P-80 was slower, but far more stable in high speed flight (no snaking like the 262)
First I've heard of it. Where did that come from?
It would be interesting to read the full report. I can only find a summary which says the Me-262 performs the same or better than P-80A, without a mention of high-speed snaking. I did read that the report was edited due to unfavorable results. So I still haven't read a report of snaking.the postwar TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE T-2 AMC report
You can read about the US 262 testing here
It would be interesting to read the full report. I can only find a summary which says the Me-262 performs the same or better than P-80A, without a mention of high-speed snaking. I did read that the report was edited due to unfavorable results. So I still haven't read a report of snaking.
It started at at 350mph and got worse the faster traveled. You can google around on this
But from the PDF copy I have it says this
Page 5
The handling characteristics were poor at all speeds above 350mph. The airplane would not make a satisfactory gun platform because of a tendency to hunt directionally, which resulted in snaking at speeds above 400 mph IAS
The handling characteristics might have been better with the aileron and elevator electric servo tabs connected. It was noted that they were not, and no attempt was made to do so. No other flight evaluation makes the claim of snaking, while flight test reports of Gloster Meteors do make such a claim, as did the Bell P-59 Airacobra. The Meteor problem was caused by the tail, corrected on the F.8 model in 1948, and the P-59 caused by poor jet air inlet design, never rectified.
It took the USAF years, it would take the Luftwaffe just as long
Nash all the LW needs to do is doodle it on a piece of paper stick a wonky cross on the side and it's perfect. By 1946 the LW would have been flying swing wing supersonic jets carrying fire and forget homing missiles anyway.
I forgot about how magic the napkins they drew on actually were.
So magic they kept the designer from being given a rifle, helmet and a train ride to the Eastern Front.
If we want an expert opinion Eric Brown, who flew them all, considered the Me 262 to be the superior plane. And the He 162 to be an excellent craft, but it needed to be handled with care.
One thing I question is the repeated German swept wing mantra. British and US designers weren't dummies. They had all of the tools, they had the wind tunnels. If they lacked I think it was in not seeing the jet for what it represented.
If I remember correctly, most ME-262s that were shot down, were shot down while landing as they had terrible low speed manoeuvrability and couldn't accelerate suddenly.
P-47s did well against them at high altitude. They would dive one them from above and in a dive the P-47 was let's just say really fast...
The wing sweep on the 262 was to correct a CoG problem and wasn't enough to provide the sorts of mach number benefits the more sharply swept wing on the Sabre had.
IIUC it was the more sharply swept Me163 and the Me P1101 that got the victors of the war the data on swept wings.