Tamiya 1/48 Heinkel He162 A-2 "Salamander"

While the Heinkel company pioneered jet technology with its successful test flight on August 8th, 1938, it lost out to the Messerschmitt Me262 which became the first operational jet fighter. A second chance came in September 1944 when the Luftwaffe requested proposals for a single-engine jet fighter that was simple to control and produce. Heinkel�s proposal was chosen because it promised a mass producible jet that could be flown by relatively inexperienced pilots. Rushed from proposal stage to finished prototype in 3 months, the He162 was first deployed to a base near the Danish border, but with only 1 month left until the end of the war in Europe, came too late to demonstrate its combat potential.