He 162 A-1

He 162 A-1

He 162 A-1

Germany

V Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
6.3	6.0	6.7

Class:

Fighter

Jet fighter

Purchase:Bundle or Gift

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Description

The He 162 A-1 is a gift Rank V German Jet fighter with a battle rating of 6.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was first announced in Update 1.59 "Flaming Arrows" as a possible event vehicle, but was not available to all players until the 2017 War Thunder 5th year anniversary in Update 1.73 "Vive la France". The requirement to win the He 162 A-1 is to be in the top 8 in the 1 vs 1 Victory Tournaments or 5 vs 5 Victory Tournaments.

The He 162 A-1 is an unique jet design in the game, most notable for its top-mounted jet engine, a consequence of its development as an easily produced jet fighter for the Luftwaffe's Emergency Fighter Program. The program also called for the materials used in the design to be of wood rather than metal.

Still, the He 162 A-1 profile is tiny and stream-lined for a jet fighter. The wing span is relatively short, leading to the small target profile the He 162 presents. On the edges of the wings have drooping tips that were meant to stabilize the aircraft. A standard tricycle landing gear is used in the design.

The coloration in the design takes a two-tone colour scheme with brown and green on the top, with white camouflage for the underbelly. A good portion of the aircraft is green, but the brown scheme covers the engine, right wing, and right tailplane.

Two 30 mm Mk 108 cannons are mounted on the He 162 A-1, presenting great anti-bomber power in an intercepting role but with minimum ammunition. The recoil force is also substantial, causing the nose to dip and slowing down the aircraft when firing (full ammo dump can slow down the vehicle by 90 km/h). These reasons are also why the 20 mm MG 151/20 was considered in the fighter variant.

When taking off in this plane, make sure its a shallow angle take off as any climb angle while taking off at 5 degrees or more will damage the tail and snap the control cable.

The He 162 A-1 is perhaps best played in a Boom-and-Zoom style game play, taking the altitude advantage and diving down on targets on a predictable path to lay waste with the 30 mm Mk 108 cannons. Though the He 162 A-1 has an adequate climb rate for this job, the He 162 A-1 suffers with a rather poor top speed, poor turn rates, a tendency to bleed off speed quickly in turns, and terrible acceleration, especially when compared to other jets.

To make the most out of the air speed, it is recommended to ascend and when the speed drops, dive a few hundred meters to regain speed and then use that to continue climbing upwards.

General info

Flight Performance

Characteristics
Stock
Max Speed (km/h at 6,000 m)		Max altitude (meters)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (meters/second)		Take-off run (meters)
AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
800	774	12,000	31.5	32.7	19.1	18.0	750
Upgraded
Max Speed (km/h at 6,000 m)		Max altitude (meters)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (meters/second)		Take-off run (meters)
AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
876	840	12,000	28.6	30.0	28.2	23.4	750

Details

Features
Combat flap	Take-off flap	Landing flap	Air brakes	Arrestor gear
✓	✓	✓	X	X

Limits
Wing-break speed (km/h)	Gear limit (km/h)	Combat flap (km/h)	Max Static G
			+	-
???	???	???	~??	~?

Optimal velocities
Ailerons (km/h)	Rudder (km/h)	Elevators (km/h)	Radiator (km/h)
< ???	< ???	< ???	> ???

Compressor (RB/SB)
Setting 1
Optimal altitude	100% Engine power	WEP Engine power
?,??? m	??? hp	?,??? hp

Survivability and armour

• 15 mm of steel behind the pilot's seat.
• No armour glazing

Armaments

Offensive armament

The He 162 A-1 is armed with:

• 2 x 30 mm MK 108 cannon (50 rpg = 100 total)

The two 30 mm cannons are cheek mounted at the front of the aircraft. Both are armed with the same amount of ammunition, which means that both guns will fire with each other until empty.

Usage in the battles

Bomber-hunting
The He 162 A-1 with its 30 mm cannons should be played in a bomber-hunting role as intended in its historical onset. This also plays into the power and flaws of the 30 mm as a bomber's larger profile and lesser mobility can allow for more 30 mm shells to hit with a pass.

Of course, this requires to get an altitude advantage, and there are several bombers that will straight-up climb up to altitudes faster than the He 162, like the B-29 Superfortress. However, if able to get the jump on them via side-climbing or they are flying low, they will be prime targets.

Climb up to an altitude above the bomber, then proceed a descent in a Boom-and-Zoom style from the top. Once within range, optimally around 600 metres, fire a burst into the bomber's path. A good burst should instantly decimate the bomber. If the first pass did not destroy the bomber, it is recommended to use the diving speed to climb up and regain the altitude advantage. Try not to climb too steep an angle else more speed would be bled off than needed. Repeat the process on any large flying aircraft for tallies.

Fighters
The 30 mm are also very effective against fighters as one or two hits would tear the fighters apart with their impacts. However, the 30 mm suffers from low velocity and inaccuracy so distance would have to be close in to make hits. As such, it is not recommended to fire at targets past 600 metres, even if the indicator appears in arcade mode as the 30 mm accuracy would dip drastically enough that the aim indicator wouldn't help.

