Date:	Saturday 15 November 1947
Time:	day
Type:	Messerschmitt Me 163B-1a Komet
Owner/operator:	Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE)
Registration:	VF241
MSN:	191060
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	RAF Wittering, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Test
Departure airport:	RAF Wittering, Cambridgeshire
Destination airport:	RAF Wittering, Cambridgeshire

Narrative:
Messerschmitt Komet VF241: Captured ex-Luftwaffe aircraft, retained for flight test trials. The RAE never tested the Me 163 under power themselves; due to the danger of its hypergolic propellants it was only flown unpowered. The distinguished test pilot Lieutenant Commander Eric M "Winkle" Brown piloted RAE's Komet VF241 on a number of occasions, the rocket motor being replaced with test instrumentation.

Written off (damaged beyond repair) 15-11-47: The Me 163 was being operated from RAF Wittering, near Peterborough in Cambridgeshire, due to complaints from the residents of Farnborough over the testing of captured ex-enemy Luftwaffe aircraft, following the fatal crash of a Dornier 335 the previous year.

As the fuel of this aircraft were considered dangerous, it was only ever flown unpowered, as a glider, being towed to altitude by a Spitfire.

During a sortie on 15-11-47, the Me 163 was making the last of a series of high-speed skid landings at Wittering. On this sortie, the aircraft touched down at Wittering at a speed of 150 knots. On touchdown, the hydraulic landing skid collapsed, and was forced into the fuselage, pushing the oleo legs through the cockpit floor, and jamming the rudder to full port deflection.

The aircraft then swung to port, dug in its wingtip, and came to rest adjacent to the airfield boundary. The pilot was the distinguished test pilot Lieutenant Commander Eric M "Winkle" Brown, who received minor injuries.

Wreckage of VF241 to No.54 MU RAF Cambridge, where scrapped in 1948

1. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.69. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949 by Colin Cummings p.349
3. The Captive Luftwaffe by Kenneth S West (Putnam. 1978):
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_163_Komet#Postwar_flight
5. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235107832-me-163-colours-what-can-you-trust/
6. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VF
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Wittering#Post-war_use

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
06-May-2023 21:26	Dr. John Smith	Added
15-May-2023 10:04	Nepa	Updated