Messerschmitt Me.163 'Komet'

During 1941 the Messerschmitt Me.163A V4 was tested in Peenemünde where it received a HWK RII-203 engine and by 2nd October set up a new world speed record reaching 1004.5km/h (624mph) at the hands of Heini Dittmar who managed to avoided damaging the aircraft. It served as the research aircraft that would be the basis for the Me.163B, which was designed by Alexander Lippisch and retained no more than the basic configuration of its predecessor.
It was a single-seat target-defence fighter.
Its designe was radical as it featured a constant 22.3 degrees of wing sweepback at quarter chord, it lacked horizontal tail surfaces and employed a jettisonable twin-wheel dolly for take-off and a retractable skid for landing.
A total of six prototypes and 70 pre-production aircrafts were ordered having each of them their own serial number. The first prototype, called Me.163B V1 was completed in April 1942 but its engine a Walter HWK R II-211 rocket engine, was delayed, so it wasn't until 23rd June 1943 that it performed a powered flight on the Me.163B V2. The bi-fuel rocket motor system, gave the engine a thrust of 3750lb (1750kg) delivered for just 7,5 minutes.
The pre-series aircraft, named Me.163Ba-1 was armed with two 20mm MG 151 and the Me.163B-1a was armed with two 30mm Mk108 cannons. The first production aircraft, which received the nickname of "Komet", was accepted by the Luftwaffe in May 1944 and a total of 279 were delivered.
Its service record proved to be dismal with an 80% of attrition resulting from taking-off or landing accidents and a 15% attributable to either fire in the air caused by an engine malfunction or loss of control in a dive. A development was proposed, called Me.163C, which differed from the Me.163B primarily from being powered by an HWK 509C rocket engine with an auxiliary cruise chamber which increased its endurance to 19 minutes. It was going to be armed with two 30mm Mk.103 and other two 30mm Mk.108 cannons, the fuselage was going to be extended by 90cm (35.4in) and an 'all-around' bubble canopy was provided.
Construction of this third version began in January 1943 with four prototypes and partial testing scheduled for April 1944, full-scale testing taking place in August 1944 and completion of testing by February 1945. However, as the war in Europe advanced, no example of Me.163C was eventually completed and flown.
The Me.163S variant was a trainer-glider version of the regular Me.163B which added a second seat behind the pilot. It was going to be employed to train glider landing training which was essential to handle the Me.163.

Sources:
1. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_Me_163_Komet
3. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/44863
4. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/3109
5. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/44866
6. https://forum.valka.cz/topic/view/28971