Hobby Boss Aircraft 1/48 Me-262 V056 Kit

One thing about the Me-262 is that it was a versatile airframe, being used as a fighter, bomber, recce bird, trainer and night fighter. For the latter job, it needed to be seen if the standard airborne radar of the time would fit into the airframe and if it was possible to intercept aircraft. There was some thought that the speed of the plane would be too great to make for a successful night fighter. The only way to determine that would be to develop a prototype.

A standard day fighter was removed from the production lines and outfitted with a FuG 218 'Neptune' 158-185 Mhz radar set and antennas. This was one of the newer array's used by Bf-110 and He-219 night fighters, among others, currently in service. The modification also included wing mounted antennas to help in image resolution. The results were positive as the aircraft was fully capable of intercepting aircraft. The workload on the pilot was considerable so it was recommended that a two seat plane be developed with a dedicated radar operator.

Interestingly, V056 was used in a variety of additional experiments, so it had quite an interesting airframe life.