Maneuvering with the He 162 A-1 is complicated as a jet fighter and as such a Boom-and-Zoom strategy like for bombers should be taken up as the main method of attack for the He 162. Attack unsuspecting fighters or those flying predictably when diving. Once in sights, the 30 mm should be fired in quick bursts, less than a second, as the low ammunition capacity leaves little to be wasted.

Going head-on with fighters is a viable tactic however due to the nose-mounted 30 mm firing straight forwards. The inaccuracy of the 30 mm can help and hinder at the same time. It helps in that it can act as a "shotgun" when spraying a burst when closing in, allowing the enemy to fly into a wide volley of fire and disintegrate. It hinders in that accuracy is lower, so a simple burst of rounds can't be relied on to hit the target, fire a longer volley then usual to saturate the front so either the enemy flies into it or is forced to turn away.

When conducting maneuvres with the He 162 A-1, one maneuvre to take caution with is the Immelmann turn. The He 162 bleeds speed quickly when climbing at a steep angle and the boosting upwards for the movement would remove most of the energy in the He 162, and if not sufficiently fast enough can even leave the He 162 stalling in mid-air, open to any enemy fighters to take advantage and snipe it down. It is recommended to not perform this maneuvre unless going more than 400 km/h.

Specific enemies worth noting

Any plane with an altitude and energy advantage over the He 162 A-1 while it is climbing or stalling in the air is a dangerous plane. Especially watch out for other jets that have better climbing ability and speed than the He 162 A-1.

While bombers are not inherently dangerous, do not linger behind some of more heavily armed ones like the B-29 Superfortress as they will cut up the He 162. When attacking, always try to go in Boom & Zoom style to minimize exposure to the enemy gunners.

Counter-tactics

Forcing the He 162 into a steep climb is a good way to deal with a He 162 on the tail due to its tendency to bleed off a lot of energy and speed when going straight up. Either way, an energy advantage can be obtained against the He 162 to get on its tail, which due to its poor acceleration would be unable to quickly boost away from its predicament. Beware that the He 162 in this situation may try to bleed off more speed and roll to force an overshoot, which it could then recover with a reversal by peppering the plane with devastating 30 mm shells.

Another opportunity to attack the He 162 A-1 is when it is out of ammunition. The 30 mm Mk 108 load is rather small, only 50 rounds per gun. A He 162 A-1 in prolonged combat will most likely be running low or out of ammunition, the latter can be found if they are attempting to break off any engagement and trying to zoom away from the battlefield. Though they could still perform evasive maneuvre, the lack of ammunition will prevent them from taking any offensive action against an incoming plane ready to riddle them with shell holes.

Manual Engine Control

MEC elements
Mixer	Pitch	Radiator			Supercharger	Turbocharger
		Oil	Water	Type
Controllable	Not controllable	Not controllable	Not controllable	Separate	Not ontrollable	Not controllable

Modules

Tier	Flight performance	Survivability	Weaponry
I	Fuselage Repair		Offensive 30 mm
II	Compressor	Airframe
III	Wing Repair		New 30 mm Cannons
IV	Engine	Cover

To use this plane, focus on upgrading the plane's performance. The better the performance, the better plane will perform. The gun/belts upgrade should be saved for last as the default belts are adequate for air to air combat.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• 30 mm Mk 108 Minengeschoß will do a lot of damage to any plane it hits (either crippling or destroying the plane it hits).
• No worries about different ammunition belt except for special purpose. All carry HEI-T/I shell load, with specialized rounds in HEI-T/HEI-T/HEI-T/I composition with different tracers for night and stealth.
• Small target, tiny profile and short wingspan.
• Has access to WEP, engine up to 108%.
• Accelerates quickly in a dive.
• Excellent roll rate in AB, okay in RB.
• Good forward visibility.

Cons:

• Limited ammunition capacity for the 30 mm Mk 108 cannons
• 30 mm loses accuracy past 600 metres
• Poor top speed for a jet
• No air brakes
• Shallow climb angle when taking off
• Climbing upwards past an angle will bleed speed quickly, especially when going straight up
• Poor turn rate
• Terrible acceleration
• Poor rear view visibility due to jet engine mount
• Top mounted engine easily damaged from enemy shots coming from above or from overshooting the fuselage body
• Long take off distance (not easy to take off in maps with short runways)
• Ammunition belts not suited for ground attack as there is no AP rounds in the ammunition belts
• Engine and oil will quickly overheat at 620 C° when using WEP at low altitude in RB, with oil continuing to overheat past 2 km

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the aircraft in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too big, take it to a separate article, taking a link to an article about the vehicle and adding a block "/ historical reference" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/Name-vehicles/historical reference) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to include links to sources at the end of the article.

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

Read also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example,

• reference to the series of the aircraft;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

Obtainable events

• The He 162 A-1 was available to be obtained in War Thunder's 5th Anniversary tournaments. To earn it, a player must be in the top 8 in the 1 vs 1 Victory Tournaments or 5 vs 5 Victory Tournaments.

Sources

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• page on aircraft encyclopedia;
• other literature.