Again, Lucasarts Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe was the reason for getting this model. Although being quite small compared to other 1/72 scale planes (the He162 was a small plane), the Dragon kit was nice and easy to build. I run into some trouble when it got obvious that the paint I used was too old, but in the end the model got better than I expected.

The Heinkel He 162 was developed under the Volksjäger (People's Fighter) emergency program in March of 1944. From the current point of view, this program was complete madness. Those planes, build in hundreds and thousands, should be manned by teenagers of the Hitler's Youth, only having some basic flying skills got from a few hours of flying glider planes. They should engage allied bomber formations, but is is very doubtful that those unskilled pilots would be able to archive many air victories against the well trained allied pilots.

The first prototype of this plane, build mostly out of plywood, flew only three months after the specification for it were published, while the first production models entered service in January 1945. About 112 planes were completed and delivered to JG1 in the northern part of Germany, later some of them were transferred to the famous Jagdverband 44 near Munich and Austria, but the war ended before one of this planes saw any remarkable action.

After the war, several of this planes were tested by allied test pilots. It got obvious that this plane was quite difficult to fly, but a skilled pilot was able to gain much performance out of it. It proofed that it was as maneuverable as P51 Mustang, but was faster in acceleration and top speed. Therefore, it would be a good tactics to use this planes in conjunction with the Me262. The He162 was to take out allied escorting fighters, while the Me262 had to attack the bombers.

At least one of this planes survived and is now on display in a museum in England.