Sweden, Norway and Finland . The French Army has a similar...
Mutke, part of the EJG2 conversion squadron
Squadron (aviation)
A squadron in air force, army aviation or naval aviation is mainly a unit comprising a number of military aircraft, usually of the same type, typically with 12 to 24 aircraft, sometimes divided into three or four flights, depending on aircraft type and air force...
, 3rd flight
Flight (military unit)
A flight is a military unit in an air force, naval air service, or army air corps. It usually comprises three to six aircraft, with their aircrews and ground staff; or, in the case of a non-flying ground flight, no aircraft and a roughly equivalent number of support personnel. In most usages,...
, took off from Lagerlechfeld in his Messerschmitt Me 262
Messerschmitt Me 262
The Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft. Design work started before World War II began, but engine problems prevented the aircraft from attaining operational status with the Luftwaffe until mid-1944...
, marked Weiße 9, for a planned high-altitude flight. He was climbing through at an altitude of 12,000 m (36,000 ft) in near perfect weather with a visibility of over 100 km, listening to the radio conversations, when his chief instructor Oberstleutnant
Comparative military ranks
This article is a list of various states' armed forces ranking designations. Comparisons are made between the different systems used by nations to categorize the hierarchy of an armed force compared to another. Several of these lists mention NATO reference codes. These are the NATO rank reference...
Heinz Bär detected a P-51 Mustang
P-51 Mustang
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and in several other conflicts...
approaching the plane of another comrade, Unteroffizier
Comparative military ranks
This article is a list of various states' armed forces ranking designations. Comparisons are made between the different systems used by nations to categorize the hierarchy of an armed force compared to another. Several of these lists mention NATO reference codes. These are the NATO rank reference...
Achammer, from behind.
Mutke went into a steep 40° dive with full engine power to assist. While passing through the altitude of 12,000 m, the Me 262 started to vibrate, combined with the plane swinging from side to side. The speedometer was stuck against its limit of 1,100 km/h (682 mph) (the maximum speed of the Me 262 is 870 km/h. The speed of sound
Speed of sound
The speed of sound is the distance travelled during a unit of time by a sound wave propagating through an elastic medium. In dry air at , the speed of sound is . This is , or about one kilometer in three seconds or approximately one mile in five seconds....
is 1,062 km/h (670 mph) at an altitude of 12,000 m, depending on the environmental variables). The shaking increased, and rivet
Rivet
A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the buck-tail. On installation the rivet is placed in a punched or pre-drilled hole, and the tail is upset, or bucked A rivet...
s started popping out of their holes. Mutke temporarily lost control of his plane. He reported that with the speedometer still off the scale he attempted to recover from the uncontrollable dive by adjusting the main tailplane incidence of the Me262. Rather than just having an elevator flap, the Me262 could change the incidence of the whole tailplane, a design feature that was later added to the Bell X1. Most significantly, Mutke claimed that without decelerating, the buffeting suddenly stopped and control resumed for a few seconds but he had throttled back and his engines flamed out and after the short period of smooth flight, the buffeting resumed and craft began shaking violently again. He fought to regain control and re-light the engines eventually reducing the speed below 500 km/h. After a difficult landing, it was found that his plane was missing many rivets and also had distorted wings.
Claims
At the time, Mutke did not understand the reasons for this strange behavior. Only after learning about the supersonic flights of Chuck YeagerChuck Yeager
Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager is a retired major general in the United States Air Force and noted test pilot. He was the first pilot to travel faster than sound...
in 1947 did he attribute these phenomena to the effects of supersonic flight and claim to be the first person to break the sound barrier. This claim is disputed, and there are a number of other pilots and countries that claim the first supersonic flight.
In a series of carefully controlled flight tests conducted in World War II by Messerschmitt, it was established that the Me 262 went out of control in a dive at Mach 0.86, and that higher Mach numbers would lead to a nose-down trim that could not be counter-acted by the pilot by use of the joystick. The resulting steepening of the dive would lead to even higher speeds and self-destruction of the airframe due to excessive negative G loads. Postwar testing by the British government corroborated Messerschmitt's results, though neither actually exceeded Mach 0.86.
Mutke claimed to have overcome the ever steepening dive by adjustment of the 262's whole tailplane incidence. Rather than just pulling back on the elevator, he reset the incidence angle of the all flying tailplane. This is the same technique employed by Chuck Yeager in the Bell X-1 to avoid what is known as Mach tuck
Mach tuck
Mach tuck is an aerodynamic effect, whereby the nose of an aircraft tends to pitch downwards as the airflow around the wing reaches supersonic speeds...
. However what is most significant about Mutke's claims are not his reference to buffeting. Buffeting was a phenomenon known to high speed aircraft test pilots and was the reason pilots were warned not to exceed critical speeds. Heini Dittmar encountered severe buffeting in his Me163a in 1941 at 1000 km/h and his observations were well noted by the Luftwaffe.
What is most significant was Mutke's observation that the buffeting stopped and control resumed without the aircraft slowing, with the speedometer stuck off the scale.
It is the cessation of buffeting and resumption of control at extreme speed that is significant, not that he experienced buffeting. Mutke experienced engine flame-out and his craft decelerated, and as it slowed he suddenly encountered buffeting again and loss of control.
