The Messerschmitt Me 163 'Komet' was initially designed by Alexander Lippisch as the first of a series of German rocket-powered fighter aircraft. It ended up being the only rocket-powered fighter aircraft ever to have been operational and the first piloted aircraft of any type to exceed 1000 kph (621 mph) in level flight. Its design at the time was revolutionary and its performance unprecedented. German test pilot Heini Dittmar reached 1,130 km/h (700 mph) in June 1944, an unofficial flight airspeed record unmatched by turbojet-powered aircraft for almost a decade. A further flight was claimed to achieve 713.5 mph - close to breaking the sound barrier. Over 300 aircraft were built though the early Komet proved ineffective in its dedicated role as an interceptor and was responsible for the verified destruction of some nine Allied aircraft. American sources claim eighteen losses recorded to the 163 but these cannot be verified.
Work on the Komet's design started under the aegis of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug (DFS), the German Institute for the Study of Sailplane Flight. The first design was in fact a conversion of the earlier Lippisch Delta IV known as the DFS 39 and used purely as a glider test-bed for the airframe and design. A larger follow-on version with a small propeller engine started as the DFS 194 but this used wingtip-mounted rudders which Lippisch felt would cause problems at high speed. Lippisch changed the system of vertical stabilization for the DFS 194's airframe from the earlier DFS 39's wingtip rudders, to a conventional vertical stabilizer at the rear of the aircraft. The design included a number of features from its origins as a glider, notably a skid used for landings, which could be retracted into the aircraft's keel in flight. For takeoff, a pair of wheels, each mounted onto the ends of a specially designed cross-axle, were needed due to the weight of the fuel. The wheel assembly was released shortly after takeoff.
DFS seemed incapable of building the prototype fuselage and Lippisch asked to leave DFS and join Messerschmitt. On 2nd January 1939, he moved with his team and the partly completed DFS 194 to the Messerschmitt works at Augsburg. The delays caused by this move allowed engine development to catch up so once installed at Messerschmitt, the team was able to move directly to a rocket-powered version. The first airframe was completed in Augsburg and in early 1940 and shipped to be mated with its engine at Peenemünde-West, one of the quartet of Erprobungsstelle-designated military aviation test facilities of the Reich. Although the engine proved to be extremely unreliable, the aircraft performance was impressive reaching a speed of 550 km/h (340 mph) in one early test.
On the Me 163B and 163C a windmill generator was fitted on the nose of the fuselage providing the electrical power for the radio, the Revi16B/C or D reflector gunsight, the direction finder, the compass, the firing circuits of the cannons, and some of the lighting in the cockpit instrumentation.
In service, the Me 163 turned out to be difficult to use against enemy aircraft. Its tremendous speed and climb rate meant a target was reached and passed in a matter of seconds. Although the Me 163 was a stable gun platform, it required excellent marksmanship to bring down an enemy bomber. The Komet was equipped with two 30 mm (1.18 inch) MK 108 cannons which had a relatively low muzzle velocity of 540 meters per second (1,772 feet/sec), and were accurate only at short range, making it almost impossible to hit a slow moving bomber. Four or five hits were typically needed to take down a B-17.
Development continued throughout the remaining months of the war and one proposal was the V-tail to improve stability in flight and allow provision for a parachute housing to further aid recovery on landing - the source of most 163 losses. The aircraft was never built except for a wind tunnel model but enough details remain to build a 'what if' model.