Specifications

The world's first operational turbojet aircraft, the ME-262 was first flown as a pure jet on July 18, 1942, it proved much faster than conventional airplanes. Development problems, Allied bombings, and cautious Luftwaffe leadership contributed to delays in quantity production. In late 1943, Adolf Hitler agreed to mass production, but insisted the aircraft be used primarily as a fighter-bomber.

Aircraft - ME-262 (German)

For the most part, American aerospace testing was done on American aircraft.  However, beginning with WWI, whenever the United States obtained examples of foreign aircraft - either from friendly countries through cooperative arrangements or from enemies via capture or defection- they were likely to wind up at McCook Field or Wright Field for a thorough evaluation which included flight testing if possible. 

"During WWII evaluations at Wright Field included allied aircraft like the Russian Yak-9 and the British Spitfire and Mosquito, and enemy aircraft including the German JU-88, ME-109, FW-190, ME-262, and the Japanese Zero.  The end of the war brought large numbers of captured aircraft for evaluation.  As with other test flight activities, much of the foreign aircraft evaluation moved to Muroc Air Base (later Edwards AFB) after the war, but even then the occasional foreign aircraft came to the Miami Valley for testing, as a MiG-15 (courtesy of a North Korean defector) at Patterson Field attests." (Source: Against the Wind)

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Specifications

Span: 41 ft.

Length: 34 ft. 9 in.

Height: 11 ft. 4 in.

Weight: 15,600 lbs.

Armament: Four 30mm MK-108 cannons, plus 1,000 lbs. of bombs.

Engines: Two Junkers Jumo 004s of 1,980 lbs. thrust ea.

Crew: One

PERFORMANCE

Maximum speed: 540 mph.

Cruising speed: 460 mph.

Range: 650 miles

Service Ceiling: 38,000 ft.

Source: U.S. Air Force Museum