It is the sequence of acceleration, buffeting, loss of control authority, sudden cessation of buffeting and resumption of normal control whilst speed increases and then later, deceleration and resumption of buffeting and control difficulty which is characteristic of a supersonic flight profile. Mutke did not claim supersonic flight because he experienced a shaking, buffeting plane. He claimed to have flown supersonic flight because the plane stopped shaking and became controllable again as speed increased. It started shaking again only as he decelerated.
To misunderstand this point is to misunderstand the significance of the claim and his observations.
After the war, American test pilots filed reports about the Me 262, including the possibility of a speed of Mach 1. A detailed discussion of the high speed capability of the Me 262 can also be found at Messerschmitt Me 262
Messerschmitt Me 262
The Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft. Design work started before World War II began, but engine problems prevented the aircraft from attaining operational status with the Luftwaffe until mid-1944...
. Compressibility in pitot tubes
Pitot tube
A pitot tube is a pressure measurement instrument used to measure fluid flow velocity. The pitot tube was invented by the French engineer Henri Pitot Ulo in the early 18th century and was modified to its modern form in the mid-19th century by French scientist Henry Darcy...
of the time often resulted in exaggerated speed readings near the speed of sound, particularly in German equipment, which was adversely affected by supply shortages as the war progressed. American Sabrejet
F-86 Sabre
The North American F-86 Sabre was a transonic jet fighter aircraft. Produced by North American Aviation, the Sabre is best known as America's first swept wing fighter which could counter the similarly-winged Soviet MiG-15 in high speed dogfights over the skies of the Korean War...
s and other high-speed aircraft (including the Bell X-1
Bell X-1
The Bell X-1, originally designated XS-1, was a joint NACA-U.S. Army/US Air Force supersonic research project built by Bell Aircraft. Conceived in 1944 and designed and built over 1945, it eventually reached nearly 1,000 mph in 1948...
) also experienced anomalous airspeed readings in the high-subsonic flight regime (between 0.8 Mach and Mach 1). The Me 262's pre-area rule
Area rule
The Whitcomb area rule, also called the transonic area rule, is a design technique used to reduce an aircraft's drag at transonic and supersonic speeds, particularly between Mach 0.75 and 1.2....
fuselage would have additionally resulted in very high transonic drag, and its engines were already underpowered and temperamental to begin with. However, aircraft such as the Bell X-1, F-86 Sabre and Convair F2Y Sea Dart similarly did not have area ruled fuselages yet are acknowledged to have flown at supersonic speeds—here the engine thrust, either alone or in combination with the pull of gravity during a dive, supplies enough force to accelerate the airplane to supersonic speed. Thus, having an area-ruled fuselage is in no way a prerequisite for supersonic flight. The Mach-20 Space shuttle does not need to have an area ruled fuselage, either, as it generally only dissipates energy (brakes aerodynamically) and slows down when returning from the orbit.
Due to the nature of Mutke's combat flight, it is impossible to determine the exact speed of his plane, and it is also difficult to estimate the exact speed of sound at that time and altitude. Therefore, it is not possible to either prove or disprove his claims, and there is much discussion among experts as to whether the Me 262 was able to break the sound barrier. It is believed that the damaging effects experienced by Mutke were a side effect of supersonic airstream and shock waves over different parts of the airframe called buffeting. This effect occurs at speeds approaching Mach 1 but ceases above Mach 1. A number of other Me 262 experienced similar strange accidents, or breaking apart in the sky because of buffeting and the different aerodynamics at the sound barrier. Transonic buffeting effects had also been widely reported by pilots of propeller-driven Allied fighters including the Supermarine Spitfire
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. The Spitfire continued to be used as a front line fighter and in secondary roles into the 1950s...
, P-38 Lightning
P-38 Lightning
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a World War II American fighter aircraft built by Lockheed. Developed to a United States Army Air Corps requirement, the P-38 had distinctive twin booms and a single, central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament...
and P-51 Mustang
P-51 Mustang
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II, the Korean War and in several other conflicts...
, aircraft that were known to have top diving speeds of less than 0.85 Mach. Allied fighter pilots reported seeing supersonic shock waves and popped rivets during dives as the high-speed air rushing over the wing exceeded Mach 1 even though the forward airspeed of the overall aircraft was well below that speed.
Proponents of the claim also often believe that after the end of the war the allied powers had no interest in emphasizing any German achievements during the war. Mutke's claim, however, is unique and without controlled, experimental confirmation.
A computer based performance analysis of the Me 262, carried out in 1999 at the Munich Technical University, has shown that the Me 262 could exceed Mach 1.
After World War II and Death
After the war, he moved to Argentina, where he flew Douglas DC3's for several airlines. he worked as an airline pilot. Returning to Germany, he completed medical training and either a doctor for aviation medicine or gynaecologist (there is some doubt about which). He died in Munich in 2004, during a heart valveHeart valve
A heart valve normally allows blood flow in only one direction through the heart. The four valves commonly represented in a mammalian heart determine the pathway of blood flow through the heart...
operation. He donated his bodily remains to the anatomist Gunther von Hagens
Gunther von Hagens
Gunther von Hagens is a controversial German anatomist who invented the technique for preserving biological tissue specimens called plastination.-Early life:...
.