Test pilot Wolfgang Maia test-flies the MAM’s Messerschmitt Me262 reproduction “White 3” from Paine Field, Seattle, in early August. Credit: Jim LarsenThe Military Air Museum’s (MAM) reproduction Messerschmitt Me 262A-1c, “White 3”, made its maiden flight on July 22 at Paine Field, Seattle, USA, with test pilot Wolfgang Maia at the controls.

By the middle of August it was halfway through its 25hr flight-test programme, and the aircraft’s constructor, Legends Flyers, was hoping to deliver the General Electric J-85-powered fighter to MAM’s maintenance base at Suffolk, Virginia, USA, in September. The founder of MAM, Jerry Yagen, says: “After our own familiarisation and local test-flying from Suffolk we hope to eventually bring it to our museum facility in Virginia Beach.” The fighter has been painted as the 9./JG7 machine in which Hans Guido Mutke defected to Switzerland on April 25, 1945.

Jerry continues: “Currently, we have a new hangar under construction at Virginia Beach. It is an original Luftwaffe hangar built in the 1930s at Cottbus Airfield, south-east of Berlin, which we had dismantled. It is complete, with battle damage, and will house our Junkers Ju 52, Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and some additional German aircraft, including the Me 262. In the meantime we are also in the process of trying to locate a submerged Me 262 reported to still be in fresh water in Europe. We hope to be able to evaluate the location within the next three months.”