Why The USSR Didn’t Want To Copy The Me 262
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Why did the USSR and Western countries not copy the Messerschmitt Me262 and instead built their own?
Practical Engineering
Reverse engineering was an accepted part of Soviet industrial doctrine- Soviets were practical engineers. If they saw something that worked well, they’re more likely to copy it than invent something else.
For instance, basic yet important things such as external power connections in aircraft were lifted wholesale from German designs.
Tens of thousands of Soviet fighters used the Bf-109s power connector and after the war, two generations of MiGs used the Me 262’s signal flare dispenser.
The Reason
On April 1946, the day that Stalin was briefed on the progress of the Soviet industry pursuing jet aircraft, one of the proposals was to copy the Me-262 and put it into mass production.
Yakovlev argued in favor of incorporation instead of imitation on the grounds that merely copying would have a stultifying effect on Soviet aircraft design.
He also reasoned that the Me-262 was too complex to be copied and made too many demands of pilots and crews. Instead, twin-pod fighters were developed as competition to the Mig-9.
