While i was reminding myself of various german WW2 aircraft designs, i have noticed that really the tech seen in the Volksjager program of autumn 1944 was designed as far back as 1943. The OTL He-162 was not even the best design but was selected because it was the simplest and cheapest.
So what if they start the Volksjager -or perhaps another name- program in 1943, say at the time Hitler decided to have ME-262 as a bomber, for a simple good performance single engine jet fighter with a Jumo or BMW engine? In 1943 they were already studying configurations akin to He-162 with engine on the back, or frontal intake, and lastly low slung engines- worst because of debris ingestion problem. Messerschmitt, FW, and likely Heinkel and others had various designs at this stage. There was the Me-328 but that was much too weak and impractical because of the engines, they really needed something like the Me-328 but built around a jet engine.
Best configuration would be frontal intake, with straight or moderately swept wing like Me P.1092, there is also the FW Flitzer, then there are designs akin to He-162 from FW and i'm sure others.
Let's ignore for the moment political stuff like who wins the war, nukes and so on, i'm more interested in tactical changes. If these things start entering service in summer 1944 and if they build several good thousands of them what changes?
Thanks for any input.