Me 262 Mach 1 Mystery

Did the Reich get there first?

- WALTER BOYNE

Not all fighter pilots are short, cocky guys wearing a big watch and offended if characterized as “cerebral.” Dr. Guido Hans Mutke was just the opposite, nearly six feet tall, well built, and possessed of a tremendous intellect that propelled him into the forefront of space medicine. He was not an ace, but he flew in hundreds of sorties in many different aircraft during his five combat filled years in the Luftwaffe. He did everything from night reconnaissance to strafing T-34 tanks crossing the Oder River to an ultimate achievement—going supersonic in the Messerschmitt Me 262—or so he thought.

Outlandish claims? Maybe not!

Despite not scoring five kills, Mutke twice made indelible marks on the flying world. First, it is “his” Messerschmitt Me 262, Weisse 3, you see at the wonderful Deutsches Museum in Munich. And for many years he startled the aviation world by asserting that he was the first man to have burst the sound barrier, having reached supersonic speed in a reckless dive that bent his Me 262 out of shape. Not everyone agreed that this was possible, but he fervently believed it until his death in 2004. He respected Chuck Yeager but regarded him as a Johnny-come-lately in the world of supersonic flight.