The Me 262 A-1a struggles a lot at its current BR of 7.0. It has poor acceleration, bad climb rate, and often faces 1950s jets that completely outclass it. This leads to frustrating gameplay and feels very a historical.
The Jumo engines are weak — the plane accelerates very slowly.
Poor turn rate and bad energy retention.
The 30mm guns look good on paper, but they’re hard to use effectively due to low muzzle velocity and short range.
You regularly get matched against MiG-9s, Yak-23s, and even Sabres — aircraft that the Me 262 just can’t realistically compete with.
Statistical Justification (Community Data):
Community-sourced statistics show the Me 262 A-1a has:
A below-average win rate (45% in RB).
A low K/D ratio (0.8–1.0), especially in higher-tier matches.
This further supports the idea that the aircraft is underperforming and in need of BR adjustment.
This jet belongs to late WW2 (1944), and should not be facing post-war jets. It’s both unbalanced and immersion-breaking.
Even planes in 6.0 can catch up with the Me 262 when the moment is right.Because the Jumo engines are very low-performance.
It also does not have rocket boosters like the C1 and C3 versions, which puts it at an extra disadvantage (against jets in 7.0 and later).
Lowering its BR to 6.3 would make gameplay more fair and might encourage players to fly it again.
You are right about the skill issue. The situation is that one of the planes I got the most kills from was the Me 262 with over 300 planes. The situation is actually about creational superiority.
You know, Me 262s are incomplete aircraft and are weak against the jets that were put into production at the end of the war.
Yes, I used AI to collect the necessary data. Most of the places are my corrections. War Thunder could have been a better game, at least for the German mains :D
which is why it should not face mig 15, and the reason why the mig 15 is at 8.0 is because the f-104 is at 9.3, which is complitly unbalenced because it is a MACH 2 capable aircraft facig subsonic. The real issue is the compression around the first supersonic aircraft.
Pure nonsense. The 7.0 version (even with airspawn) is not competitive.
Just fly the rare 6.7 A-2a (with 2 x MK 108 and airspawn) to see that the 262s are even in full downtiers just good to kill distracted rookies. The 6.7 version is unkillable (even by a BI at 6.7) if you stay above 700 kmph but its incredibly hard to score any kills if your opponents are aware of your presence.
Absolute nonsense, there is not a single allied jet implemented in wt which could compete with the 262 A-1a. The YP-80A and the early Meteor F Mk 3 with the weaker engine (wt has the post WW 2 late version implemented) were inferior.
I think the gap in aircraft research trees after 6.0 is related to the compression you mentioned, because aircraft suddenly start improving.I am currently researching the VI rank in German on the plane. Actually, I am not researching because I have some personal business and Toptier is not interesting for me, at least for now.
Jets are already too low at 7.0. dropping a jet to 6.3 is just stupid. To do so would mean moving most 5.7 and 5.3s down in BR, which in turn does the same for those below.
UK- Strikemaster at 6.3
USSR - Yak 15 at 6.3
US- P-59A at 5.7
GER - He 162 at 6.0
Despite those planes i saw no BR drops of props.
If a 5.3 A6M5 is allowed to to fight enemies which are ~130 kmph faster at the same BR (like a plain 5.3 P-47) it is not much to ask that a P-51 H-5 can fight a 262 A-1a at the same BR as the Mustang is just ~ 100 kmph slower.
I refer to the average pilot skill - not from the perspective of an experienced pilot. Gaijin follows the approach: If players are too bad on average - they lower the BR (like P-39, P-51 C & H, etc), if they are too good they increase the BR (like Re 2005, JP fighters).
These Me 262 threads exist as the 262s are somehow excluded from this rule…
There is no doubt that gaijin has his fair share in this mess - there are zero useful tutorials how to use speed vs slower but way more nimble opponents. So it is logical that the majority of players struggle like hell as you need to play 262s slow (regarding set-up of engagements) in order to make use of the superior speed vs props…and even if your set up is perfect you have to get way too close to your enemies to make use of the 4 x 30 mm mortars.
You are imho way too experienced to use this argument 😉
Speed and top speed determines your ability to fight on your terms - the faster plane can engage and disengage at will. The problem with 262s is based on the wt meta, plane specific characteristics (including armament) and lack of pilot experience in general.
So if a jet designed to outrun all (prop) enemies and armed with highly effective armament vs bombers (and fighters) based on irl combat ranges of max 400 meters is pressed into the wt meta which favors more or less infinite head-on loops (in which the MK 108s are outranged by a substantial margin) it is logical that the plane struggles like hell.
There is a reason why the A2D-1 sits at 9.0 in Air AB and the standard 262 A-1a at 7.3. If you see Air RB from a neutral pov you might agree that Air RB is nothing more than Air AB+.