The German plane pictured above in the thread is a Me163 Komet. It was not a jet, but a rocket plane. They actually saw combat, though not in great numbers. As you can imagine, range was not its strong point. Neither was safety. It was powered by two chemicals that spontaneously combusted when mixed (no spark required). These chemicals were also extremely corrosive and claimed the lives of several pilots.
But, the Komet could do 600MPH, and climb like err.. a rocket ship!
http://www.angelfire.com/oh3/pmodels/me163.html This is way off-topic, but amazing technology for the time!
I spent way too many hours reading about WWII aircraft as a kid. The Germans had lots of far-out stuff that only made it into combat in small numbers or not at all, partly due to the 8th Air Force heavy bombers, but also due to bizarre behavior from Hitler. The Me162 jet (not the Komet) was delayed several months to a year because der Fuhrer insisted that it be fitted with a bomb rack. We still would have won the war, but at a much higher cost in the air, if the jets had been out in greater numbers.
