The Sturmvogel or Storm Bird is the subject of 1CGS’ latest Developer Diary with some early 3D work in progress shots of the Me262 coming to IL-2: Battle of Bodenplatte. The developers asked us if we think it looks fast and I would say that it does with a resounding yes!

A few development shots

Though the diary was extremely short this week as the team is still largely on vacation (and a well earned one at that), we do get some lovely new in development shots of the 262 under construction. One of those shots even shows off the R4M rockets which were typically used against bomber formations.

The current understanding is that the Me262 will release last in the IL-2: Battle of Bodenplatte aircraft line-up. The team is currently or will be working on some of the technology and subsystems needed to simulate the aircraft’s jet engines and all of the physics that go into that as well as its flight model and near Mach flying capabilities. Though the Me262 can’t exceed the sound-barrier without suffering a catastrophic airframe failure, it can come extremely close in a dive.

Check it all out in the latest dev diary.

Soft spot for the 262

I have a bit of a soft spot for the Me262 (I even sort of named the blog after it) jet fighter. It’s not my favourite aircraft but it’s an absolutely fascinating aircraft to me.

The groundbreaking (and history defining) propulsion with its twin Jumo 004 jet engines is definitely part of my fascination. The aircraft was on the cutting edge of aviation when it first entered service. It offered a completely different experience for its pilots being faster and smoother than its piston engined brethren.

The shape and the overall design is another piece of it. I think the 262 represents an extremely interesting moment in history as this is an aircraft that was very conventional in its construction but also possessing some features and attributes that would influence future jet aircraft. It’s an aircraft rooted in both aviation past and in, from a 1940s perspective, the future to come.

It will likely be next year before we can fly this aircraft and I look forward to the experience.

A footnote

In writing this article, I also am realizing that we’ll have a sim that will let us all potentially fly a WWI bi-plane or tri-plane in one mission and jump into an early jet fighter in the next. That is the kind of variety that I absolutely love to see.